Harry Sidney Nichols (14 August 1865 – 30 November 1941) was an English publisher of erotica. Nichols was born in Wortley,

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, Yorkshire, the son of glass merchant William Nichols and his wife, Mary Hartley Nichols. He went into business as antiquarian book dealer, but he made his fortune as a

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

publisher and printer of high-end

erotica Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use a ...

in partnership with

Leonard Smithers Leonard Charles Smithers (19 December 1861 – 19 December 1907) was a London bookseller and publisher associated with the Decadent movement. Biography Born in Sheffield, Smithers worked as a solicitor, qualifying in 1884,Jon R. Godsall, ''Th ...

which included such works as Sir

Richard Francis Burton Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, orientalist scholar,and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary kn ...

's translation of the '' Book of One Thousand and One Nights''. In 1888 they formed the

Erotika Biblion Society The Erotika Biblion Society General Germany was a pornographic publishing imprint in Victorian London formed by Harry Sidney Nichols and Leonard Smithers in 1898. They formed their name from the 1898 nonfiction treatise of the saint name under ...

, for which Smithers acted as printer. Under threat of arrest under strict Victorian pornography laws, Nichols went into exile in Paris from 1900 to 1908, publishing by mail-order to England. In 1908, Nichols, being threatened with extradition to England, migrated to

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. His mistress, Annie, pregnant with twin daughters, Aimee and Marcia, followed him shortly. Nichols continued to publish erotica until 1939, when he was committed to Bellevue Mental Hospital, where he died in 1941.''New York, New York, Extracted Death Index, 1862-1948''

References

External links

''The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night'' Vol VI translated by Richard F. Burton on The Internet Archive
Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom British book publishers (people) 1865 births 1941 deaths People from Wortley, Leeds British expatriates in the United States British expatriates in France {{publish-bio-stub

References

Further reading

External links