Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Blades, William
BLADES, William, born at Clapham, Surrey, in 1824, was educated at Clapham Grammar School, under the Rev. C. Pritchard, F.R.S., Savilian Professor at Oxford, and succeeded his father as a printer in London. He has edited "The Gouvernayle of Helthe," and other early-printed books; has contributed numerous articles to the current literature of the day upon the History of Printing and Palæotypography; but is best known by his works "The Life of William Caxton," 2 vols., 1863, and "The Enemies of Books," 1881; the former of which for the first time placed the study of early printing in England upon a sure basis.