The Bodley Head

British publishing company

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "The Bodley Head" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

The Bodley Head

Parent company| Penguin Random House
Founded| 1887; 138 years ago (1887)
Founders| John Lane and Elkin Mathews
Country of origin| United Kingdom
Headquarters location| London
Publication types| Books
Official website| www.penguin.co.uk/company/publishers/vintage/bodley-head.html

The Bodley Head is an English book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1887 by John Lane and Elkin Mathews, The Bodley Head existed as an independent entity or as part of multiple consortia until it was acquired by Random House in 1987 alongside sister companies Jonathan Cape and Chatto & Windus. Random House used The Bodley Head as a children's book imprint until April 2008, when it was repositioned as an adult non-fiction imprint within the Vintage Books division.

The Bodley Head launched Penguin Books as an imprint in 1935, which John Lane spun off as an independent company the following year. The Bodley Head acquired several other imprints prior to the Random House acquisition, including Martin Hopkinson and Gerald Howe in 1941, Nonesuch Press in 1953, Werner Laurie in 1957, and Hollis & Carter in 1962.[1]

## History

[edit]

Originally named Elkin Mathews and John Lane, The Bodley Head was a partnership set up in 1887 by booksellers Elkin Mathews and John Lane, initially to trade in antiquarian books in London. It took the name Bodley Head from a bust of Sir Thomas Bodley, the eponymist of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, above the shop door.

Lane and Mathews began in 1894 to publish works of ‘stylish decadence’, including the notorious literary periodical The Yellow Book. Also notable amongst Bodley Head's pre-Great War books were the two volume sets: Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1910 and later editions, selling over fifty thousand copies), and Immanuel Kant, both by Houston Stewart Chamberlain.

Herbert George Jenkins was a manager at the firm during the first decade of the twentieth century, before leaving to set up his own publishing house in 1912.[2] The Bodley Head became a private company in 1921. In 1926 it published the Book of Bodley Head Verse, an anthology edited by J. B. Priestley. The firm published some mainstream popular authors including Arnold Bennett and Agatha Christie and the book series, Twentieth Century Library (edited by V. K. Krishna Menon),[3][4] but ran into financial difficulties. Allen Lane, John Lane's nephew who had inherited control, left in 1936 to found Penguin Books. Before Allen Lane's new company was established, however, he published the first Penguins in 1935 under the imprint of The Bodley Head. Both "Penguin Books" and "The Bodley Head" appeared on the cover.

The Bodley Head continued after 1936 backed by a consortium of Allen & Unwin, Jonathan Cape, and J. M. Dent. In 1941, John Lane the Bodley Head took over two smaller publishing houses, Gerald Howe Ltd and Martin Hopkinson & Co., whose authors included Cecil Day Lewis and H. L. Mencken.[5]

The firm was bought in 1957 by Ansbacher & Co., headed by Max Reinhardt. During this period Bodley Head published the work of authors such as George Bernard Shaw, Graham Greene, Charles Chaplin, William Trevor, Maurice Sendak, Muriel Spark, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Sam Haskins and Alistair Cooke. Max Reinhardt was also responsible for the expansion of one of the outstanding children's books lists in modern publishing. The imprint was still important in the 1970s when it was drawn into the Jonathan Cape/Chatto & Windus group. The firm was sold to Random House in 1987, who published children's books under The Bodley Head name until 2008.

The archives of The Bodley Head Ltd are kept at Reading University.[6][7]

## Relaunch

[edit]

The Bodley Head imprint was relaunched by Random House as an adult imprint in April 2008. Its two principal strands are stated to be books "of scholarship in both the humanities and sciences", and books which "contribute to the intellectual and cultural climate of our times".[8]

## See also

[edit]

