From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
British publisher
Anthony Richard James Wylie Godwin
(17 December 1919
[1]
? 15 March 1976)
[2]
was an influential
British
publisher of the 1960s/1970s. His contribution to the publishing industry is recognized in the form of the
Tony Godwin Memorial Trust
.
Born in
Ledbury
, he started the
avant-garde
bookshop
Better Books
in
Charing Cross Road
, where author
Barry Miles
worked.
[3]
He also ran
Bumpus Books
and the
City Bookshop
in
London
.
In May 1960, Godwin was recruited to join the senior editorial group at
Penguin Books
and rose to Chief Editor. He sought to update editorial and design policies. With this aim in mind, he hired
Germano Facetti
in January 1961, who replaced the original Penguin cover design system with the grid layout. He also brought in another designer
Alan Aldridge
who pushed for a more radical transformation.
[4]
Godwin established the
Penguin Modern Classics
subseries in 1961 and The English Library series in 1965.
[5]
In 1967, Godwin published Penguin's English edition of acclaimed French cartoonist
Sine
's periodical
Massacre
. It contained
anti-clerical
cartoons and
Foyles
book store chain refused to stock the book. A row over the book led to Godwin being fired by Penguin's founder, Allen Lane.
[6]
Godwin went on to become managing director of publisher
Weidenfeld and Nicolson
, and in 1972 crossed the Atlantic to start his own imprint under the umbrella of American publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch. Godwin published many high-profile writers such as
Edna O'Brien
and Len Deighton.
[7]
Marriage
[
edit
]
In 1961, Godwin married his second wife,
Fay Godwin
, who became a successful landscape photographer after they separated in 1969. They had two sons Nicholas and Jeremy.
[8]
Nicholas went on to become a documentary maker.
[
citation needed
]
Death
[
edit
]
Godwin died suddenly in
New York City
in 1976 from an asthma attack, aged 56. Novelist
John Berger
said of Godwin, "[N]ow that he is dead I feel like an orphan."
[9]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
1939 England and Wales Register
- ^
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858?1966, 1973-1995
- ^
"Many Years From Now". Barry Miles
- ^
Germano Facetti | Times Online Obituary
- ^
Guide to the Donald and Katharine Foley Collection of Penguin Books, 1935?1965
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
The Penguin story?Pearson and the New World
Archived
16 November 2007 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Korda, Michael (1999).
Another life : a memoir of other people
(1st ed.). New York: Random House.
ISBN
0679456597
.
- ^
Ian Jeffrey, "
Fay Godwin: Photographic chronicler of our changing natural world
" (obituary),
The Guardian
, 31 May 2005.
- ^
Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia