Sir Stanley Unwin founded Allen & Unwin after buying a controlling interest in the firm George Allen and Sons in 1914. Unwin’s son, Rayner S. Unwin, and nephew, Philip, helped run the company, which published the works of Bertrand Russell, Arthur Waley, Roald Dahl, Lancelot Hogben, and Thor Heyerdahl. It became well known as J. R. R. Tolkien’s publisher, publishing The Hobbit in 1937, and its sequel The Lord of the Rings in 1954–1955. At the age of seventy–six he appeared as a witness for the defence in the Lady Chatterley trial in 1960.