Everything about Bodley Head totally explained
Bodley Head is an
English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name has been used as an
imprint of
Random House Children's Books since 1987. From April 2008 it'll be revived as an adult non-fiction imprint within Random House's CCV division.
History
Originally
John Lane and Elkin Mathews — The Bodley Head was a partnership set up in 1887 by
John Lane (1854–1925) and
Elkin Mathews, to trade in antiquarian books in London. It took its name from a bust of
Sir Thomas Bodley, the of the
Bodleian Library in Oxford, above the shop door. Lane and Matthews began in 1894 to publish works of ‘stylish decadence’, including the notorious literary periodical
The Yellow Book. Also notable amongst Bodley Head's pre-Great War books were the two volume sets:
Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1910 and later editions, selling over fifty thousand copies), and
Immanuel Kant, both by
Houston Stewart Chamberlain.
The Bodley Head became a private company in 1921. In 1926 it published the
Book of Bodley Head Verse, an
anthology edited by
J. B. Priestley. The firm published some mainstream popular authors such as
Arnold Bennett and
Agatha Christie but ran into financial difficulties. It continued after 1936 backed by a consortium of
Allen & Unwin,
Jonathan Cape, and
J. M. Dent.
Allen Lane, John Lane's nephew who had inherited control, finally left to found
Penguin Books.
Bought in 1957 by
Ansbacher & Co., the imprint was still important in the 1970s when it was drawn into the
Jonathan Cape/
Chatto and Windus group. The firm was sold to Random House in 1987, who have published children's books under The Bodley Head name since.
The archives of The Bodley Head Ltd. are kept at
Reading University.
(External Link
)
Relaunch
The Bodley Head imprint was relaunched by Random House in April 2008. Its two principal strands are stated to be books of scholarship in both the humanities and sciences, and books which contribute to the intellectual and cultural climate of our times.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Bodley Head'.
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