Victor Gollancz Publishing House

Gollancz established his publishing company, Victor Gollancz Ltd in 1928. The company was based in offices in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London. It was to become one of the most profitable and successful firms in British publishing history. Gollancz had a flair for marketing and the company quickly made an impression with its bright yellow book jackets and London literary parties. Gollancz angered his rivals with his large scale advertising campaigns and whole-page newspaper advertisements, which were unusual for the time.

When Gollancz died, in 1967, his daughter Livia Gollancz took over the company. She sold it to Houghton Mifflin, a Boston based independent publishing company in 1989, in preparation for her retirement. By that time the company was publishing a wide range of both fiction and non fiction books including science fiction, thrillers and children's books.

Houghton Mifflin sold Victor Gollancz to rival publisher Cassell plc in October 1992. The Covent Garden offices in Henrietta Street were vacated and the Gollancz operation moved to Cassell's offices in the Strand, London. It was at this time that the company archives were deposited in the Modern Records Centre. Victor Gollancz Ltd was incorporated into Orion Books in 1998 and is now the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Orion Publishing Group Ltd.

References: Modern Records Centre correspondence files for MSS.157 and MSS.318 and http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/hist/index.htm.

From the guide to the Papers of Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1928-1964, (Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick Library)