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Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape is a British publishing firm headquartered in London and founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960.
Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation for high-quality design and production and a fine list of English-language authors, fostered by the firm's editor and reader Edward Garnett. Cape's list of writers ranged from poets including Robert Frost and C. Day Lewis, to children's authors such as Roald Dahl, Hugh Lofting and Arthur Ransome, to James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, to heavyweight fiction by James Joyce and T. E. Lawrence.
After Cape's death, the firm later merged successively with three other London publishing houses. In 1987 it was taken over by Random House. Its name continues as one of Random House's British imprints.
Herbert Jonathan Cape was born in London on 15 November 1879, the youngest of the seven children of Jonathan Cape, a clerk from Ireby in what is now Cumbria, and his wife Caroline, née Page. He received a basic schooling; in his early teens, Cape was taken on by Hatchards bookshop in Piccadilly as an errand-boy.
Four years later, in 1899, Cape joined the London office of the American publishers Harper and Brothers, where he worked, successively, as a clerk, general utility man and travelling salesman, first in the provinces and later in London. In 1904 he joined the publishing house of Duckworth as London traveller, and from 1911 as manager. In 1914, on the outbreak of the Great War, he took over the sole charge of the business when the proprietor, Gerald Duckworth, was absent on war duties. In 1915, Duckworth returned. In December of that year Cape joined the army, serving for the rest of the war.
Cape returned to Duckworth in 1918. In 1920, he was appointed manager of the Medici Society, known mainly for publishing prints of paintings but with a small list of books. While in this post he met George Wren Howard, 14 years his junior, who was learning the publishing trade at the Medici Society. Cape's biographer (and sometimes junior partner) Rupert Hart-Davis writes:
Cape quickly saw that Howard had a fine sense of design in book production, as well as a good business head; the two became friends and allies. After some months they decided that there was no future for them where they were, and that they had better start a new firm of their own.
Howard was able to raise money from his family. Cape, with no such option, raised his share of the starting capital by selling cheap paperback reprints of novels by Elinor Glyn. Duckworth held the rights to her books, but did not wish to issue cut-price editions; Cape negotiated the rights in early 1920 and successfully issued the paperbacks under the imprint Page & Co. With just enough starting capital, the firm of Jonathan Cape began trading on 1 January 1921 at 11 Gower Street, Bloomsbury.
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Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape is a British publishing firm headquartered in London and founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960.
Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation for high-quality design and production and a fine list of English-language authors, fostered by the firm's editor and reader Edward Garnett. Cape's list of writers ranged from poets including Robert Frost and C. Day Lewis, to children's authors such as Roald Dahl, Hugh Lofting and Arthur Ransome, to James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, to heavyweight fiction by James Joyce and T. E. Lawrence.
After Cape's death, the firm later merged successively with three other London publishing houses. In 1987 it was taken over by Random House. Its name continues as one of Random House's British imprints.
Herbert Jonathan Cape was born in London on 15 November 1879, the youngest of the seven children of Jonathan Cape, a clerk from Ireby in what is now Cumbria, and his wife Caroline, née Page. He received a basic schooling; in his early teens, Cape was taken on by Hatchards bookshop in Piccadilly as an errand-boy.
Four years later, in 1899, Cape joined the London office of the American publishers Harper and Brothers, where he worked, successively, as a clerk, general utility man and travelling salesman, first in the provinces and later in London. In 1904 he joined the publishing house of Duckworth as London traveller, and from 1911 as manager. In 1914, on the outbreak of the Great War, he took over the sole charge of the business when the proprietor, Gerald Duckworth, was absent on war duties. In 1915, Duckworth returned. In December of that year Cape joined the army, serving for the rest of the war.
Cape returned to Duckworth in 1918. In 1920, he was appointed manager of the Medici Society, known mainly for publishing prints of paintings but with a small list of books. While in this post he met George Wren Howard, 14 years his junior, who was learning the publishing trade at the Medici Society. Cape's biographer (and sometimes junior partner) Rupert Hart-Davis writes:
Cape quickly saw that Howard had a fine sense of design in book production, as well as a good business head; the two became friends and allies. After some months they decided that there was no future for them where they were, and that they had better start a new firm of their own.
Howard was able to raise money from his family. Cape, with no such option, raised his share of the starting capital by selling cheap paperback reprints of novels by Elinor Glyn. Duckworth held the rights to her books, but did not wish to issue cut-price editions; Cape negotiated the rights in early 1920 and successfully issued the paperbacks under the imprint Page & Co. With just enough starting capital, the firm of Jonathan Cape began trading on 1 January 1921 at 11 Gower Street, Bloomsbury.
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