Wildwood House was a book publishing company in

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 ...

, England, founded in 1972 by Oliver Caldecott and Dieter Pevsner, who had both worked at

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

, leaving to set up the new publishing venture. The company was based in

Floral Street Floral Street is a narrow street in the Covent Garden area of London, England. It runs east from Garrick Street to Bow Street and contains a number of fashion stores, including Paul Smith (fashion designer), Paul Smith. The Upper School of the R ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

. Wildwood House published "an eclectic list that included JP Donleavy and

Studs Terkel Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1985 for ''The Good War'' and is best remembered for his oral histor ...

. Wildwood also introduced

Garry Trudeau Garretson Beekman Trudeau (born July 21, 1948) is an American cartoonist best known for creating the ''Doonesbury'' comic strip. Trudeau won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1975, making him the first comic strip artist to win a ...

Doonesbury ''Doonesbury'' is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, ...

cartoon strips to the UK by publishing The People's Doonesbury in 1981, and acted as an early distribution outlet for

Virago A virago is a woman who demonstrates abundant masculine virtues. The word comes from the Latin word ''virāgō'' (genitive virāginis) meaning "vigorous maiden" from ''vir'' meaning "man" or "man-like" (cf. virile and virtue) to which the suffi ...

, the feminist publishing house."

Personal life

Oliver Caldecott (1925–1989), who had been chief editor of fiction at Penguin, was married to writer

Moyra Caldecott Moyra Caldecott (1 June 1927 – 23 May 2015)Kevan Manwaring"Moyra Caldecott obituary" ''The Guardian'', 8 June 2005. was a British author of historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction and non-fiction. Her works include ''Guardians of the Tall ...

and they had three children. Dieter Pevsner (1932–2019), whose father was architectural historian Sir

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

, had been editorial director in charge of Penguin's non-fiction Pelican editions, and had three children with his wife Florence.

References

Publishing companies established in 1972 Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Small press publishing companies Defunct companies based in London {{UK-publish-company-stub