* Children's literature portal

* Category:The Bodley Head books
* Books in the United Kingdom

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Stetz, Margaret; Lasner, Mark Samuels (1990). England in the 1890s: Literary Publishing at the Bodley Head. Georgetown Univ Press. ISBN 0-87840-509-7.
* J. W. Lambert and Michael Ratcliffe The Bodley Head 1887–1987 (1987). The story of John Lane, Allen Lane, Unwin and Max Reinhardt and their links with Bodley Head. ISBN 0-370-30949-9.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "FOB: Firms Out of Business". norman.hrc.utexas.edu. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
2. ^ "Obituaries - Mr Herbert Jenkins". The Times. 9 June 1923. p. 12. Retrieved 26 March 2012. (Subscription required for online access)
3. ^ Sairam Krishnan, How a young man from Calicut became the publisher who helped change British thinking, scroll.in. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
4. ^ Bodley Head, Making Britain: Discover how South Asians shaped the nation, 1870-1950, open.ac.uk. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
5. ^ The Publisher, Volumes 154-155 (1941), p. 260
6. ^ "Archives of The Bodley Head Ltd – University of Reading". Reading.ac.uk. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
7. ^ Archives of The Bodley Head Ltd, jisk.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
8. ^ "Bodley Head". Vintage Books. Retrieved 29 September 2013.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website
* Archives of the Bodley Head Ltd at Reading University

* v
* t
* e

Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann
Home Entertainment|

* Arcadia Entertainment
* Aris Ekdotiki
* ClipArt Films
* Feelgood Entertainment
* Fiction Pictures
* JP Video Productions
* Libero Video
* Lucifier Video Enterprises
* Mascot Video
* Media Vista Film & Audio Distributors
* Panorama Audio Visual Systems S.A.
* Pissanos International
* Star Video

Media assets|

* v
* t
* e

RTL Group

RTL Deutschland|

| TV|

RTL
VOX
RTL Zwei[a]
VOXup
Nitro
RTL Up
Super RTL

Toggolino
Toggo
RTL Super
Toggo Plus
n-tv
RTL Crime
RTL Living
RTL Passion
GEO Television

|

Radio|

RTL Radio
104.6 RTL
Antenne Bayern[b]
Antenne Niedersachsen[c]
Radio Hamburg[d]
Radio NRW[e]
105'5 Spreeradio
Radio 21[f]
Radio Regenbogen[g]
BigFM[h]
Hitradio RTL Sachsen[i]
Radio Brocken (50%)
89.0 RTL
Antenne Thüringen (15%)
Radio Ton (2%)
Rock Antenne[b]
Sachsen Funkpaket (31.9%)

Radio Dresden
Radio Leipzig
Radio Chemnitz
Radio Lausitz
Radio Zwickau
Radio Erzgebirge
Vogtland Radio
Oldie 95 (4.78%)
Radio Top 40 (15%)

|

RTL Publishing|

* Brigitte
* Capital
* GEO
* Stern

|

RTL Nederland|

| TV|

RTL 4
RTL 5
RTL 7
RTL 8
RTL Z
RTL Crime
RTL Lounge
RTL Telekids

|

Video on Demand
Videoland

Groupe M6 (48.6%)|

| TV|

6ter
Paris Première
Téva
Série Club[j]
M6 Music
Gulli
Tiji
Canal J
MCM
MCM Top
RFM TV

|

Radio|

RTL
RTL2
Fun Radio

|

Catchup and Video on Demand
M6+

International|

Gulli Girl
Tiji (Russia)
Gulli Africa
Gulli Bil Arabi
MCM Pop
M6 International

|

RTL Luxembourg|

| TV|

RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg
RTL Zwee

|

Radio|

RTL Radio
RTL Today Radio
RTL LX
RTL Gold

|

Catchup
RTL Play

RTL Magyarország|

| TV|

RTL
RTL II
Cool
Film+
RTL Gold
RTL Három
Sorozat+
Muzsika TV

|

Catchup and Video on Demand
RTL+

Atresmedia (18.65%)|

| TV|

Antena 3
laSexta
Neox
Nova
Mega
Atreseries

|

Radio|

Onda Cero
Europa FM
Melodia FM

|

Catchup
Atresplayer

Fremantle|

United Kingdom
Dancing Ledge
Euston Films
Castlefield
Hare and Tortoise
Thames
Talkback
Naked
Full Fat TV
Label 1
Man Alive
Wild Blue Media

Ireland
Element Pictures

France
Kwai

Germany
Grundy UFA
UFA GmbH
UFA Fiction
UFA Show & Factual
Teamworx
Phoenix Film
We Are Era

Finland
Grillifilms
Moskito Television
Production House Finland

Sweden
Strix
Baluba

Italy
Lux Vide
The Apartment
Wildside
Picomedia

Denmark
Miso Film
Blu Productions
Strong Productions

Norway
One Big Happy Family
Rakett TV
Monster
Playroom
Novemberfilm
Strix

Australia
Fremantle Australia
Eureka Productions

United States
Original Productions
Random House Studio
Eureka USA
The Immigrant
Fabel

Netherlands
Blue Circle
Fiction Valley
No Pictures Please

Israel
Abot Hameiri

1. ^ joint venture with Leonine Holding, The Walt Disney Company, Bauer Media Group and Hubert Burda Media.

