Frances Elisabeth Rosemary Lincoln (20 March 1945 – 26 February 2001) was an English independent publisher of illustrated books. She published under her own name and the company went on to become

Frances Lincoln Publishers Frances Elisabeth Rosemary Lincoln (20 March 1945 – 26 February 2001) was an English independent publisher of illustrated books. She published under her own name and the company went on to become Frances Lincoln Publishers. In 1995, Lincoln ...

. In 1995, Lincoln won the ''Woman of the Year for Services to Multicultural Publishing'' award.

Education

Frances Lincoln went "unhappily" to school in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

, moving after a year to

St George's School, Harpenden St George's School, Harpenden (also known as St George's) is a non-selective state Day school, day and boarding school in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England, educating students of both sexes between the ages of eleven and eighteen, with an emphasi ...

, where she became

Head Girl The two Senior Prefects, individually called Head Boy (for the male), and Head Girl (for the female) are students who carry leadership roles and are responsible for representing the school's entire student body. Although mostly out of use, in some ...

. Her university education was at

Somerville College Somerville College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The college's liberal tone derives from its f ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

(Somerville at that time was a women's college, known in

as "the

bluestocking ''Bluestocking'' (also spaced blue-stocking or blue stockings) is a Pejorative, derogatory term for an educated, intellectual woman, originally a member of the 18th-century Blue Stockings Society from England led by the hostess and critic El ...

college"). There she read Greats (the Oxford term for traditional courses in the humanities, with emphasis on the ancient classics of Greece and Rome, including philosophy). A fellow-student, the drug smuggler

Howard Marks Dennis Howard Marks (13 August 1945 – 10 April 2016) was a Welsh drug smuggler and author who achieved notoriety as an international Cannabis (drug), cannabis smuggler through high-profile court cases. At his peak he claimed to have been sm ...

, described her as "vivacious" in his 1996 autobiography '' Mr. Nice''.

Career

In 1970, Lincoln started work as an Assistant Editor at the

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

-based publishing firm of

Studio Vista Studio Vista was a British publishing company founded in 1961 that specialised in leisure and design topics. In the 1960s, the firm published works by a number of authors who went on to be noted designers. The imprint was later integrated into C ...

. She went on to become its managing director. From Studio Vista, she moved to a job with the publisher

Marshall Cavendish Marshall Cavendish is a subsidiary company of Times Publishing Group, the printing and publishing subsidiary of Singapore-based conglomerate Fraser and Neave (which in turn currently owned by ThaiBev, a Thai beverage company), and at present i ...

, and from there to

Weidenfeld and Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld ...

, where she was given her own

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

. A story that followed her throughout her career, often passed on from employees to new recruits, was of the staff-walkout and demonstration she headed while at Studio Vista in 1975. This was a protest against redundancies proposed by

Collier Macmillan Crowell-Collier Publishing Company was an American publisher that owned the popular magazines ''Collier's'', ''Woman's Home Companion'' and ''The American Magazine''. Crowell's subsidiary, P.F. Collier and Son, published ''Collier's Encyclopedia ...

, the firm that had come to own Studio Vista. The protest went on for some days, and was described as a strike; it achieved concessions from Collier Macmillan.

Frances Lincoln Publishers

In 1977, Frances went out on her own as an independent publisher/packager, publishing both under her own name and in co-editions. The firm she founded continued as Frances Lincoln Publishers, based in London, until 2018. In August 2011,

The Quarto Group The Quarto Group is a global illustrated book publishing group founded in 1976. It is domiciled in the United States and listed on the London Stock Exchange. Quarto creates and sells illustrated books for adults and children, across 50 countri ...

acquired Frances Lincoln Publishers for £4.5 million, making it the ''Frances Lincoln Children's Book'' imprint. The firm was known for the list of illustrated gardening books it published, and for its illustrated children's books. Among these were David Litchfield's ''The Bear and the Piano'', which won the 2016

Waterstones Waterstones Booksellers Limited, trading as Waterstones (formerly Waterstone's), is a British bookselling, book retailer based in London, England, owned by the American investment group Elliott Investment Management. It operates 311 shops, ma ...

Children's Book Prize for Illustrated Books, and Lizzy Stewart's ''There's a Tiger in the Garden'', which won the same prize in 2017.

Family

Frances Lincoln married John Nicoll, the author of the first book she had commissioned. Nicoll later headed

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

in the United Kingdom. The couple had a son and two daughters. Lincoln died from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

aged 55 in 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lincoln, Frances 1945 births 2001 deaths People educated at St George's School, Harpenden Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford 20th-century English businesswomen 20th-century English businesspeople Publishers (people) from London English book publishers (people) Deaths from pneumonia in England