The Bodley Head [John Lane, The Bodley Head] (London, publisher, fl. 1887–1987)

Founded in 1887 in London by John Lane (1854–1925) and Elkin Mathews (1851–1921), The Bodley Head became a pivotal, avant-garde publishing house, famously defining the aestheticism of the 1890s through The Yellow Book and works by Oscar Wilde. Originally an antiquarian bookseller, it shifted to publishing and later launched the careers of major 20th-century authors; notably, they published Agatha Christie’s first six novels, starting with The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1921, after it was rejected by six other publishers. Decades later, Graham Greene defected from his previous publisher to join The Bodley Head, where he served as a director for several years and published prominent late-career novels like The Comedians and The Human Factor. The company is also notable as the birthplace of Penguin Books, which began as a Bodley Head imprint under Allen Lane before separating in the 1930s