The story
Founded by Victor Gollancz in 1927.1
Gollancz was left-inclined in politics and a supporter of socialist movements. This is reflected in some of the call for the books he published. Victor Gollancz commissioned George Orwell to write about the urban working class in the North of England; the result was The Road to Wigan Pier. His break with Orwell came when he declined to publish Orwell's account of the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia, the pair having drifted apart on political grounds. He did publish The Red Army Moves by Geoffrey Cox on the Winter War, which was critical of the Soviet attack on Finland, but also foresaw that the Red Army would defeat the Germans. He also published works by German exiles, such as Hilde Meisel.
Gollancz was the original publisher of a number of authors and their books, including:
George Orwell with Down and Out in Paris and London in 1933
Alfred Ayer with Language, Truth and Logic in 1936
A. J. Cronin with The Citadel in 1937
Daphne du Maurier with Rebecca in 1938
Kingsley Amis with Lucky Jim in 1953
Colin Wilson with The Outsider in 1956
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John le Carré with Call for the Dead in 1961
E. P. Thompson with The Making of the English Working Class in 1963
Anthony Price with The Labyrinth Makers in 1971.
Many of Gollancz's books were published in one of their familiar house dust jackets, of which the most famous was bright yellow, with the title and author rendered in a vibrant, bold typography.
The Left Book Club, the first book club in the UK, was a publishing group pioneered by Gollancz that exerted a strong left-wing influence in Great Britain from 1936 to 1948. It offered a monthly book choice, for sale to members only, as well as a newsletter that acquired the status of a major political magazine. It also held an annual rally. Membership peaked at 57,000, but it eventually ceased publishing in 1948. The books and pamphlets were published with their distinctive covers — orange for paperback (1936–1938) and red for hardback (1938–1948) editions.
From Wikipedia’s article on Victor Gollancz Ltd, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3