Herbert Van Thal

Herbert Maurice van Thal (1904-1983), better known as Bertie, was a bookseller, publisher, agent, biographer, and anthologist. His grandfather was a distiller (King's Liqueur Whisky), and was a director of the theatre proprieters, Howard and Wyndham. Henry Irving and Harry Lauder were friends of the family. [Van Thal, H., "The Tops of the Mulberry Trees", London, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1971.]

After the second World War, he founded the short-lived publishing house of Home and van Thal, with his friends Margaret Douglas-Home and Gwylim Fielden Hughes. The house was known as a "mushroom" publisher, since it sprang up overnight after the war. Later he became a general editor of the Doughty Library published by Anthony Blond. [This from a Gissing Journal article at http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/gissing/newsletter-journal/journal-30-4.pdf]

Van Thal was a friend and publisher of the critic James Agate, who he met in 1932. He had been impressed by Agate's review of Wycherley's "The Country Wife". Agate once described him as looking like "a sleek, well-groomed dormouse" out of a John Tenniel illustration of Alice in Wonderland, due to Bertie's tendency to dress in a dapper suit, bow tie, monocle, and black shiny shoes. ["Agate. A Biography", James Harding, Methuen London, 1986.]

He had deep familiarity with Victorian literature, opera, and Restoration dramatists. He was one of the first publishers to recognize the talent of Herman Hesse, and reprinted novels by George Gissing and Theodore Hook. He also edited anthologies of detective and horror stories; the "Pan Book of Horror Stories" series ran to 24 volumes, from 1959 to 1983. He edited an anthology of Hilaire Belloc for Allen and Unwin in 1970, and edited the papers of composer Ernest Newman. [Ernest Newman, "Testament of Music: Essays and Papers", ed. H. Van Thal. (London: Putnam, 1962)] [Herbert Van Thal, "Fanfare for Ernest Newman". (London : A. Barker, 1955) ]

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