Alexander Chalmers (March 29, 1759–December 29, 1834), was a Scottish writer.

He was born in Aberdeen. Trained as a doctor, he gave up medicine for journalism, and was for some time editor of the Morning Herald. Besides editions of the works of William Shakespeare, James Beattie, Henry Fielding, Samuel Johnson, Joseph Warton, Alexander Pope, Edward Gibbon, and Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke, he published A General Biographical Dictionary in 32 volumes (1812–1817); a Glossary to Shakspeare (1707); an edition of Steevens's Shakespeare (1809); and the British Essayists, beginning with the Tatler and ending with the Observer, with biographical and historical prefaces and a general index.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.