Blackie and Son

The Princess and the Goblin cover of the edition published by Blackie & Son, 1911.

Blackie & Son was a publishing house in Glasgow, Scotland and London, England from 1890 to 1991.

The firm was founded as a bookseller in 1809 by John Blackie (1782–1874) as a partnership with two others and was known as 'Blackie, Fullarton and Company'. It began printing in 1819 using the skill and equipment of Edward Khull.[1] It moved to Glasgow around 1830 and had premises at 8 Clyde Street facing the River Clyde.[2] Following the retirement of Fullarton the company was renamed 'Blackie and Son' in 1831, remaining in the Clyde Street property, and becoming a public limited company in 1890. The business later had premises at 16/18 William IV Street, Charing Cross, London, 17 Stanhope Street in Glasgow and 5 South College Street in Edinburgh.[3] The company also opened offices in Canada and India. It ceased publishing in 1991.

Blackie and Son initially published books sold by subscription, including religious texts and reference books. Later the firm published single volumes, particularly educational texts and children's books, taking advantage of compulsory education from 1870.

The firm published the many Flower Fairy books of Cicely Mary Barker beginning in 1923. From the 1950s onwards it published The Kennett Library, a graded series of classics retold for schools including: Kidnapped, Little Women, Westward Ho!, The Black Arrow, Wuthering Heights and Ben-Hur.

In 1902, Walter Blackie commissioned Hill House on a plot in Helensburgh to the West of Glasgow. At the invitation of their Art Director Talwin Morris, the architect was his friend Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The house is regarded as one of Mackintosh's finest works.

See also

Book series

  • Beautiful England
  • Beautiful Ireland
  • Beautiful Scotland
  • Beautiful Switzerland
  • Blackie's Famous Books[4]
  • Blackie’s Library of Famous Books
  • Casket Books
  • The Imperial Library
  • The Kennett Library
  • Reward Books
  • The Wallet Library[5]

Further reading

  • Agnes A. C. Blackie, Blackie & Son, 1809-1959: A Short History of the Firm, London : Blackie & Son, 1959.

References

  1. ↑ Blackie and Son, gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  2. ↑ Glasgow Post Office Directory 1830
  3. ↑ "(53) - Scottish Post Office Directories > Towns > Edinburgh > 1805-1834 - Post Office annual directory > 1832-1833 - Scottish Directories - National Library of Scotland". nls.uk.
  4. ↑ Blackie's Famous Books (Blackie and Son Ltd.) - Book Series List, publishing history.com. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  5. ↑ Wallet Library, seriesofseries.owu.edu. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.