Fredric Warburg
Encyclopedia
Fredric John Warburg was an English publisher best known for his association with the British author George Orwell
. During a career spanning a large part of the 20th century and ending in 1971, Warburg published Orwell's Animal Farm
(1945) as well as Nineteen Eighty-Four
(1949), and works by other leading figures such as Thomas Mann
and Franz Kafka
. Other notable publications include the controversial The Third Eye by Lobsang Rampa
in 1956, Pierre Boulle
's classic The Bridge over the River Kwai, Adolf Hitler
's Mein Kampf
, and William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
(1960).
At the age of 9 Fredric Warburg was sent to Wilkinson's boys' preparatory school and then later won a scholarship to attend the prestigious Westminster School
. He was to describe his first two years there as 'among the most hateful of my life'. Whilst he excelled academically, as a Jew he often felt an outsider and he was to find refuge and solace in his love of books.
In summer 1917 Warburg was commissioned to serve as an officer in the Royal Artillery
and was stationed in the Ypres
area until the end of the war. After demobilization, Warburg was to read chemistry at Christ Church, Oxford
, but later switched to classics and philosophy, proceeding to become an MA in 1922. That same year he was to start his publishing life as an apprentice at the publishing firm of Routledge
& Sons Ltd.
Warburg's first marriage (July 5, 1922), to May Nellie Holt (born May 1902), was to produce three sons, David (born in 1923); Hew Francis (born 8 April 1925 died 10 April 1983) and Jeremy Fredric (born 14 October 1928 died 9 June 1986), but ended in divorce in 1932. A year later, on January 21, 1933, Warburg married the painter and designer Pamela Bryer (née de Bayou, widowed) (born in 1905) and they were to have a son who died of a brain haemorrhage within twenty-four hours of birth on 13 March 1933.
During World War II, Warburg served as a corporal in the Home Guard
, in the same section where Orwell held the rank of sergeant. Fredric Warburg died of heart failure at University College Hospital
, London, on May 25, 1981 at the age of 82.
& Sons Ltd, Warburg found himself under the tutelage of William Swan Stallybrass, a man he regarded as 'the greatest scholar-publisher of his day'. Stallybrass died in 1931 and Warburg was to become increasingly dissatisfied with his post at Routledge
, leading to his eventual dismissal from the company in 1935. Later that same year, he and Roger Senhouse
purchased the publishing firm of Martin Secker
(that was in receivership) and renamed it as Secker and Warburg
.
The firm became renowned for its political stance, being both anti-fascist and anti-communist (at least communism in its Soviet incarnation), a position that put them at loggerheads with many intellectuals of the time. Among the books published by Warburg were C. L. R. James
's World Revolution, Reg Groves's We Shall Rise Again, Boris Souvarine
's Stalin, and André Gide
's Back from the USSR. When George Orwell
parted company with Victor Gollancz
over publication of The Road to Wigan Pier
, it was to Secker and Warburg that he took his next book Homage to Catalonia
. Thereafter they were to publish all of Orwell's work, with author and publisher becoming intimate friends.
With its financial position devastated by paper shortages during and after the war, Secker and Warburg was forced to join the Heinemann group of publishers in 1951. During the 1950s and 1960s Secker and Warburg were to publish the works of, amongst others, Simone de Beauvoir
, Colette
, Alberto Moravia
, Günter Grass
, Angus Wilson
, Melvyn Bragg
and Julian Gloag. In 1961 Warburg was made a director of the Heinemann group, a post he retained until his retirement in 1971. He also published two volumes of autobiography: An Occupation for Gentlemen (1959) and All Authors are Equal (1973).
, which was later to receive sustained criticism when it emerged that much of the money used to produce the magazine came directly from the CIA.
More controversy was to follow in 1954 when Warburg was prosecuted for publishing the supposedly obscene book The Philanderer by Stanley Kauffmann
. Although offered the chance to plead guilty and escape with a minimal fine, Warburg opted for the much riskier option of a public trial by jury at the Old Bailey
. This decision was vindicated when he was unanimously acquitted by the jury. The presiding judge's (Sir Wintringham Stable's) summing up was added as an appendix in later editions of The Philanderer and also published separately by Secker and Warburg
, and in paperback by Penguin Books, 1957.
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
. During a career spanning a large part of the 20th century and ending in 1971, Warburg published Orwell's Animal Farm
Animal Farm
Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before World War II...
