 | |
| Parent company | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1890; 135 years ago (1890) |
| Successor | Pearson Education (UK education) Hutchinson Heinemann (UK trade) Macmillan Education (ELT) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (US education) HarperCollins (UK children's) Capstone Publishers (school libraries) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters location | |
| Official website | |
William Heinemann Ltd, with the imprintHeinemann, was aLondon-based publisher founded in 1890 byWilliam Heinemann. Their first published book, 1890'sThe Bondman, was a huge success in the United Kingdom and launched the company. He was joined in 1893 bySydney Pawling. Heinemann died in 1920 and Pawling sold the company toDoubleday, having worked with them in the past to publish their works in the United States. Pawling died in 1922 and new management took over. Doubleday sold his interest in 1933.
Through the 1920s, the company was well known for publishing works by famous authors that had previously been published asserials. Among these were works byH. G. Wells,Rudyard Kipling,W. Somerset Maugham,George Moore,Max Beerbohm andHenry James, among others. This attracted new authors to publish their first editions with the company, includingGraham Greene,Edward Upward,J. B. Priestley andVita Sackville-West. Throughout, the company was also known for its classics and international catalogue, and in the post-WWII era, the company focused on educational materials.
Through the 1950s, the company was slowly taken over byTilling Group's investment arm. In 1953 they opened offices inThe Hague for sales in continental Europe, and in 1978 they opened a separate company inPortsmouth, New Hampshire to sell their educational works in the US market. When Tilling was purchased byBTR plc in 1983, BTR sold off all their non-industrial assets; Heinemann was sold toOctopus Publishing Group. Octopus merged withReed International (later Reed Elsevier) in 1987, who then sold their entire trade-oriented publishing assets toRandom House in 1997. Heinemann ELT (English Language Teaching) division was sold toMacmillan Education in 1998.[1] Eventually, the rest of international division was sold toPearson Education and the US division (includingHeinemann USA, merged with theGreenwood Press operations also acquired by Reed) toHoughton Mifflin Harcourt in 2007. Most of these successors (with exception of Macmillan Education) continue to use the Heinemann imprint.
William Heinemann began working in the publishing industry underNicolas Trübner,[2] who was a major publisher of what was called Oriental scholarship.[3] When, two years after Trübner's death, his company was taken over by the firm ofKegan Paul, Heinemann left and foundedWilliam Heinemann Ltd inCovent Garden,London, in 1890.[2] The first title published wasHall Caine'sThe Bondman, which was a "stunning success", selling more than 450,000 copies.[4] The company also released a number of works translated into English under the branding of "Heinemann's International Library", edited byEdmund Gosse.[5] In 1893,Sydney Pawling became a partner.[6][7] They became known for publishing the works ofSarah Grand.[8] The company published the British version ofScribners'Great Educators series under the title Heinemann'sGreat Educators series, but did not include credits for the original American editor,Nicholas Murray Butler,[9] an omission for which they were criticized.[8]
Between 1895 and 1897, Heinemann was the publisher ofWilliam Ernest Henley's periodicalNew Review.[10] In the late 1890s, Heinemann and the American publisherFrank Doubleday financially supportedJoseph Conrad during his initial attempt at writing what eventually becameThe Rescue, and Heinemann was the British publisher for Conrad'sThe Nigger of the 'Narcissus' in 1897.[7] One of the company's businesses at that time was to sell English books to a Japan that was beginning to be interested in items of Western culture. Heinemann sold to the Japanese bookstoreMaruzen translations of the works ofDostoyevsky and 5000 copies ofMutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution by Peter Kropotkin.[11] In 1912, the company began publishing theLoeb Classical Library series, publications of ancient works with the Greek or Latin text on the left-hand page, and a literal translation on the right hand page.[12] The series has been called "the most significant" of the parallel-text translations.[12] Since 1934, it has been co-published withHarvard University.[12][13]
On Heinemann's death in 1920 a majority stake was purchased by U.S. publisherDoubleday,[6] withTheodore Byard, who had previously been a professional singer, joining to lead the offices.[6]
A subsidiary company was established in The Hague in 1953; originally intended to distribute works in English to continental Europe, it eventually began to directly print Heinemann's books as well.[4]
The company was later acquired by conglomerateThomas Tilling in 1961. When the impending takeover became known,Graham Greene (who had been with Heinemann since his first work in 1929)[14] led a number of Heinemann authors who protested by taking their works to other publishers, includingThe Bodley Head, of which Greene was a director.[14][15]
Heinemann Publishing was established in the United States in 1978 as a U.S. subsidiary of Heinemann UK. Heinemann published books for school teachers of language arts K–12 and continues to this day.[16]
BTR bought Thomas Tilling in 1983, and were not interested in its publishing division, so Heinemann was put on the block. Heinemann was purchased by theOctopus Publishing Group in 1985, and shortly afterwards sold the sprawling Heinemann HQ in rural Kingswood, Surrey for development; Octopus was purchased byReed International (now Reed Elsevier) in 1987. Heinemann Professional Publishing was merged withButterworths Scientific in 1990 to formButterworth-Heinemann.[17]Random House bought Heinemann's trade publishing (now named William Heinemann) in 1997.Egmont Group bought Heinemann's children's publishing andMacmillan Education bought Heinemann ELT in 1998.[18][1] Remaining Heinemann's educational unit became part ofHarcourt Education when Reed Elsevier purchased the company in 2001.Pearson purchased the UK, South African, Australian and New Zealand arms of Harcourt Education in May 2007, whileHoughton Mifflin purchased the American operations a few months later. Pearson sold the school library publisher Heinemann-Raintree toCapstone Publishers in 2008.[19] Egmont Group sold its UK book division toHarperCollins in 2020.[20] Penguin Random House merged William Heinemann with Hutchinson to formHutchinson Heinemann in 2021.[21]
In 1957,Heinemann Educational Books (HEB) created theAfrican Writers Series, spearheaded byAlan Hill and West Africa specialistVan Milne, to focus on publishing the writers of Africa such asChinua Achebe, who was the first advisory editor of the series. Heinemann was awarded the 1992 Worldaware Award for Social Progress.[22] The series was relaunched by Pearson in 2011.[23][24]
Inspired by the African Writers Series,Leon Comber launched theWriting in Asia Series in 1966 from Singapore. TwoAustin Coates books in the series,Myself a Mandarin andCity of Broken Promises, became bestsellers, but the series, after publishing more than 70 titles, was to fold in 1984 when Heinemann Asia was taken over by a parent group of publishers.[25]
In 1970, the Caribbean Writers Series—modelled on the African Writers Series—was launched byJames Currey and others at HEB to republish work by major Caribbean writers.[26][27]
| Bertelsmann Home Entertainment |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Media assets | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Penguin Random House |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other assets |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pearson School |
|
|---|---|
| Pearson Higher Education | |
| Pearson Professional |
|
| Other | |
| Former/defunct companies | |
