Dennis Dobson (1919 – 1978)Lewis Foreman, Susan Foreman
''London: A Musical Gazetteer''
Yale University Press, 2005, p. 327. was a British book publisher who was the eponymous founder of a small but respected company in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Background

Set up in 1944 and run from his house at 80

Kensington Church Street Kensington Church Street is a shopping street in Kensington, London, England, designated the A4204, and traditionally known for its art and antiques shops. Buildings at the southern end date back to the early 1700s. It is named after Kensington ...

, Dobson Books is variously described as having been "diverse, original, and occasionally successful", "notable and pioneering" "left-wing" and a "very literary but somewhat idiosyncratic firm". The publishing house became renowned for its musicology list, and also published fiction (some in translation), as well as books imported from the United States. Among the diverse list of authors published by Dobson were

Irving Adler Irving Adler (April 27, 1913 – September 22, 2012) was an American author, mathematician, scientist, political activist, and educator. He was the author of 57 books (some under the pen name Robert Irving) about mathematics, science, and e ...

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

Robert Benchley Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 – November 21, 1945) was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor. From his beginnings at ''The Harvard Lampoon'' while attending Harvard University, thro ...

John W. Campbell John Wood Campbell Jr. (June 8, 1910 – July 11, 1971) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He was editor of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' (later called ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'') from late 1937 until his death ...

, John Christopher,

Avril Coleridge-Taylor Gwendolen Avril Coleridge-Taylor (8 March 190321 December 1998) was an English pianist, conductor, and composer. She was the daughter of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his wife Jessie (née Walmisley). Personal life She was born in South ...

, Ivor Cutler, Norman Demuth,

Wallace Fowlie Wallace Fowlie (1908–1998) was an American writer and professor of literature. He was the James B. Duke Professor of French Literature at Duke University where he taught from 1964 to the end of his career. Although he published more than twenty ...

John Glashan John Glashan (born John McGlashan, 24 December 1927 – 15 June 1999Martin Plimmer,, ''The Independent'', 22 July 1999. Accessed 20 August 2016.) was a Scottish cartoonist, illustrator and playwright. He was the creator of the "Genius" cartoons. ...

, Albert Gleizes,

Nicholas Stuart Gray Nicholas Stuart Gray (23 October 1922, Scotland – 17 March 1981) was a British actor and playwright, perhaps best known for his work in children's theatre in England. He was also an author of children's fantasy; he wrote a number of novels, a ...

Joseph L. Green Joseph Lee Green (born 1931) is an American science fiction author and a charter member of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He is a prolific short story author best known for his novel ''Gold the Man''. His work has been translated into ...

, Gerard Hoffnung, Eric Hope,

F. W. Harvey Frederick William Harvey DCM (26 March 1888 – 13 February 1957), often known as Will Harvey, was an English poet, broadcaster and solicitor. His poetry became widely popular during and after World War I. Early life Harvey was born in 1888 in ...

Lillian Rosanoff Lieber Lillian Rosanoff Lieber (July 26, 1886 in Nicolaiev, Russian Empire - July 11, 1986 in Queens, New York) was a Russian-American mathematician and popular author. She often teamed up with her illustrator husband, Hugh Gray Lieber, to produce wor ...

Margaret Mahy Margaret Mahy (21 March 1936 – 23 July 2012) was a New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. Many of her story plots have strong supernatural elements but her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growi ...

, Menon Marath,

Spike Milligan Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British Colonial India, where h ...

Marcello Minale Marcello Minale (December 15, 1938 – December 30, 2000) was a world-renowned Italian designer, writer and a former international oarsman. Early life Marcello Minale was born into an Italian naval family in Tripoli in 1938, the son of a colonial ...

, Carl Nielsen,

Wilfrid Noyce Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and ...

Frederik Pohl Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first published work, the 1937 poem "Elegy to a Dead Satelli ...

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-kno ...

, George Padmore,

Ian Parrott Ian Parrott (5 March 1916 – 4 September 2012) was a prolific Anglo-Welsh composer and writer on music. His distinctions included the first prize of the Royal Philharmonic Society for his symphonic poem ''Luxor'', and commissions by the BBC a ...

Eric Frank Russell Eric Frank Russell (January 6, 1905 – February 28, 1978) was a British writer best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's '' Astounding Science ...

Jean Marie Stine Jean Marie Stine (born Henry Eugene Stine, 1945 in Sikeston, Missouri) is an American editor, writer, anthologist, and publisher. Career Stine worked as a book acquisitions and development editor for Newcastle Publishing and Leisure Books. For a ...

Marie Seton Marie Seton (20 March 1910 – 17 February 1985) was a British actress, art, theatre and film critic and biographer of Sergei Eisenstein, Paul Robeson, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Satyajit Ray. Biography Her father, Captain Seton served in the Brit ...

Katherine Binney Shippen Katherine Binney Shippen (April 1, 1892 – February 20, 1980) was an American history teacher, museum curator, and children's writer. Early life and education Shippen was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on April 1, 1892, to Francis and Ellen Ship ...

, Nigel Tranter, Jack Vance, Ricardo Viñes,

Peter Warlock Philip Arnold Heseltine (30 October 189417 December 1930), known by the pseudonym Peter Warlock, was a British composer and music critic. The Warlock name, which reflects Heseltine's interest in occultism, occult practices, was used for all his ...

, Richard Wright, and others."Dennis Dobson"
at Open Library.

Personal life

In 1953 Dobson married Margaret Green (1928–2014), whose first job had been as his secretary, and they had four sons and three daughters. Dobson died in 1978 aged 59, after suffering a brain haemorrhage on the train returning from the Frankfurt Book Fair. After his death the publishing company was wound down and his widow bought and restored

Brancepeth Castle Brancepeth Castle is a castle in the village of Brancepeth in County Durham, England, some 5 miles south-west of the city of Durham (). It is a Grade I listed building. History A succession of buildings has been on the site. The first was a Norm ...

.Nicolas Barker
"Margaret Dobson: Publisher who helped set up a thriving list of music books and was chatelaine to the medieval Brancepeth Castle"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 15 December 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobson, Dennis 1919 births 1978 deaths British book publishers (people) 20th-century British businesspeople