John Blackwood (publisher)

[4] At age 16, Blackwood spent three years in continental travel during his Grand Tour with his brother Alexander and his tutor, Mr. William Hay.

[11][12][13] In 1845, Blackwood returned to Edinburgh to manage and edit Maga after the death of Alexander, while his brother Robert maintained the business side of the magazine.

[18] Although Blackwood was a staunch conservative and published the chief monthly periodical of conservatism, he welcomed authors without regard to political affiliations.

[30] A passionate lover of golf, Blackwood played every afternoon while at his country home, enjoying the famed Links near St. Andrews such a short distance from Strathtyrum.

[31][32] Often with his family, in evenings Blackwood walked to the nearby North Sea adjacent to the property and viewed St. Andrews Bay and the Bell Rock Lighthouse.

[33] A wide variety of guests enjoyed visiting Strathtyrum, including Anthony Trollope, author of Framley Parsonage;[34] Jefferson Davis, president of the former Confederate States;[35] and Captain John Hanning Speke, discoverer of the source of the Nile.

[36] Married in 1854,[37] Blackwood and his wife Julia had two children: Mary, who would later write volume three of the Annals of a Publishing House, which focused on the life of her father; and John, or, Jack, who died in 1882 at the young age of 25, having served in Sir Arthur Halkett's Militia in 1878.