(1945) as well as Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
(1949), and works by other leading figures such as Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
and Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
. Other notable publications include the controversial The Third Eye by Lobsang Rampa
Lobsang Rampa
Cyril Henry Hoskin , more popularly known as Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, was a writer who claimed to have been a lama in Tibet before spending the second part of his life in the body of a British man. Hoskin described himself as the "host" of Tuesday Lobsang Rampa...
in 1956, Pierre Boulle
Pierre Boulle
Pierre Boulle was a French novelist largely known for two famous works, The Bridge over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes .-Biography:...
's classic The Bridge over the River Kwai, Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
, and William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a 1960 non-fiction book by William L. Shirer chronicling the general history of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945...
(1960).
Life
Warburg was born on November 27, 1898, to John Cimon Warburg (a photographer) and Violet Amalia (née Sichel), both of Jewish descent. John Cimon was the oldest son of Fredric Elias Warburg (born 1832, Gothenburg, Sweden died 1899) and Emma (1844–1925) (née Raphael). Frederic Elias came to London in c.1860. Fredric Elias was the son of Samuel Warburg (1800–1881) and Emma (1809–1880) (née Gluckstadt). Samuel was descended from Simon von Cassel (died in 1566), who on moving from the town of Cassel to Warburg, both in Germany changed his name to von Warburg.At the age of 9 Fredric Warburg was sent to Wilkinson's boys' preparatory school and then later won a scholarship to attend the prestigious Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
. He was to describe his first two years there as 'among the most hateful of my life'. Whilst he excelled academically, as a Jew he often felt an outsider and he was to find refuge and solace in his love of books.
In summer 1917 Warburg was commissioned to serve as an officer in the Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
and was stationed in the Ypres
Ypres
Ypres is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the villages of Boezinge, Brielen, Dikkebus, Elverdinge, Hollebeke, Sint-Jan, Vlamertinge, Voormezele, Zillebeke, and Zuidschote...
area until the end of the war. After demobilization, Warburg was to read chemistry at Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, but later switched to classics and philosophy, proceeding to become an MA in 1922. That same year he was to start his publishing life as an apprentice at the publishing firm of Routledge
Routledge
Routledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
& Sons Ltd.
Warburg's first marriage (July 5, 1922), to May Nellie Holt (born May 1902), was to produce three sons, David (born in 1923); Hew Francis (born 8 April 1925 died 10 April 1983) and Jeremy Fredric (born 14 October 1928 died 9 June 1986), but ended in divorce in 1932. A year later, on January 21, 1933, Warburg married the painter and designer Pamela Bryer (née de Bayou, widowed) (born in 1905) and they were to have a son who died of a brain haemorrhage within twenty-four hours of birth on 13 March 1933.
During World War II, Warburg served as a corporal in the Home Guard
British Home Guard
The Home Guard was a defence organisation of the British Army during the Second World War...
, in the same section where Orwell held the rank of sergeant. Fredric Warburg died of heart failure at University College Hospital
University College Hospital
University College Hospital is a teaching hospital located in London, United Kingdom. It is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is closely associated with University College London ....
, London, on May 25, 1981 at the age of 82.
Work
Upon his appointment as an apprentice at the firm of RoutledgeRoutledge
Routledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
& Sons Ltd, Warburg found himself under the tutelage of William Swan Stallybrass, a man he regarded as 'the greatest scholar-publisher of his day'. Stallybrass died in 1931 and Warburg was to become increasingly dissatisfied with his post at Routledge
Routledge
Routledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...
, leading to his eventual dismissal from the company in 1935. Later that same year, he and Roger Senhouse
Roger Senhouse
Roger Henry Pocklington Senhouse was an English publisher and translator, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group of writers, intellectuals, and artists...
purchased the publishing firm of Martin Secker
Martin Secker
Martin Secker , born Percy Martin Secker Klingender, was a London publisher who was responsible for producing the work of a distinguished group of literary authors, including D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Norman Douglas, and Henry James...
(that was in receivership) and renamed it as Secker and Warburg
Secker and Warburg
Harvill Secker is a British publishing company formed in 2004 from the merger of Secker and Warburg and the Harvill Press.Secker and Warburg was formed in 1936 from a takeover of Martin Secker, which was in receivership, by Fredric Warburg and Roger Senhouse...
.
The firm became renowned for its political stance, being both anti-fascist and anti-communist (at least communism in its Soviet incarnation), a position that put them at loggerheads with many intellectuals of the time. Among the books published by Warburg were C. L. R. James
C. L. R. James
Cyril Lionel Robert James , who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J.R. Johnson, was an Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist, socialist theorist and essayist. His works are influential in various theoretical, social, and historiographical contexts...
