Barrie & Jenkins

Barrie & Jenkins was a small British publishing house that was formed in 1964 from the merger of the companies Herbert Jenkins (founded by English writer Herbert George Jenkins) and Barrie & Rockliff (whose managing director was Leopold Ullstein and whose editorial staff included John Bunting and John Pattison).^[1] Barrie & Rockcliff was itself the result of the merger in the 1950s of James Barrie Books, founded in 1947 by James Barrie^[2] whose great-uncle and godfather had been the playwright J. M. Barrie, and of the Rockliff Publishing Corporation, which was "known for its theatre list".^[3]

One of the most notable authors of Barrie & Jenkins was P. G. Wodehouse, whose titles came from the Herbert Jenkins portfolio of writers ^[4] which in the 1920s included authors such as Mrs Hungerford, Edna Lyall, W. Riley and Winifred Boggs. The Barrie Group eventually comprised Barrie & Rockliff, the Cresset Press, Herbert Jenkins, and Hammond & Hammond.^[3]

Barrie & Jenkins had a short commercial history and was taken over by Hutchinson, which was itself taken over by Century and then by Random House (now owned by Bertelsmann).

Barrie & Jenkins continues to exist as a specialist imprint mainly for hardback editions within the Random House stable.