Peter Owen

OBE
Born
Peter Offenstadt

(1927-02-24)24 February 1927
Nuremberg, Germany
Died31 May 2016(2016-05-31) (aged 89)
London, England
NationalityBritish
OccupationPublisher
Known forFounder of OBE

Peter Owen OBE (24 February 1927 – 31 May 2016) was a British publisher, the founder of Peter Owen Publishers.[1][2][3]

Biography

He was born Peter Offenstadt in Nuremberg in 1927, with rickets, the only child of a German Jewish couple.[2][3] His mother was Winifred Offenstadt.[2]

He was sent to live with his grandmother in England at the age of five, later to be joined by his parents, who were reluctant to leave Germany.[4]

In 1948, at the age of 21, Owen went into partnership with Neville Armstrong in a publishing enterprise called Peter Neville.[5] This lasted until 1955.[6] He went on to found Peter Owen Publishers in 1951.

He was awarded the OBE for services to literature in 2014.[7]

Owen's funeral instructions included, "no religious crap of any kind".[2]

References

  1. ^ Onwuemezi, Natasha. "Tributes paid to 'flamboyant' Peter Owen at memorial". The Bookseller. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d "Peter Owen | | The Times & The Sunday Times". Thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  3. ^ a b Campbell, Lisa (31 May 2016). "Peter Owen dies". The Bookseller. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  4. ^ "Peter Owen, publisher – obituary". telegraph.co.uk. 31 May 2016. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
  5. ^ “MEET THE PUBLISHERS” in Colophon, Vol. 1, Issues 1-11 (1950), p. 34: “Peter Nevill was founded by two young men, Peter Owen and Neville Armstrong. The former, then twenty-one, and the youngest publisher in Britain...”
  6. ^ Ian Miller, Other lives: Neville Armstrong, The Guardian, 26 September 2008, accessed 27 July 2021
  7. ^ "Obituary: Peter Owen". The Bookseller. Retrieved 31 July 2017.


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