Sir Basil Blackwell (1889-1984) was born Henry Blackwell in 1889 in Oxford, England. He was the son of the founder of Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford, which went on to become the Blackwell's family publishing and bookshop empire, located on Broad Street in Oxford. In 1921 he founded his own publishing group called the Shakesphere Head Press which he integrated into the family book business when he became chairman in 1924.

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

1889 births | 1984 deaths