It produces illustrated hardback editions of fiction and non-fiction books, poetry and children's titles. Folio editions feature specially designed bindings and include artist-commissioned illustrations (most often in fiction titles) or researched artworks and photographs (in non-fiction titles). The Folio Society publishes titles across a breadth of genres including fantasy, science fiction, modern fiction and non-fiction from authors such as George R. R. Martin, Madeline Miller and Stephen King.
Folio editions can be purchased only online through their website or over the telephone.
Folio Society editions have won prestigious awards, including the V&A Book Illustration Awards, the British Book Production and Design Awards and the Association of Illustrators World Illustration Awards.
History
The Folio Society was founded in 1947 by Charles Ede, Christopher Sandford (of Golden Cockerel Press), and Alan Bott (founder of Pan Books).[4] Folio and the Golden Cockerel Press shared premises in Poland Street until 1955.[5] The Folio Society moved to its location in 44 Eagle Street, Holborn, in 1994[6] – in 2017, their offices moved to 4 Maguire Street, London.
At its inception, The Folio Society operated as a membership-based book club; as the list of titles grew, the membership commitment was established as four books per year. Since 2011, anyone has been able to purchase from the Folio Society list without committing to membership. On 1 September 2016, the company ended its membership-based structure and Folio editions are now available to purchase online.[citation needed]
In 1971, The Folio Society was incorporated and purchased by John Letts and Halfdan Lynner.[2] Under their ownership, The Folio Society published the collected novels of Dickens, Trollope, Hardy, Elizabeth Gaskell and Conrad.
Lord Gavron was owner and chairman of The Folio Society from 1982 until his death in 2015. Lady Gavron took over as chair until 2021, when Folio became an Employee Ownership Trust.
Publishing Trends
The company currently publishes around 50 titles a year, including a number of limited editions. Limited editions are hand-numbered and sometimes contain additional elements such as prints or stickers, as well as signatures from authors, introducers and illustrators. Recent limited editions include George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Neuromancer by William Gibson.
In recent years, Folio has evolved, particularly under the stewardship of Joanna Reynolds – embracing new genres, fandoms and diverse modern authors, as well as new partnerships with major brands like Marvel and DC.
Production & Craft
Folio is known to produce high-quality books with a focus on craftsmanship and sustainability. Each edition is designed "to be treasured forever", printed on acid-free paper with high-quality materials that will stand the test of time.
Many editions include traditional bookmaking and printing techniques, and they work closely with artisan suppliers, including Ludlow Bookbinders in Shropshire, Smith Settle in Yorkshire and specialist letterpress printer Phil Abel in London. Other books are crafted using the cutting-edge technologies of printers such as L.E.G.O. in Italy.
Community
The Folio Society has a strong fanbase, attracting fans and collectors from all over the world. There are active fan communities online, boasting thousands of members who collect Folio Society books, sharing their collections online.
Artist and Illustration
Each of Folio's editions contain illustrations, art or photography and the company have been working to champion new and emerging artists. Since 2022, they have hosted an annual Folio Book Illustration Award with the aim of finding, platforming and supporting new illustration talent from around the world. Winners receive a cash prize and the chance for their illustrations to be featured in upcoming Folio editions.
Illustrators
Notable among the hundreds of illustrators of Folio books are:
Cave, Roderick & Sarah Mason, A History of the Golden Cockerel Press, 1920–1960 (2002. British Library & Oak Knoll Press)
Nash, Paul W., Folio 50: a bibliography of the Folio Society, 1947–1996 (1997. Folio Press in association with The British Library)
Nash, Paul W. Folio 60: a bibliography of the Folio Society, 1947–2006 (2007. Folio Society) (Includes essays by Sue Bradbury, Joseph Connolly and David McKitterick)
Nash, Paul W., 'Folio fine editions', in Parenthesis (4 April 2000), pp.22–24. (Includes a checklist of 'Fine editions', giving print-runs)
George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a Franco-British cartoonist and writer known for work in Punch and a Gothic novel Trilby, featuring the character Svengali. His son was the actor Sir Gerald du Maurier. The writers Angela du Maurier and Daphne du Maurier and the artist Jeanne du Maurier were all granddaughters of George. He was also father of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and grandfather of the five boys who inspired J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan.
Alan Lee is an English book illustrator and film conceptual designer. He is best known for his artwork inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novels, and for his work on the concept design of Peter Jackson's film adaptations of Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film series.
John Davys Beresford was an English writer, now remembered mainly for his early science fiction and some short stories of the horror story and ghost story genres. Beresford was a great admirer of H. G. Wells, and wrote the first critical study of Wells in 1915. His Wellsian novel The Hampdenshire Wonder (1911) was a major influence for the author Olaf Stapledon. His other science-fiction novels include The Riddle of the Tower, about a dystopian, hive-like society.
