Archive of Hodder and Stoughton Limited, publishers; including records of Hodder and Stoughton, 1868-1919, Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1919- , Matthew Hodder Limited (group holding company), 1959-76, and Hodder and Stoughton Holdings Limited, 1976-. It is a publisher-based, rather than an author-based archive, because the pre-1939 correspondence with authors was apparently destroyed during the Second World War. Its strength lies in the information it provides in aggregate about the multi-faceted business of publishing.
Of notable importance are the 46 authors' ledgers, 1907-1961 (Ms 16312) which detail what was published, including the various editions of the same title, with dates of publication, print runs, production costs, sales, remainders etc. These are supplemented by ten volumes of publishing ledgers, 1886-1938 (Ms 16310), and by smaller groups of royalty ledgers, 1907-12 and 1928-65 (Mss 16318-21), and of profit and loss ledgers, 1954-68 (Mss 16313-17). The ledgers are further supported by considerable quantities of other material, such as company minutes, sales reports, publicity material, and a number of author files for 1939-93 (Mss 16352, 16352A-C). These are rather haphazard, and many in-letters from authors appear to have been removed before deposit at Guildhall Library.
The archive contains much about the company's premises including many photographs including some of bomb damage in the Paternoster Row and Warwick Square area of the City of London. The archive also contains material about the firm's employees including registers and salaries books, staff handbooks and newsletters, material about company sports days, and photographs.
There are also records of subsidiary companies as follows:
Ms 16388: British Weekly Limited;
Ms 16389-95; 29067-70; 36525-6: Brockhampton Press;
Ms 29071-8; 29708-13; 36527-30: Edward Arnold Limited;
Ms 16396-407;29079-80; 36531: English Universities Press Ltd;
Ms 36532: Highland Books;
Ms 16408-11: Hodder Fawcett Limited;
Ms 16412-21: Hodder Paperbacks Limited;
Ms 16422-4: Hodder Publications Limited;
Ms 16425-7: Lancet Limited;
Ms 36533: Lloyd-Luke (Medical Books) Limited;
Ms 36534-6: New English Library Limited;
Ms 16428-30: St Hugh's Press;
Ms 36537: Sceptre;
Ms 16431-51; 36538: University of London Press;
Ms 36539: University Park Press;
Ms 36540: University Press of Liverpool;
Ms 16452-3: Publishers Association;
Ms 29714: Hodder and Stoughton (Australia) Proprietary Limited;
Ms 29715: Hodder and Stoughton (New Zealand) Proprietary Limited.
The records of the subsidiaries sometimes form distinct series, but are often mixed with those of the parent company. In addition, some original archival groups were altered by the creation of artificial collections by John Attenborough in the course of writing his history (see Mss 16355-7, 16362, 29668-72).
The records also include some Hodder family documents including genealogical notes and some papers of the Publishers' Association.
Finally, the archive includes the private correspondence of Sir Ernest Hodder-Williams (chairman of Hodder and Stoughton 1902-27), described as "the greatest publisher of my time" by Sir Newman Flower (Mss 16368-70); and the papers of the last Chairman of the company, Philip Attenborough, who was responsible for depositing much of the later material and played a major role in safeguarding of the future of the archive.
