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 1809 to 1991.[1]

History

The firm was founded as a bookseller in 1809[1] 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.[2] It moved to Glasgow around 1830 and had premises at 8 Clyde Street facing the River Clyde.[3] 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. Later on, the business moved its Glasgow office to 17 Stanhope Street, and also opened offices at 5 South College Street in Edinburgh and 16/18 William IV Street, Charing Cross, London.[4] 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 school-level educational texts[1] and children's books, taking advantage of compulsory education from 1870. It also published "finely printed 'toy' and 'reward' books"[1] (the latter being "intended for presentation as prizes to pupils in day and Sunday schools").[1]

Blackie published G. A. Henty's historical adventure books for boys (e.g. With Kitchener in the Soudan and With Lee in Virginia) which were very popular in the British Empire in the later 19th century; Henty wrote 122 books including adult novels.[5]

From 1920, under the guidance of the Cambridge-trained engineer and mathematician, Frederick Bisacre, who became a Blackie and Son partner and subsequently its chairman,[6] the firm began to publish a scientific list "at the cutting edge of research"[7] and which would become the "strongest list in the area"[7] from any British commercial publisher.

Blackie published the many Flower Fairy books of Cicely Mary Barker beginning in 1923.[8] 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 the firm's art director Talwin Morris, the architect was his friend Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The house is regarded as one of Mackintosh's finest works.[9].

Book series

The following is a select listing. Further series are listed here in the Blackie Archives at Glasgow University Library.

  • Beautiful Colour Books (Cicely Mary Barker)
  • Beautiful England[10]
  • Beautiful Ireland[10]
  • Beautiful Poems Series
  • Beautiful Scotland[10]
  • Beautiful Switzerland[10]
  • Blackie's Anytime Series
  • Blackie's Books For Boys And Girls Series
  • Blackie's Books for Girls
  • Blackie's Boys' Annual
  • Blackie's Comprehensive School Series
  • Blackie's Crown Library[11][12]
  • Blackie's Easy to Read Story Book Series
  • Blackie's Famous Books[13]
  • Blackie's Famous Books for Boys and Girls
  • Blackie's Library of Famous Books[12]
  • Blackie's Girls' Annual
  • Blackie's Flying Series
  • Blackie's English Classics
  • Blackie's German Texts
  • Blackie's Illustrated Latin Series
  • Blackie's Imperial library
  • Blackie's Infant Bookshelf
  • Blackie's Library of Famous Books
  • Blackie's Limp Leather Library
  • Blackie's Modern Language Series
  • Blackie's Smaller English Classics
  • Blackie's Sports Series
  • Blackie's Standard English Classics
  • Blackie's Star Classics
  • Blackie’s Story Book Readers
  • Books Illustrated in Colour by Cicely M. Barker
  • Boys' Library
  • The Casket Library[14]
  • Castle Library
  • Children's Classics
  • Chosen Books
  • Continuous Readings from Great Authors
  • The Crusader Series
  • Highways and Byways of English Literature
  • The Imperial Library[15]
  • Junior School Library
  • The Kennett Library
  • The Kingfisher Books
  • Little French Classics[12]
  • The London Bells Series[11]
  • Myra Dakins School Series
  • New Popular Edition
  • The New Popular Henty Series
  • The Newton Readers
  • Order of Merit Series
  • Our Beautiful Homeland Series
  • The Pagoda Readers
  • The Palmerston Readers
  • The Peak Library
  • The Pinnacle Library
  • The Pioneer Library
  • Pioneers of Empire
  • The Plain Text Poets[12]
  • The Plain Text Shakespeare[12]
  • Poetry Quest: A Contemporary Poetry Series for Schools
  • The Rambler Nature Books[11]
  • Rambles Among Our Industries
  • The Realm of Reading Series
  • The Red Letter Library
  • The Red Letter Literature[12]
  • The Red Letter Poets
  • The Red Letter Religious Texts[12]
  • The Red Letter Shakespeare[12]
  • Retold for Little Folk Series
  • Reward Books
  • Services Library
  • Stories Old and New[11][12]
  • Student Drama Series[16]
  • The Student's Physics
  • Tiny Tots Series
  • Topics in Modern History Series
  • Travel Library
  • Triumphs of Enterprise Series
  • True Adventure Series
  • The Useful Hints Series of Household Management Books
  • Vere Foster's Water-Colour Books[11]
  • The Victorian Era Series
  • The Wallet Library[17]
  • The Warwick Library
  • The Warwick Shakespeare
  • The Wayfarer Books
  • What Did They Teach Series
  • Wilson's Bible Stories
  • Wonders of Life series

Further reading

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

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Iain Stevenson, Book Makers: British Publishing in the Twentieth Century. London: The British Library, 2010, p. 77.
  2. ↑ Blackie and Son, gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  3. ↑ Glasgow Post Office Directory 1830
  4. ↑ "(53) - Scottish Post Office Directories > Towns > Edinburgh > 1805-1834 - Post Office annual directory > 1832-1833 - Scottish Directories - National Library of Scotland". nls.uk.
  5. ↑ John Feather, A History of British Publishing, London: Routledge, 2006, 2nd ed., chapter "The Age of Novels", passim.
  6. ↑ Frederick Francis Percival Bisacre, MacTutor, mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  7. 1 2 Iain Stevenson, Book Makers: British Publishing in the Twentieth Century. London: The British Library, 2010, p. 78.
  8. ↑ Cicely Mary Barker: "Blackie's Easy Story Book" Book Cover Artwork, 1924, illustrationartistsgallery.com. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  9. ↑ [x Hillhouse by Charles Rennie Mackintosh], victorianweb.org. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Beautiful England (Blackie and Son Limited) - Book Series List, publishing history.com. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Charles Lamb, Tales from Shakespeare Designed for the Use of Young People, London, Edinburgh and Bombay, n.d. (ca. 1917) (The Crown Library), publisher's advertisements in final pages.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Talwin Morris, Designer for Books and Blackie's, fulltable.com. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  13. ↑ Blackie's Famous Books (Blackie and Son Ltd.) - Book Series List, publishing history.com. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
  14. ↑ Casket Library, seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  15. ↑ Imperial Library, seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  16. ↑ Student Drama Series (Blackie) - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  17. ↑ Wallet Library, seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
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