An Occupation For Gentlemen
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Jacket: worn/faded, chipping and tears but still structural (refer to image). Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.
At a time when British publishing was equal parts gentlemen's club and cultural battleground, Fredric Warburg stood at the centre of it all — a publisher of towering conviction who championed some of the twentieth century's most controversial and consequential writers. An Occupation for Gentlemen is a candid memoir that chronicles Warburg's remarkable career at Secker & Warburg, detailing his personal crusade to bring works of genuine literary merit to a reading public not always ready to receive them. With disarming wit and precise recollection, he reconstructs the inner workings of the publishing trade — its commercial pressures, its editorial battles, and its occasional moments of triumph — painting a vivid portrait of London's literary world in the mid-twentieth century. Warburg's memoir is both a personal testament and a document of cultural history, illuminating the immense courage required to publish authors such as George Orwell, Ignazio Silone, and Colette at a time when the establishment recoiled from the unconventional. His prose is assured and anecdotal, carrying the authority of a man who understood that publishing was not merely a business but a civilising mission. For anyone captivated by the hidden machinery behind great literature, this account raises an irresistible question: just how much of the twentieth century's literary canon exists because one stubborn gentleman refused to yield?
Author: Fredric Warburg
Format: Hardback
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Condition: Good to fair. Jacket: worn/faded, chipping and tears but still structural (refer to image). Page Condition: Good - possible tanning. Markings: possible previous owner inscription.
At a time when British publishing was equal parts gentlemen's club and cultural battleground, Fredric Warburg stood at the centre of it all — a publisher of towering conviction who championed some of the twentieth century's most controversial and consequential writers. An Occupation for Gentlemen is a candid memoir that chronicles Warburg's remarkable career at Secker & Warburg, detailing his personal crusade to bring works of genuine literary merit to a reading public not always ready to receive them. With disarming wit and precise recollection, he reconstructs the inner workings of the publishing trade — its commercial pressures, its editorial battles, and its occasional moments of triumph — painting a vivid portrait of London's literary world in the mid-twentieth century. Warburg's memoir is both a personal testament and a document of cultural history, illuminating the immense courage required to publish authors such as George Orwell, Ignazio Silone, and Colette at a time when the establishment recoiled from the unconventional. His prose is assured and anecdotal, carrying the authority of a man who understood that publishing was not merely a business but a civilising mission. For anyone captivated by the hidden machinery behind great literature, this account raises an irresistible question: just how much of the twentieth century's literary canon exists because one stubborn gentleman refused to yield?