Victor Gollancz

Born in Maida Vale, London, to a family of German Jewish and Polish Jewish backgrounds, Gollancz was the son of a wholesale jeweller and the nephew of Rabbi Professor Sir Hermann Gollancz and Professor Sir Israel Gollancz. His grandfather, Rabbi Samuel Marcus Gollancz, had migrated to the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century from Witkowo, near Gniezno (then Gnesen in Prussia) to become cantor of the Hambro' Synagogue in London.

After being educated at St Paul's School, London and taking a degree in classics at New College, Oxford, he became a schoolteacher. Gollancz was commissioned into the Northumberland Fusiliers in October 1915, although he did not see active service. In March 1916, he transferred to Repton School Junior Officers' Training Corps. Gollancz proved to be an innovative and inspiring teacher; he introduced the first civics class to be taught at an English public school and many of his students went on to become teachers themselves, including James Harford and James Darling.

In 1917, he became involved in the Reconstruction Committee, which was planning for post-war Britain. There he met Ernest Benn, who hired him to work in his publishing company, Ernest Benn Limited. Starting with magazines, Gollancz then brought out a series of art books, after which he started signing novelists.

In 1919, Victor married Ruth Lowy, an artist who had studied at the Slade School of Art under Henry Tonks. The couple had five daughters among them Vita Gollancz, an artist; Livia Ruth Gollancz, musician and later head of Victor Gollancz Ltd; and Diana Gollancz, a confidante of poet Philip Larkin.

Gollancz died in London on 8 February 1967.