Martin Hopkinson & Co. was a British publishing house, based in London, founded in 1922. It was taken over by
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 ...
in 1941, but continued to publish reprints of books in its list until the 1970s.
Beginnings
The company was established in December 1922 at 6, John Street,
Adelphi,
Westminster
Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
WC2. An announcement in ''The Bookseller and the Stationery Trades’ Journal'' stated that its business would be as “Publishers, book and print sellers, art journalists, literature agents, stationers, etc.” and the directors were named as M. Hopkinson, G. S. Williams, and P. H. Lee Warner.” Martin Hopkinson was the youngest son of the academic and politician
Alfred Hopkinson
Sir Alfred Hopkinson (28 June 1851 – 11 November 1939) was an English lawyer, academic and politician who was a member of parliament (MP) for two three-year periods, separated by nearly 30 years.
He was the son of John Hopkinson, a mechanic ...
(1851-1939) and in 1930 Alfred Hopkinson's book "Penultima" was published by the company. Martin's older brother
Austin
Austin refers to:
Common meanings
* Austin, Texas, United States, a city
* Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...
authored one of the books published by the company in its first year, Austin was an MP at the time.
Philip Lee Warner was a publisher under his own name, with a printing business known as the
Chiswick Press
The Chiswick Press was founded by Charles Whittingham I (1767–1840) in 1811. The management of the Press was taken over in 1840 by the founder's nephew Charles Whittingham II (1795–1876). The name was first used in 1811, and the Press contin ...
, and in 1923 the new company took over his press and publications, including the new
limited edition
The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, collector's edition or expanded edition are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as b ...
of ''European Hand Firearms of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth & Eighteenth Centuries'', of which 550 copies had been printed. Those still in hand had labels attached to them reading “Publishing taken over by Martin Hopkinson & Co. Ltd”.
New Aldine Library
In October 1923, Martin Hopkinson and Co. announced that through the Chiswick Press it would continue to reprint volumes from the “Aldine Series”, a selection of classics made by
William Pickering and printed by
Charles Whittingham at the Chiswick Press in the early nineteenth century. The series had been named after Venice’s
Aldine Press
The Aldine Press was the printing office started by Aldus Manutius in 1494 in Venice, from which were issued the celebrated Aldine editions of the classics (Latin and Greek masterpieces, plus a few more modern works). The first book that was d ...
, and the first two titles in the New Aldine Library were ''
The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus'', translated by
George Long, and ''The Sonnets of William Shakespeare'' with the Latin translation of A. T. Barton.
Takeover
In 1941,
John Lane 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 ...
announced that it had acquired “the list of publications and goodwill of two smaller publishing houses, Gerald Howe Ltd., and Martin Hopkinson Ltd.” ''The Publisher'' noted that the Martin Hopkinson authors included
Cecil Day Lewis
Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudony ...
,
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
, and
Sir Daniel Hall, and that the firm’s list included “a number of the best gardening books”.
While no longer actively publishing new titles, the Martin Hopkinson name did not disappear, and it continued to issue reprints of old titles from time to time until the 1970s.
New Aldine Library
at owu.edu (Ohio Wesleyan University
Ohio Wesleyan University (abbrevriated OWU) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Ohio Valley, Centra ...
, accessed 22 March 2020
Notes
Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom
Publishing companies established in 1922
1922 establishments in England
British companies established in 1922
Hopkinson family
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