Douglas McCrae Black (July 25, 1895 – May 15, 1977) was an American lawyer and publishing house executive, president of

Doubleday and Company Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed th ...

from 1946 to 1963 and president of the American Book Publishers Council.

Life and career

Black was born in

Queens, New York, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long I ...

, the son of John William Black (1861–1956), a newspaper editor, and Flora Elizabeth Blayney (1863–1940). Black was educated at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

(class of 1916) where he was a member of the

Philolexian Society The Philolexian Society of Columbia University is one of the oldest college literary and debate societies in the United States, and the oldest student group at Columbia. Founded in 1802, the Society aims to "improve its members in Oratory, Compo ...

, and was awarded the Washington Prize and

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

(class of 1918). On September 11, 1920, Black married Maude T. Bergen (1894–1987), daughter of Benjamin Bergen, and they had one child, Virginia Bergen Black (1924–1994). Black was a lawyer in private practice for many years. When

Nelson Doubleday Nelson Doubleday (June 16, 1889 – January 11, 1949) was a U.S. book publisher and president of Doubleday Company from 1922–1946. His father Frank Nelson Doubleday had founded the business. His son Nelson Doubleday Jr. followed him i ...

resigned as president in 1946, Black took over and was president of

from 1946 to 1963. By 1947, Doubleday was the largest publisher in the US, with annual sales of over 30 million books. Black and his wife were close friends of

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

and his wife

Mamie Eisenhower Mary Geneva "Mamie" Eisenhower (; November 14, 1896 – November 1, 1979) was the first lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961 as the wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Born in Boone, Iowa, she was raised in a wealthy household in C ...

for more than 20 years and Black was responsible for Doubleday publishing Eisenhower's four volumes of autobiography. The "Douglas M. Black Dwight D. Eisenhower Collection", including over 200 letters and notes exchanged, is at St. Lawrence University. Black was a keen advocate of

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

and lost a $60,000 court case defending

Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...

Memoirs of Hecate County ''Memoirs of Hecate County'' is a work of fiction by Edmund Wilson, first published in 1946, but banned in the state of New York until 1959, when it was reissued with minor revisions by the author. After falling out of print it was republished in ...

, which was banned. Black was also involved in trying to publish

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bo ...

's controversial 1955 novel ''

Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Humber ...

'' in the US. Black was a trustee of

, and a director of the

Council on Library Resources The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is an American independent, nonprofit organization. It works with libraries, cultural institutions, and higher learning communities on developing strategies to improve research, teaching, an ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black, Douglas 1895 births American book publishers (people) Doubleday family Columbia Law School alumni People from Queens, New York 1977 deaths American publishing chief executives Columbia College (New York) alumni