The Lutterworth Press, one of the oldest independent British publishing houses, has traded since the late eighteenth century, initially as the
Religious Tract Society
The Religious Tract Society was a British evangelical Christian organization founded in 1799 and known for publishing a variety of popular religious and quasi-religious texts in the 19th century. The society engaged in charity as well as commerc ...
(RTS).
[The Lutterworth Press](_blank)
jstor.org. Retrieved 1 September 2024. The main areas of publication have been religion and theology, children's books and books for young people (with an emphasis on "improving literature" and books with "moral values"),
and general adult non-fiction.
The religious list, as with the RTS, tended to publish fairly evangelical writers, such as
Norman Grubb, but gradually broadened in the second half of the twentieth century.
Well-known general writers first published by Lutterworth include
David Attenborough
Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...
and
Patrick Moore
Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore (; 4 March 1923 – 9 December 2012) was an English amateur astronomer who attained prominence in that field as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter.
Moore's early interest in astro ...
. The list specialises in popular history and art history, but also publishes books on a wide range of other subjects.
The children's list, which built on the strength of the ''
Boy's Own Paper'' and ''
Girl's Own Paper'',
has included well-known authors such as
Enid Blyton
Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have been tra ...
,
W.E. Johns,
Kathleen Fidler and
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American writer, teacher, and journalist. She is best known as the author of the children's book series ''Little House on the Prairie'', published between 1932 and 1 ...
.
The Lutterworth Press was named after the small English town of
Lutterworth
Lutterworth is an historic market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, close to the borders with Warwicks ...
in Leicestershire, where
John Wyclif served as
Rector in the fourteenth century, has been used since 1932, and Lutterworth continued most of the then current RTS publications. The Press was originally based in London before expanding its operations to
Guildford
Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...
in Surrey where it operated from until 1983. It has been based in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, England since 1984. In a period where "most long-established publishers have been absorbed into faceless multinational groups", Lutterworth has maintained its "editorial existence".
Lutterworth was the "first British publishing house to have branches in Africa and Asia" and in the late 19th century and early 20th century it issued "language dictionaries and other works in many indigenous languages".
The book ''From the Dairyman's Daughter to Worrals of the WAAF: The R.T.S., Lutterworth Press and Children's Literature'', edited by Dennis Butts and Pat Garrett, 2006,
From the Dairyman's Daughter to Worrals of the WAAF
lutterworth.com. Retrieved 1 September 2024. chronicles the history of the publishing house.
Book series
References
Further reading
* Dennis Butts and Pat Garrett, eds.,
From the Dairyman's Daughter to Worrals of the WAAF: The R.T.S., Lutterworth Press and Children's Literature
', The Lutterworth Press, 2006 - "a collection of essays analysing and celebrating the development of children's literature from the 18th to 20th centuries, with emphasis on the role played by the Religious Tract Society and the Lutterworth Press"
External links
Official company website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lutterworth Press, The
Christian mass media companies
Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom
Christian publishing companies