Faber & Faber: The Untold Story

The Untold Stories of the Greatest Literary Works, Writers, and Publishing of the 20th Century

Thomas Eliot's Reader's Notes, the slander and censorship of Samuel Beckett's work, the rejection of George Orwell's Animal Farm, the discovery of the talents of Kazuo Ishiguro, William Golding, Sylvia Plath, and other literary superstars - all these are synonymous with the publishing house Faber & Faber, founded in Bloomsbury in 1929. But how did they manage to unite and what really happened behind the scenes of the small firm, which, despite the shortage of paper, the Great Depression, and financial crises, became one of the largest independent publishers in the world, which maintains its primacy to this day?
Drawing on a series of unexpected and witty testimonies, unpublished memoirs, memos and minutes of board meetings, introducing the extraordinary personalities of poets, prose writers, managers and editors, Toby Faber tells not just the story of the formation of a great company, but proves that book publishing is capable of changing the culture of a country from the inside. And this directly applies to the way we interact with literature today.

Why is it worth reading the book "Faber & Faber: The Untold Story"?
The intimate history of the Faber publishing house, woven from the most interesting, most moving and most surprising letters, diaries and materials from the archive, reveals the previously untold stories of the most outstanding literary works, poets and writers of the 20th century.
A fascinating look at the history of book publishing in the 20th century.
An inside look at one of the world’s biggest publishers, capturing the excitement, hopes and fears of the people who published and wrote the books that now sit on our shelves.
About the author:
Toby Faber is the grandson of the founder of Faber & Faber, who grew up on the company’s stories and books. He was chief executive of Faber for four years and remains an independent director and chairman of its subsidiary Faber Music. He has written two acclaimed non-fiction books, Stradivarius and Fabergé’s Eggs, and his first novel, Close to the Edge, was published by Muswell Press in 2019. He lives in London with his wife and two daughters.