Victor Gollancz Ltd was a major British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 book publishing house

Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...

 of the twentieth century. It was founded in 1927 by 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...

 (1893–1967) and specialised in the publication of high quality literature, nonfiction and popular fiction, including science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

. Upon Gollancz's death in 1967, ownership passed to his daughter, Livia who sold it to Houghton Mifflin in 1989. Three years later, in October 1992, Houghton Mifflin sold Gollancz to the publishing house Cassell & Co. In December 1998 the Orion Publishing Group

Orion Publishing Group

Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It is owned by Hachette Livre. In 1998 Orion bought Cassell.-History:Full history of the group can be found on Orion Publishing Group is owned by -Imprints:...

 acquired Cassell & Co and turned Gollancz into its science fiction/fantasy imprint.

Origins as a political house

Gollancz was left-inclined in politics and a supporter of socialist movements. This is reflected in some of the books he published. Victor Gollancz commissioned George Orwell

George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...

 to write about the urban working class in the North of England, the result was 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...

. His break with Orwell came when he declined to publish Orwell's account of the Spanish Civil War 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...

; the pair having drifted apart on political grounds. He did publish The Red Army Moves by Geoffrey Cox

Geoffrey Cox (journalist)

Sir Geoffrey Sandford Cox, CNZM, CBE was a New Zealand-born newspaper and television journalist. He was a former editor and chief executive of ITN and a founder of News at Ten....

 on the Winter War

Winter War

The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...

 which was critical of the Soviet attack on Finland, but also foresaw that the Red Army would defeat the Germans. He also published works by German exiles, such as Hilde Meisel

Hilde Meisel

Hilde Meisel was a German socialist and journalist who published articles against the Nazi regime in Germany. While in exile in England, she wrote under the pseudonym Hilda Monte, calling for German resistance to Nazism in magazines, books and in radio broadcasts...

.

Gollancz was the original publisher of a number of famous authors and their books including:

• George Orwell
  George Orwell
  Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
  
   with Down and Out in Paris and London
  Down and Out in Paris and London
  Down and Out in Paris and London is the first full-length work by the English author George Orwell , published in 1933. It is a memoir in two parts on the theme of poverty in the two cities. The first part is a picaresque account of living on the breadline in Paris and the experience of casual...
  
  in 1933
• Alfred Ayer
  Alfred Ayer
  Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer was a British philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism, particularly in his books Language, Truth, and Logic and The Problem of Knowledge ....
  
   with Language, Truth and Logic in 1936
• A. J. Cronin
  A. J. Cronin
  Archibald Joseph Cronin was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known works are Hatter's Castle, The Stars Look Down, The Citadel, The Keys of the Kingdom and The Green Years, all of which were adapted to film. He also created the Dr...
  
   with The Citadel
  The Citadel (novel)
  The Citadel is a novel by A. J. Cronin, first published in 1937, which was groundbreaking with its treatment of the contentious theme of medical ethics. It is credited with laying the foundation in Great Britain for the introduction of the NHS a decade later...
  
  in 1937
• Daphne du Maurier
  Daphne du Maurier
  Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE was a British author and playwright.Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Her elder sister was...
  
   with Rebecca
  Rebecca (novel)
  Rebecca is a novel by Daphne du Maurier. When Rebecca was published in 1938, du Maurier became – to her great surprise – one of the most popular authors of the day. Rebecca is considered to be one of her best works...
  
  in 1938
• Kingsley Amis
  Kingsley Amis
  Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism...
  
   with Lucky Jim
  Lucky Jim
  Lucky Jim is an academic satire written by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1954 by Victor Gollancz. It was Amis's first novel, and won the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction...
  
  in 1953
• E. P. Thompson
  E. P. Thompson
  Edward Palmer Thompson was a British historian, writer, socialist and peace campaigner. He is probably best known today for his historical work on the British radical movements in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in particular The Making of the English Working Class...
  
   with The Making of the English Working Class
  The Making of the English Working Class
  The Making of the English Working Class is an influential and pivotal work of English social history, written by E. P. Thompson, a notable 'New Left' historian; it was published in 1963 by Victor Gollancz Ltd, and later republished at Pelican, becoming an early Open University Set Book...
  
  in 1963
• Anthony Price
  Anthony Price
  Anthony Price is an author of espionage thrillers.-Life and work:Price attended The King's School, Canterbury and served in the British Army from 1947 to 1949, reaching the rank of Captain. He then studied at Merton College, Oxford until 1952, earning the MA degree...
  
   with The Labyrinth Makers in 1971.

Many of Gollancz's books were published in one of their familiar house dust jackets, of which the most famous was bright yellow, with the title and author rendered in a vibrant, bold typography.

