Wheeler was born in London. He briefly worked as a lithographer in Edinburgh.^[1] He became an atheist after reading the works of Charles Darwin, John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer.^[2] In 1868, he met George William Foote and they became lifelong friends.^[1] Wheeler worked as an editor for Foote's Freethinker journal. He was strongly anti-Christian.^[1]

His most well known work was A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages (1889).^[1] He was vice-President of the National Secular Society.^[3]

Wheeler suffered from a mental breakdown and died in an asylum in 1898.^[4]

• Frauds and Follies of the Fathers (1882)
• Hume's Essay on Miracles. A new edition, with an introduction commenting upon the views of Campbell, Paley, Mill, Greg, Mozley, Tyndall, Huxley, etc. By Joseph Mazzini Wheeler. 1882. London (Freethought Publ.). 3d.
• The Jewish Life of Christ (1885) [translator]
• Crimes of Christianity (1887) [with G. W. Foote]
• The Crimes of the Popes (1887) [with G. W. Foote]
• A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages (1889)
• The Christian Doctrine of Hell (1890)
• Bible Studies: Essays on Phallic Worship and Other Curious Rites and Customs (1892)
• Voltaire: A Sketch of His Life and Works (1894) [with G. W. Foote]
• Footsteps of the Past (1895) [with an introduction by G. W. Foote]
• History of Freethought in England (uncompleted)

• J. M. Robertson

• John Edwin McGee. (1948). A History of the British Secular Movement. Haldeman-Julius Publications.

• Works by Joseph Mazzini Wheeler at Project Gutenberg