Gerald Duckworth

Gerald de l'Etang Duckworth (29 October 1870 – 28 September 1937) was an English publisher, who founded the London company that bears his name. Henry James and John Galsworthy were among the firm's early authors. Background and early life Duckworth was a son of Herbert Duckworth, a London barrister, by his wife Julia Jackson. His father was the youngest son of William Duckworth of Orchardleigh in Somerset. His middle name, de l'Etang, was the surname of one of his mother's ancestors, Antoine de l'Etang, a page to Queen Marie Antoinette. His mother was a niece of Julia Margaret Cameron, the photographer, after whom she was named. Duckworth's father died before his birth. When he was eight his mother married the author Leslie Stephen and had four more children: Virginia Stephen, later the author Virginia Woolf, the painter Vanessa Bell, and two sons, Thoby and Adrian Stephen. Gerald and his elder brother George were later accused by Virginia and Vanessa of sexually abusing them when they were children and teenagers. Woolf published her first two novels with her brother's help before forming the Hogarth Press.