Transition to science fiction and fantasy genres

In 1998, Gollancz was acquired by Orion Publishing Group

Orion Publishing Group

Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It is owned by Hachette Livre. In 1998 Orion bought Cassell.-History:Full history of the group can be found on Orion Publishing Group is owned by -Imprints:...

 and turned into science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 and fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 imprint, Gollancz Science Fiction. Gollanz has published award-winning and award-nominated books by, amongst others::

• J.G. Ballard
• Stephen Baxter
  Stephen Baxter
  Stephen Baxter is a prolific British hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.- Writing style :...
  
  
• Greg Bear
  Greg Bear
  Gregory Dale Bear is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict , artificial universes , consciousness and cultural practices , and accelerated evolution...
  
  
• Jonathan Carroll
  Jonathan Carroll
  Jonathan Samuel Carroll is an American author primarily known for novels, which can be characterized as magic realist, slipstream or modern fantasy...
  
  
• Mark Chadbourn
  Mark Chadbourn
  Mark Chadbourn is an English fantasy, science fiction and horror author with fifteen novels published around the world.Born in the English Midlands from a long line of coal miners...
  
  
• Arthur C. Clarke
  Arthur C. Clarke
  Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
  
  
• Michael Coney
• Robert Cormier
  Robert Cormier
  Robert Edmund Cormier was an American author, columnist and reporter, known for his deeply pessimistic, downbeat literature. His most popular works include I Am the Cheese, After the First Death, We All Fall Down and The Chocolate War, all of which have won awards. The Chocolate War was challenged...
  
  
• Peter Delacorte
• Thomas Disch
• Stephen R. Donaldson
  Stephen R. Donaldson
  Stephen Reeder Donaldson is an American fantasy, science fiction and mystery novelist, most famous for his Thomas Covenant series...
  
  
• Christopher Evans
  Christopher Evans (author)
  Christopher Evans is a British science fiction writer and children's author. His novels include Capella's Golden Eyes , The Insider , Mortal Remains and Ice Tower...
  
  
• Jaine Fenn
  Jaine Fenn
  Jaine Fenn is a British science fiction author.Fenn studied Linguistics and Astronomy at the University of Hertfordshire, where she became the president of PSiFA from 1984-1985...
  
  
• Mary Gentle
  Mary Gentle
  -Literary career:Mary Gentle's first published novel was Hawk in Silver , a young-adult fantasy. She came to prominence with the Orthe duology, which consists of Golden Witchbreed and Ancient Light ....
  
  
• William Gibson
  William Gibson
  William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
  
  
• Jon Grimwood
• Michael Harrison
  M. John Harrison
  M. John Harrison , known as Mike Harrison, is an English author and critic. His work includes the Viriconium sequence of novels and short stories, , Climbers , and the Kefahuchi Tract series which begins with Light . He currently resides in London.-Early years:Harrison was born in Rugby,...
  
  
• Joe Hill
  Joe Hill
  Joe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund in Gävle , and also known as Joseph Hillström was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World...
  
  
• Robert Holdstock
  Robert Holdstock
  Robert Paul Holdstock was an English novelist and author best known for his works of Celtic, Nordic, Gothic and Pictish fantasy literature, predominantly in the fantasy subgenre of mythic fiction....
  
  
• Gwyneth Jones
  Gwyneth Jones (novelist)
  Gwyneth Jones is an English science fiction and fantasy writer and critic, and a young adult/children's writer under the name Ann Halam.-Biography and writing career:...
  
  
• Graham Joyce
  Graham Joyce
  Graham Joyce is an English writer of speculative fiction and the recipient of numerous awards for both his novels and short stories. He grew up in a small mining village just outside of Coventry to a working class family. After receiving a B.Ed. from Bishop Lonsdale College in 1977 and a M.A. from...
  
  
• Roger Levy
  Roger Levy
  Roger Levy is a British science fiction writer. He is published by Gollancz. His books are deeply melancholic, and explore issues of belief and the nature of reality. He has been compared to Philip K...
  
  
• James Lovegrove
  James Lovegrove
  James Lovegrove is a British writer of speculative fiction. His first novel was The Hope, published by Macmillan in 1990. He was short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1998 for his novel Days and for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2004 for his novel Untied Kingdom...
  
  
• Scott Lynch
  Scott Lynch
  Scott Lynch is an American fantasy author, best known for his Gentleman Bastard series of novels. He resides in Western Wisconsin in the city of New Richmond, Wisconsin. According to his website, he had a variety of jobs including dishwasher, waiter, web designer, freelance writer and office manager...
  
  
• Paul McAuley
  Paul McAuley
  Paul J. McAuley , a British botanist and award-winning author.A biologist by training, UK science fiction author McAuley writes mostly hard science fiction, dealing with themes such as biotechnology, alternate history/alternate reality, and space travel.McAuley began with far-future space opera...
  
  
• Ian McDonald
• Richard Morgan
• Terry Pratchett
  Terry Pratchett
  Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
  
  
• Christopher Priest
• Alastair Reynolds
  Alastair Reynolds
  Alastair Preston Reynolds is a British science fiction author. He specialises in dark hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from St Andrews, Scotland...
  
