Robert Black (author)
Robert Black (14 May 1829 – 8 April 1915) was a British author, journalist, and translator. He is best remembered for his works on horse racing and for translating François Guizot’s Popular History of France, which became very popular in England and America.
Black was born in London, the second son of a city clerk. He finished school at Christ’s Hospital in 1848 and studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he earned a BA in 1852 and an MA in 1856. He spent his later years in London, where he died in 1915 at the age of 85.
He began his writing career as a classical scholar, producing articles on current affairs and the Italian Renaissance, and translating French works. His translation of Guizot went through many editions. In the 1860s he started writing fiction for magazines such as Cornhill, Macmillan’s Magazine, and Chambers’ Journal, with his work also appearing in the Athenaeum and The Field. His early short stories were collected in two volumes, and he published a novel, Love or Lucre, in 1878. A dispute over editorial practices with the publisher Bentley & Son cooled his interest in fiction, and although more stories and a novel were planned, they were never published.
Later, Black found success as an expert on horse racing. He wrote articles for the St James’s Gazette, the Pall Mall Gazette, The Times, and The Sportsman, and published three books on the subject (the third issued by Bentley).
He spent his final years in seclusion in London.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:50 (CET).