Victor Gollancz

Victor Gollancz (April 9, 1893-February 8, 1967) was a British publisher, socialist, and humanitarian. He was born in London, the son of a wholesale jeweler; after taking a degree in classics at New College, Oxford, he became a schoolteacher.

Gollancz served in the British Army in World War I. In 1917 he became involved in the Reconstruction Committee[?], an organization that was making plans for postwar Britain. There he met Ernest Benn, who hired him to work in the publishing business. Starting with magazines, Gollancz then brought out a series of art books, after which he started signing novelists.

Gollancz formed his own publishing company[?] in 1927; the writers he published included George Orwell and Ford Madox Ford. He was also one of the founders of the Left Book Club[?].

Gollancz had a knack for marketing, sometimes taking out full-page newspaper ads for the books he published, a novelty at the time. He also used eye-catching typography and book designs.

In addition to his highly successful publishing business, Gollancz was a prolific writer on a variety of subjects.

He was knighted in 1955.

Selected bibliography

• The making of women, Oxford essays in feminism. (1918)
• Industrial ideals. (1920)
• Is Mr. Chamberlain saving peace? (1939)
• Betrayal of the left; an examination & refutation of communist policy from October 1939 to January 1941: with suggestions for an alternative and an epilogue on political morality. (1941)
• "Let my people go." Some practical proposals for dealing with Hitler's massacre of the Jews and an appeal to the British public. (1943)
• Leaving them to their fate: the ethics of starvation. (1946)
• In darkest Germany. (1947)
• Capital punishment: the heart of the matter. (1955)
• Devils repertoire; or, Nuclear bombing and the life of man. (1959)
• Case of Adolf Eichmann. (1961)
• Journey towards music; a memoir. (1964)