Robert Holden & Co. Ltd. (London, UK)
Series dates: 1927
Size: 6″ x 9″
Updated 7/29/2024
Robert Holden & Co. Ltd. (1923-1927) originates in publisher Holden & Hardingham Ltd. (1912-1923). Holden & Hardingham Ltd. was started by Harry Rose Holden (H.R. Holden) and former Hutchinson & Co. employee H. Hardingham. The firm was initially announced as Hardingham & Holden but switched names to Holden & Hardingham Ltd. before publishing its first titles in 1912. Holden and Hardingham Ltd. went bankrupt in 1922. Out of the ashes emerged Robert Holden & Co. Ltd. That firm would itself collapse in 1927 and be liquidated in 1928
H. (Henry) Hardingham worked for Hutchinson & Co. as early as 1907 in an unidentified but seemingly high position. The Bookseller (March 8, 1912) announced that: “Mr. H. Hardingham has resigned his position at Messrs. Hutchinson’s to take up a partnership with Mr. H.R. Holden, to carry on a business as general publishers and exporters under the name of Hardingham and Holden at 12 York Buildings, Adelphi.”
Books appeared with the switched name Holden & Hardingham Ltd. in 1912.
The firm published Hardingham’s Sixpenny Novels (1912-1915). It would initiate the Nature Lovers’ Library in 1916 (see below). Those seem to be the only series published by Holden and Hardingham Ltd.
The Bookseller (Aug. 15, 1913) announced that “Mr. Harry Rose Holden, who was partner in the firm, retired as of January 31st last. The business continues under the style of Holden and Hardingham, with Mr. H. Hardingham as Managing Partner.”
According to the announcement below, the firm was incorporated in November 1915. An earlier incorporation likely occurred before the firm began in 1912, with Holden and Hardingham as directors.
Hardingham and W. Boud are the initial two directors of this new 1915 incorporation, sans Holden. Besides the role at Holden and Hardingham, I cannot find anything else about “W. Boud.”
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The World’s Paper Trade Review, November 5, 1915. Also British and Colonial Printer and Stationer, October 28, 1915. |
Henry Hardingham left Holden and Hardingham Ltd. in 1919, as evidenced by this advertisement of his own list of titles and new address in London.
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The Bookseller, 1919. |
Holden and Hardingham Ltd. continued publishing after Hardingham’s 1919 departure. The firm, at this point, had neither a Holden nor Hardingham present.
Holden and Hardingham Ltd. entered bankruptcy in April of 1922:
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The Law Times, April 8, 1922 |
In March 1922, Holden & Hardingham Ltd. was being “wound up,” as indicated in this April 4 entry in the London Gazette. Books would continue to be issued under the Holden & Hardinham Ltd. imprint until 1923.
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The London Gazette, April 4, 1922 |
Robert Holden & Co. Ltd. began publishing books and advertising in early 1923, located at 12 York Buildings, Adelphi, in London. This was the same address used by the earlier Holden and Hardinham Ltd. In early October of 1924, the address changed to 31 Gower St. in London. As far as I can find, there was no Holden involved, and “Robert Holden” was simply a made-up name for the firm.
A bridge between the earlier Holden and Hardinham Co. and later Robert Holden Co. is the Nature Lovers’ Library (1916-1925). The series, aimed at a juvenile audience, reached 14 volumes before Holden and Hardingham Ltd. ceased publishing in 1923. Robert Holden & Co. Ltd. continued publishing the series to volume #23 (1925).
The peak year of publications was 1927 when the firm collapsed, according to a brief biography of Bertie van Thal (editor of the book shown below): “…he finally managed to lodge himself in the publishing company of Robert Holden & Co., which collapsed on him only seven months later.” (The Bookseller, August 28, 1971). The managing editor of Robert Holden Co. Ltd. at the time was J. Duncan Miller. van Thal seems to have devoted a chapter to Robert Holden & Co. Ltd. in his autobiography The Tops of the Mulberry Trees (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1971).
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Notice of voluntary liquidation of Robert Holden & Co. Ltd. from the London Gazette, December 14, 1928. |
Company director J. Duncan Miller was shopping around the assets of the defunct Holden firm in 1927. For example, see a letter to Grant Richards and the Richards Press: “Holden (Robert) & Co., Ltd. 2 TLS J. Duncan Miller to Richards Press, Ltd., 20 October and 23 November 1927 — 12.6.” Thanks to David Paul Wagner for this information, as well as the bankruptcy notices.
The firm’s stock and assets (and location on Gower St.) were acquired by the UK office of Brentano’s publishing firm.
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From T.P.’s Weekly for June 9, 1928. |
In its five years of existence, Holden issued at least ten series, including Fortune Play Books (4 titles, 1926-1927), the Gentle Art Series (2 titles, 1927), Holden’s Popular Editions (2 titles, 1925), Horrid Novels Series (2 titles, 1927), the Library of English Literature series (1 title, 1927), the Library of Imposters Series (2 titles, 1926), the Lyceum Library (2 titles, 1925), the Nature Lovers’ Library (juvenile, 7 titles, 1923-1925; a continuation of a series began by the firm of Holden & Hardingham Ltd.), and Plays for the Theatre of Tomorrow (2 titles, 1927). The Covent Garden Series of Restoration Plays, described here, had only a single title.
The initial (and only) title in the Covent Garden Series of Restoration Plays was Sir Samuel Tuke’s The Adventures of Five Hours, edited by B. van Thal and issued in 1927. It lacks a year of publication (causing some confusion in WorldCat). Multiple contemporary sources, however, announce its publication in 1927. Two more titles were to be published in the early spring of 1928: The Carnival, by Thomas Porter, and The Female Prelate, by Elkanah Settle (London Mercury, Nov. 19, 1927). These two “ghost titles” were also listed on the back of the jacket from the book shown below. Neither title was issued by Holden nor any other firm around that time.
The jacket is on kraft paper, originally pinkish in tone (as seen on the front jacket flap). The title, author, and publisher are included on the spine. The series name heads the front of the jacket, along with the editor, B. van Thal.
After WW2, van Thal established Home & van Thal, which published the English Novelists Series (1947-1949). van Thal was also the series editor of publisher Anthony Blonde’s Doughty Library (1966-1968).
The front jacket flap includes a blurb about the title and price, 7s. 6d. net.
The rear jacket flap advertises titles in the Fortune Playbooks series, the three planned titles in the Covent Garden Series (of Restoration Plays), and the two titles issued in the Plays for the Theatre of Tomorrow series. The rear jacket flap advertises A Book of Sea Plays, published in 1926. The Gower St. address is included at the bottom of the rear jacket flap.
The book is quarter-bound in brown with gold and black typography, which makes it very sturdy. Curiously, only London is included (rather than the Publisher’s name) at the base of the book spine.
Blank endpapers:
The half-title page:
The title page includes the series editor and Holden imprint. There is no date on the title page or following copyright page.
“Printed in England at the Westminster Press 411A Harrow Road London, W.9”
The Westminster Press imprint is included on the last page of the book.
