The 1970s

The 1970s were a formative decade in James Herriot’s writing career, when several English collections were reshaped for the American market as new omnibus books. The decade’s publication pattern linked a growing series of works in England with a distinct set of titles for readers in the United States, and established a publishing trajectory that continued beyond the decade.

English Collections and American Omnibus Editions

Throughout the decade, James Herriot released several writing collections in England under his pen name. In the United States, publishers paired volumes and issued them under new titles as omnibuses, rather than preserving the English publication groupings. The two markets therefore presented different arrangements of his work.

Among the American omnibus editions were All Things Bright and Beautiful, published in 1974, and All Things Wise and Wonderful, published in 1977. Their new titles and paired format made the American sequence a distinct version of Herriot’s expanding body of writing.

Beyond the Decade

The publishing story of the 1970s extended into the following years. James Herriot announced that he intended to retire from writing after The Lord God Made Them All appeared in 1981, but later returned with Every Living Thing in 1992. That later book makes the decade’s run of collections a significant phase in a longer career, rather than its final chapter.