Duckworth
Duckworth is a London publisher founded in 1898 by Gerald Duckworth, first publisher of Virginia Woolf's The Voyage Out and D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, now Duckworth Books.
- Editions tracked
- 37
- First editions
- 22
- Books
- 37
- Years
- 1896 to 2013
Duckworth is a publisher based in London, founded in 1898. We track 37 editions it published between 1896 and 2013, 22 of them first editions across 37 books. Each book lists its first edition and the points that identify it.
About Duckworth
Duckworth (Gerald Duckworth and Company, now Duckworth Books) is a London publisher founded in 1898 by Gerald Duckworth, Virginia Woolf's half-brother, and the first publisher of her debut novel The Voyage Out (1915).
Duckworth was 27 when he opened an office at 3 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, and Edward Garnett and Jonathan Cape soon joined him. Early authors included Hilaire Belloc, Henry James, Anton Chekhov and D. H. Lawrence, whose Sons and Lovers it published; Garnett, reading for the firm, recommended The Voyage Out. John Galsworthy and Anthony Powell, who worked there from 1926 to 1936, followed.
After Duckworth died in 1937, Mervyn Horder and a partner took over a heavily indebted firm, and in 1940 a bomb destroyed its stock of unbound sheets. In 1968 Colin Haycraft and Tim Simon gained control. Haycraft built a scholarly list, adding Bristol Classical Press in 1991, while his wife Anna Haycraft (the novelist Alice Thomas Ellis) built up fiction, with Beryl Bainbridge a key author. Haycraft died in 1994.
Peter Mayer, a former Penguin chief executive, bought the firm out of near collapse in 2003, and the academic list went to Bloomsbury in 2010. After Mayer's death in 2018, Duckworth merged with Farrago Books to form Duckworth Books, which publishes mainly non-fiction and historical fiction.
We have not yet written the guide to Duckworth's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how Duckworth marked its firsts? Tell us.
Published by Duckworth
Spot the first: Dust jacket, front flap: Printed price on the front flap: £9.95 (first issue jacket)
Frequently asked questions
How many Duckworth books does MyVolumes track?
We track 37 editions published by Duckworth, 22 of them first editions, across 37 books.
Where these facts come from
- About Duckworth, Duckworth Books, 2026 (duckworthbooks.co.uk)
- Duckworth Books, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Pen and Press, case 5: The Voyage Out, Smith College Libraries (smith.edu)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 19 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.