Thomas Fisher Unwin bought the small publishing firm of Marshall Japp and Company, and began his own publishing house, T. Fisher Unwin, in 1882. Notable for its willingness to publish the work of unknown writers, the firm was an early publisher of many who went on to literary prominance, such as H. G. Wells, John Galsworthy, Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford. T. Fisher Unwin published a very varied general list, which included memoirs, travel and adventure, history and psychoanalysis, and work which reflected the founder's interest in politics, international affairs, and liberalism. It also published many popular novels, and supplied novels to colonial markets from unbound sheets purchased from other publishers.
The firm merged with Ernest Benn Limited in 1926 after Thomas Fisher Unwin retired. His nephew, Stanley Unwin, who worked in the company from 1904, founded his own firm, George Allen and Unwin, in 1914.
