Edmund Wilson, one-time newspaper-man who turned his avocation of independent scholarship into a profession, will join the English Department next year for a one-year appointment.

Wilson will become Abbott Lawrence Lowell Professor of English. The appointment becomes effective July 1.

Confidant of F. Scott Fitzgerald and an inquisitive observer of many matters political, social, and literary, Wilson began his writing career as a reporter on the old New York Evening Sun in 1916.

After a short stint as managing editor of Vanity Fair beginning in 1920, he trained his sights on a number of topics and reported his findings to The New Yorker, Encounter, and several other periodicals.

Wilson served as book reviewer for The New Yorker from 1914 to 1958, and has contributed a variety of pieces to that magazine. He is an expert in Russian social and political history.

Wilson's appointment, announced yesterday by Dean Bundy, was made possible by funds given to the College in 1956 by the Ford Foundation. The endowment suggested that the Lowell Professorship bring to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences "scholars of outstanding distinction but without direct reference to the instructional needs of the various faculty departments."