This year, Blackwell’s booksellers celebrates its 140th anniversary and its doing so by choosing 140 books that reflects its mission to “Change lives through reading” and is offering one title for every year since the brand launched in 1879.
The list, created by Blackwell’s booksellers, publishers, authors, and friends of the bookshop will mark an all year celebration of the anniversary of the bookshops.
Blackwell’s founder Benjamin Henry Blackwell opened the first store in Broad Street in Oxford in 1879 and today the brand boasts thirty shops, while its lifespan straddles two World Wars, three monarchs, the Moon Landing, and many significant events in between.
We’re not reproducing the entire list here, but you can link to it at the bottom of the page. The list begins in 1879, a year that also marks the birth of scientist Albert Einstein and the book chosen is Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. The turn of the century marks Oscar Wilde’s birth and the book to make that year is The Picture of Dorian Gray. The midway point of the list is 1949 and for that year we have The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir and there’s then a book for every year through to 2018 with the final book listed as Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge.
All 140 books will be the subject of a major promotion running at Blackwell’s until the end of July with support from authors and all the major publishers.
For those interested, the full list from Blackwell’s is here with a book to mark every year from 1879 to 2018.
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