William Blackwood
(1776—1834)

Publisher

Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine was one of the most influential periodicals of its day, bringing on the undiscovered talents of contributors like James Hogg and, later, George Eliot and Joseph Conrad. He first hit upon the idea of publishing stories in serial form, and made contemporary writing available at a low cost.

William Blackwood was apprenticed to an Edinburgh bookseller at the age of fourteen. After a period in London and Glasgow, he established hinself as a bookseller and publisher in 1804. His firm grew rapidly in size and reputation, and in 1817 William Blackwood consolidated his fiem's position as a major force in British literary publishing by starting Blackwood's Magazine, or 'Maga', a monthly journal produced as a Tory response to the Whig influenced Edinburgh Review. Blackwood published many of the leading authors of his day, both in book form and in Blackwood's Magazine. Authors associated with his firm included John Galt, Susan Ferrier, Thomas de Quincey and James Hogg. William Blackwood died in Edinburgh on 16 September 1834.