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Jean Hartley

English publisher and autobiographer

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ28038550
Source-derived summary

Jean Hartley (née Holland; 27 April 1933 – 18 July 2011) was an English autobiographer and publisher. She and her husband George Hartley co-founded the publication company Marvell Press in 1954, which published volumes of poetry. They also founded the record company Listen Records. After Hartley separated from her husband and left Marvell Press, she earned degrees in English Literature and Victorian Studies from the University of Hull in the early 1970s. She taught English at her former secondary school and lectured at the Hull College of Further Education. In 1995, Hartley was made vice-chairman of the Philip Larkin Society to promote the life and works of her friend and poet Philip Larkin. She was on the steering committee of the Larkin 25 committee in 2010. The Hull History Centre holds a collection of items on Hartley's life and career.

Early life

Hartley was born at Ivy Terrace, Constable Street, Hull, Yorkshire on 27 April 1933, to a poor working-class family. Her father was the iron foundry labourer William Manclin Holland and her mother was the domestic service worker Olive Holland, née Simpson.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Jean Hartley” as english publisher and autobiographer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Jean, Hartley and English.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1933, 2011, 1954, 1995—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1933. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Jean, Hartley and English providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Jean Hartley”, the useful work is to connect “english publisher and autobiographer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28038550. VIAF identifies the subject as 269809968. The Library of Congress control number is no91005084. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1933, 2011, 1954 and 1995.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Jean Hartley” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.