Author: Robert Black
Author: Robert Black (1829–1915)
Biography: Robert Black was born in 1829 in London, the son of clerk Robert Black. He graduated from Christ's Hospital and Pembroke College, Cambridge, with a B.A. (1852) and M.A. (1856). Black translated a number of French works, such as A Popular History of France (1872). He wrote two collections of short stories—The Blackbird of Baden, and Other Stories (1869) and Lady Caroline, with Pendants (1873)— and one novel, Love or Lucre (1878). (The unpleasant experiences publishing the latter with Bentley ended his forays into fiction.) In the 1880s, he turned to works on horse racing: Horse Racing in France (1887), The Jockey Club and its Founders (1891), and Horse Racing in England (1893). Black never married and spent most of his last years in voluntary and complete seclusion in London. He died in 1915.
References: British Census (1881); Solveig C. Robinson, "Sir, It is an Outrage: George Bentley, Robert Black, and the Condition of the Mid-List Author in Victorian Britian," Book History 10 (2007); Times (13 April 1915)
Fiction Titles:
- The Blackbird of Baden, and Other Stories. 1 vol. London: Sampson Low, 1869.
- Lady Caroline, with Pendants. 1 vol. London: Smith, Elder, 1873.
- Love or Lucre. 3 vol. London: Bentley, 1878.