Up for auction "London Publisher" Robert Hale Hand Signed TLS Dated 1939.

ES-2664

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.[4] 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. His son, John Hale then took over

the company. 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. Farewell Leicester Square by Betty Miller was published in 1941 The

company went on to publish her three final novels. The firm also published many

of the later novels by Eunice Buckley (pseudonym of Rose Laure Allatini). Robert Hale published in

hardback in the UK the first four Harold Robbins titles, 79 Park Avenue,

Never Love a Stranger, A Stone for Danny Fisher and Never

Leave Me. In 1986 it published Robert Goddard's first novel, Past Caring

. Other authors published in the UK include James Hadley Chase, John D.

MacDonald and Edward Storey.