Caricature of Blackie before the Greek class inThe Strand.memorial to John Stuart Blackie in St Giles Cathedral, EdinburghJohn Stuart Blackie's grave, Dean Cemetery
He was born inGlasgow, on Charlotte Street, the son ofKelso-born banker Alexander Blackie (d.1846) and Helen Stodart.[1][2] He was educated at the New Academy and afterwards at theMarischal College, inAberdeen, where his father was manager of the Commercial Bank.[3]
After attending classes atEdinburgh University (1825–1826), Blackie spent three years atAberdeen as a student of theology. In 1829, he went to Germany, and after studying atGöttingen and Berlin (where he came under the influence ofHeeren,Müller,Schleiermacher,Neander andBöckh) he accompaniedBunsen to Italy and Rome. The years spent abroad extinguished his former wish to enter the Church, and at his father's desire he gave himself up to the study of law.[3]
He had already, in 1824, been placed in a lawyer's office, but only remained there six months. By the time he was admitted a member of theFaculty of Advocates (1834) he had acquired a strong love of theclassics and a taste for letters in general. A translation ofGoethe'sFaust, which he published in 1834, met with considerable success, winning the approbation ofCarlyle. After a year or two of desultory literary work he was (May 1839) appointed to the newly institutedChair of Humanity (Latin) in theMarischal College.[4]
Difficulties arose in the way of his installation, owing to the action of thePresbytery on his refusing to sign unreservedly theConfession of Faith; but these were eventually overcome, and he took up his duties as professor in November 1841. In the following year he married. From the first his professorial lectures were conspicuous for the unconventional enthusiasm with which he endeavoured to revivify the study of the classics; and his growing reputation, added to the attention excited by a translation ofAeschylus which he published in 1850, led to his appointment in 1852 to theProfessorship of Greek atEdinburgh University, in succession toGeorge Dunbar, a post which he continued to hold for thirty years.[5]
He was somewhat erratic in his methods, but his lectures were a triumph of influential personality. A journey toGreece in 1853 prompted his essayOn the Living Language of the Greeks, a favorite theme of his, especially in his later years; he adopted for himself a modern Greek pronunciation, and before his death he endowed a travelling scholarship to enable students to learn Greek atAthens.[5]
During J. S. Blackie's tenure of the Greek Chair, he taughtRobert Louis Stevenson, and Stevenson would later write:
'Although I am the holder of a certificate of attendance in the Professor's own hand, I cannot remember to have been present in the Greek class above a dozen time. Professor Blackie was even kind enough to remark (more than once) while in the very act of writing the document above referred to, that he did not know my face.'[6]
Scottish nationality was another source of enthusiasm with him; and in this connection he displayed real sympathy withhighland home life and the grievances of thecrofters. The foundation of theCeltic chair at Edinburgh University was mainly due to his efforts. He raised almost all £12,000 needed for it.[7] In spite of the many calls upon his time he produced a considerable amount of literary work, usually on classical or Scottish subjects, including some poems and songs of no mean order.[5]
Blackie was aRadical andScottish nationalist in politics, of a fearlessly independent type; possessed of greatconversational powers and general versatility, his picturesque eccentricity made him one of the characters of theEdinburgh of the day, and a well-known figure as he went about in hisplaid, wornshepherd-wise, over one shoulder and under the other, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, and carrying a big stick.[5] He was made the first chairman of the Scottish Home Rule Association.[8]
In the 1880s and 1890s, he lectured at Oxford on the pronunciation of Greek, and corresponded on the subject withWilliam Hardie. In May 1893, he gave his last lecture at Oxford, but afterwards admitted defeat, stating: "It is utterly in vain here to talk reasonably in the matter of Latin or Greek pronunciation: they are case-hardened in ignorance, prejudice and pedantry".[9]
He died at 9 Douglas Crescent[1] in Edinburgh.[10] His death caused great mourning in the city.[7] He is buried inDean Cemetery to the north side of the central path in the north section of the original cemetery. His nephew and biographer, Archibald Stodart Walker (1869-1934) is buried with him.
Before his death John Blackie gave more than 250 volumes of 19th-century Greek books on various subjects to theUniversity of Edinburgh library.[7]
^Jones, Ernest Charles.Democracy Vindicated: A Lecture Delivered to the Edinburgh Working Men's Institute on 4 January 1867, in Reply to Professor Blackie's Lecture on Democracy, Delivered on the Previous Evening, Andrew Elliot, 1867.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Cousin, John William (1910). "Blackie, John Stuart".A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – viaWikisource.
