Ernest Benn

About Ernest Benn

Ernest Benn Limited was a British publisher of books and trade journals, trading under that name from 1923 and grown out of Benn Brothers, the trade-paper business Sir John Benn started in 1880 with The Cabinet Maker.

John Benn handed day-to-day control to his eldest son, Ernest, in the 1890s, and by the end of 1908 Ernest owned most of the shares. Under him the firm added journals such as The Hardware Trade Journal, Gas World and The Electrician, along with technical books. In 1923 Benn Brothers Ltd was renamed Ernest Benn Limited.

Victor Gollancz joined in 1921 and persuaded Benn to launch a successful series of art books, but the two men drifted apart politically and Gollancz left in 1927 to found his own house. E. Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet appeared under the Benn imprint in 1927. The general list went on to include Dorothy L. Sayers's The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1928) and the first English translations of Tove Jansson's Moomin books, starting with Finn Family Moomintroll (1950, translated by Elizabeth Portch) and including Moominsummer Madness (1955). Long-running series included the Blue Guides, the Sixpenny Library and the New Mermaids play texts.

In 1983 the Extel Group took over Ernest Benn and the other Benn Group companies, and United Newspapers bought Extel in 1987.

How to spot a Ernest Benn first edition

• From the start of its book publishing, Benn usually marked a first edition with a "First published in" line and the year on the back of the title page.
• On some first editions there is no such line, and the year appears instead on the front of the title page beside the imprint, so a dated title page with a clean verso can also be a first.