Originally from Devon, where he was born into a farming family, Lane moved to London already in his teens. While working as a clerk at the Railway Clearing House, he acquired knowledge as an autodidact.
After entering the London book trade he became co-founder of The Bodley Head, originally a firm that dealt with antiquarian books. They later went into publishing. Lane is mainly associated with publishing controversial and audacious texts, especially for a small, sophisticated audience. Examples are the periodical The Yellow Book (1894 - 1897) and Lane's Keynote Series, which included contentious material such as Grant Allen's novel The Woman Who Did (1895).
In his mid teens JohnLane migrated to London and soon found employment as a clerk in the Railway Clearing House.
In the early years of the twentieth century JohnLane broadened the scope of his publishing activities, issuing a considerable range of nonfiction and, most notably, prose fiction.
At the time of JohnLane's death on February 2, 1925, the firm was in decline, culminating in its bankruptcy in 1936.
In one of the densest and soupiest and yellowest of all London's infernalest fogs, Aubrey Beardsley and I sat together the whole afternoon...
The first volume, published by the Bodley Head on 16 April 1894, was highly anticipated, and went through three printings to satisfy demand.
To put the critics in their place, Beardsley published in Volume III two drawings by him in differing styles under the names Phillip Brouqhton and Albert Foschter.
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