Blackwood & Sons

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Blackwood & Sons was a publishing bookstore and printer in Edinburgh with a branch in London . It was founded in 1804 by William Blackwood (1776-1834).

The publisher's founder, William Blackwood

After his death in 1834, his sons Alexander and Robert took over the management. After Alexander's death in 1845 and that of his brother Robert shortly afterwards, another brother, John Blackwood (1818–1879) took over the company. In 1849 Major William Blackwood Jr. joined. added, who ran the publishing house until his death in 1861. 1862 joined his eldest son William Blackwood III. one who ran the publishing house on his own from John's death in 1879 until 1912. In addition to him, his nephews George William Blackwood and JH Blackwood also worked in the publishing house.

The publishing house existed as an independent company until the end of 1980, before it was incorporated into the Edinburgh-based publishing house Pillans & Wilson (now part of the ormolu group as Pillans & Waddies ).

Publishing program

Fiction

The works of many great writers have been published at Blackwood, including Walter Scott ( Tales of My Landlord , 1816), James Hogg ( The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner ), George Eliot , Anthony Trollope , Margaret Oliphant (with numerous works since 1854 ), Joseph Conrad and Hugh MacDiarmid .

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

Front cover of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , Vol.XXV, January-June 1829

From April 1817 Blackwood published Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , a monthly for literature, politics and philosophy. The magazine , still titled Edinburgh Monthly Magazine in its first editions, was conceived as a Tory -near competitor of the influential Whig -near quarterly Edinburgh Review .

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , soon nicknamed Maga , published numerous works by English writers such as Thomas De Quincey , Richard Doddridge Blackmore , Elizabeth Barrett Browning , Anthony Trollope and Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton as well as translations from German, among others some first publications of works by German classical and romantic poets in English translation. In 1857 George Eliot's first novel The Sad Fortunes of Amos Barton was first published in sequel in Maga , and in 1899 Joseph Conrad's most famous novel Heart of Darkness .

The magazine served Charlotte Brontë as a model for the Young Men's Magazine , which was written together with her brother in 15 issues, and which was part of the siblings' childhood imagination.

In the age of British imperialism , Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine , from 1906 only Blackwood's Magazine , became popular with officials and officers in the British colonies around the world. The traditional magazine, the title page of which always remained true to the original design with a portrait of the Scottish historian George Buchanan , was not discontinued until 173 years after it was founded in December 1980 .

The royal atlas

In 1861 the publisher published the monumental world atlas The royal atlas of modern geography, exhibiting, in a series of entirely original and authentic maps, the present condition of geographical discovery and research in the several countries, empires, and states of the world by Alexander Keith Johnston which is considered to be one of the best of the 19th century.

literature

  • Margaret Oliphant (Volume 1/2), Mrs. Gerald Porter (Volume 3): Annals of a publishing house. William Blackwood and his sons, their magazine and friends . Edinburgh, 1897–1898.
  • David Finkelstein: An Index to Blackwood's Magazine 1901-1980 . Scolar Press, Aldershot 1995, ISBN 1-85928-104-4 .
  • David Finkelstein: The House of Blackwood: Author-Publisher Relations in the Victorian Era. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park 2002, ISBN 978-0-271-05836-8 .

Web links