Origins As A Political House
Gollancz was left-inclined in politics and a supporter of socialist movements. This is reflected in some of the books he published. Victor Gollancz commissioned George Orwell to write about the urban working class in the North of England; the result was The Road to Wigan Pier. His break with Orwell came when he declined to publish Orwell's account of the Spanish Civil War Homage to Catalonia, the pair having drifted apart on political grounds. He did publish The Red Army Moves by Geoffrey Cox on the Winter War which was critical of the Soviet attack on Finland, but also foresaw that the Red Army would defeat the Germans. He also published works by German exiles, such as Hilde Meisel.
Gollancz was the original publisher of a number of famous authors and their books including:
- George Orwell with Down and Out in Paris and London in 1933
- Alfred Ayer with Language, Truth and Logic in 1936
- A. J. Cronin with The Citadel in 1937
- Daphne du Maurier with Rebecca in 1938
- Kingsley Amis with Lucky Jim in 1953
- Colin Wilson with The Outsider in 1956
- E. P. Thompson with The Making of the English Working Class in 1963
- Anthony Price with The Labyrinth Makers in 1971.
Many of Gollancz's books were published in one of their familiar house dust jackets, of which the most famous was bright yellow, with the title and author rendered in a vibrant, bold typography.
Read more about this topic: Victor Gollancz Ltd
Famous quotes containing the words origins, political and/or house:
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)
“Of all my prosecutors ... not one is my peer, but each and all are my political sovereigns; and had your honor submitted my case to the jury, as was clearly your duty, then I should have had just cause of protest, for not one of those men was my peer; but, native or foreign born, white or black, rich or poor, educated or ignorant, sober or drunk, each and every man of them was my political superior; hence, in no sense, my peer.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm LV (l. LV, 12–14)