Keepsake Press
Encyclopedia
The Keepsake Press was a private press
founded by English writer Roy Lewis
. The press published more than 100 books and chapbooks using letterpress techniques. It ceased to operate in 1996 when Lewis died. Its archive is now housed at Reading University
During the Great Depression
he sold his press:
He began printing again in the late 1950s, when he decided to demonstrate the craft to daughters Elizabeth and Miranda. The Keepsake Press was founded soon after, with the intention of publishing both established and un-established writers and artists from the garden shed. Its commercial policy was equally reach-me-down, the sales 'office' being 'confined to some ring binders and a pile of filing boxes'. Since print-runs were limited, most impressions were sold out within 18 months or less.
The press' association with Edward Lowbury
, whom Lewis had known at university, was particularly close. Lowbury's Metamorphoses (1958) was the first non-family production from the press, followed by eight more by him of which the last, First Light, was printed in 1990, two years after the press had officially ceased business. The following is a check list of these:
Lewis learned as he went along and was constantly experimenting. The production of Metamorphoses helped him master a large Columbian press that printed four pages at a time. In 1976 he went to night school in order to learn monotype
and so was able to produce the ambitious large work represented by Poetry and Paradox. Previously his largest book had been the 24-page anthology Moments of Truth containing short poems by 19 high profile poets of the day: George Barker
, Martin Bell
, John Betjeman
, Edwin Brock
, Robert Conquest
, Gavin Ewart
, Roy Fuller
, Thom Gunn
, Bernard Gutteridge
, Francis Hope, Ted Hughes
, Edward Lowbury
, Kathleen Nott
, Peter Porter
, Peter Redgrove
, James Reeves, Peter Russell
, David Wevill
and Hugo Williams
. Published in 1965, twelve copies were given each poet and the remaining 100 were offered for sale.
Not all the work was by contemporary authors. There was a holograph Robert Burns
poem, a translation of poems by Hans Christian Andersen
and a very limited edition of Oscar Wilde
's The Harlot's House. This involved the press in its boldest experiment of all, which was achieved with the help of the Happy Dragons' Press
. The artist Daphne Lord provided drawings which Julius Stafford-Baker of Happy Dragons then made into lino cuts. A special process was used to create silhouettes by blowing aerosol paint through the stencils in five colours, including gold and silver metallics. About 50 copies were produced as Christmas gifts for 1967.
, illustrator of several of Young's books, including the Collected Poems of 1950 and 1960. Keepsake's little work was a celebratory accompaniment to The Poetical Works of Andrew Young which appeared that same year, edited by Lowbury and his wife Alison and, again, illustrated by Joan Hassall. Other artists introduced to the press by Lowbury included Kenneth Lindley, who provided the woodcuts for Birmingham! Birmingham!, and Bryan Brooke, who illustrated Figures of Eight. The latter was a medical colleague that Lowbury had got to know while he was working at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Lowbury was himself a distinguished medical specialist and had been living in the city since 1949.
Lewis’ former connection with Birmingham formed another bond and lay behind the choice of other items printed by the press. Looking over Lowbury’s manuscripts while on a visit, Lewis noticed two or three poems about the city and persuaded him to write more to form the collection Birmingham! Birmingham! Even before that, however, Lewis had printed Don Collis’ Cannon Hill Park (1969) about another city location. Yet one more Birmingham connection surfaces in Robert Leach’s Cats Free and Familiar (1974), whose author had been Head of English at Great Barr Comprehensive School and was then on the way to make a local name for himself in theatre.
left his printing equipment and metal type to Julius Stafford-Baker of the Happy Dragons' Press
, a friend and printer who had assisted with a number of the Keepsake Poems. The Happy Dragons' Press also 'inherited' editor Shirley Toulson from the Keepsake Press. Under her guidance the Press began a programme of poetry publishing closely related to the Keepsake Poems.
Private press
Private press is a term used in the field of book collecting to describe a printing press operated as an artistic or craft-based endeavor, rather than as a purely commercial venture...
founded by English writer Roy Lewis
Roy Lewis
Roy Lewis was an English writer and small press printer.-Life and work:Although born in Felixstowe, Lewis was brought up in Birmingham and educated at King Edward's School. After studying at University College, Oxford, earning his BA in 1934, he went on to study at the London School of Economics...
. The press published more than 100 books and chapbooks using letterpress techniques. It ceased to operate in 1996 when Lewis died. Its archive is now housed at Reading University
Keepsake Poems
A series of 39 poetry chapbooks, The Keepsake Poems, was published between 1972 and 1979 by the press. All have a standard format of crown quarto wrapper enclosing a trimmed folded sheet. A poem and illustration were printed on the centre pages and the print run was generally of 180 copies. Contributors are listed as:- : Incident at West Bay by Vernon ScannellVernon ScannellVernon Scannell was a British poet and author. He was at one time a professional boxer, and wrote novels about the sport.-Personal life:Vernon Scannell was born in 1922 in Spilsby, Lincolnshire...
, illustrated by Vana Haggerty [1972] - The Wake by Kevin Crossley-HollandKevin Crossley-HollandKevin John William Crossley-Holland is an English translator, children's author and poet.-Life and career:Born in Mursley, north Buckinghamshire, Holland grew up in Whiteleaf, a small village in the Chilterns...
