Peter Owen Ltd

Peter Owen was born in Germany in 1927 and grew up in Nuremberg where his parents owned a leather factory. When he was five he was sent back to England and went to school in North London. His first ambition was to be a journalist but a maternal uncle who managed Zwemmers bookshop in London influenced him in a different direction. Owen began his publishing career as a general dogsbody at The Bodley Head, followed by a brief period working for the celebrated German publishing house Ullstein Verlag.

By the time he was 21 Owen felt that he had learned enough about how a book is put together to embark on his first independent venture so he entered into a brief partnership, publishing under the name of Peter Newell. The enterprise began well but there were soon disagreements and Owen was bought out. The experience taught him not to rely on partners or backers in the future because, as he said, "If I'm going to lose money, I prefer to lose my own. Once you start losing their money they turn nasty".

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