  
• Keith Roberts
  Keith Roberts
  Keith John Kingston Roberts , was an English science fiction author. He began publishing with two stories in the September 1964 issue of Science Fantasy magazine, "Anita" and "Escapism.Several of his early stories were written using the pseudonym...
  
  
• Adam Roberts
• Geoff Ryman
  Geoff Ryman
  Geoffrey Charles Ryman is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and surrealistic or "slipstream" fiction.Ryman currently lectures in Creative Writing for University of Manchester's English Department. His most recent full-length novel, The King's Last Song, is set in Cambodia, both at the time of...
  
  
• Robert J. Sawyer
  Robert J. Sawyer
  Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
  
  
• Robert Shaw
  Bob Shaw
  Bob Shaw, born Robert Shaw, was a science fiction author and fan from Northern Ireland. He was noted for his originality and wit. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1979 and 1980...
  
  
• Dan Simmons
  Dan Simmons
  Dan Simmons is an American author most widely known for his Hugo Award-winning science fiction series, known as the Hyperion Cantos, and for his Locus-winning Ilium/Olympos cycle....
  
  
• Alison Sinclair
  Alison Sinclair
  Alison Sinclair is a professor of Modern Spanish Literature and Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge, Hispanist and a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.-Book publications:...
  
  
• John Sladek
  John Sladek
  John Thomas Sladek was an American science fiction author, known for his satirical and surreal novels.- Life and work :...
  
  
• Bruce Sterling
  Bruce Sterling
  Michael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.-Writings:...
  
  
• Ian Watson
  Ian Watson (author)
  Ian Watson is a British science fiction author. He currently lives in Northamptonshire, England.His first novel, The Embedding, winner of the Prix Apollo in 1975, is unusual for being based on ideas from generative grammar; the title refers to the process of center embedding...
  
  
• Gene Wolfe
  Gene Wolfe
  Gene Wolfe is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith, to which he converted after marrying into the religion. He is a prolific short story writer and a novelist, and has won many awards in the...
  
  

Novels published by Gollancz have been nominated for 134 science fiction and fantasy awards, and have won 28 of them .

Expansion into manga

In 2005 Gollancz set up a manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 publishing arm, Gollancz Manga, which published UK editions of various Viz Media

VIZ Media

VIZ Media, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, is an anime, manga, and Japanese entertainment company. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ Media LLC, which is jointly owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, and...

 properties. Gollancz no longer publish manga and Viz Media

VIZ Media

VIZ Media, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, is an anime, manga, and Japanese entertainment company. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ Media LLC, which is jointly owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, and...

 have re-released all of their series.

The following titles have been published:

Case Closed Case Closed Case Closed, known as in Japan, is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. The series is serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday since February 2, 1994, and has been collected in 73 tankōbon volumes as of September 2011... (Detective Conan)	volumes 1-15
Dragon Ball	volumes 1-16
Dragon Ball Z	volumes 1-4
Fushigi Yūgi Fushigi Yūgi , also known as Curious Play, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yu Watase. Shogakukan published Fushigi Yûgi in Shōjo Comic in its original serialized form from May 1992 through June 1996. Viz Media released the manga series in English in North America starting in 1999...	volumes 1-17
Flame of Recca Flame of Recca is a manga series written and illustrated by Nobuyuki Anzai, which was adapted into an anime series spanning forty-two episodes by Studio Pierrot. The series has also been adapted into two video games; Flame of Recca for the Game Boy Advance and Flame of Recca Final Burning for the PlayStation...	volumes 1-10
Maison Ikkoku Maison Ikkoku is a Japanese seinen manga written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi and serialized in the manga magazine Big Comic Spirits from 1980 through 1987. Maison Ikkoku is a bitter-sweet comedic romance involving a group of madcap people who live in a boarding house in 1980s Tokyo...	volumes 1-15
One Piece One Piece is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since August 4, 1997; the individual chapters are being published in tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, with the first released on December 24, 1997, and the 64th volume released as...	volumes 1-12
Rurouni Kenshin Rurouni Kenshin , also known as Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai X, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The fictional setting takes place during the early Meiji period in Japan. The story is about a fictional assassin named Himura Kenshin, from the Bakumatsu who becomes a wanderer to...	volumes 1-16
Yu-Gi-Oh! Yu-Gi-Oh! is a Japanese manga created by Kazuki Takahashi. It has produced a franchise that includes multiple anime shows, a trading card game and numerous video games...	volumes 1-7
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Yu-Gi-Oh! is a Japanese manga created by Kazuki Takahashi. It has produced a franchise that includes multiple anime shows, a trading card game and numerous video games...	volumes 1-15

External links and resources

• Orion Publishing Group official website
• A catalogue of the Papers of Victor Gollancz Ltd
• Edwards, Ruth Dudley. Victor Gollancz: A Biography. London: V. Gollancz, 1987. ISBN 0575031751.
• Hodges, Sheila. Gollancz: The Story of a Publishing House, 1928–1978. London: V. Gollancz, 1978. ISBN 057502447X.