<head1>GEORGE ALLEN (1849-1907)
	Ruskin's personal assistant from ????, and his publisher from 1871. Ruskin first encountered Allen in 1854 at the Working Men's College. Allen was pursuing art studies there to augment his developing reputation as a skilled joiner and carpenter, and his abilities sufficiently impressed Ruskin(?) that he was picked as an assistant drawing master.... His skill in engraving. . . . Allen became Ruskin's personal assistant in 18??, turning down offers from William Morris as a founding member for furniture design in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Company, and ??? for care of furnishings in the Queen's household.
	Allen's devotion to his "Master" (upheld despite periodic strains caused by Ruskin's violent outbursts in times of illness) combined well with his shrewd business sense to enable him to realize Ruskin's experiments in publishing and bookselling while remaining profitable. Ruskin aimed to bypass the complex system of discounts that growing up between publishers and trade as a result of cheaper printing methods, widening of the reading public (including demands for "self-culture" by the working classes), and competing influences of the subscription libraries and booksellers. All this encouraged dissemination of "cheap classics" without regard, in Ruskin's paternalistic view, for felt sacrifice in obtaining value both in content and the physical quality of a book, or for fair royalties to authors supporting new writing (although later, by 1882, Allen eased Ruskin's resistance to inexpensive editions of his works). Ruskin proposed establishing the same consistent and open prices for trade and public alike, providing fair return to both author and publisher (Allen agreed with Ruskin for a third of profits, which continued after Ruskin's death) while exposing any additional price added by a middleman.
	Ruskin laid out these principles in Fors Clavigera ([1871-]; see, e.g., Ruskin, Works ???), inaugurating them with the monthly publication of those pamphlets as well as with the <Works Series>. Allen printed and distributed the pamphlets from his home in Kent, first at Heathfield Cottage, Keston, and then, from 1874 as the business grew, at Sunnyside, Orpington--the familiar imprint for Ruskin's part-publications throughout the 1870s and 1880s. At first, the pastoral village setting, while charming to (both?) Allen's and Ruskin's sense of the place of handcraftsmanship in English life, caused practical difficulties that the cosmopolitan London book trade was swift to ridicule. But...
	Through contentious negotiations with Smith and Elder, Ruskin's publisher through 1871 (including, initially, joint responsibility with Allen for Fors), Ruskin finally obtained in 18?? copyright of his earlier works and, in 1878, purchase of engraved plates. For Ruskin, the relations with Smith and Elder were painfully bound up with relations with his father, who until his death had managed his son's publishing affairs. Despite bitter emotions that colored the negotiations, the decision to transfer all his titles to Allen proved sound.
	Allen's alertness to the market assured that steady sales of Ruskin's works benefited both himself, who by terms of an 1887 agreement reaped a third of profits, and the <Brantwood circle>, who received.... Allen frequently complained about.... His early skill in engraving drew him to producing fine editions, although he was keenly conscious the full spectrum of the market for Ruskin's works. Attention to both ends of the market decided the dual format of works important to the publication history of Ruskin's juvenile work, which Allen exploited in order to expand his list while operating under the unusual condition of serving, at first, as a single-author publisher. <Poems> (1891), <Three Letters and an Essay on Literature> (1893), <Letters to a College Friend> (1894), <Poetry of Architecture> (18??) were all issued in both fine and cheap editions. Before his death in 1907, Allen oversaw production and release of several volumes of the <Library Edition> (1903-12), the first two volumes containing Early Prose (vol. 1 []) and Poems (vol. 2 [1903]) and incorporating Allen's and Collingwood's earlier editions of early works. 
	Fine editions were limited and printed on handmade paper....
	Cheap editions were inaugurated in 1882 with the Uniform Edition in dark green or reddish brown cloth, ? by ? inches, with gilt lettering on the spine. A typical price was 5 shillings, up to 7/6 for longer or illustrated works. Starting in ????, reissue was frequently from stereotype.
	The concern became George Allen and Sons in 1901, with Allen's children <William>, <Hugh>, and <Grace> (long active in the business) joining the board. With Ruskin sales slowing, Allen sought to expand his list with other offers; however, after his death in 1907, slow sales??? of the Library Edition and the inadequate list??? apart from Ruskin proved a drag on the business. Efforts to expand occurred in 1909 with acquisition of the publishing branch of Bemrose and Sons and, in 1911, of Swan Sonnenschein & Company, creating George Allen & Company, Ltd. The collapsed in 1913, however, and went into receivership under Stanley Unwin (), who formed George Allen & Unwin in 1914. That company continued for a while to issue remaining unbound stock in the Uniform Edition, sometimes with George Allen & Unwin imprinted on the spine, but high costs and uncertainties of the market in the war years prevented new reprints of Ruskin.
	Unwin later declared he was hampered by Ruskin's <literary trustees>, whose ownership of plates and blocks constrained him to a commission basis for reprints. By terms of Ruskin's will, <Alexander Wedderburn>, one of the trustees, maintained control over sales of Ruskin's works.

See Dawson, People's Ruskin, 1-14; Dearden, "Library Edition of the Works of John Ruskin," 52-53;