Basil Blackwell

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Sir Basil Henry Blackwell (29 May 1889Template:Snd9 April 1984) was an English bookseller.

Biography

Blackwell was born in Oxford, England. He was the son of Benjamin Henry Blackwell (1849Template:Ndash1924), founder of Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford, which went on to become the Blackwell family's publishing and bookshop empire, located on Broad Street in central Oxford.<ref name="Blackwell history">Template:Cite web</ref> The publishing arm is now part of Wiley-Blackwell.

He was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford and Merton College, Oxford.<ref name="NY Times obit">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="MCreg">Template:Cite book</ref> He was the first person in his family to attend university. In 1913, he began working with his father at Blackwell's. Upon his father's death in 1924, he took over the company and remained working there for decades. He married Marion Christine Soans.Template:When Their daughter was Dame Penelope Jessel.<ref name="Blackwell history" />

He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1956 by Queen Elizabeth II,<ref name="NY Times obit" /><ref name=MCreg /> the only bookseller ever to receive that honour.Template:Citation needed In 1959, he was elected to an honorary Fellowship at Merton.<ref name=MCreg /> In 1970, he was given the honorary Freedom of the City of Oxford.<ref>Full list of people and organisations that have been awarded Freedom of the City of Oxford since 1900, oxford.gov.uk. Accessed 3 June 2024.</ref>

In 1979, he was awarded a Doctorate of Civil Law honoris causa at the Oxford Encaenia.

Blackwell was a prosecution witness in the 1966 private prosecution attempt to bar the book Last Exit to Brooklyn from UK publication.Template:Cn