well-known on the Edinburgh stage. Thomas
Campbell thus relates the reception, memorable
in the annals of the Drama, of Mrs. Siddons, as he
learned it from her olvn lips :-? The grave atten-
ADAM BLACK. (From a Pbfozrapl by Messrs. Marrll& Co.)
she would never again cross the Tweed ! When
it was finished she paused, and looked to the
audience. The deep silence wzs broken only by
a single voice exclaiming, ? That?s 720 bad!? This
tion of my Scottish countrymen,? he writes, ?and
their canny reservation of praise till they were
sure she had deserved it, had well-nigh worn out
her patience. She had been used to speak to
animated audiences, but now she felt that she had
been speaking to stones. Successive flashes of her
elocution that had always been sure to electrify the
South, fell in vain on these Northern flints. At
last, as I well remember, she told me she coiled
ludicrous parsimony ot praise convulsed the
audience with laughter. But the laugh was followed
by such thunders of applause, that, amidst her
stunned and nervous agitation, she was not without
fear of the galleries coming down.?
Mr. Yates, and other players, had remarked the
extreme coldness or quietness of the Edinburgh
audience, and while they thought it might indicate
a deep and appreciative feeling regarding the play,
they deprecated the loss of those bursts of hearty
applause which greeted their efforts elsewhere. In
people
Adam Black (February 10, 1784?January 24, 1874) was a Scottish publisher. He founded the A & C Black publishing company.
Black was born in Edinburgh, the son of a builder. After serving as an apprentice to a bookseller in Edinburgh and London, he began business for himself in Edinburgh in 1808. By 1826 he was recognized as one of the principal booksellers in the city; and a few years later he was joined in business by his nephew Charles.
The two most important events connected with the history of the firm were the publication of the 7th, 8th and 9th editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and the purchase of the stock and copyright of the Waverley Novels. The copyright of the Encyclopaedia passed into the hands of Adam Black and a few friends in 1827. In 1851 the firm bought the copyright of the Waverley Novels for £27,000; and in 186, they became the proprietors of De Quincey's works.
Adam Black was twice Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and represented the city in parliament from 1856 to 1865. He retired from business in 1865, and died on the 24th of January 1874. He was succeeded by his sons, who removed their business in 1895 to London. There is a bronze statue of Adam Black in East Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh.
See Memoirs of Adam Black, edited by Alexander Nicholson (2nd ed., Edinburgh, 1885).