Victor Gollancz (April 9 1893–February 8 1967) was a British publisher, socialist, and humanitarian.
Born in London, he was the son of a wholesale jeweler and nephew of Rabbi Professor Sir Herman Gollancz ; 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. He had a knack for marketing, sometimes taking out full-page newspaper adverts 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.
See also: List of British Jews
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)
- Devil's Repertoire: or, Nuclear Bombing and the Life of Man (1959)
- Case of Adolf Eichmann (1961)
- Journey Towards music: a Memoir (1964)
