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{{Short description|British publisher}}
{{Infobox publisher
{{Infobox publisher
| image =
| image =
| parent = Duckworth Books Group<ref>[https://www.duckworthbooks.co.uk/ Home - Duckworth Books], duckworthbooks.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2020.</ref>
| parent = Prelude
| status =
| status =
| founded = {{start date and age|1898}}
| founded = {{start date and age|1898}}
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| country = [[UK]]
| country = [[UK]]
| headquarters = [[London]]
| headquarters = [[London]]
| distribution = [[Bloomsbury Publishing]]<ref>{{Cite web| title = Trade| accessdate = 2017-10-23| url = http://ducknet.co.uk/trade}}</ref>
| distribution = [[Bloomsbury Publishing]]<ref>{{Cite web| title = Trade| access-date = 2017-10-23| url = http://ducknet.co.uk/trade}}</ref>
| keypeople =
| keypeople =
| publications = [[Book]]s
| publications = [[Book]]s
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}}
}}


'''Duckworth Books''', originally '''Gerald Duckworth and Company''', founded in 1898 by [[Gerald Duckworth]], is an independent [[United Kingdom|British]] publisher. It was important in the development of English literature in the first half of the twentieth century, when it published such writers as [[Virginia Woolf]] (the founder's half-sister), [[W. H. Davies]], [[Anthony Powell]], [[John Galsworthy]] and [[D. H. Lawrence]].<ref name="our-history">[https://www.duckworthbooks.co.uk/about/ Our History], duckworthbooks.co.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>
'''Duckworth Books''', originally '''Gerald Duckworth and Company''', founded in 1898 by [[Gerald Duckworth]], is a British publisher.<ref name="our-history">[https://www.duckworthbooks.co.uk/about/ Our History], duckworthbooks.co.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>


==History==
==History==
[[File:Duckworth printers mark c 1898.jpg|thumb|Duckworth printers mark c. 1898]]
[[File:Duckworth printers mark c 1898.jpg|thumb|Duckworth printers mark {{circa|1898}}]]
Gerald Duckworth founded the company in 1898, setting up its office at 3 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. Staff included [[Edward Garnett]] as literary advisor and [[Jonathan Cape|(Herbert) Jonathan Cape]] as the sales manager.<ref name="our-history" />
Gerald Duckworth founded the company in 1898, setting up its office at 3 [[Henrietta Street, Covent Garden]]. Staff included [[Edward Garnett]] as literary advisor and [[Jonathan Cape|(Herbert) Jonathan Cape]] as the sales manager.<ref name="our-history" />


Until the mid-1920s the company's notable authors included [[Hilaire Belloc]], [[Anton Chekhov]], [[Elinor Glyn]], [[W. H. Hudson]], [[Henry James]], [[D. H. Lawrence]], [[W. Heath Robinson]] and [[Virginia Woolf]]. Authors in the next two decades included [[John Galsworthy]], [[Anthony Powell]] and [[Edith Sitwell]].<ref name="our-history" />
Until the mid-1920s, the company's notable authors included [[Hilaire Belloc]], [[Anton Chekhov]], [[W. H. Davies]], [[Elinor Glyn]], [[W. H. Hudson]], [[Henry James]], [[D. H. Lawrence]], [[W. Heath Robinson]] and [[Virginia Woolf]] (the founder's half-sister). Authors in the next two decades included [[John Galsworthy]], [[Anthony Powell]] and [[Edith Sitwell]].<ref name="our-history" />


Following Gerald Duckworth's death in 1937, control of the company passed to Mervyn Horder and Patrick Crichton-Smith. The company, heavily in debt after the [[Great Depression]], suffered the loss of "its entire stock of unbound sheets" as the result of bomb damage during the Second World War. From 1945 until the 1970s the firm published authors such [[Simone de Beauvoir]], [[Charlotte Mew]] and [[Evelyn Waugh]].<ref name="our-history" />
Following Gerald Duckworth's death in 1937, control of the company passed to Mervyn Horder and Patrick Crichton-Smith. The company, heavily in debt after the [[Great Depression]], suffered the loss of "its entire stock of unbound sheets" as the result of bomb damage during the Second World War. From 1945 until the 1970s the firm published authors such [[Simone de Beauvoir]], [[Charlotte Mew]] and [[Evelyn Waugh]].<ref name="our-history" />


