- The Bodley Head
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 animprint ofRandom House Children's Books since 1987. From April 2008 it will 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 ofSir Thomas Bodley , the of theBodleian 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 byHouston Stewart Chamberlain .The Bodley Head became a private company in 1921. In 1926 it published the "
Book of Bodley Head Verse ", ananthology edited byJ. B. Priestley . The firm published some mainstream popular authors such asArnold Bennett andAgatha Christie but ran into financial difficulties. It continued after 1936 backed by a consortium ofAllen & Unwin ,Jonathan Cape , andJ. M. Dent .Allen Lane , John Lane's nephew who had inherited control, finally left to foundPenguin Books .Bought in 1957 by
Ansbacher & Co. , the imprint was still important in the 1970s when it was drawn into theJonathan 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 . [http://www.reading.ac.uk/library/special-collections/collections/lib-special-bodley-head.asp]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.
ee also
Bibliography
* Stetz, Margaret; Lasner, Mark Samuels (1990). England in the 1890s: Literary Publishing at the Bodley Head. Georgetown Univ Press. ISBN 0-87840-509-7.
* J W Lambert and Michael Ratcliffe "The Bodley Head 1887-1987" The story ofJohn Lane ,Allen Lane , Unwin and Max Reinhardt and their links with Bodley Head. ISBN 0370309499.External links
* [http://www.reading.ac.uk/library/special-collections/collections/lib-special-bodley-head.asp Archives of the Bodley Head Ltd at Reading University]
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