BLACKWOOD, William, Scottish book seller, known as the projector and publisher of Blackwood's Magazine: b. Edinburgh, 20 Nov. 1776; d. 16 Sept. 1834. He settled in his native city as a bookseller in 1804, and soon added the trade of a publisher to his original business. The first number of Blackwood's Magazine ap peared on 1 April 1817, and from the first it was conducted in the Tory interest. It was started just at the time when the general peace which had been established in Europe was be ginning to reanimate the hopes of the Whigs, and when it was all the more necessary for the Tories to defend by the press that preponder ance which they still held in Parliament. Mr. Blackwood was fortunate enough to secure as coadjutors in his new literary undertaking most of the leading authors of the day belonging to the Tory party, among them John Gibson Lock hart, Hogg (the Ettrick Shepherd), Professor Wilson (Christopher North), De Quincey (the English . Opium-eater), and others. All that was connected with the management of the magazine he took into his own hands, and he himself selected the articles for each number — a task for which he was admirably qualified, for although he wrote little himself, he was an admirable judge of literary work. The new
magazine on its first appearance entered upon a campaign against the Edinburgh Review, corn bating both its political views and its literary decisions. From the first it attracted a great deal of attention, and its success was decided by the appearance of the (Noctes Ambrosianm,' a series of articles in the form of dialogues, in which the current questions in politics and lit erature were discussed with the most pungent sarcasm and inexhaustible humor. The bril liant articles of Dr. Maginn added not a little to its reputation, and constantly, as the original contributors withdrew, new and valuable acces sions were made to the staff of its supporters. After his death his business continued to be carried on by his sons, and the magazine he founded still maintains the Tory tradition as well as the high literary reputation of its early days. Consult (William Blackwood and His Sons,' by Mrs. Oliphant and Mrs. Porter (3 vols., 1897-98).