In 1968 Gerard Duckworth & Co. was purchased by Colin Hayward and a friend Tim Simon.<ref>"Colin Hayward: A Passionate Publisher", ''[[The Guardian]]'', 1 October 1994, p. 32.</ref> Hayward would run the company until his death in 1994. In this period Hayward was described as a "one man university press" publishing at Duckworth a "body of works on Greek and Roman literature, philosophy and society" whose scholarship and originality "equalled the output of the large university houses". Meanwhile his wife, the writer [[Alice Thomas Ellis]], was Duckworth's fiction editor and was responsible for publishing "Duckworth's best-selling author", [[Beryl Bainbridge]].
In 1968, Gerard Duckworth & Co. was purchased by Colin Haycraft and a friend Tim Simon.<ref>"Colin Haycraft: A Passionate Publisher", ''[[The Guardian]]'', 1 October 1994, p. 32.</ref> Haycraft would run the company until his death in 1994. In this period Haycraft was described as a "one man university press" publishing at Duckworth a "body of works on Greek and Roman literature, philosophy and society" whose scholarship and originality "equalled the output of the large university houses". Meanwhile his wife, the writer [[Alice Thomas Ellis]], was Duckworth's fiction editor and was responsible for publishing "Duckworth's best-selling author", [[Beryl Bainbridge]].


The company moved from Henrietta Street to The Old Piano Factory in [[Camden Town|Camden]], North London.
The company moved from Henrietta Street to The Old Piano Factory in [[Camden Town|Camden]], North London, on Old Gloucester Street, made famous by [[Alan Bennett]] in his bestselling book, ''The Lady in the Van.''{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}


In the period from the 1970s to the 1990s authors published by the company including Beryl Bainbridge, [[Jeffrey Bernard]], Alice Thomas Ellis, [[Penelope Fitzgerald]], [[Ogden Nash]], [[Dorothy Parker]] and [[Oliver Sacks]].
In the period from the 1970s to the 1990s authors published by the company including [[John Bayley (writer)|John Bayley]], Beryl Bainbridge, [[Jeffrey Bernard]], Alice Thomas Ellis, [[Penelope Fitzgerald]], [[Ogden Nash]], [[Dorothy Parker]] and [[Oliver Sacks]].


In 1998 the company celebrated its centenary and moved its premises to Frith Street, Soho. From 2000 the company published authors such as [[Max Brooks]], [[Julia Child]], [[J. J. Connolly]], [[Suzanne Fagence Cooper]] and [[Ray Kurzweil]].<ref name="our-history" />
In 1998 the company celebrated its centenary<ref>Claudia Joseph, "Party takes wing with a huge bill", ''[[The Times]]'', 16 October 1998, p. 9.</ref> and moved its premises to [[Frith Street]], [[Soho]].


In 2003 the company suffered a financial collapse and was put into [[receivership]].<ref>John Ezard, [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/apr/25/books.booksnews "D-day dawns for Duckworth"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 25 April 2003. Retrieved 30 November 2020.</ref> Its assets were bought by [[Peter Mayer]], a former chief executive of [[Penguin Books]], who already owned [[The Overlook Press]] of [[New York City]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2997177.stm Famed publisher rescued], bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2020.</ref> In 2007 it was reported that Duckworth's trade books were then to be published "under the Duckworth Overlook" imprint while academic books would continue to "carry just the Duckworth name".<ref>[http://www.publishingtrends.com/2007/05/bookview-may-2007/ Bookview: May 2007], publishingtrends.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>
In 2003, the company suffered a financial collapse and was put into [[receivership]].<ref>John Ezard, [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/apr/25/books.booksnews "D-day dawns for Duckworth"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 25 April 2003. Retrieved 30 November 2020.</ref> Its assets were bought by [[Peter Mayer]], a former chief executive of [[Penguin Books]], who already owned [[The Overlook Press]] of [[New York City]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2997177.stm Famed publisher rescued], bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2020.</ref> Under new leadership, the company published authors such as [[Max Brooks]], [[Julia Child]], [[J. J. Connolly]], [[Suzanne Fagence Cooper]] and [[Ray Kurzweil]].<ref name="our-history" /> In 2007 it was reported that Duckworth's trade books were then to be published "under the Duckworth Overlook" imprint while academic books would continue to "carry just the Duckworth name".<ref>[http://www.publishingtrends.com/2007/05/bookview-may-2007/ Bookview: May 2007], publishingtrends.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>


