Peter Owen, not a nice Jewish boy : memoirs of a maverick publisher / Peter Owen and James Nye.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Owen, Peter, 1927-2016, author.

Nye, James, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Publishers and publishing--England--Biography.

Publishers and publishing.

Publishers and publishing--England--History--20th century.

Jews--Great Britain--Biography.

Jews.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany--Personal narratives.

Jews, German--England--Biography.

Jewish refugees--England--Biography.

Jewish publishers--England--London--Biography.

Owen, Peter, 1927-2016.

Owen, Peter.

Peter Owen (Firm)--History.

Peter Owen (Firm).

England.

Great Britain.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Physical Description:

255 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Not a nice Jewish boy

Place of Publication:

[Stroud, Glos.] : Fonthill Media, 2021.

Summary:

In this wry, candid and sometimes poignant memoir, Peter Owen recalls his lonely Jewish boyhood in Nazi Germany and migration to England where he survived the London Blitz, a teenage dalliance with aspiring actress Fenella Fielding, and working with a motley variety of book publishers. He founded his eponymous publishing firm in 1951, becoming one of the youngest publishers in Britain. A pioneer of books on social themes, gay and lesbian writing and literature in translation, Owen's authors included ten Nobel laureates and brought Hermann Hesse, Ezra Pound and Anais Nin to a wider audience. Enjoying their success, he and his wife Wendy were memorably stylish and eccentric figures at the literary parties of the 1960s and 1970s. Owen describes his often hilarious encounters with many of those he published, including John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Salvador Dali, his adventures in Japan with Yukio Mishima and Shusaku Endo, and in Morocco with Tennessee Williams and Paul and Jane Bowles. As one of the last of the great emigre publishers, his death in 2016 aged 89 signalled the end of a literary era.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Rickets, Semolina and Other Nuremberg Trials

2. Mother

3. Kin Hell

4. A Couple of Old Cows

5. Wonderland?

6. Bugger Bognor

7. Breakdown

8. Brief Encounter

9. The Publisher's Apprentice

10. A Rajah in Beggar's Rags

11. The Reluctant Plonk

12. Peter Nevill

13. In For a Penny

14. Wendy

15. Prince of Zwemmer's

16. Oh, Rudi!

17. The Men of Vision

18. Courteous Maniacs

19. Caligula's Horse and Other Tales

20. The Beast-Men of Varang-Varang

21. The Comforters

22. The Fallen Star

23. Marion

24. The End of the Affair

25. A Duke, Some Snobs and La Batarde

26. The Enigma of Anna Kavan

27. The Cold World

28. Palaces, Kings and Killers

29. Confessions of a Mask

30. There Goes Wendy Owen

31. Darkness Visible

32. Shusaku Endo

33. Tangerine Dreams

34. Will I Go to Heaven?

35. Tangerino Queen

36. Anais Nin

37. Engaging Eccentrics

38. Erte

39. Hello, Dalf

40. Just Me and the Rodents

41. Publishing, Censorship and Apollinaire

42. Dracula's Daughter

43. The Passionate Penis

44. Inhabiting Shadows

45. Just One Vodkatini

46. Jeffrey Bernard Is Defunct

47. The Boss from Hell

48. The Future of Publishing?

49. Departures

50. A Far Cry From Kensington

Afterword / James Nye

1. The Story of Owen

2. Myths and Reality

3. Eccentrically Mean

4. Constant Companions and Small Miracles.

Notes:

Place of publication from publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1781558485

9781781558485

OCLC:

1258782898

Publisher Number:

99992874431