Publisher

Hart-Davis

Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd was a London literary publisher (1946 to 1972) that first published Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals and the English Seven Years in Tibet.

Editions tracked: 25
First editions: 7
Books: 25
Years: 1921 to 1972

Search all Hart-Davis editions

Hart-Davis is a publisher active from 1921. We track 25 editions it published between 1921 and 1972, 7 of them first editions across 25 books. Each book lists its first edition and the points that identify it.

About Hart-Davis

Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd was a London literary publisher founded in 1946 by Rupert Hart-Davis with David Garnett and Teddy Young, admired for well-made books and for choosing titles on literary merit rather than sales.

The firm was backed by friends including Arthur Ransome, Eric Linklater, H. E. Bates, Peter Fleming and Celia Johnson. Its offices were at 36 Soho Square. Its list included Stephen Potter's Gamesmanship, the first English edition of Heinrich Harrer's Seven Years in Tibet (1953), Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals (1956), and Ray Bradbury, whom Hart-Davis signed early, alongside books by Fleming and Linklater.

High production standards cost money and the firm struggled financially. It was absorbed into the Heinemann group in 1956; Heinemann sold the imprint to Harcourt Brace of New York in 1961, and Harcourt Brace sold it to the Granada Group in 1963, when Hart-Davis retired from publishing (he stayed as non-executive chairman until 1968). In 1972 Granada combined it with MacGibbon & Kee to form Hart-Davis, MacGibbon, ending the original imprint. Granada left publishing in 1983 and sold the business to William Collins.

Because the imprint carried on under Granada from 1963 to 1972, a Hart-Davis book is not necessarily from the founder's own years.

We have not yet written the guide to Hart-Davis's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how Hart-Davis marked its firsts? Tell us.