In 2010, Duckworth's academic list was acquired by [[Bloomsbury Publishing]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130722231642/http://bloomsbury-ir.co.uk/html/about/a_history.html Corporate history], bloomsbury-ir.co.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>
In 2010, Duckworth's academic list was acquired by [[Bloomsbury Publishing]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130722231642/http://bloomsbury-ir.co.uk/html/about/a_history.html Corporate history], bloomsbury-ir.co.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>


After Mayer's death in 2018, Duckworth was sold to Prelude Books and was then operated under the leadership of Pete Duncan and Matt Casbourne.<ref>{{Cite web| title = Mayer's Duckworth sold to Prelude for undisclosed sum {{!}} The Bookseller| accessdate = 2019-07-21| url = https://www.thebookseller.com/insight/mayers-duckworth-sold-prelude-undisclosed-sum-843416}}</ref><ref name="our-history" /> In 2020 Duckworth was operating from an office in [[Richmond-upon-Thames]].<ref name="our-history" />
After Mayer's death in 2018, Duckworth was sold to Prelude Books and is now operated under the leadership of Pete Duncan and Matt Casbourne.<ref>{{Cite web| title = Mayer's Duckworth sold to Prelude for undisclosed sum {{!}} The Bookseller| access-date = 2019-07-21| url = https://www.thebookseller.com/insight/mayers-duckworth-sold-prelude-undisclosed-sum-843416}}</ref><ref name="our-history" /> Prelude Books rebranded itself under the name Duckworth Books and as of 2020 the company has been operating from an office in [[Richmond-upon-Thames]]<ref name="our-history" /> with a focus on publishing non-fiction and historical fiction.


==Book series==
==Book series==
* Covent Garden Library
* Covent Garden Library
* Crown Library
* Crown Library
* Great Lives<ref>[https://seriesofseries.owu.edu/great-lives/ Great Lives], owu.edu. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>
* Great Lives<ref>[https://seriesofseries.com/great-lives/ Great Lives], seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>
* Greenback Library
* Greenback Library
* Hundred Years Series<ref>[https://www.publishinghistory.com/the-hundred-years-series-duckworth.html The Hundred Years Series (Gerald Duckworth) - Book Series List], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>
* Hundred Years Series<ref>[https://www.publishinghistory.com/the-hundred-years-series-duckworth.html The Hundred Years Series (Gerald Duckworth) - Book Series List], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>
* The Library of Art
* Masters of Painting
* Modern Plays
* Modern Plays
* New Reader’s Library<ref>[https://seriesofseries.owu.edu/new-readers-library/ New Readers' Library], owu.edu. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>
* New Reader’s Library<ref>[https://seriesofseries.com/new-readers-library/ New Readers' Library], seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>
* Noted Irish Lives
* Noted Irish Lives
* The Popular Library of Art
* Reader’s Library<ref>[https://seriesofseries.owu.edu/readers-library-duckworth/ Readers' Library (Duckworth)], owu.edu. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>
* Reader’s Library<ref>[https://seriesofseries.com/readers-library-duckworth/ Readers' Library (Duckworth)], seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.</ref>
* The Roadmender Series
* The Student Series
* Studies in Theology
* Two Shillings Net Series


==References==
==References==
Line 60: Line 68:
== External links ==
== External links ==
*[https://www.duckworthbooks.co.uk/ Company homepage]
*[https://www.duckworthbooks.co.uk/ Company homepage]
*[https://seriesofseries.owu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/62/2016/03/duckworth_series_1920.pdf A List of the Libraries and Series of Copyright Books Published by Duckworth & Co.], 1920
*[http://archives.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/dispatcher.aspx?action=search&database=ChoiceArchive&search=IN=MS959 Archives of the company from 1936, including editorial correspondence with authors] at [[University of London]]
*[http://archives.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/dispatcher.aspx?action=search&database=ChoiceArchive&search=IN=MS959 Archives of the company from 1936, including editorial correspondence with authors] at [[University of London]]

{{Authority control}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerald Duckworth And Company}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerald Duckworth And Company}}

Latest revision as of 02:13, 24 November 2023

Duckworth Books
Parent companyDuckworth Books Group[1]
Founded1898; 126 years ago (1898)
FounderGerald Duckworth
Country of originUK
Headquarters locationLondon
DistributionBloomsbury Publishing[2]
Publication typesBooks
Official websitewww.duckworthbooks.co.uk

Duckworth Books, originally Gerald Duckworth and Company, founded in 1898 by Gerald Duckworth, is a British publisher.[3]

