The Blackwell publishing and bookselling empire had its origins in a bookshop opened in Oxford in 1879 by Benjamin Henry Blackwell. Blackwell began publishing the work of scholars at Oxford University, and soon developed as a publisher of serious and classical literature. The firm became Basil Blackwell and Mott in 1922 when Adrian Mott joined as a partner. The firm divided into two companies in 1939 when Blackwell Scientific Publications was founded to specialise in medical publications. In 2001 the companies merged, forming Blackwell Publishing Limited.
After Benjamin's son Basil joined the business in 1913, the firm published an extensive poetry list, and issued a range of poetry journals and literary magazines. Basil Blackwell purchased the Shakespeare Head Press in 1921, and subsequently issued some low-cost editions of the works of Elizabethan and other English authors. The firm had been a publisher of children's books, including elementary texts, from the 1920s, and after the second world war this side of the busiess was expanded. Blackwell Publishing became a leading academic publisher, with subsidiaries world-wide. Still a family business in 2006, it claimed to be the 'world's largest independent society publisher', publishing the journals of six hundred and sixty five societies.
Blackwell's UK is a national chain of bookshops, including online and mail order services, specialist stores, and library suppliers.
