Lionel Leventhal

Lionel Leventhal is a British publisher of books on military history and related topics, whose eponymous company was established in 1967.

After working in a bookshop (1954-1956), Leventhal joined the publishing company of Herbert Jenkins Ltd, best known as the publisher of P. G. Wodehouse, and published his first military book in 1960. After a short time with Paul Hamlyn (1964-1966) he set up Arms & Armour Press in 1966.

Lionel Leventhal Limited came into being in 1967 as the holding company for the various publishing and other book related companies run by its eponymous owner.

Founded at a time when few new publishing houses were being established, Arms and Armour Press began on Leventhal’s kitchen table, but grew rapidly to be one of the UK’s leading publishers of militaria and military history, with a stable of authors including some of the most renowned specialists in the field, including Ian V. Hogg, David G. Chandler and Steven Zaloga. In 1984 Arms & Armour Press was sold to Link House Books, which owned seven publishers, including Blandford.

In 1971 Leventhal organised The Specialist Publishers’ Exhibition for Librarians, with 22 exhibitors displaying titles on tabletops. Subsequently, now with business partner, Clive Bingley, he saw the Fair grow and go through a number of development and name changes, finally becoming the London Book Fair in 1977. The London Book Fair was sold in 1985 to Industrial & Trade Fairs (which later became Reed Exhibitions), by which time the number of exhibitors had increased to 520. He was interviewed at the 2017 London Book Fair as part of a surprise celebration of his 80th birthday.

1976 saw the acquisition of Ken Trotman Limited, the leading specialist bookseller of books on militaria, which was sold to its manager, Richard Brown, in 1984.

In 1984 Leventhal started a new publishing imprint, Greenhill Books. Contractually precluded from publishing any new books for a period, he started with three series of reprints of classic aviation, crime and science fiction titles. In 1985, Greenhill launched the Napoleonic Library series of classic military reprints and soon abandoned fiction publishing to concentrate on military history. As with Arms & Armour Press, the imprint grew, eventually reaching a total of almost 700 titles published and attracting a renowned group of authors, including Chaim Herzog, John Elting and Kenneth Macksey. Additionally, the company undertook European and Commonwealth distribution for a number of overseas military history publishers. Lionel Leventhal's son, Michael, joined Greenhill Books in January 2003 and become a Director the following year. In 2007 Greenhill Books split, with contracted but as yet unpublished titles passing to Frontline Books, an imprint of Pen & Sword Books. Lists distributed on behalf of overseas publishers became the basis of a new company, Casemate UK. Lionel Leventhal Limited retains ownership of stocks and copyright licences of books published under the Greenhill Books and Chatham Publishing imprint.

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