Wildwood House was a book publishing 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 ...

, England, founded in 1972 by Oliver Caldecott and Dieter Pevsner, who had both worked at

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.Floral Street Floral Street is a narrow street in the Covent Garden area of London, England. It runs east from Garrick Street to Bow Street and contains a number of fashion stores, including Paul Smith. The Upper School of the Royal Ballet School is located ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

. Wildwood House published "an eclectic list that included JP Donleavy and

Studs Terkel Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for '' The Good War'' and is best remembered for his oral his ...

. Wildwood also introduced

Garry Trudeau Garretson Beekman Trudeau (born July 21, 1948) is an American cartoonist, best known for creating the '' Doonesbury'' comic strip. Trudeau is also the creator and executive producer of the Amazon Studios political comedy series ''Alpha House'' ...

Doonesbury ''Doonesbury'' is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States The president ...

cartoon strips to the UK by publishing The People's Doonesbury in 1981, and acted as an early distribution outlet for

Virago A virago is a woman who demonstrates abundant masculine virtues. The word comes from the Latin word ''virāgō'' ( genitive virāginis) meaning vigorous' from ''vir'' meaning "man" or "man-like" (cf. virile and virtue) to which the suffix ''-ā ...

, the feminist publishing house."

Personal life

Oliver Caldecott (1925–1989), who had been chief editor of fiction at Penguin, was married to writer

Moyra Caldecott Moyra Caldecott (1 June 1927 – 23 May 2015)Kevan Manwaring"Moyra Caldecott obituary" ''The Guardian'', 8 June 2005. was a British author of historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction and non-fiction. Her works include ''Guardians of the Tall ...

and they had three children. Dieter Pevsner (1932–2019), whose father was architectural historian Sir

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

, had been editorial director in charge of Penguin's non-fiction Pelican editions, and had three children with his wife Florence.

References

Publishing companies established in 1972 Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Small press publishing companies Defunct companies based in London {{UK-publish-company-stub