Gerald Duckworth - Definition and Overview

Gerald de l'Etang Duckworth (1870 - 1937) was a British publisher, who in 1898 founded the publishing company Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd.

He was a son of Herbert Duckworth, a publisher, by his wife Julia (née Jackson). His middle name was the surname of one of his mother's ancestors, Antoine de l'Etang, page to Queen Marie Antoinette.

After the death of his father, his mother married again, to the author Leslie Stephen, who is still well-known as the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, and had four more children. One of these was Virginia Stephen, who went on to become the author Virginia Woolf. Woolf later accused Gerald of having sexually abused her when she was young.

In 1898, Duckworth founded the publishing company which bears his name. It ran into serious financial troubles in 2003.

External links

• Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd website (http://www.duckw.com/)
• "D-day dawns for Duckworth (http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,943077,00.html)" - Guardian Unlimited article, by John Ezard, dated Friday, April 25, 2003