The Golden Cockerel Press was an English fine press operating between 1920 and 1961.
Charles William James Keeping was an English illustrator, children's book author and lithographer. He made the illustrations for Rosemary Sutcliff's historical novels for children, and he created more than twenty picture books. He also illustrated the complete works of Charles Dickens for the Folio Society.
Edmund Dulac was a French-British naturalised magazine illustrator, book illustrator and stamp designer. Born in Toulouse, he studied law but later turned to the study of art at the École des Beaux-Arts. He moved to London early in the 20th century and in 1905 received his first commission to illustrate the novels of the Brontë Sisters. During World War I, Dulac produced relief books. After the war, the deluxe children's book market shrank, and he then turned to magazine illustrations among other ventures. He designed banknotes during World War II and postage stamps, most notably those that heralded the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II's reign.
John Northcote Nash was a British painter of landscapes and still-lifes, and a wood engraver and illustrator, particularly of botanic works. He was the younger brother of the artist Paul Nash.
Easton Press, a division of MBI, Inc., based in Norwalk, Connecticut, is a publisher specializing in premium leather-bound books. In addition to canonical classics, religion, poetry and art books, they publish a selection of science fiction and popular literature.
Gordon Frederick Browne was an English artist and a prolific illustrator of children's books in the late 19th century and early 20th century. He was a meticulous craftsman and went to a great deal of effort to ensure that his illustrations were accurate. He illustrated six or seven books a year in addition to a huge volume of magazine illustration.
Joan Hassall was an English wood engraver and book illustrator. Her subject matter ranged from natural history through poetry to illustrations for English literary classics. In 1972 she was elected the first woman Master of the Art Workers' Guild and in 1987 was awarded the OBE.
Fine press printing and publishing comprises historical and contemporary printers and publishers publishing books and other printed matter of exceptional intrinsic quality and artistic taste, including both commercial and private presses.
Mark Fernand Severin was a Belgian illustrator, engraver, and graphic artist, best known for designing bookplates.
Clara Elsene Peck was an American illustrator and painter known for her illustrations of women and children in the early 20th century. Peck received her arts education from the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts and was employed as a magazine illustrator from 1906 to 1940. Peck's body of work encompasses a wide range, from popular women's magazines and children's books, works of fiction, commercial art for products like Ivory soap, and comic books and watercolor painting later in her career. Peck worked during the "Golden Age of American Illustration" (1880s–1930s) contemporaneous with noted female illustrators Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green and Violet Oakley.
John Vernon Lord is an illustrator, author and teacher. He is widely recognized for his illustrations of various texts such as Aesop's Fables,The Nonsense Verse of Edward Lear; and the Folio Society's Myths and Legends of the British Isles. He has also illustrated classics of English literature, including the works of Lewis Carroll and James Joyce.
John Farleigh CBE, also known as Frederick William Charles Farleigh, was an English wood-engraver, noted for his illustrations of George Bernard Shaw's work The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, which caused controversy when released due to the religious, sexual and racial themes within the writing and John Farleigh's complementary wood engravings commissioned by Shaw for the book. He is also known for his illustrations of D. H. Lawrence's work, The Man Who Died, and for the posters he designed for London County Council Tramways and London Transport. He was also a painter, lithographer, author and art tutor.
The bibliography of George Orwell includes journalism, essays, novels, and non-fiction books written by the British writer Eric Blair (1903–1950), either under his own name or, more usually, under his pen name George Orwell. Orwell was a prolific writer on topics related to contemporary English society and literary criticism, who has been declared "perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture." His non-fiction cultural and political criticism constitutes the majority of his work, but Orwell also wrote in several genres of fictional literature.
The Pall Mall Magazine was a monthly British literary magazine published between 1893 and 1914. Begun by William Waldorf Astor as an offshoot of The Pall Mall Gazette, the magazine included poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, and general commentaries, along with extensive artwork. It was notable in its time as the first British magazine to "publish illustrations in number and finish comparable to those of American periodicals of the same class" much of which was in the late Pre-Raphaelite style. It was often compared to the competing publication The Strand Magazine; many artists, such as illustrator Sidney Paget and author H. G. Wells, sold freelance work to both.
Charles Richard Montague Ede was a British publisher and dealer in art and antiquities. He founded the Folio Society in 1947.
There are more than 100 illustrators of English-language editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), with many other artists for non-English language editions. The illustrator for the original editions was John Tenniel, whose illustrations for Alice and Looking Glass are among the best known illustrations ever published.
Dorothea Braby was a British artist. Although she had a long career as a freelance designer producing work for several well-known companies, Braby is best known for the book illustrations she created, particularly those for the Golden Cockerel Press.
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