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 Norwich in 1887, the son of a pub landlord, 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, 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 A telegraphic address or cable address was a unique identifier code for a recipient of telegraph messages. Operators of telegraph services regulated the use of telegraphic addresses to prevent duplication. Rather like a uniform resource locator ...

, "

Barabbas According to the New Testament, Barabbas () was a Jewish bandit and rabble-rouser who was imprisoned by the Judaea (Roman province), Roman occupation in Jerusalem, only to be chosen over Jesus by a crowd to be pardoned by Roman governor Pontius ...

", 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 and expanded the list, adding genres and acquiring imprints. John Hale closed the company in 2015 and transferred the list to The Crowood Press.

Early books

Robert Hale and Company early published authors including

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...

. ''The Vulgar Streak'' (1941) contained an explanation by Lewis of

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

, 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'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 (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...

. Its claims of a "Jewish conspiracy" among journalists opposed to Franco led to legal action by

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. Hale withdrew the book, and an edited edition was published by the Right Book Club. ''Farewell Leicester Square'' by Betty Miller 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 In the book-trade, genre fiction, also known as formula fiction, or commercial fiction,Girolimon, Mars"Types of Genres: A Literary Guide" Southern New Hampshire University, 11 December 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2024. encompasses fictional ...

publisher. In the

romance novel A romance or romantic novel is a genre fiction novel that primarily focuses on the relationship and Romance (love), romantic love between two people, typically with an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Authors who have contributed ...

genre, many Robert Hale authors then moved on to

Mills & Boon Mills & Boon is a romance imprint of British publisher Harlequin UK Ltd. It was founded in 1908 by Gerald Rusgrove Mills and Charles Boon as a general publisher. The company moved towards escapist fiction for women in the 1930s. In 1971, the ...

. 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, most often a lending 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 servic ...

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 Western series in hardback editions, sold mainly to libraries in the UK. 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. The Crowood Press ceased publication of Black Horse Western books in November 2020 after experimenting with soft cover and ebook editions and determining the imprint was no longer viable.

Premises

In the early days the company address was 102

Great Russell Street Great Russell Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London, best known for being the location of the British Museum. It runs between Tottenham Court Road (part of the A400 route) in the west, and Southampton Row (part of the A4200 route) in the e ...

. It later moved to 63 Old Brompton Road. The company moved to 45–7 Clerkenwell Green in 1974–5.

Imprints

JA Allen and NAG Press are its imprints. J.A. Allen, founded in 1926 and known for equestrian and hunting titles, was acquired by Hale in 1999. NAG Press ( horological and gemmological titles) was acquired earlier. Jill Norman brought her list to Robert Hale in the 1980s, including works by

Elizabeth David Elizabeth David ( Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and books about Europea ...

; but was dismissed from the company in 1984 by John Hale, her name remaining as an imprint. Norman moved on to

Dorling Kindersley Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded as DK) is a British multinational publishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media cong ...

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 Robert Hale books