Allen & Unwin
George Allen & Unwin is a British publishing company formed in 1914 after Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It established an Australian subsidiary in 1976. In 1990 Allen & Unwin was sold to HarperCollins, and the Australian branch was the subject of a management buy-out.
Also recorded as Allen & Unwin Australia Pty Ltd · Allen and Unwin · G. Allen and Unwin
Allen & Unwin
WebGoddess83 · Allen Unwin publicity shot 2013 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Founded
- 1976.
- Headquarters
- Crows Nest.
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George Allen & Unwin is a British publishing company formed in 1914 after Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It established an Australian subsidiary in 1976. In 1990 Allen & Unwin was sold to HarperCollins, and the Australian branch was the subject of a management buy-out.
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Allen & Unwin was founded in 1976, with headquarters in Crows Nest. It is a member of Australian Publishers Association and Publishers Association of New Zealand.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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In this article
George Allen & Unwin in the UK
George Allen & Unwin in the UK
George Allen & Sons was established in 1871 by George Allen, with the backing of John Ruskin, becoming George Allen & Co. Ltd. in 1911 when it merged with Swan Sonnenschein and then George Allen & Unwin on 4 August 1914 as a result of Stanley Unwin's purchase of a controlling interest. Frank Arthur Mumby and Frances Helena Swan Stallybrass, Unwin's son Rayner S. Unwin and his nephew Philip helped him to run the company, which published works by Bertrand Russell, Arthur Waley, Roald Dahl, Lancelot Hogben and Thor Heyerdahl. It became well known as J. R. R. Tolkien's publisher some time after publishing the popular children's fantasy novel The Hobbit in 1937, and its high fantasy sequel The Lord of the Rings novel in 1954–1955. Book series published by the firm in this period included the Muirhead Library of Philosophy and Unwin Books, a paperback imprint. Rayner Unwin retired at the end of 1985, and the firm was amalgamated in 1986 with Bell & Hyman to form Unwin Hyman Ltd., with Robin Hyman as chief executive. From this time "Allen & Unwin" continued only as the name of the Australian subsidiary of Unwin Hyman. Rayner Unwin returned for a while as part-time chairman of Unwin Hyman, retiring again at the end of 1988. It was over the objections of Rayner Unwin, the largest shareholder, that in 1990 Hyman sold the firm to HarperCollins. HarperCollins has since sold Unwin Hyman's academic book list to Routledge.
Allen & Unwin in Australia
Allen & Unwin in Australia
Allen & Unwin Australia Pty Ltd became independent in July 1990 by means of a management buy-out after the UK firm was bought by HarperCollins. Now known simply as "Allen & Unwin", the company went on to become the most successful "independent" publisher in Australia. It currently publishes up to 250 new titles a year. Among the many authors published by Allen & Unwin are Alex Miller, Christos Tsiolkas, Garth Nix, Jodi Picoult, Kate Morton, Michael Connelly, Thomas Keneally, Peter Corris, Paul Keating, Stephanie Dowrick and Christopher Hitchens. Allen & Unwin is also co-sponsor and publisher of the annual Australian/Vogel Literary Award. In 2017, Allen & Unwin refused to publish the book Silent Invasion due to legal concerns that it "would be targeted by Beijing and its proxies in Australia." Allen & Unwin's Australian logo was designed by in-house designer Nada Backovic.
Institutional history
Dated record
Institutional history
The full dated record · 2 entries
1976
Allen & Unwin established.
1976
Allen & Unwin is recorded from 1976.
Unwin Books
When Allen & Unwin began publishing paperbacks in the 1960s they did so in an imprint Unwin Books - this mass market sell through subsidiary became a publisher in the nascent alternative culture of the 1960s through the publication of books on philosophy and politics including Marx, Trotsky, Freud, Alan Wood, Zen Buddhism and Yoga, and literature of the far east notably the Chinese translations of Arthur Waley, Russian and Indian writers and the work of Tolkien. Each book in the series was numbered and through the 60s each book contained a full list of the other titles numbering in excess of 80. A separate numbered list Unwin University Book was launched in 1962 comprising academic titles beginning with Barbara Wootton's The Social Foundations of Wage Policy. In the 1970s a further list was formed, Unicorn Books, around the posthumous publications of Tolkien, supported by a series of other fantasy works by other authors including Lord Dunsany.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q56677707: Allen & Unwin
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Allen & Unwin”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 7701946-5, George Allen & Unwin.
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Rights & international sales
- 2.Allen, George. 12.
- 3.George Allen and Unwin, Austlit. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
- 4.From Swan Sonnenschein to George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London: Allen & Unwin, 1955, pp. 7–8.
- 5.Unwin Books (George Allen & Unwin) – Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
- 6.Smith, Anthony. Rayner Unwin. The Guardian. 2000-11-27.
- 7.FOB Search Results 191 – 200 of 409
- 8.Welch, Dylan. Chinese agents 'infiltrating church groups to undermine Australia's sovereignty'. ABC News. 2018-02-22.
- 9.Australian Book on China's 'Silent Invasion' Withdrawn At Last Minute Amid Legal Threats. Radio Free Asia. 13 November 2017.
- 10.About 25 years ago I designed the Allen & Unwin logo. I had just arrived in Australia from the UK, with a portfolio of books designed for Random House. It was difficult here. There were no in-house… Nada Backovic 12 comments. LinkedIn.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 5
- University of Reading. Records of George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
- Frank Arthur Mumby and Frances Helena Swan Stallybrass, From Swan Sonnenschein to George Allen & Unwin Ltd. London: Allen & Unwin, 1955. With an introduction by Dr. John Murray.
- Philip Unwin, The Publishing Unwins (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1972)
- Rayner Unwin, George Allen and Unwin: A Remembrancer (Ludlow: Merlin Unwin, 1999)
- Stanley Unwin, The Truth About a Publisher (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1960)
References
Citations
References
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scholarly publication
Institutional witnessauthority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 7701946-5, George Allen & Unwin.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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