Herbert George Jenkins (1876 – 8 June 1923) was a British writer and the owner of the publishing company Herbert Jenkins Ltd, which published many of

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse ( ; 15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Je ...

's novels.

Biography

Jenkins' parents came from

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

and, according to his obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', he was educated at Greyfriars College. He began work as a journalist and then spent some 11 years at

The Bodley Head 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 ...

before founding his own publishing house in 1912. (Subscription required for online access) He remained unmarried and died at the age of 47, on 8 June 1923 after a six-month-long illness, in

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also ) is an area in London, England, and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropo ...

, London.

As publisher

In 1912 Jenkins founded his own publishing company: Herbert Jenkins Limited. Its offices were in a narrow, 19th-century building with five floors in Duke of York Street, just off

Jermyn Street Jermyn Street is a One-way traffic, one-way street in the St James's area of the City of Westminster in London, England. It is to the south of, parallel, and adjacent to Piccadilly. Jermyn Street is known as a street for gentlemen's-clothing r ...

in London. It was a successful business from the start because of Jenkins' unique ability (at the time) to cater for the ever-changing public taste. He also had a good eye for new talent, not being discouraged if a manuscript had been rejected by other publishers. His publicity methods were innovative, too; with arresting advertisements and

dust jacket The dust jacket (sometimes book jacket, dust wrapper or dust cover) of a book is the detachable outer cover, usually made of paper and printed with text and illustrations. This outer cover has folded flaps that hold it to the front and back book ...

s, and a monthly publication called ''Wireless'', which was widely circulated among his readers. Jenkins' first publication was

Willie Riley William Riley (23 April 1866 – 4 June 1961) was an English novelist. He was born in Laisterdyke, Bradford. He wrote 39 books using the name W. Riley, mostly fiction and mostly published by Barrie & Jenkins, Herbert Jenkins Ltd. After an ed ...

's first novel ''

Windyridge ''Windyridge'' is a 1912 novel by English writer Willie Riley, the first of his 39 published books. It sold half a million copies, stayed in print until 1961, and was republished in 2010 with an extended introduction by David Copeland (). The b ...

'', and the firm went on to publish most of Riley's 39 books, ending with ''The Man and the Mountain'' in 1961, the year of Riley's death. In 1915 Jenkins published A. S. Neill's first book, '' A Dominie's Log'', launching his career as a famous teacher and writer of books on education. Herbert Jenkins Ltd published many of

's novels, starting with '' Piccadilly Jim'' in 1918. By the 1950s – long after Jenkins' death – the company was still being run as a 1930s business might have been. In 1964 it merged with Barrie & Rockcliffe to form Barrie & Jenkins, which continued to publish Wodehouse's novels, but specialised in books about ceramics, pottery and antiques. In 1969 the company published the first of

George MacDonald Fraser George MacDonald Fraser (2 April 1925 – 2 January 2008) was a Scottish author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Harry Paget Flashman, Flashman. Over the course of his career he wrote eleven n ...

's popular '' The Flashman Papers'' novels after it had been rejected by many other publishers. Barrie & Jenkins had a short commercial history and was taken over by Hutchinson, who were themselves taken over by

Century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

and then by

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

(now owned by

Bertelsmann The Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, commonly known as Bertelsmann (), is a German privately held company, private multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, ...

). It continues to exist as a specialist imprint mainly for hardback editions within the Random House stable.

Book series

The following series were published by Herbert Jenkins Ltd: * Fireside Library * Green Label Novels * Herbert Jenkins' Colonial Library * Herbert Jenkins SF (Science Fiction) * How to Catch Them * The Shilling Library * "Reason Why" Series * Splendid Library * To-Day Library

As a writer

Although Jenkins is best known for his light fiction, his first book was a biography of

George Borrow George Henry Borrow (5 July 1803 – 26 July 1881) was an English writer of novels and of travel based on personal experiences in Europe. His travels gave him a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe, who figure strongly in his work. Hi ...

. He was an admirer of the poet and visual artist

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

and conducted research into his trial for high treason and the location of his lost grave, writing a book on him, posthumously published in 1925. His most popular fictional creation was Mr. Joseph Bindle, who first appeared in a humorous novel in 1916 and in a number of sequels. In the preface to the books, T. P. O'Connor said that "Bindle is the greatest Cockney that has come into being through the medium of literature since

Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the great ...

wrote ''Pickwick Papers''". The stories are based on the comedic drama of life at work, at home and all the adventures that take place along the way. Jenkins also wrote a number of short stories about Detective Malcolm Sage, which were collected into one book in 1921. Sage has been compared to both

Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by the English writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is Christie's most famous and longest-running character, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (''Black Coffee (play), Black Coffee'' and '' ...

and

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

in his style of detective work. Three of the Sage stories were included in Eugene Thwing's 10-volume collection of vintage detective stories, ''The World's Best 100 Detective Stories'' (1929). As was the norm at the time, many of his fictional works appeared first in

pulp magazines Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955. The term "pulp" derives from the wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, due to their cheap nature. ...

. Two of his novels and several of his short stories were made into short movies.

List of works

According to a bibliography compiled by the English Department at the Canadian

Mount Royal College Mount Royal University (MRU) is a public university in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Originally “Mount Royal College,” Mount Royal University was granted university status in 2009 by the provincial government. The university has an average class s ...

, Jenkins wrote the following works: * 1912 ''The Life Of George Borrow'' * 1916 ''Bindle: Some Chapters in the Life of Joseph Bindle''
a.k.a. ''Bindle: The Story Of A Cheerful Soul'' * 1917 ''The Night Club'' * 1918 ''Patricia Brent, Spinster'' * 1919 ''The Adventures of Bindle'' * 1919 ''The Rain-Girl: A Romance Of Today'' * 1920 ''John Dene Of Toronto – A Comedy Of Whitehall'' * 1921 ''Malcolm Sage, Detective''. * 1922 ''The Return of Alfred'' * 1924 ''Mrs. Bindle: Some Incidents from the Domestic Life of the Bindles'' * 1924 ''Bindles on the Rocks'' * 1925 ''William Blake: Studies of his Life and Personality'' * 1928 ''The Stiffsons and other Stories'' * 1932 ''Bindles omnibus''

Film adaptations

Jenkins' Bindle books were the inspiration for the 1926 series of two-reeler shorts ''Bindle Introduced, Bindle at the Party'', ''Bindle in Charge'', ''Bindle's Cocktail'', ''Bindle, Millionaire,'' and ''Bindle, Matchmaker''; and later'' The Temperance Fête'' (1931) and '' Bindle (One of Them Days)'' (1966)''.''

References

External links

Herbert Jenkins
at the

wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...

Golden Age of Detection (gadetection.pbworks.com) * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jenkins, Herbert George 1876 births 1923 deaths 19th-century English people 20th-century English male writers 20th-century British short story writers 20th-century English novelists Alumni of Greyfriars, Oxford English male novelists English male short story writers English mystery writers English short story writers