AustLit

Frank W. Cheshire worked as a bookseller for a number of years before he established his own company F. W. Cheshire Pty Ltd in 1925. Though originally a book selling operation, the company experienced a variety of corporate identities. At first it supplied textbooks to students, soon it was printing some of the textbooks. During the Depression, economic necessity prompted Cheshire to expand into secondhand books and manufacturing students' stationery supplies. When Cheshire moved to more central Melbourne location, retail trade increased and, as a result, they opened a general book shop in 1937 in Little Collins Street.

In 1939 new immigrant Andrew Fabinyi joined the company. Fabinyi added general books to the educational publishing list forming F. W. Cheshire Publishing. Cheshire Publishing printed more than 250 titles after the War II, including notable Australian books such as Alan Marshall's I Can Jump Puddles (1955). In the Australian Writers & Artists' Market (1945), Chesire Publishing Manager, Miss Louise Coventry, claimed that the company 'is always interested in all types of literary work by Australian and New Zealand writers' (146). The company continued to expand and opened Canberra and Sydney offices. Cheshire acquired Lloyd O'Neil's Lansdowne Press in 1963. In the sixties, Chesire was publishing around twenty new titles per year (Bookseller, Publisher, Friend 13).

In 1963 Cheshire's printer for nearly 30 years, Wilke and Co, commenced negotiations for the purchase of the Cheshire companies; a representative of International Publishing Corporation London (IPC) heard of the negotiations and keen to enter the Australian market, approached Wilke; the two formed an alliance, Publishing Associates--the company which ultimately purchased the Cheshire companies (Bookseller, Publisher, Friend 85). In 1964 the Melbourne Age announced the British purchase of the Cheshire Group of companies, F. W. Cheshire, F. W. Cheshire Publishing and Landsowne Press (25 November 1964).