Harry Sidney Nichols (14 August 1865 – 30 November 1941) was an English publisher of erotica.
Nichols was born in Wortley, Leeds, Yorkshire, the son of glass merchant William Nichols and his wife, Mary Hartley Nichols.West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1910 He went into business as antiquarian book dealer, but he made his fortune as a Sheffield publisher and printer of high-end erotica in partnership with Leonard Smithers which included such works as Sir Richard Francis Burton's translation of the Book of One Thousand and One Nights. In 1888 they formed the Erotika Biblion Society, for which Smithers acted as printer.Nelson (2000) p.28Jon R. Godsall, The Tangled Web: A Life of Sir Richard Burton, Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2008, , p. 396Patrick J. Kearney, A history of erotic literature, Macmillan, 1982, , pp. 151–153 Under threat of arrest under strict Victorian pornography laws, Nichols went into exile in Paris from 1900 to 1908, publishing by mail-order to England.
In 1908, Nichols, being threatened with extradition to England, migrated to Stamford, Connecticut, New York City. His mistress, Annie (renamed 'Dolly'), pregnant with twin daughters, Aimee and Marcia, followed him shortly.Anton Holden, Dolly Vardon. Self-published, 2013. Nichols continued to publish erotica until 1939, when he was committed to Bellevue Mental Hospital, where he died in 1941.New York, New York, Extracted Death Index, 1862-1948
References
Further reading James G. Nelson, Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the Careers of Beardsley, Wilde, Dowson, Rivendale Press, 2000,
External links The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night Vol VI translated by Richard F. Burton on The Internet Archive.