History

[edit]
Duckworth printers mark c. 1898

Gerald Duckworth founded the company in 1898, setting up its office at 3 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. Staff included Edward Garnett as literary advisor and (Herbert) Jonathan Cape as the sales manager.[3]

Until the mid-1920s, the company's notable authors included Hilaire Belloc, Anton Chekhov, W. H. Davies, Elinor Glyn, W. H. Hudson, Henry James, D. H. Lawrence, W. Heath Robinson and Virginia Woolf (the founder's half-sister). Authors in the next two decades included John Galsworthy, Anthony Powell and Edith Sitwell.[3]

Following Gerald Duckworth's death in 1937, control of the company passed to Mervyn Horder and Patrick Crichton-Smith. The company, heavily in debt after the Great Depression, suffered the loss of "its entire stock of unbound sheets" as the result of bomb damage during the Second World War. From 1945 until the 1970s the firm published authors such Simone de Beauvoir, Charlotte Mew and Evelyn Waugh.[3]

In 1968, Gerard Duckworth & Co. was purchased by Colin Haycraft and a friend Tim Simon.[4] Haycraft would run the company until his death in 1994. In this period Haycraft was described as a "one man university press" publishing at Duckworth a "body of works on Greek and Roman literature, philosophy and society" whose scholarship and originality "equalled the output of the large university houses". Meanwhile his wife, the writer Alice Thomas Ellis, was Duckworth's fiction editor and was responsible for publishing "Duckworth's best-selling author", Beryl Bainbridge.

The company moved from Henrietta Street to The Old Piano Factory in Camden, North London, on Old Gloucester Street, made famous by Alan Bennett in his bestselling book, The Lady in the Van.[citation needed]

In the period from the 1970s to the 1990s authors published by the company including John Bayley, Beryl Bainbridge, Jeffrey Bernard, Alice Thomas Ellis, Penelope Fitzgerald, Ogden Nash, Dorothy Parker and Oliver Sacks.

In 1998 the company celebrated its centenary[5] and moved its premises to Frith Street, Soho.

In 2003, the company suffered a financial collapse and was put into receivership.[6] Its assets were bought by Peter Mayer, a former chief executive of Penguin Books, who already owned The Overlook Press of New York City.[7] Under new leadership, the company published authors such as Max Brooks, Julia Child, J. J. Connolly, Suzanne Fagence Cooper and Ray Kurzweil.[3] In 2007 it was reported that Duckworth's trade books were then to be published "under the Duckworth Overlook" imprint while academic books would continue to "carry just the Duckworth name".[8]

In 2010, Duckworth's academic list was acquired by Bloomsbury Publishing.[9]

After Mayer's death in 2018, Duckworth was sold to Prelude Books and is now operated under the leadership of Pete Duncan and Matt Casbourne.[10][3] Prelude Books rebranded itself under the name Duckworth Books and as of 2020 the company has been operating from an office in Richmond-upon-Thames[3] with a focus on publishing non-fiction and historical fiction.

Book series

[edit]
  • Covent Garden Library
  • Crown Library
  • Great Lives[11]
  • Greenback Library
  • Hundred Years Series[12]
  • The Library of Art
  • Masters of Painting
  • Modern Plays
  • New Reader’s Library[13]
  • Noted Irish Lives
  • The Popular Library of Art
  • Reader’s Library[14]
  • The Roadmender Series
  • The Student Series
  • Studies in Theology
  • Two Shillings Net Series

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Home - Duckworth Books, duckworthbooks.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  2. ^ "Trade". Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Our History, duckworthbooks.co.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  4. ^ "Colin Haycraft: A Passionate Publisher", The Guardian, 1 October 1994, p. 32.
  5. ^ Claudia Joseph, "Party takes wing with a huge bill", The Times, 16 October 1998, p. 9.
  6. ^ John Ezard, "D-day dawns for Duckworth", The Guardian, 25 April 2003. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  7. ^ Famed publisher rescued, bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
  8. ^ Bookview: May 2007, publishingtrends.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  9. ^ Corporate history, bloomsbury-ir.co.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  10. ^ "Mayer's Duckworth sold to Prelude for undisclosed sum | The Bookseller". Retrieved 2019-07-21.
  11. ^ Great Lives, seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  12. ^ The Hundred Years Series (Gerald Duckworth) - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  13. ^ New Readers' Library, seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  14. ^ Readers' Library (Duckworth), seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
[edit]
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