Private press publishing, with respect to books, is an endeavor performed by craft-based expert or aspiring artisans, either amateur or professional, who, among other things, print and build books, typically by hand, with emphasis on
design,
graphics,
layout,
fine printing,
binding,
covers, paper, stitching, and the like.
Description
The term "private press" is not synonymous with "
fine press", "
small press", or "
university press" – though there are similarities. One similarity shared by all is that they need not meet higher commercial thresholds of commercial presses. Private presses, however, often have no profit motive. A similarity shared with
fine and
small presses, but not
university presses, is that for various reasons – namely quality – production quantity is often limited. University presses are typically more automated. A distinguishing quality of private presses is that they enjoy sole discretion over literary, scientific, artistic, and aesthetic merits. Criteria for other types of presses vary. From an aesthetic perspective, critical acclaim and public appreciation of artisans' works from private presses is somewhat analogous to that of
luthiers' works of fine
string instruments and
bows.
Etymological perspective
The private press movement, and its renowned body of work – relative to the larger world of book arts in
Western civilization – is narrow and recent. From one perspective, collections relating to book arts date back to before the
High Middle Ages. As an illustration of scope and influence, a 1980 exhibition at
Catholic University of America, "The Monastic Imprint," highlighted the influence of book arts and textual scholarship from 1200 to 1980, displaying hundreds of diplomas, manuscript
codices,
incunabula, printed volumes, and
calligraphic and private press
ephemera. The displays focused on five areas: (1)
Medieval Monasticism, Spirituality, and Scribal Culture, A.D. 1200–1500; (2) Early Printing and the Monastic Scholarly Tradition, ca. 1450–1600; (3) Early modern Monastic Printing and Scholarly Publishing, A.D. 1650–1800; (4) Modern Survivals: Monastic Scriptoria, Private Presses, and Academic Publishing, 1800–1980.[1][2]
The earliest descriptive references to private presses were by Bernardus A. Mallinckrodt of
Mainz, Germany, in De ortu ac progressu artis typographicae dissertatio historica (Cologne, 1639). The earliest in-depth writing about private presses was by
Adam Heinrich Lackmann(de) (1694–1754) in Annalium Typographicorum, Selecta Quaedam Capita (Hamburg, 1740).[3]
Private press movement
By location
United Kingdom
The term "private press" is often used to refer to a movement in book production which flourished around the
turn of the 20th century under the influence of the scholar-artisans
William Morris, Sir
Emery Walker and their followers. The movement is often considered to have begun with the founding of Morris'
Kelmscott Press in 1890, following a lecture on printing given by Walker at the
Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in November 1888. Morris decried that the
Industrial Revolution had ruined man's joy in work and that mechanization, to the extent that it has replaced handicraft, had brought ugliness with it. Those involved in the private press movement created books by traditional printing and binding methods, with an emphasis on the book as a work of art and manual skill, as well as a medium for the transmission of information. Morris was greatly influenced by medieval codices and early printed books and the 'Kelmscott style' had a great, and not always positive, influence on later private presses and commercial book-design. The movement was an offshoot of the
Arts and Crafts movement, and represented a rejection of the cheap mechanised book-production methods which developed in the Victorian era. The books were made with high-quality materials (handmade paper, traditional inks and, in some cases, specially designed typefaces), and were often bound by hand. Careful consideration was given to format, page design, type, illustration and binding, to produce a unified whole. The movement dwindled during the worldwide depression of the 1930s, as the market for luxury goods evaporated. Since the 1950s, there has been a resurgence of interest, especially among artists, in the experimental use of
letterpress printing, paper-making and hand-bookbinding in producing small editions of 'artists' books', and among amateur (and a few professional) enthusiasts for traditional printing methods and for the production 'values' of the private press movement.[4][5][6]
New Zealand
In New Zealand university private presses have been significant in the private press movement.[7] Private presses are active at three New Zealand universities: Auckland (
Holloway Press[8]), Victoria (Wai-te-ata Press[9]) and Otago (Otakou Press[10]).
North America
A 1982 Newsweek article about the rebirth of the hand press movement asserted that
Harry Duncan was "considered the father of the post-
World War II private-press movement."[11]Will Ransom has been credited as the father of American private press
historiographers.[12]
Selected history
Quality control
Beyond aesthetics, private presses, historically, have served other needs.
