Draft:Spencer Blackett

Kegan Paul, a Victorian Imprint

Spencer Collinson Blackett (November 28, 1858 – September 20, 1920) was an English publisher. He published The Sign of Four, a Sherlock Holmes novel by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Career

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Born in Ealing, Middlesex, Blackett was "the third son of Henry Blackett, the partner of Hurst and Blackett". Blackett was "born into the book trade, but educated as a soldier".[1] He "began publishing in the 1880s and bought the publishing company John Maxwell in 1887".[2] In 1895, Blackett merged his publishing business with Kegan Paul, the publishing company of Charles Kegan Paul,[2] which would itself later be bought by Routledge. All told, Spencer Blackett published 50 books, the most noted being the Sherlock Holmes adventure, The Sign of Four.[3]

Although Blackett was described as "a successful publisher in his own right, publishing works by, amongst others, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H. Rider Haggard", it was also noted that "Blackett's later experience as business manager of Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. for around ten years from 1895 was rather less successful, and his expensive six months tour of Canada, Ceylon, New Zealand, Australia and the United States produced little in the way of sales".[4]

Personal life and death

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Blackett married Harriet Jane Maunders in 1882, in Rathdown, County Dublin. He died in Brookwood railway station, Surrey, having shot himself in the head with a revolver.[4] A report of the findings said:

Suicide whilst of unsound mind was the verdict at Brookwood on Capt. Spencer Collinson Blackett (63), who shot himself at the railway station with a revolver which had been presented to him on leaving the 20th Hussars. It was stated that deceased left home to undergo a serious operation at Westminster Hospital.[5]

Blackett ended up "dying intestate with assets of only £20.".[4]

Books published

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(check dates)

References

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  1. ^ Leslie Howsam Kegan Paul: A Victorian Imprint (1998), p. 158-160.
  2. ^ a b "Publisher Information At the Circulating Library". www.victorianresearch.org.
  3. ^ "Spencer Blackett - The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia". www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.
  4. ^ a b c "Blacketts and Literature", Blackett Odds and Ends, The Blacketts of North East England, accessed August 18, 2017.
  5. ^ "Ex-Captain's Suicide", The Sunday People (September 26, 1920), p. 4.


Category:1858 births Category:1920 deaths Category:Suicides by firearm in England

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