A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Black, William
Black, William (1841-1898).—Novelist. After studying as a landscape painter, he took to journalism in Glasgow. In 1864 he went to London, and soon after pub. his first novel, James Merle, which made no impression. In the Austro-Prussian War he acted as a war correspondent. Thereafter he began afresh to write fiction, and was more successful; the publication of A Daughter of Heth (1871) at once established his popularity. He reached his highwater-mark in A Princess of Thule (1873). Many other books were added before his death in 1898, among which may be mentioned In Silk Attire (1869), The Strange Adventures of a Phæton (1872), Macleod of Dare (1878), White Wings (1880), Shandon Bells (1882), Yolande (1883), Judith Shakespeare (1884), White Heather (1886), Stand Fast Craig-Royston! (1890), Green Pastures and Piccadilly, Three Feathers, Wild Eelin (1898).