Blackie

Blackie, John Stuart, scholar, was born in 1809 at Glasgow. He studied at Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and in Germany and Italy. In 1841 he became professor of humanity in Marischal College, Aberdeen, and in 1852 of Greek in Edinburgh University, which position he resigned in 1882. Amongst his varied works the chief is Self Culture, published in 1874; others are a metrical translation of Goethe's Faust, 1834 ; of AEschylus, 1850, Homer and the Iliad, with a translation of the Iliad in ballad measure, 1866; War Songs of the Germans, 1870; a Life of Burns, 1888; contributions to philology, etc. He was a strong advocate of a reform in the pronunciation of ancient Greek. The foundation of a chair of Celtic in Edinburgh University was due to his exertions, and he was an ardent supporter of the preservation of Scottish nationality in all its forms. He died in 1895.