Jonathan Cape

Cape and his business partner Wren Howard (1893–1968) set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation for high-quality design and production and a fine list of English-language authors, fostered by the firm's editor and reader Edward Garnett. Cape's list of writers ranged from poets including Robert Frost and C. Day Lewis, to children's authors such as Roald Dahl, Hugh Lofting and Arthur Ransome, to James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, to heavyweight fiction by James Joyce and T. E. Lawrence.


After Cape's death, the firm later merged successively with three other London publishing houses. In 1987 it was taken over by Random House. Its name continues as one of Random House's British imprints.

The firm after Cape[edit]

From 1960, the publishing house was headed by Tom Maschler for more than three decades.^[8] As the 1960s progressed, the firm successfully courted and published authors who were representative of the age, including the Beatle John Lennon,^[9] and the former "angry young man" Kingsley Amis.^[10] Cape also signed up Len Deighton, whose series of spy novels was a gritty alternative to the far-fetched adventures of James Bond.^[11] In the 1970s, Cape published popular authors in many genres, including the novelists J. G. Ballard and Salman Rushdie, and the children's writer Roald Dahl. One of their freelance cover artists was Bill Botten.


A defensive merger with Chatto and Windus was carried out in 1969;^[12] and The Bodley Head and Virago Press were added to the group. In 1987 Cape was taken over and became an imprint of Random House.^[13][14]


As of 2019, Jonathan Cape is an imprint of Vintage Publishing UK.