Stanley Unwin (publisher)

Sir Stanley Unwin (19 December 1884 – 13 October 1968) was a British publisher, founder of the George Allen and Unwin house in 1914. This published serious and sometimes controversial authors like Bertrand Russell and Mahatma Gandhi.

Unwin lived for some years in Handen Road in Lee in south-east London. His niece was the children's writer Ursula Moray Williams.

In 1936 J. R. R. Tolkien submitted The Hobbit for publication, and Unwin paid his ten-year-old son Rayner Unwin a shilling to write a report on the manuscript. Rayner's favourable response prompted Unwin to publish the book. Once the book became a success Unwin asked Tolkien for a sequel, which eventually became The Lord of the Rings.

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  His former home in Handen rd, London

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  Blue Plaque on his former home

References

• Robin Denniston, ‘Unwin, Sir Stanley (1884–1968)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 11 Jan 2008

External links

• Works by or about Stanley Unwin in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors