Methuen Publishing

• 1. Founding And Early Success

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  In June 1889, Algernon Methuen began to publish and market his own textbooks under the label Methuen & Co. He started this venture as a sideline to his teaching work in London. The company's first major success arrived in 1892 with the publication of Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads. Rapid growth followed with works by Marie Corelli, Hilaire Belloc, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Oscar Wilde. In 1905, Methuen published Wilde's De Profundis, which reached its 22nd edition by 1911. Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes also became part of their catalog. By 1910, the business was converted into a limited liability company. E. V. Lucas and G. E. Webster joined the founder on the board of directors. The firm even published the 1920 English translation of Albert Einstein's Relativity.

• 2. Literary Prosecution And Controversy

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  Following the publication of D. H. Lawrence's The Rainbow in 1915, Methuen faced prosecution for obscenity. The firm offered no defense and agreed to destroy the remaining stock of 1,011 copies. It is thought that one reason for the firm's failure to support Lawrence was that he had at the time written an unkind portrait of the chief editor's brother. That brother had recently been killed in France during World War I. This decision marked a significant turning point in the publisher's history. The destruction of the books removed thousands of physical copies from circulation. No legal battle ensued because the company chose not to fight the charges. The incident remains a notable example of early censorship challenges in British publishing.

• 3. E. V. Lucas Leadership Era

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  In 1924, E. V. Lucas succeeded Algernon Methuen as chairman and led the company until his death in 1938. Besides his executive role, he also received a separate salary as the chief reader of the company. His commercial judgment added authors Enid Blyton, P. G. Wodehouse, Pearl S. Buck and Maurice Maeterlinck to the company's list. In 1935, they published Daniele Varè's novel The Maker of Heavenly Trousers. In 1930, the company published the popular humorous book 1066 and All That. Among the authors Lucas signed were A. A. Milne and Kenneth Grahame. He also supported illustrators W. Heath Robinson, H. M. Bateman and E. H. Shepard. By the 1920s, it had also a literary list that included Anthony Hope, G. K. Chesterton, Henry James, D. H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot, Ruth Manning-Sanders and The Arden Shakespeare series.

• 4. Tintin Translation Alterations

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  Methuen was the English publisher of the book editions of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic Belgian comic-strip books written and illustrated by Hergé. Methuen altered their editions of Tintin by insisting that books featuring British characters undergo major changes. The Black Island, first published in French in 1937, was set in the United Kingdom but prior to publishing it themselves in 1966, Methuen decided that it did not reflect the U.K. accurately enough. They sent a list of 131 errors to be corrected. It was thus redrawn and reset in the 1960s. Critics have attacked Methuen over the changes, claiming that The Black Island lost a lot of its charm as a result. Land of Black Gold had had a troubled publishing history, but the completed adventure eventually appeared in 1948, 1950. When Methuen was translating the Adventures of Tintin into English, Israel had long since been in existence, and Methuen asked for it to be edited. Hergé took the opportunity to redraw the few problematic pages, as well as the pages before that.

• 5. Corporate Ownership Transitions

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  In 1958, Methuen was part of the conglomerate Associated Book Publishers (ABP). For much of the 1970s, it was known as Eyre Methuen following its absorption of the Eyre & Spottiswoode firm. When ABP was acquired by the Thomson Organization in 1987, it sold off the trade publishing units, including Methuen, to Reed International's Octopus. Reed sold off its trade publishing to Random House in February 1997. Methuen Drama bought itself out in 1998 while retaining distribution and warehousing services with Random House. That same year, Reed sold Methuen's children's catalogue to the Egmont Group. Egmont Group sold its UK book division to HarperCollins in 2020. In 2003, Methuen Drama purchased the company Politico's Publishing from its owner Iain Dale. In 2006, Methuen sold its notable drama lists to A & C Black for £2.35 million.

• 6. Modern Publishing Legacy

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  Penguin Random House now owns the rights to many books that used to be published under the Methuen name through Random House. The Adrian Mole franchise is held through Penguin Books. The company also distributed the titles of now-independent Methuen Books. Many of the publisher's academic titles are now published by Routledge. Methuen Books continues to publish new works of fiction and non-fiction as well as reprinting older classic works. Contemporary Methuen authors include Mark Dunn, Robert McKee, Michael Palin, 1986 Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka, and 2012 Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan. Classic Methuen authors include the American novelist Walker Percy, the American academic and commentator Neil Postman, and the British cartoonist Norman Thelwell. Methuen Children's Books has been described as an outward-looking company whose sense of identity was enhanced by bright design, a keen marketing drive, and a strong European flavour.