Henderson's, better known as The Bomb Shop, was a

bookshop Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librar ...

at 66

Charing Cross Road Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus (the intersection with Oxford Street) and then becomes Tottenham Court Road. It leads from the north in the direction ...

, London known for publishing and selling both radical left and anarchist writing and modernist literature. The shop was founded in 1909, and was a father and son operation run by Francis Riddell Henderson, formerly the London representative of Walter Scott Publishing. The shop was bought by Eva Collet Reckitt, and became the first of the Collet's chain of left-wing bookshops.

Shop

Few records exist of Francis Henderson's early life, but he had connections with Russian émigrés and developed a passion for

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were composed. By the ...

, especially the works of Tolstoy. This drew him into the circle of Vladimir Chertkov, a prominent Tolstoyan and a pacifist anarchist, and from there into London's radical scene. Henderson demanded that Walter Scott publish

Louise Maude Aylmer Maude (28 March 1858 – 25 August 1938) and Louise Maude (1855–1939) were English translators of Leo Tolstoy's works, and Aylmer Maude also wrote his friend Tolstoy's biography, ''The Life of Tolstoy''. After living many years in Russi ...

's translation of the Tolstoy novel ''

Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, whic ...

'' in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired ...

with the legend "no rights reserved" – when Walter Scott refused, Henderson left to start his own printing press which developed into a bookshop for radical writing. The advertising potential of the shop's nickname was quickly recognised, and both adverts and

imprints Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

proudly bear the text 'The Bomb Shop'. This boldness extended to the shop itself, which was painted in a red and gold

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

style by

Walter Crane Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Ka ...

and prominently featured the names of past rebels – a target for

vandals The Vandals were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal Kingdom, Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The ...

politically opposed to the Bomb Shop, who would repaint it in blue and white and sometimes break in and destroy the interior. There were many rooms above Henderson's, and these proved to be excellent hiding places for fugitives. The suffragist Hugh Franklin hid out at Henderson's for two months after setting fire to a railway carriage in protest for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. The shop also proved to be radical in its acceptance of technology. The first Penguincubator, an early book

vending machine A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The fi ...

developed by

Allen Lane Sir Allen Lane (born Allen Lane Williams; 21 September 1902 – 7 July 1970) was a British publisher who together with his brothers Richard and John Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fict ...

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.Brotherhood Church). In Henderson's hands, the Brotherhood's profits and donations became a source of income to fund his own

. Henderson claimed his press ran at significant losses due to his copyright-waiver, but his refusal to pay authors their royalties or to repay the Maudes' loans to the press caused significant trouble in the Tolstoyan community and fed the growing schism surrounding Chertkov.Carol L. Peaker (2007), ''Ibid''., page 191–193 Henderson eventually lost the rights to Maude's translation of ''Resurrection'', and Chertkov took greater control over Tolstoyan publishing.

Self-publishing Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pri ...

through Henderson's provided an outlet for suppressed voices and for many respected writers who were unable to publish their more radical writing through their usual channels. Authors published by Henderson's include Miles Malleson, who wrote ''Cranks and Commonsense'' in defence of conscientious objection as well as ''Two Short Plays: Patriotic and Unpatriotic'', which was later confiscated by the police in a raid in 1916; Osbert Sitwell, whose first poetry collection ''The Winstonburg Line'' was submitted to Henderson's by

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both describ ...

;

Louis Golding Louis Golding (19 November 1895 – 9 August 1958) was an English writer, very famous in his time especially for his novels, though he is now largely neglected; he wrote also short stories, essays, fantasies, travel books, and poetry. Life Bor ...

and

Louis Esson Thomas Louis Buvelot Esson (10 August 1878 – 27 November 1943) was an Australian poet, journalist, critic and playwright. He was a co-founder of the Pioneer Players. His second wife, Hilda Esson (nee Bull), had a career in theatre besides work ...

. Outside the world of politics, Henderson's also contributed to the then-burgeoning

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

movement through publishing the periodical ''Coterie'', a quarterly journal of poetry, prose, literary criticism and art from authors and artists including T. S. Eliot,

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the prominent Huxle ...

Amy Lowell Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926. Life Amy Lowell was born on Febr ...

, Richard Aldington, Douglas Goldring,

Edward Wadsworth Edward Alexander Wadsworth (29 October 1889 – 21 June 1949) was an English artist, closely associated with modernist Vorticism movement. He painted coastal views, abstracts, portraits and still-life in tempera medium and works printed usin ...

, William Roberts,

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (né Gaudier; 4 October 1891 – 5 June 1915) was a French artist and sculptor who developed a rough-hewn, primitive style of direct carving. Biography Henri Gaudier was born in Saint-Jean-de-Braye near Orléans. In 1910, ...

, André Derain, Amedeo Modigliani,

Nina Hamnett Nina Hamnett (14 February 1890 – 16 December 1956) was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors' chanteys, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia. Early life Hamnett was born in Shirley House, Picton Road in the small c ...

, and Moïse Kisling, as well as publishing Thomas Moult's ''Voices'' anthologies. ''

Russian Ballet Russian ballet (russian: Русский балет) (french: Ballet russe) is a form of ballet characteristic of or originating from Russia. Imperial Russian Ballet Until 1689, ballet in Russia was nonexistent (ballet has its origins in the cour ...

'' by

David Bomberg David Garshen Bomberg (5 December 1890 – 19 August 1957) was a British painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys. Bomberg was one of the most audacious of the exceptional generation of artists who studied at the Slade School of Art under Henr ...

, the only surviving

Vorticist Vorticism was a London-based Modernism, modernist art movement formed in 1914 by the writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. The movement was partially inspired by Cubism and was introduced to the public by means of the publication of the Vorticist mani ...

book, was published by Henderson's after Bomberg and his wife were expelled from a performance of '' Ballets Russes'' for attempting to sell a self-published edition. Henderson's had close ties to the publisher

Victor Gollancz Sir Victor Gollancz (; 9 April 1893 – 8 February 1967) was a British publisher and humanitarian. Gollancz was known as a supporter of left-wing causes. His loyalties shifted between liberalism and communism, but he defined himself as a Chris ...

, under whom the

Repton Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 Census was 2,707, increasing to 2,8 ...

school newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related news, but they may also repor ...

''A Public School Looks at the World'' (generally known as ''Pubbers'') was co-published by and sold at Henderson's – an act that cost Gollancz his job. Gollancz went on to be founder of the left-leaning publishing house

Victor Gollancz Ltd Victor Gollancz Ltd () was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century and continues to publish science fiction and fantasy titles as an imprint of Orion Publishing Group. Gollancz was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz, an ...

, and later described Henderson's book selection thus:

References

{{coords, 51.5123, -0.1284, display=title Bookshops in London Independent bookshops of the United Kingdom Anarchism in the United Kingdom Literary modernism Defunct book publishing companies Publishing companies of the United Kingdom Small press publishing companies Bookstores established in the 20th century 1909 establishments in England 1934 disestablishments in England Retail companies established in 1909 British companies established in 1909 British companies disestablished in 1934 Publishing companies established in 1909