William Black

William Black (1841 – 1898) was an author born in Glasgow, Scotland, November 13, 1841.

He was educated with a view to being a landscape painter, a training that clearly influenced his literary life. At the age of twenty-three he went to London, after some experience in Glasgow journalism, and joined the staff of the "Morning Star," and, later, the "Daily News," of which journal he became assistant-editor.

His first novel appeared in 1868, but it was not until the publication of A Daughter of Heth, in 1871, that Black secured the attention of the reading public. The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton followed, and in 1873 A Princess of Thule attained great popularity. Retiring from journalism the next year he devoted himself entirely to fiction. A score of novels followed, the last in 1898, just before his death on December 10 of that year.