John Lane (14 March 1854 – 2 February 1925) was a British publisher who co-founded
The 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 ...
with
Charles Elkin Mathews
Charles Elkin Mathews (1851 – 10 November 1921) was a British publisher and bookseller who played an important role in the literary life of London in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Mathews was born in Gravesend, and learned his tra ...
.
Career
Originally from
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, where he was born into a farming family, Lane moved to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...
in his teens. While working as a
clerk
A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...
at the
Railway Clearing House
The Railway Clearing House (RCH) was an organisation set up to manage the allocation of revenue collected by pre-grouping railway companies for the conveyance of passengers and goods over the lines (or using the rolling stock) of other compani ...
, he acquired knowledge as an
autodidact
Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, autodidacts are individu ...
.
After entering the London book trade, in 1887 he became co-founder with Elkin Mathews of
The 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 ...
which originally was a bookshop dealing in antiquarian books. In 1894, still operating under the name of The Bodley Head, they began to
publish
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
books. Mathews left shortly afterwards and began to publish on his own as Elkin Mathews Ltd. and "returned to a great concentration on bookselling".
Lane continued to publish as The Bodley Head and under the name John Lane. He is mainly associated with publishing controversial and audacious texts, especially for a small, sophisticated audience. Examples are the periodical ''
The Yellow Book
''The Yellow Book'' was a British quarterly literary periodical that was published in London from 1894 to 1897. It was published at The Bodley Head Publishing House by Elkin Mathews and John Lane, and later by John Lane alone, and edited by th ...
'' (
1894
Events January–March
* January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire.
* January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United S ...
-
1897
Events
January–March
* January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City.
* January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a puni ...
) and Lane's Keynotes Series, which included contentious material such as
Grant Allen
Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen (February 24, 1848 – October 25, 1899) was a Canadian science writer and novelist, educated in England. He was a public promoter of evolution in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Biography Early life a ...
's novel ''
The Woman Who Did
''The Woman Who Did'' (1895) is a novel by Grant Allen about a young, self-assured bourgeoisie, middle-class woman who defies convention as a matter of principle and who is fully prepared to suffer the consequences of her actions. It was first pu ...
'' (
1895
Events
January–March
* January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
* January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...
The Woman Who Didn't
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' (
1895
Events
January–March
* January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
* January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...
Amber Reeves
Amber Blanco White (' Reeves; 1 July 1887 – 26 December 1981) was a New Zealand-born British feminist writer and scholar.
Early life
Reeves was born in Christchurch, New Zealand,
the eldest of three children
of Fabian feminist Maud Pember Re ...
, ''
The New Machiavelli
''The New Machiavelli'' is a 1911 novel by H. G. Wells that was serialised in ''The English Review'' in 1910. Because its plot notoriously derived from Wells's affair with Amber Reeves and satirised Beatrice and Sidney Webb, it was "the literar ...
'' (
1911
A notable ongoing event was the race for the South Pole.
Events January
* January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are added to the Commonwealth of Australia.
* ...
).
Personal life
On 13 August 1898, John Lane married Annie Philippine King, the widow of Tyler Batcheller King and the daughter of
Julius Eichberg
Julius Eichberg (13 June 1824 – 19 January 1893) was a German-born composer, musical director and educator who worked mostly in Boston, Massachusetts.
Biography
Julius Eichberg was born in Düsseldorf, Germany to a Jewish family. His first mu ...
. Annie Lane was author of ''To Thee, O Country'' (national hymn) and of the books ''Brown's Retreat'', ''Kitwyk'' (published by John Lane in 1903), ''The Champagne Standard'', ''Talk of the Town'' and ''According to Maria''.
His nephews,
Allen Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to:
Buildings
* Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee
* Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas
* Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Univer ...
, Richard and John Lane, founded
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Bayswater, London. He was cremated at
Golders Green
Golders Green is an area in the London Borough of Barnet in England. A smaller suburban linear settlement, near a farm and public grazing area green of medieval origins, dates to the early 19th century. Its bulk forms a late 19th century and ea ...
, and his ashes were interred at St Nectan's Church in the hamlet of Stoke, near
Hartland, Devon
The village of Hartland, whose parish incorporates the hamlet of Stoke to the west and the village of Meddon in the south, is the most north-westerly settlement in the county of Devon, England.
Now a large village which acts as a centre for a ...
. In the St Nectan's churchyard, there is a stone seat commemorating various members of the Lane family.
Book series published by John Lane
* The Country HandbooksPublisher's advertisement in: Rosa Newmarch ''Henry J. Wood'' London and New York: John Lane, 1904. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
* Handbooks of Practical Gardening
* Keynote Series
* The Library of Golden Thoughts
* Living Masters of Music
* The Music of the MastersPublisher's advertisement in: Rosa Newmarch ''Poetry and Progress in Russia'' London and New York: John Lane, 1907. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...