Robert Hale Ltd

Robert Hale Limited was a London publisher of fiction and non-fiction books, founded in 1936, and also known as Robert Hale. It was based at Clerkenwell House, Clerkenwell Green. It ceased trading on 1 December 2015 and its imprints were sold to The Crowood Press.

Robert Hale was born in 1887/8, and worked in publishing from leaving school. He was at John Long Ltd., a London firm taken over by Hutchinson & Co. in 1926, when he had become manager there. After the takeover he was managing director of the subsidiary. He moved to Jarrolds Publishing, working with the accountant S. Fowler Wright, another imprint of Hutchinson & Co. In the later 1920s he was a friend of Margery Allingham, a Jarrolds author, and her husband Philip Carter.

Hale left Hutchinson & Co. in 1935, founding a company of his own. It was noted for its prolific list, and tight management. His choice of telegraphic address, "Barabbas", reflected publishing industry cynicism. The partners stated in 1939 were: H. Robert Hale, James Eric Heriot, Theodore MacDonald, and Desmond I. Vesey. Robert Hale died on 20 August 1956, aged 68.

Robert Hale and Company early published authors including Wyndham Lewis.The Vulgar Streak (1941) contained an explanation by Lewis of fascism, as he explained in a letter to Hale; it was a commission from 1937, working title Men at Bay. In the meantime The Mysterious Mr Bull (Robert Hale, 1938), a satire against the political left, had appeared.

Berthold Brecht's Threepenny Novel appeared in English translation (by Desmond Vesey) in 1937, published by Robert Hale as A Penny for the Poor. Vesey denied to Brecht, on behalf of the publisher, that its political content had been toned down.The Spanish Arena (1938) by William Foss and Cecil Gerahty had a preface by Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 17th Duke of Alba, then representative in London of Francisco Franco. Its claims of a "Jewish conspiracy" among journalists opposed to Franco led to legal action by Reuters. Hale withdrew the book, and an edited edition was published by the Right Book Club.

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