's World Revolution, Reg Groves's We Shall Rise Again, Boris Souvarine
Boris Souvarine
Boris Souvarine was an Imperial Russian-born French socialist, communist activist, essayist, and journalist.-Early years:...
's Stalin, and André Gide
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...
's Back from the USSR. When George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
parted company with Victor Gollancz
Victor Gollancz
Sir Victor Gollancz was a British publisher, socialist, and humanitarian.-Early life:Born in Maida Vale, London, he was the son of a wholesale jeweller and nephew of Rabbi Professor Sir Hermann Gollancz and Professor Sir Israel Gollancz; after being educated at St Paul's School, London and taking...
over publication of The Road to Wigan Pier
The Road to Wigan Pier
The Road to Wigan Pier is a book by the British writer George Orwell, first published in 1937. The first half of this work documents his sociological investigations of the bleak living conditions amongst the working class in Lancashire and Yorkshire in the industrial north of England before World...
, it was to Secker and Warburg that he took his next book Homage to Catalonia
Homage to Catalonia
Homage to Catalonia is political journalist and novelist George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations in the Spanish Civil War. The first edition was published in 1938. The book was not published in the United States until February 1952. The American edition had a preface...
. Thereafter they were to publish all of Orwell's work, with author and publisher becoming intimate friends.
With its financial position devastated by paper shortages during and after the war, Secker and Warburg was forced to join the Heinemann group of publishers in 1951. During the 1950s and 1960s Secker and Warburg were to publish the works of, amongst others, Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
, Colette
Colette
Colette was the surname of the French novelist and performer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette . She is best known for her novel Gigi, upon which Lerner and Loewe based the stage and film musical comedies of the same title.-Early life and marriage:Colette was born to retired military officer Jules-Joseph...
, Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia, born Alberto Pincherle was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism....
, Günter Grass
Günter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
, Angus Wilson
Angus Wilson
Sir Angus Frank Johnstone Wilson, CBE was an English novelist and short story writer. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot and later received a knighthood for his services to literature.-Biography:Wilson was born in Bexhill, Sussex, England, to...
, Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...
and Julian Gloag. In 1961 Warburg was made a director of the Heinemann group, a post he retained until his retirement in 1971. He also published two volumes of autobiography: An Occupation for Gentlemen (1959) and All Authors are Equal (1973).
Controversy
In 1952 Warburg became a member of the committee of the Society for Cultural Freedom (S.C.F.), an organisation established to 'promote Western culture and defend it against the communist culture of the East'. The S.C.F. were to produce a cultural magazine, EncounterEncounter (magazine)
Encounter was a literary magazine, founded in 1953 by poet Stephen Spender and early neoconservative author Irving Kristol. The magazine ceased publication in 1991...
, which was later to receive sustained criticism when it emerged that much of the money used to produce the magazine came directly from the CIA.
More controversy was to follow in 1954 when Warburg was prosecuted for publishing the supposedly obscene book The Philanderer by Stanley Kauffmann
Stanley Kauffmann
Stanley Kauffmann is an American author, editor, and critic of film and theatre. He has written for The New Republic since 1958 and currently contributes film criticism to that magazine....
. Although offered the chance to plead guilty and escape with a minimal fine, Warburg opted for the much riskier option of a public trial by jury at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
. This decision was vindicated when he was unanimously acquitted by the jury. The presiding judge's (Sir Wintringham Stable's) summing up was added as an appendix in later editions of The Philanderer and also published separately by Secker and Warburg
Secker and Warburg
Harvill Secker is a British publishing company formed in 2004 from the merger of Secker and Warburg and the Harvill Press.Secker and Warburg was formed in 1936 from a takeover of Martin Secker, which was in receivership, by Fredric Warburg and Roger Senhouse...
, and in paperback by Penguin Books, 1957.
Books written by Fredric Warburg
- 1959: An Occupation for Gentlemen. London: Hutchinson
- 1973: All Authors are Equal. London: Hutchinson
Publications relating to Fredric Warburg
- 1954: The Summing-up by Mr Justice Stable in Regina v. Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd., Fredric J. Warburg, The Camelot Press Ltd ("The Philanderer" Case) at the Central Criminal Court July 2, 1954
External links
- Entry for F. J. Warburg at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Brief biography of F. J. Warburg