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Virago is a British publishing company founded in 1973 by Carmen Callil, Rosie Boycott, and Marsha Rowe to publish books by women writers. Both new works and reissued books by neglected authors have featured on the imprint's list.
In 1982 Virago became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chatto, Virago, Bodley Head, and Cape Group, but in 1987 Callil, Lennie Goodings, Ursula Owen, Alexandra Pringle, and Harriet Spicer put together a management buy-out from CVBC, then owned by Random House, USA. The buy-out was financed by Rothschild Ventures and Robert Gavron. Random House UK kept a ten per cent stake in the company, and continued to handle sales and distribution.
In 1993 Rothschild Ventures sold their shares to the directors and Gavron, who thus became the largest single shareholder. After a forced reduction in activity was forced by a downturn in the market, the board decided to sell the company to Little, Brown, of which in 1996 Virago became an imprint (with Lennie Goodings as Publisher and Sally Abbey as Senior Editor). In 2006, Virago's parent company became part of publishing group Hachette Livre. Lennie Goodings remains as both editor and publisher.
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