Virago Press

My first official post is concerned with Virago Press.  This publisher particularly caught my interest due to it's conception as a 'feminist' publisher.

The company was founded in 1973 by Carmen Callil with the aim of publishing solely books by female authors.  The word Virago is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “a manlike, vigorous and heroic woman” and the name was chosen for the sense of strength that it portrayed.  This was to be the first book publisher in Britain that was run for women, by women – at that time, although there were many women in publishing, there were very few who had the power to make decisions.  It was men who decided what would be published.  However, it was also a time when women were demanding more rights; the Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act had just been passed, and by 1978 Virago Press had been firmly established as a feminist press.  Each early Virago book carried the statement “Virago is a feminist publishing house” on the inside of the front cover.  In 1982 Virago became, for a brief period, a subsidiary of the Chatto, Virago, Bodley Head and Cape Group who were themselves owned by Random House.  In 1987 however, Callil, Owen and Spicer along with Alexandra Pringle and Lennie Goodings put together a management buyout financed by Rothschild Venture and Robert Gavron.  Random House kept just 10% of the shares meaning that Virago was once again an independent publisher.

From a marketing perspective, the Press had the advantage that their market was 52% of the adult population They made themselves known via their part in protests such as Women Regain the Night in 1983, and their “Over our dead bodies: Women against the bomb” event. By the end of 1984 they were a well-known company, in large part due to their Virago Modern Classics, which I will focus on later in the study.  They employed 13 women, had a turnover of £1 million and were the biggest women’s press in the world. They had established themselves as a brand to trust.  

Perhaps their most significant output has been Virago’s series of  Modern Classics.  The Virago Modern Classics (VMCs) were a concept proposed by Callil, a list of fiction by neglected women writers.  The idea was to re-publish the works of women throughout the ages who had been admired and successful writers in their own day but had since gone out of print.  The series started with Antonia White’s “Frost in May” in 1978.  In the first year five VMCs were published and the list grew quickly and  in 2007 eight of the most popular titles were given a makeover to celebrate their 30^th anniversary.  Titles such as “Valley of the Dolls” and “The Diary of a Provincial Lady” were published as limited editions with designers such as Cath Kidson and Orla Kiely designing their covers The reprint list, although it did not emerge until 1978, is the list that many people strongly associate Virago with.  It was this list that both gained the attention of a dedicated, mass audience and allowed the publishing house to be taken seriously by the industry as a literary institution.

Virago Press was sold to Little, Brown and Company in 1995.  Since becoming part of Little, Brown and Company, Virago Press has thrived.  It has a turnover of over £5 million, over 700 titles currently in print  and claims to be the largest women’s imprint in the world.

Nearly 40 years since it began, Virago remains true to its founding principles.