Scholars, Poets and Radicals

The Blackwell archive is a cornucopia not only of the life s work of generations of the world-famous bookselling and publishing company, but the stories of obscure yet exceptional lives. This is what makes it such a rarity and so appealing. Rita Ricketts quest began with the discovery of a letter which revealed that from about 1910-50 the head of the shop s antiquarian department, Will King, had been a prolific writer and diarist. Though lacking a formal education, his diaries provide an astonishing record of his learning through the books that passed through the shop and an insightful and poignant commentary on events in the first half of the twentieth century. Other encounters recorded by the Blackwells offer a glimpse of writers at the beginning of their careers, such as Vera Brittain, Dorothy L. Sayers, John Buchan, Wilfred Owen, Edith Sitwell, and Lawrence Binyon. They also, of course, document the everyday trials of the book trade and the determination to start a publishing company which aimed to provide books in every home. The tales drawn from the archive and collected here also include the memories of Benjamin Henry Blackwell s early apprentices and the illustrious customers and authors they served, interleaved with everyday memories and miscellanea that are so often missing from recorded history. They are of inestimable value to those interested in the history of the book and, more than that, the stories told here are a fascinating and entertaining read. "