Gordon Fraser (26 February 1911 – 27 June 1981) was a British publisher and literary editor. Through his eponymous gallery, he is considered to have "revolutionized greetings card design and quality".

Biography

Fraser was born of a Scottish father and English mother and brought up in England.
, Sharmanka. He was educated at

Oundle School Oundle School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire, England. The school has been governed by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City ...

and

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

.Room, Adrian
"Fraser, Gordon (1911–1981)"
in H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (eds), ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online edn, edited by Lawrence Goldman, October 2009 (accessed 3 September 2015). A student of

F. R. Leavis Frank Raymond "F. R." Leavis (14 July 1895 – 14 April 1978) was an English literary critic of the early-to-mid-twentieth century. He taught for much of his career at Downing College, Cambridge, and later at the University of York. Leavis ra ...

, he founded, while still an undergraduate,

The Minority Press The Minority Press was a short-lived British publishing house founded in 1930 by Gordon Fraser (1911–1981) while he was an undergraduate student at St. John's College (Cambridge). Fraser was an undergraduate student of F. R. Leavis. The Min ...

, which published chiefly essays of Leavis and works of other Cambridge students from 1930 to 1933. The role of Fraser and The Minority Press in British literary criticism has been described by Ian Duncan MacKillop. In 1935, Fraser set up a bookshop in Portugal Place, Cambridge, combining it with a small gallery of fine art prints, and in 1938 he introduced his first Christmas greetings cards. He founded a greetings card company bearing his name, the Gordon Fraser Gallery, which was located on Fitzroy Road,

Primrose Hill Primrose Hill is a Grade II listed public park located north of Regent's Park in London, England, first opened to the public in 1842.Mills, A., ''Dictionary of London Place Names'', (2001) It was named after the natural hill in the centre of ...

, London. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he served as an intelligence officer in north Africa and worked with the partisan underground in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. He was Head of Radio for

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

from 1948 to 1954. He resigned to return to the Gordon Fraser Gallery, and later founded two other publishing houses, The Fraser Press and Gordon Fraser, that specialized in off-beat topics. Fraser was killed in an automobile accident in June 1981. Fraser was a polyglot and knew both Marx and the Presbyterian Bible "par coeur".

Personal life

He married Nancy Katharine Jones in 1936 and had two children, Margaret and Ian.

Legacy

The Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust, created in 1966, makes donations to charities, considering applications quarterly.Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust.
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Gordon 1911 births 1981 deaths People educated at Oundle School Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge British publishers (people) Road incident deaths in England British Army personnel of World War II Intelligence Corps officers People from Leeds UNESCO officials