John Hunter (1728–1793), a Scottish surgeon and medical researcher, established a private press in 1786 at his house at 13 Castle Street,
Leicester Square, in
West End of London, in an attempt to prevent unauthorized publication of cheap and foreign editions of his works. His first book from his private press: A Treatise on the Venereal Disease. One thousand copies of the first edition were printed.[13]
Academics
Porter Garnett (1871–1951), of
Carnegie Mellon University, was an exponent of the anti-industrial values[vague] of the great private presses – namely those of
Kelmscott,
Doves, and
Ashendene. Following Garnett's inspirational proposal to
Carnegie Mellon, Garnett designed and inaugurated on April 7, 1923, the institute's Laboratory Press – for the purpose of teaching printing, which he believed was the first private press devoted solely for that purpose. The press closed in 1935.[14]
Locks' Press, founded in 1979 in
Brisbane, Australia, by Fred Lock, PhD (né Frederick Peter Lock; born 1948), and wife (an artist), Margaret Lock (née Margaret Helen Capper); in 1987, they moved to
Kingston, Ontario[19]
Kynoch Press, a company-owned press that produced artisan-type books in private editions, founded in 1876, closed 1981[20]
Nonesuch Press, founded in 1922 in London by Sir
Francis Meynell (1891–1975), his 2nd wife, Vera Meynell (née Vera Rosalind Wynn Mendel; 1895–1947), and
David Garnett (1892–1981)
Officina Typographica (the namesake of a bygone constellation), established in 1963 by
Stanisław Gliwa(pl) (1910–1986), a Polish
expatriate living in London[21]
Rampant Lions Press, founded 1924 in
Cambridge by Will Carter (né William Nicholas Carter; 1912–2001), who was 12, and continued by his son Sebastian until 2008
The Private Press of Ariel Wardi (surname alt spelling, converting
Polish phonological use of "W" to English "V" – "Vardi"), established 1989 in
Jerusalem; Ariel (born 1929) is the son of
Haim Wardi, PhD (ne Rosenfeld; 1901–1975)
(he)[22][23][24]
Opponents
William Addison Dwiggins (1880–1956), a commercial artist, is lauded for high quality work, namely with
Alfred Knopf. And, in contrast to many first-rate book designers joining private presses, he refused. Historian
Paul Shaw explained, "He had no patience with those who insisted on retaining hand processes in printing and publishing in the belief that they were inherently superior to machine processes." Dwiggins's "principal concern ultimately centered on readers and their reading needs, esthetic as well as financial. [His] goal was to make books that were beautiful, functional, and inexpensive."[25][26]
^Benton, Megan L. (1992). "Orchids from Pittsburgh: An Appraisal of the Laboratory Press, 1922-1935". The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy. 62 (1): 28–54.
doi:
10.1086/602419.
JSTOR4308664.
S2CID144544855.
^
abc"News and Reviews of Private Presses" (monthly column), by James Lamar Weygand (1919–2003), American Book Collector, Vols. 14 and 15
^"Two Decades of Hamady and the Perishable Press Limited" (exhibition inventory),
University of Missouri–St. Louis, October 3, 1984, through November 4, 1984
Subtitled: "Hamady's Perishable Press, A 20th Anniversary Sampling of Hand Crafted Books"
^Locks' Press, Kingston, Ontario, Fred and Margaret Lock (proprietors) (a reissue of a March 2012 catalog, with an additional folded sheet tipped in) (2014), p. 1;
OCLC963257551
^The Kynoch Press: The Anatomy of a Printing House, 1876–1981, by Caroline Archer, PhD (since married to Alexandre Parré and is known as Caroline Archer-Parré),
Oak Knoll Press (2000);
OCLC45137620;
ISBN9780712347044
^"Jurzykowski Foundation Awards, 1970". The Polish Review. 16 (2): 105–113. 1971.
JSTOR25776978.
^"Tradition and Innovation: the design work of William Addison Dwiggins," by
Paul Shaw, Design History: An Anthology, Dennis P. Doordan (ed.),
MIT Press (1995), pps. 33–35;
OCLC32859908
^Franciosi, Robert (2008). "Designing John Hersey's 'The Wall': W. A. Dwiggins, George Salter, and the Challenges of American Holocaust Memory". Book History. 11: 245–274.
doi:
10.1353/bh.0.0012.
JSTOR30227420.
S2CID161112866.
Gilbert Turner (1911–1983), The Private Press: Its Achievement and Influence,Birmingham, England: Association of Assistant Librarians, Midland Division (1954);
OCLC940315205