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
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". He "began publishing in the 1880s and bought the publishing company John Maxwell in 1887". In 1895, Blackett merged his publishing business with Kegan Paul, the publishing company of Charles Kegan Paul, 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.

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".

Personal life and death
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. 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."

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

Books published

 * Hon. Lewis Strange Wingfield. Gehenna, or Havens of Unrest. 3 vol.
 * Eliza Margaret von Booth. Dame Durden. 3 vol.
 * Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Like and Unlike. 3 vol.
 * Lillian Spender. Her Brother's Keeper. 3 vol.
 * Emilia Julia Aylmer-Gowing. The Jewel Reputation. 3 vol.
 * Bernard Capes. The Haunted Tower. 1 vol.
 * H. Rider Haggard. Mr. Meeson's Will. 1 vol.
 * Bret Harte. The Argonauts of North Liberty. 1 vol.
 * Joseph Hatton. The Abbey Murder. 1 vol.
 * George Alfred Henty. Gabriel Allen M.P.. 1 vol.
 * Louis D'Aguilar Jackson. The Bulbul and the Black Snake. 3 vol.
 * Charles Thomas Clement James. Galloping Days at the Deanery. 1 vol.
 * Catherine Louisa Pirkis. The Road from Ruin. 3 vol.
 * Sabine Baring-Gould. The Pennycomequicks. 3 vol.
 * Paul Bourget. André Cornélis. 1 vol.
 * Frances Hodgson Burnett. The Pretty Sister of José. 1 vol.
 * Julia Frankau. A Babe in Bohemia. 1 vol.
 * H. Rider Haggard. Allan's Wife and Other Tales. 1 vol.
 * George Alfred Henty. The Curse of Carne's Hold. 3 vol.
 * Charles Thomas Clement James. A Bird of Paradise. 3 vol.
 * Charles Thomas Clement James. Against the Grain. 1 vol.
 * Justin Huntly McCarthy. Roland Oliver. 1 vol.
 * Bertram Mitford. The Fire Trumpet. 3 vol.
 * Alan Muir. Tumbledown Farm. 3 vol.
 * James Murphy. The Haunted Church. 1 vol.
 * David Christie Murray. The Queen's Scarf. 1 vol.
 * John Augustus O'Shea. Mated from the Morgue. 1 vol.
 * Edmund Randolph. The New Eve. 3 vol.
 * Sir Randal Howland Roberts. Hard Held. 1 vol.
 * Dora Russell. Jezebel's Friends. 3 vol.
 * Lucy Bethia Walford. A Sage of Sixteen. 1 vol.
 * Israel Zangwill. The Premier and the Painter. 1 vol.
 * Mrs. Alexander. Forging the Fetters. 1 vol.
 * Arthur Conan Doyle. The Sign of Four. 1 vol.
 * Hon. Marie Georgiana Fetherstonhaugh. Laying Down the Cards. 1 vol.
 * Andrew Charles Parker Haggard. Ada Triscott. 3 vol.
 * Margaret Wolfe Hungerford. A Born Coquette. 3 vol.
 * Florence Marryat. A Scarlet Sin. 3 vol.
 * L. T. Meade. Just a Love Story. 1 vol.
 * William Edward Norris. Misadventure. 3 vol.
 * William Edward Norris. The Baffled Conspirators. 1 vol.
 * Margaret Oliphant. The Mystery of Mrs. Blencarrow. 1 vol.
 * Frances Eleanor Trollope. Among Aliens. 3 vol.
 * Lucy Bethia Walford. The Havoc of a Smile. 1 vol.
 * Florence Louisa Barclay. Guy Mervyn. 3 vol.
 * Matilda Betham-Edwards. A Romance of the Wire. 1 vol.
 * Lady Caroline Madelina Fairlie- Cuninghame. The Slave of his Will. 1 vol.
 * Florence Marryat. The Risen Dead. 3 vol.
 * Dora Russell. A Bitter Birthright. 3 vol.
 * Sir Randal Howland Roberts. High-Flyer Hall. 1 vol.

(check dates)