Jonathan Cape

Early years

Herbert Jonathan Cape was born in Fulham, then in the Middlesex part of the Metropolis, on 15 November 1879, the youngest of the seven children of Jonathan Cape, a clerk from Ireby in what is now Cumbria, and his wife Caroline, née Page. He received a basic schooling; in his early teens, Cape was taken on by Hatchards bookshop in Piccadilly as an errand-boy.

Four years later, in 1899, Cape joined the London office of the American publishers Harper and Brothers, where he worked, successively, as a clerk, general utility man and travelling salesman, first in the provinces and later in London. In 1904 he joined the publishing house of Duckworth as London traveller, and from 1911 as manager. In 1914, on the outbreak of the Great War, he took over the sole charge of the business when the proprietor, Gerald Duckworth, was absent on war duties. In 1915, Duckworth returned. In December of that year Cape joined the army, serving for the rest of the war.

Cape returned to Duckworth in 1918. In 1920, he was appointed manager of the Medici Society, known mainly for publishing prints of paintings but with a small list of books. While in this post he met George Wren Howard, 14 years his junior, who was learning the publishing trade at the Medici Society.

Cape's biographer (and sometimes junior partner) Rupert Hart-Davis writes:

Cape quickly saw that Howard had a fine sense of design in book production, as well as a good business head; the two became friends and allies. After some months they decided that there was no future for them where they were, and that they had better start a new firm of their own.

Marriage and family

Cape was three times married and three times widowed. In 1907 he married Edith Louisa Creak, with whom he had two daughters. Edith Cape died in 1919. In 1927 Cape married Olyve Vida James, with whom he had a son and a daughter; Olyve Cape died in 1931. In 1941 he married Kathleen Mary Webb, with whom he had a son; Kathleen Cape died in 1953.

Cape suffered two strokes in 1954, which impaired his speech, but he fought his way back to health. He was still running the firm when he celebrated his 80th birthday in November 1959. He died suddenly at his London flat on 10 February 1960. He was buried at St Peter's Church, Petersham.