Hodder & Stoughton — BrandWiki

Hodder & Stoughton

parent	Hachette
status	Active
founded	1868
founder	Matthew Henry Hodder Thomas Wilberforce Stoughton
country	United Kingdom
headquarters	London, England
imprints	Hodder & Stoughton, Coronet, Hodder Faith, John Murray, Mulholland, Quercus, Saltyard, Sceptre, Two Roads, Hodderscape
url	hodder.co.uk

Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.[1]

History

Early history

The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher for the Congregational Union. In 1861 the firm became Jackson, Walford and Hodder; but in 1868 Jackson and Walford retired, and Thomas Wilberforce Stoughton joined the firm, creating Hodder & Stoughton.[1]

Hodder & Stoughton published both religious and secular works, and its religious list contained some progressive titles. These included George Adam Smith's Isaiah for its Expositor’s Bible series, which was one of the earliest texts to identify multiple authorship in the Book of Isaiah. There was also a sympathetic Life of St Francis by Paul Sabatier

Post-war years

In 1953 they published Sir John Hunt's successful The Ascent of Everest, and began their long association with thriller writer John Creasey. In the 1970s, they brought the Knight and Coronet imprints into common use. The latter is particularly memorable for David Niven's much-celebrated autobiography The Moon's a Balloon.

In the 1960s the Hodder and Stoughton fiction list broadened to include many quality commercial authors, including Mary Stewart whose works included Madam, Will You Talk? and sold millions of copies worldwide. The non-fiction publishing included Anthony Sampson's era-defining The Anatomy of Britain in 1962. Another notable title in the children's sphere was the 1969 Brockhampton Press publication of Asterix the Gaul by Goscinny and Uderzo. In 1967, Godder and Stoughton sold its Canadian publisher, the Musson Book Company, to General Publishing.

In 1974, John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was published to much critical acclaim, earning him a Literary Guild Choice. The following year, previous employee John Attenborough published A Living Memory of Hodder. In 1981, the company acquired the New English Library, an imprint created by the American Times Mirror Company that published works from several genres including fantasy, science fiction and suspense and included books by James Herbert and Stephen King.

In 1986, Hodder & Stoughton introduced Sceptre as a literary imprint to sit alongside mass-market imprints Coronet and NEL. Originally publishing in paperback only, early books on the Sceptre list included Thomas Keneally’s Schindler's Ark which had won the Booker Prize in 1982. Hodder & Stoughton also won the Booker Prize in 1985 with the publication of Keri Hulme’s The Bone People,[4] originally acquired from its New Zealand office.

Other notable books on the Hodder & Stoughton list in this decade include Rosamunde Pilcher’s The Shell Seekers, Elizabeth George’s A Great Deliverance and the first novel in Jean M. Auel’s prehistoric fiction series Earth’s Children® The Clan of the Cave Bear, which was an international success and the series, completed with the publication of The Land of Painted Caves in 2011, has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.

In 1987, Hodder acquired the academic publisher Edward Arnold.

The Lancet was sold to Elsevier in 1991.[5] In 1993, Headline bought Hodder & Stoughton and the company became a division of Hodder Headline Ltd.[6] In 1997 Sceptre published Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain and the following year Hodder & Stoughton released Sir Alex Ferguson’s much-lauded autobiography Managing My Life.[7]

In 1999, Hodder Headline was acquired by W H Smith. Also in 1999, Hodder acquired the children's publisher Wayland Publishers from Wolters Kluwer.[8]

Notable publications

• 1883 Natural Law in the Spiritual World - Henry Drummund

• 1881 From Log-cabin to White House - William M. Thayer

• 1896 The Personal Life of Queen Victoria - Sarah Tooley

• 1911 Peter Pan and Wendy - J.M Barrie

• The Lord Kitchener Memorial Book - Sir Hedley Le Bas (editor) [32]

• 1919 Collected Verse - Rudyard Kipling

• 1927 Blind Corner - Dornford Yates

• 1934 Goodbye Mr Chips - James Hilton

• 1939 Oliver Cromwell - John Buchan

• 1942 The Queen's Book of the Red Cross

• 1942 Five on a Treasure Island - Enid Blyton

• 1942 Biggles Sweeps the Desert - Captain W. E. Johns

• 1944 Green Dolphin Country - Elizabeth Goudge

• 1952 The Colditz Story - P. R. Reid

• 1953 The Ascent of Everest - John Hunt

• 1954 Katharine - Anya Seton

• 1962 The IPCRESS File - Len Deighton

• 1962 The Anatomy of Britain - Anthony Sampson

• 1969 Asterix the Gaul - Goscinny and Uderzo

• 1970 Love Story - Erich Segal

• 1973 The Moon's a Balloon - David Niven

• 1974 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John le Carré

• 1980 The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel

• 1982 Schindler's Ark - Thomas Keneally

• 1985 The Bone People - Keri Hulme

• 1986 Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood - Anthony Mascarenhas

• 1988 The Shell Seekers - Rosamund Pilcher

• 1988 A Great Deliverance - Elizabeth George

• 1997 Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier

• 1998 Managing My Life - Alex Ferguson

• 2001 The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde

• 2001 Saffy's Angel - Hilary McKay

• 2002 Kylie: La La La - Kylie Minogue & William Baker

• 2005 My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult

• 2008 My Booky Wook - Russell Brand

• 2009 The Other Hand - Chris Cleave

• 2009 One Day - David Nicholls

• 2010 Under the Dome - Stephen King

• 2010 A Street Cat Named Bob - James Bowen

• 2011 The Land of Painted Caves - Jean Auel

• 2011 The Litigators - John Grisham

• 2014 Playing It My Way - Sachin Tendulkar

• 2015 The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - Becky Chambers

• 2016 100 Things Successful People Do - Nigel Cumberland

• 2019 The Blues Comes With Good News - Sonny Hall

• 2020 The Secret Life of a Vet - Rory Cowlam

• 2020 Beyond Possible: One Soldier, Fourteen Peaks - Nirmal Purja

• 2020 Billion Dollar Loser - Reeves Wiedeman

Hodder & Stoughton

History

Early history

Post-war years

21st century

Imprints

Book series

Notable publications

See also

Further reading

External links

References