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T. Fisher Unwin

{{Short description|British publishing company}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox publisher

| name = T. Fisher Unwin

| image =Tunwinprintermark.png

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| status = Defunct

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| predecessor =

| founded = 1882

| founder = Thomas Fisher Unwin

| successor = Ernest Benn Limited

| country = United Kingdom

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| publications = Books

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T. Fisher Unwin was the London publishing house founded by Thomas Fisher Unwin, husband of British Liberal politician Jane Cobden in 1882.{{r|ODNB}}

Unwin fashioned a "highly competitive company with a reputation for discovering and marketing promising new authors".Graham Law, [https://www-oxfordreference-com.sl.nsw.gov.au/display/10.1093/acref/9780198606536.001.0001/acref-9780198606536-e-5037 "Unwin, T. Fisher"], The Oxford Companion to the Book, Oxford University Press, 2010 (online edition). Retrieved 26 December 2023. The company published fiction series such as the Pseudonym Library and the Overseas Library through which promising new authors such as Joseph Conrad, John Galsworthy and W. Somerset Maugham could be "profitably marketed to a growing middle-class reading public" in the 1890s. In the years 1895-1898 Unwin published Joseph Conrad’s first novel Almayer’s Folly and his An Outcast of the Islands and Tales of Unrest; in 1897 it published Maugham's first novel Liza of Lambeth.

The company's list also included works by Henrik Ibsen,[https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=ibsen+t.+fisher+unwin&itemSubType=book-mic%2Cbook-printbook&limit=10&offset=1&orderBy=publicationDateAsc&itemSubTypeModified=book-mic%2Cbook-printbook Ibsen T. Fisher Unwin], worldcat.org. Retrieved 28 December 2023. Friedrich Nietzsche,[https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=nietzsche+T.+Fisher+Unwin&orderBy=publicationDateAsc&itemSubType=book-printbook&itemSubTypeModified=book-printbook Nietzsche T. Fisher Unwin], worldcat.org. Retrieved 28 December 2023. H. G. Wells, Olive Schreiner,[https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=Olive+Schreiner+T.+Fisher+Unwin&itemSubType=book-mic%2Cbook-mss%2Cbook-printbook&limit=10&offset=1&orderBy=publicationDateAsc&itemSubTypeModified=book-mic%2Cbook-mss%2Cbook-printbook Olive Schreiner T. Fisher Unwin], worldcat.org. Retrieved 28 December 2023. W. B. Yeats, Ford Madox Ford, Sigmund Freud, Ouida and E. Nesbit.

T. Fisher Unwin employed a "skilful team"Owen Knowles and Gene M. Moore, eds., [https://www-oxfordreference-com.sl.nsw.gov.au/display/10.1093/acref/9780198604211.001.0001/acref-9780198604211-e-0426 Unwin, "T (Thomas) Fisher"], Oxford Reader’s Companion To Conrad, 2000; 2011 (online edition). Retrieved 26 December 2023. including Edward Garnett as reader (who recommended Almayer’s Folly for publication) and David Rice as chief salesman.

During much of the company's first two decades T. Fisher Unwin's office was located at Paternoster Square, London[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.186638/page/n3/mode/2up Rome From The Earliest Times To The End Of The Republic], London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1885, worldcat.org. Retrieved 28 December 2023. and in 1905 it relocated to 1 Adelphi Square, London (with a branch at Inselstrasse 20, Leipzig).J. B. Purvis, [https://archive.org/details/throughugandatom00purv/page/n7/mode/2up Through Uganda to Mount Elgon], London and Leipzig: T. Fisher Unwin, 1909, title page. Retrieved 27 December 2023.

Thomas Fisher Unwin's latterly more famous nephew Stanley Unwin started his career by working in his uncle's firm. In 1914 Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in the firm George Allen and Sons, and established George Allen and Unwin, later to become Allen and Unwin.{{Citation |title=Unwin, Sir Stanley (1884–1968) |date=2018-02-07 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.36614 |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=2022-04-28}}

Unwin retired to his home in Sussex in 1926, following which his publishing house merged with Ernest Benn Limited.{{r|ODNB}}

