A writer in the _Scottish Typographical Circular_ remarks: “Mr. Nelson was often popping in and out among artists and engravers who did work for him, giving them new ideas and further suggestions. He did not grudge trouble or expense if he got things nice and to his mind. He rejoiced in beautiful typography, and displayed great artistic taste in the wood-cuts and illustrations.” He was indeed a familiar visitor in the studios of London and Paris, as well as of Edinburgh; and during his frequent Continental tours derived intense pleasure from his visits to the galleries both of ancient and modern art. His eye was quick to discern the merits of a painting, and his judgment was prompt and decided. He was indeed sensitive to any manifestation of bad taste; and the unsightly disfigurement of the buildings or thoroughfares of his native city by placards or signboards, excited his anger to a degree that sometimes startled the offender. His remonstrance on such occasions was apt to be expressed with a blunt sincerity that could not be misunderstood. The same severe standard of taste was applied in his own business, and made its influence felt in every department of typography, illustration, and binding.
A memorandum, found among his papers after his death, preserves an incident in the first stages of the inexperienced but energetic reformer’s proceedings. His father had acquired a set of stereotype plates of Drinkwater’s “Siege of Gibraltar,” and had a portrait of its author engraved for the frontispiece. A reprint of it being in progress, the plate was intrusted to the engraver for retouching; and he undertook to get the autograph of the old soldier, to be added as an attractive feature. The new and illustrated edition was issued accordingly, and found a ready sale. But some years afterwards a venerable military-looking gentleman waited on Mr. Nelson, and asked where he had obtained the signature. Colonel Drinkwater, who was supposed to have been long since dead, was himself the questioner; and, as William Nelson notes, the signature was subsequently identified as in the handwriting of the deceased manager of Mr. Lizar’s engraving establishment. But only in the first stage of transition from student life to the counting-house and the publisher’s office could such a proceeding have eluded his vigilance. A copy of the engraving is attached to the memorandum, and contrasts very markedly with the illustrations of later years, when William Nelson’s critical taste, conjoined with his experience in adapting the issues of his publishing-house to popular demand, won for the productions of the firm a character for great attractiveness in outward aspect and illustration. At a later date, the “Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family” constituted the first of a highly popular series of books by the same author. The charming authoress who writes under the initials A. L. O. E., the late Mary Howitt, Mrs. Traill, R. M. Ballantyne, and other writers, figured on their list of authors. The charming series of “Art Gift Books,” from the French of M. Jules and Mme. Michelet, and M. Arthur Mangin--“The Insect,” “The Bird,” “The Mysteries of the Ocean,” and “The Desert World,” as well as other works of the same class--are illustrated in the best style of art. But it was as caterers for the people, in an abundant supply of pure, high-toned popular literature, and not as rivals of the great publishing houses through which the most eminent writers appeal to select classes of readers, that the Nelsons achieved their greatest success. In the tribute paid to the worth of William Nelson by the Rev. Dr. Alison when his life-work was finished, it is said: “His influence, and that of the firm of which he was the head, has gone forth healthfully to the ends of the earth. Religious principle, no less than skill and taste and enterprise, has been in all their work as publishers of literature. No man can measure the good which that incessant stream of excellent books issuing from their press has done for the world. To a large extent they have been for the multitude, rather than for the learned few.” But this was the summing up of the work of a lifetime. Much had to be achieved in its progress, step by step, ere such results could even be aimed at.