Rupert Hart-Davis

He was born into an upper-class family, being matrilineally descended from an illegitimate daughter of King William IV and his mistress Mrs. Jordan.

Hart-Davis's career in publishing began in 1929, when he joined William Heinemann Ltd.[?] as an office boy. After building up some knowledge of the area, he bought a stake in another publishing company, Jonathan Cape Ltd.[?], which he joined as a director in 1933.

In 1946, Hart-Davis struck out on his own, founding Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd.[?], under which name he published many books by authors both obscure and well-known. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he published a number of notable New Wave science fiction novels, including Thomas Disch[?]'s Camp Concentration[?]. Other science fiction writers with work published by his company include Ray Bradbury, Angela Carter[?], and E. C. Tubb[?].

He edited volumes of the letters of the playwright Oscar Wilde, the writer and caricaturist Max Beerbohm, and the writer George A. Moore, as well as the diaries of the poet Siegfried Sassoon.

He was the author of Hugh Walpole[?] (1952), a biography of the novelist of that name, and he wrote a memoir entitled The Arms of Time in 1979.

He had three children, who have all gone on to become noteworthy in their own right: Bridget Min Hart-Davis (born 1935) is married to the present Lord Silsoe; Duff Hart-Davis (born 1936) is a biographer and journalist; and Adam Hart-Davis (born 1943) is a well-known television broadcaster[?] and author.

He died on 8th December 1999, at the age of 92.

External link

• A page on the genealogical connections of the Hart-Davis family (http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/people/Dobson/genealogy/famous/Silsoe)