April 3, 2014
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Conrad Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, is a Canadian-born British peer. Hailing from Montreal, Conrad earned an arts degree from Carleton University, a law degree from Université Laval and a Master’s degree in history from McGill University.
Among the more than 500 newspapers he has owned are the London Daily Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post, The Chicago Sun Times and the Sydney Morning Herald, and, through a takeover of the Southam chain of Canadian newspapers, many newspapers in Canada. In 1997 he launched the National Post as a nationwide competitor to The Globe & Mail.
He has written an autobiography as well as biographies on Maurice Deplessis, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon.
Biographer George Toombs has said of Conrad: “he was born into a very large family of athletic, handsome people. He wasn’t particularly athletic or handsome like they were, so he developed a different skill – wordplay, which he practiced a lot with his father.”
Conrad was called “Canada’s most famous non-citizen” by Vanity Fair, in reference to his relinquishing his Canadian citizenship in 2001.
Charles Moore, former editor of The Daily Telegraph, remarks that at one point “an ideal evening for Black would have been dinner with “[former secretary of state Henry] Kissinger, [journalist William F.] Buckley, some British columnist, [or] Margaret Thatcher”
A Vancouver-based dance music producer goes by the stage name of Konrad Black for his recordings and live performances.
Fact: Miguelito’s Little Green Car has seen the inside of Lord Black’s tux pocket.