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Nonesuch Press was a private press founded in 1922 in London by Francis Meynell, his second wife Vera Mendel, and their mutual friend David Garnett, [1] co-owner of Birrell & Garnett's bookshop in Soho's Gerrard Street, in the basement of which the press began. [2]
Nonesuch Press's first book, a volume of John Donne's Love Poems was issued in May 1923. In total, the press produced more than 140 books. The press was at its peak in the 1920s and 1930s, but continued operating through the mid-1960s. During the late 1930s and throughout the 1940s, Meynell ceded control of the press to George Macy, founder and owner of the Limited Editions Club. In the early 1950s, however, Meynell united with the owner of The Bodley Head, Max Reinhardt, and resumed control of Nonesuch. During the final years of the press's existence, its remit was extended to include editions of classic children's books, such as E. Nesbit's The Treasure Seekers and Andrew Lang's fairy tales (these formed part of the press's Cygnet impression).
Nonesuch was unusual among private presses in that it used a small hand press to design books (an Albion press), [2] but had them printed by commercial printers: for example, the Birmingham-based Kynoch Press. [3] The purpose of this method was to produce book designs with the quality of a fine-press but available to a wider audience at lower prices. Meynell also wanted to demonstrate that "mechanical means could be made to serve fine ends." [4] He believed that the production of exquisitely designed and produced books was not the preserve of the private press predicated upon the example established by William Morris's Kelmscott Press, which emphasized the primacy of the handpressed book.
Among the press's best-known editions were the collected works of William Congreve and William Wycherley and translations of Miguel de Cervantes and Dante. A number of illustrated editions were also produced. Nonesuch's editions are prized by collectors; particularly rare and well-designed editions can sell for more than £1000 ($1774 U.S.).[ citation needed ]
In November 2005, Barnes & Noble issued reprints of the Nonesuch editions of Charles Dickens's novels, including Bleak House , Great Expectations and Hard Times , the Christmas Books, David Copperfield , Oliver Twist , and Nicholas Nickleby . A second set of reissues was released in November 2008, including A Tale of Two Cities , Martin Chuzzlewit and Little Dorrit .
Nonesuch editions of Dickens' novels have also been republished by Duckworth in the UK.
The Week-End Book was a single volume anthology of general reading designed for a weekend away in a cottage or on a boat. It was first published by the Nonesuch Press in June 1924 and was its best selling title. [5] Sales exceeded 100,000 copies within the first seven years. It continued to prove extremely popular and was reprinted in England 34 times up until 2006, sometime in facsimile. [6] It contained works of fiction and non-fiction in small articles that could be read in moments of leisure, and included a wide range of subjects including poetry, religious works, songs, jokes, games and recipes, [7] An American edition was added later. [8]
It was designed for a middle brow reader who wanted a wide range of cultural topics but never to go in too deep. Virginia Woolf once commented about the books, "The Hogarth Press may not make any money but at least we did not publish The Week-End Book."
Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore was an English poet and literary critic. He is best known for his book of poetry The Angel in the House, a narrative poem about the Victorian ideal of a happy marriage.
Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes was a British surgeon and author. He began his career as a physician in World War I, before becoming a doctor at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, where he made notable innovations in the fields of blood transfusion and breast cancer surgery. Keynes was also a publishing scholar and bibliographer of English literature and English medical history, focusing primarily on William Blake and William Harvey.
Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape (1879–1960), who was head of the firm until his death.
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.
Alice Christiana Gertrude Meynell was a British writer, editor, critic, and suffragist, now remembered mainly as a poet.
George Holbrook Jackson was a British journalist, writer and publisher. He was recognised as one of the leading bibliophiles of his time.
David Garnett was an English writer and publisher. As a child, he had a cloak made of rabbit skin and thus received the nickname "Bunny", by which he was known to friends and intimates all his life.
Sir Francis Meredith Wilfrid Meynell was a British poet and printer at The Nonesuch Press.
The Folio Society is a London-based publisher, founded by Charles Ede in 1947 and incorporated in 1971. Formerly privately owned, it operates as an employee ownership trust since 2021.
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.
The National Library of Benin is the legal deposit library for Benin. Originally chartered in November 1975 and located in Ouidah, the library moved to a purpose built unit in the Ouando neighbourhood of Porto-Novo during the 1980s.
Wilfrid Meynell, who sometimes wrote under the pseudonym John Oldcastle, was a British newspaper publisher and editor.
The Albion press is a model of early iron hand printing press, originally designed and manufactured in London by Richard Whittaker Cope around 1820.
Noel Lewis Carrington was an English book designer, editor, publisher, and the originator of Puffin Books. He was the author of books on design and on recreation and also worked for Oxford University Press and Penguin Books. In the 1920s he went out to India on behalf of OUP to establish a branch office there.
The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) is a North American organization that fosters the study of books and manuscripts. It was constituted from the earlier Bibliographical Society of Chicago as the national membership began to exceed local membership. The organization publishes the scholarly journal Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America as well as book on topics of bibliographic interest.
The Leadenhall Press was founded by Andrew White Tuer (1838–1900) as the publishing division of the London partnership of Field & Tuer, following a move to 50 Leadenhall Street in 1868. The firm began as job printers, stationers, and manufacturers in 1862, when Tuer joined with Abraham Field (1830–1891), an established producer of registers and log books. Among their early successes was the invention by Tuer of Stickphast Paste, a vegetable-based product that quickly became the standard office paste--and which was still being manufactured under new ownership as late as the mid 20th century.
The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences is an encyclopedia for library and Information science related issues.
Harry Graham Carter was an English typographer, translator and writer. He was a well-known historian of type. He was the father of type designer Matthew Carter.
The letters of Charles Dickens, of which more than 14,000 are known, range in date from about 1821, when Dickens was 9 years old, to 8 June 1870, the day before he died. They have been described as "invariably idiosyncratic, exuberant, vivid, and amusing…widely recognized as a significant body of work in themselves, part of the Dickens canon". They were written to family, friends, and the contributors to his literary periodicals, who included many of the leading writers of the day. Their letters to him were almost all burned by Dickens because of his horror at the thought of his private correspondence being laid open to public scrutiny. The reference edition of Dickens's letters is the 12-volume Pilgrim Edition, edited by Graham Storey et al. and published by Oxford University Press.
John Harrison Stonehouse was an English bookseller and Charles Dickens scholar at long-established London booksellers Sotheran's where he rose from apprentice to managing director through hard work and a strong entrepreneurial instinct. He introduced and popularised the "Cosway" binding and commissioned the opulent edition of Edward FitzGerald's The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam that was lost when RMS Titanic sank in 1912. He published a book on the subject in 1933.
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