Stanley Unwin (publisher)

Sir Stanley Unwin, KCMG (19 December 1884 – 13 October 1968) was a British publisher and founder of the George Allen and Unwin Ltd UK publishing house in 1914, on the very day that the First World War was declared.[1]

The company found success with authors such as Bertrand Russell, Sidney Webb, R. H. Tawney and Gandhi.[1]

He was born at 13 Handen Road in Lee, Lewisham, south-east London. The children's writer Ursula Moray Williams was his niece.[2]

Unwin was a lifelong pacifist, and during the First World War, as a conscientious objector, he joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD).[3]

In 1936 J. R. R. Tolkien submitted The Hobbit for publication and Unwin paid his ten-year-old son Rayner Unwin a shilling[4] to write a report on the manuscript. Rayner's favourable response prompted Unwin to publish the book. Once the book became a success, Unwin asked Tolkien for a sequel, which eventually became The Lord of the Rings.

Unwin died in 1968 and was honoured with a Blue Plaque at his birthplace.

References

  1. 1 2 "Stanley Unwin | Authors | Faber & Faber". www.faber.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-05-31.
  2. ↑ "Obituaries: Ursula Moray Williams". The Independent. London, UK: INM. 7 November 2006. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  3. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography
  4. ↑ Plimmer, Charlotte and Denis (21 October 2015). "JRR Tolkien: 'Film my books? Its easier to film the Odyssey'". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK: TMG. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  • Denniston, Robin (January 2008) [2004]. "Unwin, Sir Stanley (1884–1968)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 11 January 2008.
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