MR. BLACK'S ambition as a boy was to become an artist, and he studied
for a short time in the School of Art at Glasgow, in which city he was
born. "As an artist," he tells us, "I was a complete failure, and so
qualified myself for a time in after life as an art critic." Yet in
feeling for the beauty of sea, forest, moor, and hill, and in graphic
power of painting them in words, Mr. Black has rarely had a rival. At
twenty, the age at which our first portrait shows him, he had already
turned to journalism, and was writing in the _Glasgow Weekly Citizen_.
Three years afterwards he came to London, where he wrote for newspapers
and magazines. During the Prusso-Austrian War of 1866 he acted as the
Special Correspondent of the _Morning Star_. Scenes taken from his
adventures appeared in his first novel, "Love or Marriage," which he
wrote on his return. Several other novels followed during the next four
or five years, none of which had any great success; but in 1871, just at
the age depicted in our second portrait, Mr. Black produced the striking
story--"A Daughter of Heth." Since then, his books have become household
words, and probably no living author has given pleasure to so many
readers by means at once so simple and so fine. With less of plot and
startling incident than almost any novelist, Mr. Black has two points of
excellence in which he stands alone--in power of painting scenery and of
depicting charming girls.
We are indebted for these portraits to the courtesy of Mr. Black.
[Illustration: _From a Photo. by_] AGE 20. [_Cramb Bros., Glasgow_.]
[Illustration: _From a Photo. by_] AGE 30. [_Sarony, Birmingham_.]
[Illustration: _From a Photo. by_] AGE 45. [_Messrs. Elliott &
Fry_.]