David Geoffrey Bles (1886–1957) was a British publisher, with a reputation for spotting new talent. He started his eponymous publishing firm in London in 1923 and published the first five books of

C.S. Lewis CS, C-S, C.S., Cs, cs, or cs. may refer to: Job titles * Chief Secretary (Hong Kong) * Chief superintendent, a rank in the British and several other police forces * Company secretary, a senior position in a private sector company or public se ...

' ''Narnia'' series.

Early life

Bles read Greats at

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...

, followed by entry to the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

.Hooper, Walter. (2004) ''Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, The: Books, Broadcasts and the War, 1931–1949''. London:

Harper Collins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp ...

, p. 554. During the First World War he was commissioned into the Indian Army Reserve of Officers in October 1917 and was attached to the 17th Cavalry,

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

, in November 1917.''The Star and Crescent'' by Major F. C. C. Yeats-Brown He served in the Political Department in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

in 1918 before demobilization in June 1919 and returning to the Indian Civil Service. On 3 January 1920, he married Evelyn Constance Halse.

Publishing career

Bles entered publishing in 1923. Geoffrey Bles Limited were general publishers, but with a specialism in religion and translated works. Among the authors Bles published were:

, J.B. Phillips,

Cecil Street Cecil John Charles Street (3 May 1884 – 8 December 1964), who was known to his colleagues, family and friends as John Street, began his military career as an artillery officer in the British Army. During the course of World War I, he became a ...

Mabel Lethbridge Mabel Florence Lethbridge BEM (7 July 1900 – 14 July 1968) was a 20th-century English writer and business woman. She was the youngest person at the time to receive the British Empire Medal, an award affiliated to the Order of the British Empir ...

Halliday Sutherland Halliday Gibson Sutherland (1882–1960) was a Scottish medical doctor, writer, opponent of eugenics and the producer of Britain's first public health education cinema film in 1911. Private life Halliday Sutherland was born in Glasgow, Scotland ...

Vicki Baum Hedwig "Vicki" Baum (; he, ויקי באום; January 24, 1888 – August 29, 1960) was an Austrian writer. She is known for the novel ''Menschen im Hotel'' ("People at a Hotel", 1929 — published in English as ''Grand Hotel (novel), Gran ...

,"Mr. Geoffrey Bles." Sir James Hutchinson, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 6 April 1957, p. 11. The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved 2 September 2014. and

Maria von Trapp Baroness Maria Augusta von Trapp DHS (; 26 January 1905 – 28 March 1987) was the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers. She wrote ''The Story of the Trapp Family Singers'', which was published in 1949 and was the inspiratio ...

. Baum's ''Grand Hotel'' (1930), originally published in German, was a huge commercial success for Bles. Bles was introduced to C.S. Lewis through his employee Ashley Sampson (1900–1947) who owned the Centenary Press. Bles bought that company and merged it with his own, thus acquiring Lewis as an author. Lewis's key religious work, ''

The Problem of Pain ''The Problem of Pain'' is a 1940 book on the problem of evil by C. S. Lewis, in which Lewis argues that human pain, animal pain, and hell are not sufficient reasons to reject belief in a good and powerful God. Lewis states that his writing ...

'', was published jointly by Bles and Centenary Press in 1940, as were his '' Beyond Personality: The Christian Idea of God'' (1944) and ''The Great Divorce: A Dream'' (1945). Bles published on his own Lewis' ''

The Screwtape Letters ''The Screwtape Letters'' is a Christian apologetic novel by C. S. Lewis and dedicated to J. R. R. Tolkien. It is written in a satirical, epistolary style and while it is fictional in format, the plot and characters are used to address Chris ...

'' (1942), '' The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'' (1950), and the next four in the Narnia series up to ''

The Horse and his Boy ''The Horse and His Boy'' is a novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1954. Of the seven novels that comprise ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956), ''The Horse and His Boy'' was the fifth to be published. The nov ...

'' (1954). For the last two books in the series Lewis moved to

Bodley Head The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name was used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books from 1987 to 2008. In April 2008, it was revived as an adul ...

.Scott, Jonathan. (2009) ''The Rare Book Price Guide 2010''. London:

Diamond Publishing Metropolis International Group Limited, established in 1994, is a predominantly UK-based media and technology group specialising in business, consumer, and travel media including awards, events, websites, business software, and reward and benefi ...

, p. 420. William Collins publishers bought the firm of Geoffrey Bles in 1953, and Bles retired within a year or two. Books continued to be published under the Bles imprint into the 1970s.Geoffrey Bles.
Aust Lit. Retrieved 2 September 2014. The Garnstone Press purchased the Geoffrey Bles name from Collins in 1971."Sir Ian Anstruther of that Ilk." Michael Balfour, ''The Times'', 11 August 2007, p. 60. The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved 2 September 2014. Following his death, correspondents commented in ''The Times'' on his personal suitability to the

genteel Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies ''Gentry'', in its widest co ...

world of literary publishing.

Outside publishing

Bles was a member of the board of

Charing Cross Hospital Charing Cross Hospital is an acute general teaching hospital located in Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom. The present hospital was opened in 1973, although it was originally established in 1818, approximately five miles east, in central Lond ...

for many years."Mr. Geoffrey Bles." J.G.L., ''The Times'', 8 April 1957, p. 14. The Times Digital Archive. Retrieved 2 September 2014. His great nephew is the writer William Mortimer Moore whose ''Free France's Lion: The Life of Philippe Leclerc, de Gaulle's Greatest General'' was published in 2011 and is dedicated to Bles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bles, Geoffrey 1957 deaths 1886 births British publishers (people) Indian Civil Service (British India) officers Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom British Indian Army officers