Heinemann (publisher)

Last updated
Heinemann
Heinemann logo.gif
Parent company Pearson Education (UK education)
Penguin Random House (UK trade)
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (US education)
Egmont Group (UK children's)
Founded1890;132 years ago (1890)
Country of origin United Kingdom
Headquarters location
Official website

William Heinemann Ltd., with the imprint Heinemann, was a London publisher founded in 1890 by William Heinemann. Their first published book, 1890's The Bondman, was a huge success in the United Kingdom and launched the company. He was joined in 1893 by Sydney Pawling. Heinemann died in 1920 and Pawling sold the company to Doubleday, having worked with them in the past to publish their works in the United States. Pawling died in 1922 and new management took over. Doubleday sold his interest in 1933.

Contents

Through the 1920s, the company was well known for publishing works by famous authors that had previously been published as serials. Among these were works by H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, W. Somerset Maugham, George Moore, Max Beerbohm, and Henry James, among others. This attracted new authors to publish their first editions with the company, including Graham Greene, Edward Upward, J.B. Priestley and Vita Sackville-West. Throughout, the company was also known for its classics and international catalogue, and in the post-WWII era, the company focused on educational materials.

Through the 1950s, the company was slowly taken over by Tilling Group's investment arm. In 1953 they opened offices in The Hague for sales in continental Europe, and in 1978 they opened a separate company in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to sell their educational works in the US market. When Tilling was purchased by BTR plc in 1983, BTR sold off all their non-industrial assets; Heinemann was sold to Octopus Publishing Group. Octopus merged with Reed International in 1987, who then sold their entire trade-oriented publishing assets to Penguin Group in 1997. The UK educational side was sold to Pearson Education and the US division to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All of these continue to use the imprint.

History

William Heinemann began working in the publishing industry under Nicolas Trübner, [1] who was a major publisher of what was called Oriental scholarship. [2] When, two years after Trübner's death, his company was taken over by the firm of Kegan Paul, Heinemann left and founded William Heinemann Ltd in Covent Garden, London, in 1890. [1] The first title published was Hall Caine's The Bondman , which was a "stunning success", selling more than 450,000 copies. [3] The company also released a number of works translated into English under the branding of "Heinemann's International Library", edited by Edmund Gosse. [4] In 1893, Sydney Pawling became a partner. [5] [6] They became known for publishing the works of Sarah Grand. [7] The company published the British version of Scribners' Great Education Series under the title Heinemann's Great Education Series, but did not include credits for the original American editor, Nicholas Murray Butler, an omission for which they were criticized. [7]

Between 1895 and 1897, Heinemann was the publisher of William Ernest Henley's periodical New Review . [8] In the late 1890s, Heinemann and the American publisher Frank Doubleday financially supported Joseph Conrad during his initial attempt at writing what eventually became The Rescue , and Heinemann was the British publisher for Conrad's The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' in 1897. [6] One of the company's businesses at that time was to sell English books to a Japan that was beginning to be interested in items of Western culture. Heinemann sold to the Japanese bookstore Maruzen translations of the works of Dostoyevsky and 5000 copies of Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution by Peter Kropotkin. [9] In 1912, the company began publishing the Loeb Classical Library series, publications of ancient works with the Greek or Latin text on the left-hand page, and a literal translation on the right hand page. [10] The series has been called "the most significant" of the parallel-text translations. [10] Since 1934, it has been co-published with Harvard University. [10] [11]

On Heinemann's death in 1920 a majority stake was purchased by U.S. publisher Doubleday, [5] with Theodore Byard, who had previously been a professional singer, joining to lead the offices. [5]

A subsidiary company was established in The Hague in 1953; originally intended to distribute works in English to continental Europe, it eventually began to directly print Heinemann's books as well. [3]

The company was later acquired by conglomerate Thomas Tilling in 1961. When the impending takeover became known, Graham Greene (who had been with Heinemann since his first work in 1929) [12] led a number of Heinemann authors who protested by taking their works to other publishers, including The Bodley Head, of which Greene was a director. [12] [13]

BTR bought Thomas Tilling in 1983, and were not interested in its publishing division, so Heinemann was put on the block. Heinemann was purchased by the Octopus Publishing Group in 1985, and shortly afterwards sold the sprawling Heinemann HQ in rural Kingswood, Surrey for development; Octopus was purchased by Reed International (now Reed Elsevier) in 1987. Heinemann Professional Publishing was merged with Butterworths Scientific in 1990 to form Butterworth-Heinemann. [14] Random House bought Heinemann's trade publishing (now named William Heinemann) in 1997. Egmont Group bought Heinemann's childrens publishing in 1998. [15] Heinemann's educational unit became part of Harcourt Education when Reed Elsevier purchased the company in 2001. Pearson purchased the UK, South African, Australian and New Zealand arms of Harcourt Education in May 2007, while Houghton Mifflin purchased the American operations a few months later.

