Gollancz, Victor, 1893-1967

Epithet: publisher and author

Title: Knight

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000297.0x0000b8

Victor Gollancz (1893-1967) was educated at St. Paul's School and New College, Oxford. Having been judged unfit for foreign service during the First World War, he spent the period teaching at Repton. In 1920 Gollancz began his first job in publishing, working for Benn's publishing house. His own company, Victor Gollancz Ltd, followed in 1928. It was to become one of the most profitable and successful firms in British publishing history. Gollancz's flair for combining political propaganda with successful publishing also found its outlet through his promotion of the Left Book Club. His espousal of other causes, notably pacificism, re-conciliation with Germany and the abolition of capital punishment reflected his own profound religious sense, as did his books My Dear Timothy, More for Timothy, A Year of Grace and From Darkness to Light. In recognition of his help for, and sympathy with, the German people after the war, in 1953 Gollancz was awarded the Grand Cross of the German Order of Merit, and he continued to speak out against anti-German intolerance, most notably with regard to the Eichmann trial in 1961. He was knighted in 1965.

Reference: The Times (9 February 1967).

From the guide to the The papers of Victor Gollancz, 1928-1967 [mainly post-1945], (Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Library)