of Edinburgh, Session 1874-75. 
467 
4. Biographical Notice of Adam Black. By the Rev. 
Dr Lindsay Alexander. 
Adam Black was a native of Edinburgh, where he was born 
on the 20th of February 1784. He received his education at the 
High School of the city, and afterwards attended for two sessions the 
classes at the University. Having selected bookselling as his profes- 
sion, he became apprentice to Mr Fairbairn, an Edinburgh bookseller, 
and at the close of his apprenticeship spent two years in the house 
of Lackington, Allen, & Co., London. In 1815 he commenced 
business for himself in Edinburgh as a bookseller; and entered 
upon that career of wise and vigorous enterprise which he pursued 
to the end of his life, and in which, both as a man of business and 
as a public man, he earned for himself a wide-spread reputation. 
When the first Town Council under the New Municipal Act was 
elected, he was returned as one of the councillors; shortly after 
he became treasurer of the city funds, and laid the foundation 
of that scheme by means of which the pecuniary affairs of the city 
were at length brought into order, and the city relieved of the 
pressure of debt; and in 1843 he was raised to the office of Lord 
Provost, an office which he held by re-election for six years. On 
his retirement from this office he was offered a knighthood by 
the Government, but this he declined, alleging that as he was still 
in business as a retail bookseller and stationer, it would be incon- 
gruous for him to be standing behind his counter to be addressed 
there as “ Sir Adam ” by some boy sent up from the market u for 
a hard pen and a pennyworth of ink.” In 1856 he was returned to 
Parliament as one of the members for the city, and to this dignified 
post he was repeatedly re-elected, and represented the city for nearly 
ten years. On his retirement from Parliament he still continued 
to take an interest in public affairs, as well as in the conduct of his 
business. For some years he had been withdrawing from book- 
selling and confining his energies and resources to publishing. By 
a happy union of boldness with prudence he raised his house to a 
foremost place among the great publishing firms of the country. 
Two large editions of “ Encyclopaedia Britannica,” each of which 
was nearly all written anew, and numerous editions of the “ Wavex- 
ley Novels,” and other writings of Sir Walter Scott, in various sizes 
