BASIL BLACKWELL

'Sir Basil Blackwell' (1889–1984) was born 'Henry Blackwell' in Oxford, England. He was the son of the founder of Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford, which went on to become the Blackwell's family publishing and bookshop empire, located on Broad Street in central Oxford. In 1921, he founded his own publishing group, the Shakesphere Head Press, with Bernard Newdigate as typographer. This he integrated into the family book business when he became chairman in 1924.
Blackwell was a prosecution witness in the 1966 private prosecution attempt to bar the book ''Last Exit to Brooklyn'' from UK publication.