Hamish Hamilton

Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton (Hamish is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas [meaning James], James the English form – which was also his given name, and Jamie the diminutive form). Jamie Hamilton was often referred to as Hamish Hamilton.

This article is about the publishing house. For its founder, see Jamie Hamilton (publisher). For the director, see Hamish Hamilton (director).

Hamish Hamilton
Parent companyPenguin Random House
Founded1931 (1931)
FounderJamie Hamilton
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Headquarters locationLondon
DistributionPenguin Group
Publication typesBooks
Official websitewww.penguin.co.uk

The Hamish Hamilton imprint is now part of the Penguin Random House group.

History and current publishing

Hamish Hamilton Limited originally specialised in fiction, and was responsible for publishing a number of American authors in the United Kingdom, including Nigel Balchin (including pseudonym: Mark Spade), Raymond Chandler, James Thurber, J. D. Salinger, E. B. White and Truman Capote.

In 1939 Hamish Hamilton Law and Hamish Hamilton Medical were started[1] but closed during the war. Hamish Hamilton was established in the literary district of Bloomsbury and went on to publish many promising British and American authors, many of whom were personal friends and acquaintances of Jamie Hamilton.

During the late 1940s Hamish Hamilton Limited published authors including D. W. Brogan, Albert Camus, L. P. Hartley, Nancy Mitford, Alan Moorehead, Terence Rattigan, Jean-Paul Sartre, Georges Simenon and A. J. P. Taylor.

Jamie Hamilton sold the firm to the Thomson Organisation in 1965, who resold it to Penguin Books in 1986. In 2013, Penguin merged with Random House, making Hamish Hamilton an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Hamish Hamilton’s aim remains to publish innovative literary fiction and non-fiction from around the world. Authors include: Alain de Botton, Bernardine Evaristo, Esther Freud, Toby Litt, Redmond O'Hanlon, W. G. Sebald, Zadie Smith, William Sutcliffe, R. K. Narayan, Paul Theroux and John Updike.

Hamish Hamilton also publishes an online literary magazine called Five Dials.

Book series
  • Antelope Books
  • Famous Regiments[2]
  • Fingerprint Books[3][4]
  • Hamish Hamilton Paperbacks
  • Makers of the New World[5]
  • The Modern Library[6]
  • The Novel Library[7]
  • The Little Golden Library - series edited by Herbert Strang. Titles include Scouting Stories (1931), True Adventure Stories (1931), Stories of Great Inventions (1932), Stories of the Sea (1933), Stories of Field and Forest (date unknown).
  • Hamish Hamilton - a brief history of the publishing house and its founder
  • Five Dials - a literary magazine from Hamish Hamilton

References
  1. Hamish Hamilton, fivedials.com. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  2. Famous Regiments Series, bookhaventexas.com. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  3. Fingerprint Books (Hamish Hamilton) - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  4. The Inventory of the Joan Fleming Collection #85. Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, bu.edu. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  5. Makers of the New World (Hamish Hamilton) - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  6. Modern Library, seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  7. Novel Library, seriesofseries.com. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
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