Victor Gollancz Ltd

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"Gollancz" redirects here. For other uses, see Gollancz (disambiguation).

A Gollancz edition of The Door Into Summer, displaying the distinctive yellow dust jacket style.

Victor Gollancz Ltd was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century. It was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz (1893–1967) and specialised in the publication of high quality literature, nonfiction and popular fiction, including science fiction.

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.

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
A. J. Cronin with The Citadel in 1937
Daphne du Maurier with Rebecca in 1938
Kingsley Amis with Lucky Jim in 1953
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.

Upon Gollancz's death in 1967, his daughter, Livia, became controlling director. She sold it to Houghton Mifflin in 1989. Three years later, in October 1992, Houghton Mifflin sold Gollancz to Cassell. In 1998, the Orion Publishing Group purchased Gollancz from Cassell and turned it into its science fiction and fantasy imprint, Gollancz Science Fiction VGSF.

In 2005 Gollancz set up a manga publishing arm, Gollancz Manga, which publishes UK editions of various Viz Media properties.

The following titles have been published:

Case Closed (Detective Conan)
Dragon Ball
Fushigi Yūgi
Flame of Recca
Maison Ikkoku
One Piece
Rurouni Kenshin
Yu-Gi-Oh! (Volumes 1-7 and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist)

[edit] References

Edwards, Ruth Dudley. Victor Gollancz: A Biography. London: V. Gollancz, 1987. ISBN 0575031751.
Hodges, Sheila. Gollancz: The Story of a Publishing House, 1928–1978. London: V. Gollancz, 1978. ISBN 057502447X.