2. ^ a b joint venture with Amperwelle Studio München Programmanbietergesellschaft, Axel Springer AG, Burda, Studio Gong, m.b.t. Mediengesellschaft der bayerischen Tageszeitungen für Kabelkommunikation, Medienpool and Radio Bavaria Rundfunkprogrammgesellschaft.

3. ^ joint venture with Verlagsgesellschaft Madsack, Studio Gong Niedersachsen and Brune-Rieck-Beteiligungs.

4. ^ joint venture with Axel Springer, Heinrich Bauer Verlag, Lühmanndruck Harburger Zeitungsgesellschaft and Morgenpost Verlag.

5. ^ joint venture with Pressefunk Nordrhein-Westfalen and Westdeutscher Rundfunk.

6. ^ joint venture with Funk & Fernsehen Nordwestdeutschland, Antenne Niedersachen and Niedersachsen Radio.

7. ^ joint venture with Mediengruppe Dr. Haas.

8. ^ joint venture with Rheinland-Pfälzische Rundfunk.

9. ^ joint venture with Broadcast Sachsen.

10. ^ joint venture with TF1 Group.

Penguin
Random House|

| USA|

| Knopf Doubleday|

* Knopf
* Doubleday
* Everyman's Library (US)
* Pantheon
* Schocken
* Vintage

|

Random House|

* Ballantine
* Bantam
* Boom! Studios
* Dell
* Del Rey
* Dial
* Modern Library
* Spectra
* Villard
* Crown
* Broadway
* Harmony
* Hogarth
* Rodale
* Three Rivers
* Ten Speed
* Watson-Guptill
* Children's
* Beginner Books
* Golden

Penguin Adult|

* Avery
* Dutton
* Penguin
* Putnam
* Riverhead
* Sentinel
* TarcherPerigee
* Viking

Berkley Publishing Group|

* Ace
* Berkley
* New American Library
* Jove
* Plume
* Roc

Penguin Young Readers|

* Dial Young Readers
* Dutton Children's
* Firebird
* Putnam
* Grosset & Dunlap
* Philomel
* Price Stern Sloan
* Puffin
* Warne

Information|

* Books on Tape
* Living Language
* Playaway
* The Princeton Review

Other|

* Sasquatch Books

UK|

| Ebury|

* BBC Books
* Ebury
* Del Rey
* Rider
* Virgin Books (90%)
* W. H. Allen

|

Penguin General|

* Hamish Hamilton
* Penguin Books
* Viking
* Penguin Press
* Pelican
* Penguin Classics
* PRH Children
* Ladybird
* Puffin

Other|

* Cornerstone
* Hutchinson Heinemann
* Random House
* Transworld
* Bantam
* Doubleday
* Associated publishers
* Andersen
* Everyman's Library

Vintage Publishing|

* The Bodley Head
* Chatto & Windus
* Harvill Secker
* Jonathan Cape
* Vintage

Canada|

* Doubleday Canada
* McClelland & Stewart
* Douglas Gibson Books
* Tundra Books
* New Canadian Library

Germany|

* Blanvalet
* cbj
* Goldmann
* Heyne
* Luchterhand
* Manesse
* Prestel

Spain|

* Alfaguara
* Bruguera
* Ediciones B
* Santillana

Other|

* Companhia das Letras (70%)
* Dorling Kindersley
* Alpha
* PRH Publisher Services

Other assets|

* Alliant International University
* Arvato
* Brockhaus
* Arvato Entertainment (Sonopress)
* BMG Rights Management
* Der Spiegel (25%)
* Relias Learning
* Manager Magazin (24.9%)
* Sächsische Zeitung (60%)

* Category

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Czech Republic
* Israel

Other|

* Yale LUX

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template