Fredric Warburg Fredric John Warburg ( 27 November 1898 – 25 May 1981 ) was an English publisher best known for his association with the British author George Orwell . During a career spanning a large part of the 20th century and ending in 1971 , Warburg published Orwell ' s " Animal Farm " ( 1945 ) as well as " Nineteen Eighty - Four " ( 1949 ) , and works by other leading figures such as Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka . Other notable publications include the controversial " The Third Eye " by Lobsang Rampa in 1956 , Pierre Boulle ' s classic " The Bridge over the River Kwai " , Adolf Hitler ' s " Mein Kampf " , and William Shirer ' s " The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich " ( 1960 ) . Life . Warburg was born on 27 November 1898 , to John Cimon Warburg ( 1867 , London - 1931 , London ) ( a photographer ) and Violet Amalia ( 1868 - ) ( née Sichel ) , both of Jewish descent . John Cimon was the oldest son of Fredric Elias Warburg ( 1832 , Gothenburg , Sweden - 1899 , London ) and Emma ( 1844 – 1925 ) ( née Raphael ) . At the age of 9 Fredric Warburg was sent to Wilkinson ' s boys ' preparatory school and then later won a scholarship to attend the prestigious Westminster School . He was to describe his first two years there as ' among the most hateful of my life ' . Whilst he excelled academically , as a Jew he often felt an outsider and he was to find refuge and solace in his love of books . In summer 1917 Warburg was commissioned to serve as an officer in the Royal Artillery and was stationed in the Ypres area until the end of the war . After demobilization , Warburg was to read chemistry at Christ Church , Oxford , but later switched to classics and philosophy , proceeding to become an MA in 1922 . That same year he was to start his publishing life as an apprentice at the publishing firm of Routledge & Sons Ltd . Warburg ' s first marriage ( 5 July 1922 ) , to May Nellie Holt ( born May 1902 ) , was to produce three sons , David ( born in 1923 ) ; Hew Francis ( born 8 April 1925 , died 10 April 1983 ) and Jeremy Fredric ( born 14 October 1928 , died 9 June 1986 ) , but ended in divorce in 1932 . A year later , on 21 January 1933 , Warburg married the painter and designer Pamela Bryer ( née de Bayou , widowed ) ( born in 1905 ) and they were to have a son who died of a brain haemorrhage within twenty - four hours of birth on 13 March 1933 . During World War II , Warburg served as a corporal in the Home Guard , in the same section where Orwell held the rank of sergeant . Fredric Warburg died of heart failure at University College Hospital , London , on 25 May 1981 at the age of 82 . Work . Upon his appointment as an apprentice at the firm of Routledge & Sons Ltd , Warburg found himself under the tutelage of William Swan Stallybrass , a man he regarded as ' the greatest scholar - publisher of his day ' . Stallybrass died in 1931 and Warburg was to become increasingly dissatisfied with his post at Routledge , leading to his eventual dismissal from the company in 1935 . Later that same year , he and Roger Senhouse purchased the publishing firm of Martin Secker ( that was in receivership ) and renamed it as Secker and Warburg . The firm became renowned for its political stance , being both anti - fascist and anti - communist ( at least communism in its Soviet incarnation ) , a position that put them at loggerheads with many intellectuals of the time . Among the books published by Warburg were C . L . R . James ' s " World Revolution " , Reg Groves ' s " We Shall Rise Again " , Boris Souvarine ' s " Stalin " , and André Gide ' s " Back from the USSR " . When George Orwell parted company with Victor Gollancz over publication of " The Road to Wigan Pier " , it was to Secker and Warburg that he took his next book " Homage to Catalonia " . Thereafter they were to publish all of Orwell ' s work , with author and publisher becoming intimate friends . It was Warburg who , in 1940 , and as publisher of both authors , introduced Orwell to T . R . Fyvel , and between the three of them , they planned the creation of Searchlight Books . With its financial position devastated by paper shortages during and after the war , Secker and Warburg was forced to join the Heinemann group of publishers in 1951 . During the 1950s and 1960s Secker and Warburg were to publish the works of , amongst others , Simone de Beauvoir , Colette , Alberto Moravia , Günter Grass , Angus Wilson , Melvyn Bragg and Julian Gloag . In 1961 Warburg was made a director of the Heinemann group , a post he retained until his retirement in 1971 . He also published two volumes of autobiography : " An Occupation for Gentlemen " ( 1959 ) and " All Authors are Equal " ( 1973 ) . Controversy . In 1952 Warburg became a member of the committee of the Society for Cultural Freedom ( S . C . F . ) , an organisation established to ' promote Western culture and defend it against the communist culture of the East ' . The S . C . F . were to produce a cultural magazine , " Encounter " , which was later to receive sustained criticism when it emerged that much of the money used to produce the magazine came directly from the CIA . More controversy was to follow in 1954 when Warburg was prosecuted for publishing the supposedly obscene book " The Philanderer " by Stanley Kauffmann . Although offered the chance to plead guilty and escape with a minimal fine , Warburg opted for the much riskier option of a public trial by jury at the Old Bailey . This decision was vindicated when he was unanimously acquitted by the jury . The presiding judge ' s ( Sir Wintringham Stable ' s ) summing up was added as an appendix in later editions of " The Philanderer " and also published separately by Secker and Warburg , and in paperback by Penguin Books , 1957 .