Newman Flower

Flower in 1917

Sir Walter Newman Flower(8 July 1879 – 12 March 1964) was an English publisher and author. He transformed the fortunes of the publishing houseCassell & Co,and later became its proprietor. As an author, he published studies of the composersGeorge Frideric Handel,Franz Schubertand (as co-author)Arthur Sullivan.He also edited the million-word journals ofArnold Bennettfor publication.

Life and career

Flower was born atFontmell Magna,Dorset,England. He was the eldest son of John Walter Flower.After schooling at theWhitgift Schoolhe entered the publishing trade in London at the age of 17.

Publishing

Flower trained underLord Northcliffeat the Harmsworth Press, after which he joinedCassell & Coin 1906. Cassell was at that time in the doldrums, but Flower built up a stable of magazine titles that grew to dominate the British magazine market for many years.In 1912 he was given charge of the book publishing branch of the company, where he brought in such authors asArnold Bennett,G. K. ChestertonandH. G. Wells.

In 1926, Cassell's magazines were sold to the Amalgamated Press, and Flower raised enough money to buy the book-publishing branch of the company, becoming proprietor and managing director in 1927. In 1938, shortly after receiving aknighthoodfor services to literature, he retired, but returned duringWorld War IIto look after the literary affairs of the company while his successor, his son Desmond, was on active service.Flower commissionedWinston Churchill'sA History of the English-Speaking Peoples,which was eventually completed and published during the 1950s. During the war years, Churchill promised Flower that Cassell would be offered anything he later wrote about the war.The Timesdescribed the result, Churchill'sThe Second World War,as "perhaps the greatest coup of twentieth century publishing."

Writing

Herbert Sullivan (right) with his uncleArthur

Flower was also an author. His life ofGeorge Frideric Handelwas published in 1923 and reissued in a revised edition in 1959. The book was well received, but later writers on Handel have disputed Flower's portrait of Handel as "sexless and safe".

In 1927, Flower collaborated withHerbert Sullivanin a biography of the latter's uncle,SirArthur Sullivan,his Life and Letters.This too was well received at the time but also suffered later from critical disapproval for sanitising its subject by suppressing evidence of Sullivan's gambling and sexual liaisons.In 1928 Flower published a study ofFranz Schubert,and in 1945 and 1950 he published two volumes of memoirs.His largest literary project was to prepare the journals ofArnold Bennettfor publication – more than a million words in manuscript to be edited.Rupert Hart-Davislater commented on "the prudish timidity of their editor, old Newman Flower. According toHugh Walpole,N. F. was so appalled by much of what he found in the journals that he published only brief extracts, and those the safest. "

Personal life

Flower was twice married, first in 1903 to Evelyne Readwin ofWells, Norfolk,with whom he had one son, and second in 1943 to Bridget Downes of Coore,County Clare,Ireland.He died at his home, Tarrant Keynston House, nearBlandford,Dorset, aged 84.

References

• Flower, Newman:Through My Garden Gate,Cassell, London, 1945
• Flower, Newman:Just as it Happened,Cassell, London, 1950
• Hart-Davis, Rupert (ed):The Lyttelton/Hart-Davis LettersVol 2 John Murray, London, 1979ISBN0-7195-3673-1