Barrie & Jenkins

Barrie & Jenkins
Parent companyRandom House
Founded1964
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Headquarters locationLondon
Publication typesBooks

Barrie & Jenkins was a small British publishing house that was formed in 1964 from the merger of the companies Herbert Jenkins (founded by English writer Herbert George Jenkins) and Barrie & Rockliff (whose managing director was Leopold Ullstein and whose editorial staff included John Bunting and John Pattison).[1] Barrie & Rockcliff was itself the result of the merger in the 1950s of James Barrie Books, founded in 1947 by James Barrie[2] whose great-uncle and godfather had been the playwright J. M. Barrie, and of the Rockliff Publishing Corporation, which was "known for its theatre list".[3]

One of the most notable authors of Barrie & Jenkins was P. G. Wodehouse, whose titles came from the Herbert Jenkins portfolio of writers [4] which in the 1920s included authors such as Mrs Hungerford, Edna Lyall, W. Riley and Winifred Boggs. The Barrie Group eventually comprised Barrie & Rockliff, the Cresset Press, Herbert Jenkins, and Hammond & Hammond.[3]

Barrie & Jenkins had a short commercial history and was taken over by Hutchinson, which was itself taken over by Century and then by Random House (now owned by Bertelsmann).

Barrie & Jenkins continues to exist as a specialist imprint mainly for hardback editions within the Random House stable.

References

  1. ^ Christopher Hurst, The View from King Street: An Essay in Autobiography, London: Thalia Press, 1997, p. 248.
  2. ^ "James Barrie", The Daily Telegraph, 17 May 2000. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  3. ^ a b Ion Trewin, "Obituary: James Barrie", The Guardian, 24 July 2000. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  4. ^ Leventhal, Lionel. "Tail Piece: A Profession for Gentlemen". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 3 September 2007.