In 1957, Heinemann Educational Books (HEB) created the African Writers Series, spearheaded by Alan Hill and West Africa specialist Van Milne, to focus on publishing the writers of Africa such as Chinua Achebe, who was the first advisory editor of the series. Heinemann was awarded the 1992 Worldaware Award for Social Progress. [16] The series was relaunched by Pearson in 2011. [17] [18]

Inspired by the African Writers Series, Leon Comber launched the Writing in Asia Series in 1966 from Singapore. Two Austin Coates books in the series, Myself a Mandarin and City of Broken Promises, became bestsellers, but the series, after publishing more than 70 titles, was to fold in 1984 when Heinemann Asia was taken over by a parent group of publishers. [19]

In 1970, the Caribbean Writers Series—modelled on the African Writers Series—was launched by James Currey and others at HEB to republish work by major Caribbean writers. [20] [21]

Published works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudyard Kipling</span> English writer and poet (1865–1936)

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.

Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed them through its own stores. In 2009 Doubleday merged with Knopf Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, which is now part of Penguin Random House. In 2019, the official website presents Doubleday as an imprint, not a publisher.

Methuen Publishing Ltd is an English publishing house. It was founded in 1889 by Sir Algernon Methuen (1856–1924) and began publishing in London in 1892. Initially Methuen mainly published non-fiction academic works, eventually diversifying to encourage female authors and later translated works. E. V. Lucas headed the firm from 1924 to 1938.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Nelson Doubleday</span> American publisher (1862–1934)

Frank Nelson Doubleday, known to friends and family as “Effendi”, founded the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897, which later operated under other names. Starting work at the age of 14 after his father's business failed, Doubleday began with Charles Scribner's Sons in New York.

Harcourt was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City and Orlando, Florida, and was known at different stages in its history as Harcourt Brace, & Co. and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. From 1919 to 1982, it was based in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Lockwood Kipling</span> English artist

John Lockwood Kipling was an English art teacher, illustrator and museum curator who spent most of his career in India. He was the father of the author Rudyard Kipling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S. S. McClure</span> Irish-American publisher (1857 – 1949)

Samuel Sidney McClure was an Irish-American publisher who became known as a key figure in investigative, or muckraking, journalism. He co-founded and ran McClure's Magazine from 1893 to 1911, which ran numerous exposées of wrongdoing in business and politics, such as those written by Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, and Lincoln Steffens. The magazine ran fiction and nonfiction by the leading writers of the day, including Sarah Orne Jewett, Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Joel Chandler Harris, Jack London, Stephen Crane, William Allen White and Willa Cather.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred A. Knopf</span> American publishing house

Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in addition to leading American literary trends. It was acquired by Random House in 1960, and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group division of Penguin Random House which is owned by the German conglomerate Bertelsmann. The Knopf publishing house is associated with its borzoi colophon, which was designed by co-founder Blanche Knopf in 1925.

The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians. Published by Heinemann, 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Heinemann</span> Publisher from Surbiton, Surrey, England who founded the Heinemann publishing house in London

William Henry Heinemann was an English publisher of Jewish descent and the founder of the Heinemann publishing house in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvill Secker</span> British publishing company

Harvill Secker is a British publishing company formed in 2005 from the merger of Secker & Warburg and the Harvill Press.

Reed Publishing (NZ) Ltd was one of the leading publishers in New Zealand. It was founded by Alfred Hamish Reed and his wife Isabel in 1907. Reed's nephew Alexander Wyclif Reed joined the firm in 1925. It was a New Zealand literature specialist and general titles publisher, releasing over 100 titles a year including a number of significant New Zealand authors such as Barry Crump, Janet Frame and Witi Ihimaera.

Hamlyn is a UK publishing company founded by Paul Hamlyn in 1950 with an initial investment of £350. His desire was to create "fine books with the common touch" which remains the foundation of its commercial success. It is part of the Octopus Publishing Group, now owned by Hachette Livre.

In the British Army, a gentleman ranker is an enlisted soldier suited through education and social background to be a commissioned officer, or indeed a former commissioned officer. Rudyard Kipling titled one of his poems, published 1892, "Gentlemen-Rankers".

Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood, is an educational and academic publisher which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Greenwood Press, Inc. and based in Westport, Connecticut, GPG publishes reference works under its Greenwood Press imprint, and scholarly, professional, and general interest books under its related imprint, Praeger Publishers. Also part of GPG is Libraries Unlimited, which publishes professional works for librarians and teachers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wolcott Balestier</span> American novelist

Charles Wolcott Balestier was a promising American writer, editor, and publisher who died young, and is now remembered primarily for his connection to Rudyard Kipling. His sister Carrie Balestier married Kipling in 1891.

<i>Short Stories</i> (magazine) American pulp magazine published from 1890–1959

Short Stories was an American fiction magazine that existed between 1890 and 1959.

"Tommy" is an 1890 poem by Rudyard Kipling, reprinted in his 1892 Barrack-Room Ballads. The poem addresses the ordinary British soldier of Kipling's time in a sympathetic manner. It is written from the point of view of such a soldier, and contrasts the treatment they receive from the general public during peace and during war.

"In the Neolithic Age" is a poem by the English writer Rudyard Kipling. It was published in the December 1892 issue of The Idler and in 1896 in his poetry collection The Seven Seas. The poem is the source of the quotation: "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, / And every single one of them is right."

"Dane-geld" is a poem by British writer Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). It relates to the unwisdom of paying "Danegeld", or what is nowadays called blackmail and protection money. The most famous lines are "once you have paid him the Danegeld/ You never get rid of the Dane."

References

  1. 1 2 The Publishers' Circular and Booksellers' Record of British and Foreign Literature. Sampson Low, Marston & Company. 1895. pp. 49–.
  2. ↑ Trübner's American and Oriental Literary Record. Trübner & Company. 1884. pp. 48–.
  3. 1 2 Eliot, Simon; Rose, Jonathan (2009-04-06). A Companion to the History of the Book. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 343–. ISBN   9781405192781 . Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  4. ↑ Mosse, Werner Eugen; Carlebach, Julius (1991). Second Chance: two centuries of German-speaking Jews in the United Kingdom. Mohr Siebeck. pp. 196–. ISBN   9783161457418 . Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 Kipling, Rudyard (1990). The Letters of Rudyard Kipling: 1920-30 . University of Iowa Press. pp.  43–. ISBN   9780877458982 . Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  6. 1 2 Ray, Martin (2007). Joseph Conrad: Memories and Impressions - An Annotated Bibliography. Rodopi. pp. 37–. ISBN   9789042022980 . Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  7. 1 2 The Bookman. Dodd, Mead and Company. 1895. pp. 214–.
  8. ↑ Wertheim, Stanley (1997). A Stephen Crane Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 151–. ISBN   9780313296925 . Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  9. ↑ Checkland, Olive (2003). Japan and Britain After 1859: Creating Cultural Bridges. Psychology Press. pp. 67–. ISBN   9780700717477 . Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  10. 1 2 3 France, Peter (2001-12-13). The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation. Oxford University Press. pp. 503–. ISBN   9780199247844 . Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  11. ↑ Hall, Max (1986). Harvard University Press: A History . Harvard University Press. pp.  64–. ISBN   9780674380806 . Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  12. 1 2 West, W. J. (2002-08-01). The Quest for Graham Greene. Macmillan. pp. 182–. ISBN   9780312314781 . Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  13. ↑ Greene, Richard (2011-04-20). Graham Greene: A Life in Letters. Random House Digital, Inc. pp. 330–. ISBN   9780307369369 . Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  14. ↑ Medlik, S. (2016-06-06). "Publisher's note". Managing Tourism. Elsevier. ISBN   978-1-4831-0372-3.
  15. ↑ "PW: Egmont Buys Reed Children's Books".
  16. ↑ "Worldaware Business Awards 1992 - Williamson Tea Award for Social Progress". Worldaware.org.uk. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
  17. ↑ "Pearson revives African Writers Series, calls for submissions" Archived 2016-09-21 at the Wayback Machine , Naija Stories, 4 August 2011.
  18. ↑ Nicholas Norbrook, "Publishing Africa Writers Series celebrates 50 years", The Africa Report, 29 February 2012.
  19. ↑ Comber, Leon (1991). Asian Voices in English. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 79–86. ISBN   9622092829 . Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  20. ↑ "Heinemann Caribbean Writers Series" Archived 2020-03-05 at the Wayback Machine , Oxford Index.
  21. ↑ Caribbean Writers Series Archived 2020-08-01 at the Wayback Machine , Heinemann.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.