Book series

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

  • The Adelphi LibraryJohn Bremer Purvis, [https://archive.org/details/throughugandatom00purv/page/n373/mode/2up Through Uganda to Mount Elgon], London and Leipzig: T. Fisher Unwin, 1909, p. i ff. Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  • The Adventure Series
  • The American State SeriesJesse Macy, [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.12554 Party Organization And Machinery], London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1905. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  • The Anglo-Italian Library
  • Army Examination Series
  • The Autonym Library[https://emuseum.delart.org/objects/2630/pseudonym-library--autonym-library Pseudonym Library / Autonym Library], Delaware Art Museum, delart.org. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  • Builders of Greater Britain[https://www.publishinghistory.com/builders-of-greater-britain-t-fisher-unwin.html Builders of Greater Britain], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  • Baedeker's Guide BooksVaughan Cornish, [https://archive.org/details/wavesofseaotherw00cornuoft Waves of the Sea, and Other Water Waves. With 50 Photographs Taken by the Author], London: T. Fisher, 1910, publisher's advertisement. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  • The Cameo Series
  • The Century Library
  • The Chats Series: Practical Handbooks for CollectorsS. C. Johnson, [https://archive.org/details/chatsonmilitaryc00johniala/page/342/mode/2up?q=%22the+chats+series%22 Chats on Military Curios], London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1915 (The Chats Series), publisher's advertisement. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  • The Children's Library
  • The Children's Study
  • Conway and Coolidge's Climbers' Guides
  • The Criminology Series
  • Every Irishman's Library[https://seriesofseries.com/every-irishmans-library/ Every Irishman's Library], seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  • The First Novel Library (1902- )
  • Half-Holiday Handbooks
  • The How To Series of Practical Handbooks
  • The Idle Hour Series
  • Independent Novels
  • Library of Irish Literature
  • The Library of Literary History
  • Little Novels
  • Lives Worth Living: Series of Popular Biographies
  • Masters of Medicine
  • The Mermaid Series[https://www.publishinghistory.com/mermaid-series.html Mermaid Series (Vizetelly & Co.; T. Fisher Unwin; Charles Scribner's Sons; etc.) - Book Series List], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  • The Mind of the Century
  • The Modern Travel Series
  • The New Irish Library
  • The Over-seas Library (commonly referred to as: The Overseas Library)
  • The Pseudonym Library (1891–1903, 56 volumes)
  • The Reformer's Bookshelf
  • Six Shilling Novels
  • The South American Series
  • The Sports Library
  • The Story of the Nations Library[https://www.publishinghistory.com/the-story-of-nations-t-fisher-unwin.html The Story of Nations (T. Fisher Unwin/G. P. Putnam's Sons) - Book Series List], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  • Unwin's Cabinet Library[https://seriesofseries.com/cabinet-library/ Cabinet Library], seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  • Unwin's Colonial Library[https://www.publishinghistory.com/unwins-colonial-library.html Unwin's Colonial Library], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  • Unwin's Green Cloth LibraryMrs. Campbell Praed, [https://archive.org/details/insanerootromanc00prae/page/n5/mode/2up The Insane Root : A Romance of a Strange Country], London: T. Fisher, Unwin, preliminary pages. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  • Unwin's Half-Crown Standard Library of History and Biography
  • Unwin's Nature Books
  • Unwin's Popular Series for Boys and Girls
  • Unwin's Red Cloth Library
  • Unwin's Shilling Novels
  • Unwin's Sixpenny Editions
  • Unwin's Theological Library
  • The Welsh Library
  • Yellow Library

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References

{{reflist|refs=

{{citation |last=Codell |first=Julie F. |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/47454 |contribution=Unwin, Thomas Fisher (1848–1935) |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=online |accessdate=11 January 2008}} {{ODNBsub}}

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Further reading

{{Wikisource publisher|T. Fisher Unwin}}

{{commons category}}

  • Julie F. Codell, "T. Fisher Unwin", in: Patricia J. Anderson and Jonathan Rose, eds., British Literary Publishing Houses, 1820-1880, Detroit and London: Gale Research Inc., 1991 (Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 106), pp. 304-311
  • Frederick Nesta, [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230299368 "The Series as Commodity: Marketing T. Fisher Unwin’s Pseudonym and Autonym Libraries"], in: John Spiers, ed., The Culture of the Publisher’s Series, Volume One, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp. 171–187
  • Philip Unwin, [https://archive.org/details/publishingunwins0000unwi/mode/2up The Publishing Unwins], London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1972

External links

  • [https://emuseum.delart.org/objects/2630/pseudonym-library--autonym-library Advertising poster for the Pseudonym and Autonym Library Series published by T. Fisher Unwin] - artist: Aubrey Beardsley

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Category:Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom

Category:Publishing companies established in 1882

Category:1926 disestablishments in the United Kingdom