A & C Black is a British book publishing company, owned since 2002 by

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in ...

. The company is noted for publishing ''

Who's Who A Who's Who (or Who Is Who) is a reference work consisting of biographical entries of notable people in a particular field. The oldest and best-known is the annual publication ''Who's Who (UK), Who's Who'', a reference work on contemporary promin ...

'' since 1849 and the ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

'' between 1827 and 1903. It offers a wide variety of books in fiction and nonfiction, and has published popular travel guides, novels, and science books.

History

The firm was founded in 1807 by Charles and

Adam Black Adam Black (20 February 178424 January 1874) was a Scottish publisher and politician. He founded the A & C Black publishing company, and published the 7th, 8th and 9th editions of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Life Black was born in Cha ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. In 1851, the company purchased the copyrights to

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

's ''Waverly'' novels for £27,000. The company moved to the

Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

district of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1889. During the years 1827–1903 the firm published the seventh, eighth and ninth editions of the ''

''. This was purchased from

Archibald Constable Archibald David Constable (24 February 1774 – 21 July 1827) was a Scottish publisher, bookseller and stationer. Life Constable was born at Carnbee, Fife, son of the land steward to the Earl of Kellie. In 1788 Archibald was apprenticed to ...

after his company's failure to publish the seventh edition of the encyclopedia. Adam Black retired in 1870 due to his disapproval of his sons' extravagant plans for its ninth edition. This edition, however, would sell half a million sets and was released in 24 volumes from 1875 to 1889. Beginning in 1839, the firm published a series of travel guides known as ''

Black's Guides ''Black's Guides'' were travel guide books published by the Adam and Charles Black firm of Edinburgh (later London) beginning in 1839. The series' style tended towards the "colloquial, with fewer cultural pretensions" than its leading competitor ...

''. The company was the publisher of the annual ''

'' (since 1849) and also, since 2002, the ''

Whitaker's Almanack ''Whitaker's'' is a reference book, published annually in the United Kingdom. It was originally published by J. Whitaker & Sons from 1868 to 1997, next by HM Stationery Office until 2003 and then by A. & C. Black, which became a wholly owne ...

''. Other notable works include ''

Black's Medical Dictionary ''Black's Medical Dictionary'' (42nd ed, 2010, ) is a comprehensive medical dictionary featuring definitions of medical terms, concepts and conditions, published by A & C Black Publishers. It was first published in 1906, and is now in its forty- ...

'' and the ''Know The Game'' series of sports rules and laws reference books. The firm also published the ''A. & C. Black Colour Books: Twenty Shilling Series'' (1901–21), a "range of high-quality colour collectable picture books" which are still collected by bibliophiles. In 1902 they published

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse ( ; 15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Je ...

's first book, ''

The Pothunters ''The Pothunters'' is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse published on 18 September 1902 by Adam & Charles Black. It was Wodehouse's first published novel, and the first of several school stories, this one set at the fictional public school of St. Au ...

'', and went on to produce many of his early works. In 1989 A & C Black purchased both Christopher Helm Publishers and later the Pica Press, publishers of the

Helm Identification Guides The ''Helm Identification Guides'' are a series of books that identify groups of bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Ovi ...

, from

Christopher Helm Christopher Alexander Roger Helm (born Dundee, 1 February 1937 – 20 January 2007) was a Scottish book publisher, notably of ornithology related titles, including the ''Helm Identification Guides''. Born in Dundee, he was raised in Forfar, wh ...

. In 2000 A & C Black was purchased by

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. Bloomsbury's head office is located on Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a US publishing office located in ...

, which continued producing the former's range of

reference work A reference work is a document, such as a Academic publishing#Scholarly paper, paper, book or periodical literature, periodical (or their electronic publishing, electronic equivalents), to which one can refer for information. The information ...

s. In June 2002, T. & A. D. Poyser and their back-list of around 70

ornithology Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

titles were acquired from

Elsevier Science Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', '' Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', t ...

. A & C Black purchased Methuen Drama from

Methuen Publishing Methuen Publishing Ltd (; also known as Methuen Books) is an English publishing house. It was founded in 1889 by Sir Algernon Methuen (1856–1924) and began publishing in London in 1892. Initially, Methuen mainly published non-fiction acade ...

in 2006, and acquired

Arden Shakespeare The Arden Shakespeare is a long-running series of scholarly editions of the works of William Shakespeare. It presents fully edited modern-spelling editions of the plays and poems, with lengthy introductions and full commentaries. There have been t ...

from

Cengage Learning Cengage Group is an American educational content, technology, and services company for higher education, K–12, professional, and library markets. It operates in more than 20 countries around the world.(June 27, 2014Global Publishing Leaders 2 ...

in 2008. In 2016, A & C Black Music list moved to Collins Learning, a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

Notable books

*''

'' *''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'' *''

Writers' & Artists' Yearbook The ''Writers' & Artists' Yearbook'' is an annual directory for writers and illustrators which offers creative and practical advice on how to give work the best chance at success. It is published in the UK each July, alongside the ''Children's Wri ...

Book series

* Black's Atlas of North America, 1856 * Artist's Sketch Book Series * Ballet Pocket Series (Newman Wolsey; then: A. & C. Black) * Black's Guides * Black's Junior Reference Books * Black's Novel Library * Black's Popular Series of Colour Books * Black's School History * Black's "Water-colour" series * Colour Books: The 7s. 6d. Net Series * Colour Books: The 6s. Net Series * Colour Books: The 10s. Net Series * Colour Books: The 20s. Net Series * Dancers of To-day * Ecclesiastical History of England (General Editor: J. C. Dickinson) * The Fascination of London * Guild Text-books * How-and-Why Series * Know the Game * The Making of the NationsThe Making of the Nations (A. & C. Black) – Book Series List
publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 31 January 2020. * Peeps at Ancient Civilisations * Peeps at Great Cities * Peeps at Great Explorers * Peeps at Great Men * Peeps at Great Railways * Peeps at History * Peeps at Industries * Peeps at Many Lands * Peeps at Nature * Peeps at Nature for Little Children * Peeps for Little People * The Peeps Series (sometimes called: Miscellaneous Peeps series) * Social Life in England

Imprints

Adlard Coles Nautical Adlard Coles Nautical is a nautical publisher, with over 300 books in print. The company publishes books on topics of interest to sailors and motorboaters and also ‘landlubbers’ with an interest in the sea. Their list includes almanacs, crui ...

* Andrew Brodie Publications * Featherstone * Methuen Drama * T. & A. D. Poyser * Reeds Almanac * John Wisden & Co

References

External links

A&C Black
– archive.org copy of the site as it was on 15 January 2010.
History of A&C Black
acblack.com (archive.org copy).

Whitaker's Almanack

Records of A. & C. Black Publishers Ltd

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...