Robert Hale Limited was a London publisher of fiction and non-fiction books, founded in 1936, and also known as Robert Hale. It was based at Clerkenwell House, Clerkenwell Green. It ceased trading on 1 December 2015 and its imprints were sold to The Crowood Press.

Robert Hale

Robert Hale was born in 1887/8, and worked in publishing from leaving school.Obituary in ''The Times'' (London, England), Friday, 24 August 1956; page 11; Issue 53618. He was at John Long Ltd., a London firm taken over by Hutchinson & Co. in 1926, when he had become manager there. After the takeover he was managing director of the subsidiary. He moved to

Jarrolds Publishing The Jarrold Group is a Norwich–based company, founded as ''Jarrold & Sons Ltd'', in 1770, by John Jarrold, at Woodbridge, Suffolk, before relocating to Norfolk in 1823. ''The Jarrold Group'' still involves members of the Jarrold family. Fami ...

, working with the accountant S. Fowler Wright, another imprint of Hutchinson & Co. In the later 1920s he was a friend of Margery Allingham, a Jarrolds author, and her husband Philip Carter. Hale left Hutchinson & Co. in 1935, founding a company of his own. It was noted for its prolific list, and tight management. His choice of telegraphic address, " Barabbas", reflected publishing industry cynicism. The partners stated in 1939 were: H. Robert Hale, James Eric Heriot, Theodore MacDonald, and Desmond I. Vesey. Robert Hale died on 20 August 1956, aged 68. His son, John Hale then took over the company.

Early books

Robert Hale and Company early published authors including Wyndham Lewis. ''The Vulgar Streak'' (1941) contained an explanation by Lewis of fascism, as he explained in a letter to Hale; it was a commission from 1937, working title ''Men at Bay''. In the meantime ''The Mysterious Mr Bull'' (Robert Hale, 1938), a satire against the political left, had appeared.

Berthold Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

's '' Threepenny Novel'' appeared in English translation (by Desmond Vesey) in 1937, published by Robert Hale as ''A Penny for the Poor''. Vesey denied to Brecht, on behalf of the publisher, that its political content had been toned down. ''The Spanish Arena'' (1938) by William Foss and Cecil Gerahty had a preface by Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 17th Duke of Alba, then representative in London of

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...

. Its claims of a "Jewish conspiracy" among journalists opposed to Franco led to legal action by Reuters. Hale withdrew the book, and an edited edition was published by the Right Book Club. ''Farewell Leicester Square'' by

Betty Miller Betty or Bettie is a name, a common diminutive for the names Bethany and Elizabeth. In Latin America, it is also a common diminutive for the given name Beatriz, the Spanish and Portuguese form of the Latin name Beatrix and the English name Beatr ...

was published in 1941. The company went on to publish her three final novels. The firm also published many of the later novels by Eunice Buckley (pseudonym of Rose Laure Allatini). Robert Hale published in hardback in the UK the first four Harold Robbins titles, ''79 Park Avenue'', ''Never Love a Stranger'', ''A Stone for Danny Fisher'' and ''Never Leave Me''. In 1986 it published Robert Goddard's first novel, ''Past Caring''. Other authors published in the UK include James Hadley Chase, John D. MacDonald and Edward Storey.

Authors

Robert Hale and Company published all 90 of the novels of Jean Plaidy, the pseudonym of Eleanor Hibbert. '' The Tivington Nott'', a semi-autobiographical novel by Alex Miller, was published by Robert Hale, after the appearance of its sequel '' Watching the Climbers on the Mountain''. Robert Hale also published the first book by the social scientist Dr Leo Ruickbie in 2004, a non-fiction socio-historical work called ''Witchcraft Out of the Shadows''. The 1965 translation ''The White Rose'' of the 1929 German work by B. Traven was criticised.

Topographical works

Hale were known for their series on British topography such as the County Books series, The Regions of Britain series, and the Portrait of series."Rural Mappings"
by Catherine Brace in They also published Cecil Keeling's ''Pictures of Persia'', which contained memoirs from his wartime service there alongside 30 colour plates.

Genre fiction

The company is now known in particular as a specialist genre fiction publisher. In the romance novel genre, many Robert Hale authors then moved on to Mills & Boon. Over the period 1968 to 1982, the company produced an extended series of hardback science fiction titles, for the

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

market. Most of these works were published in the 1970s; they included editions of prominent American writers, some less-known authors, and a number of pseudonymous works. In the field of juvenile travel and adventure literature the company published the World Adventure Series (1958–59).

Western stories

Robert Hale has published many western stories in the Black Horse series. Some of these later appeared in large print editions published by Linford in their Linford Western Library series.

Lauran Paine Lauran Bosworth Paine (born Lawrence Kerfman Duby Jr.; February 25, 1916 – December 1, 2001) was an American writer of Western fiction.Whitehead, DavidLauran Paine Keith Chapman's Black Horse Extra Early life Paine was born in Duluth, Minne ...

has had some of his writings published by Robert Hale.

Premises

In the early days the company address was 102 Great Russell Street. It later moved to 63 Old Brompton Road. The company moved to 45–7 Clerkenwell Green in 1974–5.

Imprints

NAG Books and J. A. Allen (animal and veterinary, sport and games) are its imprints. The latter, founded in 1926 and known for equestrian and hunting titles, was acquired around 1963. Jill Norman brought her list to Robert Hale in the 1980s, including works by Elizabeth David; but was dismissed from the company in 1984 by John Hale, her name remaining as an imprint. Norman moved on to Dorling Kindersley.

References

External links

Robert Hale
- official website in January 2016 (archived copy) *{{cite web, url=http://www.theclerkenwellpost.com/know-well/item/513-pride-prejudice-psycho, title=''Pride & Prejudice & Psycho'' – Clerkenwell Post, access-date=9 July 2015 Publishing companies of the United Kingdom 1936 establishments in England British companies established in 1936 Publishing companies established in 1936