Work
Upon his appointment as an apprentice at the firm of Routledge & Sons Ltd, Warburg found himself under the tutelage of William Swan Stallybrass, a man he regarded as 'the greatest scholar-publisher of his day'. Stallybrass died in 1931 and Warburg was to become increasingly dissatisfied with his post at Routledge, leading to his eventual dismissal from the company in 1935. Later that same year, he and Roger Senhouse purchased the publishing firm of Martin Secker (that was in receivership) and renamed it as Secker and Warburg.
The firm became renowned for its political stance, being both anti-fascist and anti-communist (at least communism in its Soviet incarnation), a position that put them at loggerheads with many intellectuals of the time. Among the books published by Warburg were C. L. R. James's World Revolution, Reg Groves's We Shall Rise Again, Boris Souvarine's Stalin, and André Gide's Back from the USSR. When George Orwell parted company with Victor Gollancz over publication of The Road to Wigan Pier, it was to Secker and Warburg that he took his next book Homage to Catalonia. Thereafter they were to publish all of Orwell's work, with author and publisher becoming intimate friends.
With its financial position devastated by paper shortages during and after the war, Secker and Warburg was forced to join the Heinemann group of publishers in 1951. During the 1950s and 1960s Secker and Warburg were to publish the works of, amongst others, Simone de Beauvoir, Colette, Alberto Moravia, Günter Grass, Angus Wilson, Melvyn Bragg and Julian Gloag. In 1961 Warburg was made a director of the Heinemann group, a post he retained until his retirement in 1971. He also published two volumes of autobiography: An Occupation for Gentlemen (1959) and All Authors are Equal (1973).
Read more about this topic: Fredric Warburg
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