Researching James Blake

In 2005, Blake was presented with the Comeback Player of the Year award for his remarkable return to the tour. Later, in 2008, Blake was awarded another honor by the ATP, where he was named the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year.

Blake's autobiography, Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life, co-written with Andrew Friedman, discussed his comeback after his 2004 season. It was released on July 3. 2007, and debuted at No. 22 on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Blake announced that he would retire from professional tennis after the 2013 US Open, where he suffered a first round singles loss in five sets against Ivo Karlovic and a 6–2, 2–6, 2–6 doubles loss.

On May 12, 1835, he married Marianne Wildes of Boston and ran his brokerage on State Street. He was appointed City Marshal of Boston on May 1, 1840 at an annual salary of $1,000.00. Blake's term as Marshal was a quiet one and most of his activities involved overseeing July 4 celebrations on the Common, taking a census of buildings, banning illegal hay scales along the wharf, and clearing the streets of snow. He also passed a leash law forbidding large dogs to roam the streets. The most violence he saw was snowball fights, against which he swiftly levied hefty fines. For his due diligence, he received a salary increase of $100 in 1844.

Blake was replaced as Marshal by Ira Gibbons in 1845, and he returned to the more lucrative business of real estate. He opened an office on State Street and later, as his business grew, moved to Congress Street. In 1847, Blake, along with police officer Samuel D. Fuller, helped recover articles stolen from Ebenezer Mann, another merchant. Blake and Officer Fuller would meet again under more serious circumstances.

In May 1849, the City of Boston was growing weary of their City Marshal, Francis Tukey, and 17 citizens petitioned to have Blake return to fill the post, but Tukey held on. Later that year, Tukey was in the unenviable position of coordinating the investigation into the disappearance of Blake's uncle, Dr. George Parkman.

During his career, he has collaborated with artists including Mount Kimbie and Bon Iver and has contributed production work to artists including Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Vince Staples, Frank Ocean, and Travis Scott. He has won a Mercury Prize from two nominations, a Grammy Award from five nominations, including for Best New Artist in 2014; and three Brit Award nominations.

Blake was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 21, 1842. He graduated from Harvard College in 1862, and from Harvard Divinity School in 1866. He served as pastor in several Unitarian churches in Massachusetts and Illinois. He died in Chicago on April 28, 1925.

Different sources give different, and inconsistent, dates for his pastorates:* 1868-1871 - Twenty-Eighth Congregational Society, Boston * 1877-84 - Quincy, Illinois* 1877-96 - Quincy, Illinois * 1883-97 - Third Unitarian Church, Chicago* 1892-1916 - Evanston, Illinois

It is certain, however, that he was in Chicago on October 25, 1896. According to a contemporary report, he exhibited cool presence of mind when a serious fire broke out during a service. He was the last to leave the building, which by that time was full of smoke. Seconds later, it burst into flames and was consumed.

He published many essays on religious and other subjects, sermons, poems, and plays.Notably, he collaborated with Frederick Lucian Hosmer and William Channing Gannett in the compilation and editing of Unity Hymns and Chorals for the Congregation and the Home (1880), an influential hymnbook which was reprinted several times. It includes several of his own hymns. A revised edition was issued in 1911.

While pastor at Evanston, he penned a Covenant which has been adopted by many Unitarian Congregations:Love is the spirit of this church, and service is its law.United in the free quest of high values in religion and life,We covenant with one another:To dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another.

Several of his poems were set to music by the English composer John Ireland (1879-1962).