, illustrated by Angela Lemaire - The Thrush by Anne Tibble, illustrated by Thomas BewickThomas BewickThomas Bewick was an English wood engraver and ornithologist.- Early life and apprenticeship :Bewick was born at Cherryburn House in the village of Mickley, in the parish of Ovingham, Northumberland, England, near Newcastle upon Tyne on 12 August 1753...
and school - The Select Party by Gavin EwartGavin EwartGavin Buchanan Ewart was a British poet best known for contributing to Geoffrey Grigson's New Verse at the age of seventeen.-Life:...
, illustrated by Arthur Merric BoydArthur Merric BoydArthur Merric Boyd was an Australian painter, and founder of the Boyd artistic dynasty.Boyd was born in Opoho, Dunedin, New Zealand, son of Captain John Theodore Thomas Boyd, formerly of County Mayo, Ireland, and his wife Lucy Charlotte, daughter of Dr Robert Martin of Heidelberg, Victoria... - Crag of Craving by Thomas Blackburn, drawing by Margaret Macguire
- Illness Russian by Boris PasternakBoris PasternakBoris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian language poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's anthology My Sister Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language...
, English by Lydia Pasternak Slater, illustrated by Gordon Bradshaw - WHAT, by Christopher LogueChristopher LogueChristopher Logue, CBE is an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival. He has also written for the theatre and cinema as well as acting in a number of films. His two screenplays are Savage Messiah and The End of Arthur's Marriage...
- : Two Confessions by Edward LowburyEdward LowburyEdward Joseph Lister Lowbury was a pioneering and innovative English medical bacteriologist and pathologist, and also a published poet.-Life:...
, illustrated by Elizabeth Lewis [1973] - The Fox and the Pig by George Wightman, illustrated by Paul Peisch
- Highgate by Owen Hickey, illustrated by Lorna Low
- A Lunar Event written and illustrated by Alan BoldAlan BoldAlan Norman Bold was a Scottish poet, biographer and journalist.He edited Hugh MacDiarmid's Letters and wrote the influential biography MacDiarmid. Bold had acquainted himself with MacDiarmid in 1963 while still an English Literature student at Edinburgh University. His debut work, Society...
- The Breast by Glyn Hughes, illustrated by Ric Hyde
- For Lofthouse written and illustrated by Robert MorganRobert Morgan (poet)-Life:He studied at North Carolina State University as an engineering and mathematics major, and University of North Carolina Greensboro.He teaches at Cornell University beginning in 1971.-Awards:...
- Six Women by Charles CausleyCharles CausleyCharles Stanley Causley, CBE, FRSL was a Cornish poet, schoolmaster and writer. His work is noted for its simplicity and directness and for its associations with folklore, especially when linked to his native Cornwall....
, illustrated by Stanley Simmons - Tankosaurus by Michael McCallion, illustrated by Anna McCallion
- Roman Wall by John CottonJohn CottonJohn Cotton was an English clergyman and colonist. He was a principal figure among the New England Puritan ministers, who also included Thomas Hooker, Increase Mather , John Davenport, and Thomas Shepard and John Norton, who wrote his first biography...
, illustrated by Rigby Graham - : The Rehousing of Scaffardi by Barry ColeBarry ColeBarry Cole is a British poet.Apart from two years as Northern Arts Fellow in Literature at the universities of Durham and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and two years in the RAF as a National Serviceman, he worked until 1995 as an editor at the Central Office of Information, and is now a freelance editor...
, illustrated by Geoff Stear [1974] - First Meeting by Karen GershonKaren GershonKaren Gershon, born Kaethe Loewenthal was a German-born British writer and poet. She escaped to Britain in December 1938....
, illustrated by Stella Tripp - Spring at St Clair by John Press, illustrated by Barry Hirst
- Symphony in Moscow by D M Thomas, illustrated by Geoff Stear
- Waiting for the Barbarians by Roy FullerRoy FullerRoy Broadbent Fuller was an English writer, known mostly as a poet. He was born in Failsworth, Lancashire, and brought up in Blackpool. He worked as a lawyer for a building society, serving in the Royal Navy 1941-1946.Poems was his first book of poetry. He began to write fiction also in the 1950s...
, illustrated by Barry Hirst - Two Prayers by Robert NyeRobert NyeRobert Nye FRSL is an English poet who has also written novels and plays as well as stories for children. His bestselling novel Falstaff published in 1976 was described by Michael Ratcliffe as 'one of the most ambitious and seductive novels of the decade,' and went on to win both The Hawthornden...
, illustrated by Aileen Campbell Nye - The Kiss by Paul RochePaul RocheDonald Robert Paul Roche was a British poet, novelist, and professor of English, a critically acclaimed translator of Greek and Latin classics, notably the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Sappho, and Plautus...
, illustrated by Duncan GrantDuncan GrantDuncan James Corrowr Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, potterty and theatre sets and costumes... - Visual Aids by Norman Hidden, illustrated by Louise Chance
- : No Man's Land by Wes MageeWes MageeWes Magee is a poet and children's author who was born in Greenock, Scotland in July, 1939. He has published 6 collections of poetry for adults, and more than 90 books for children including poetry, fiction, plays, picture books, and anthologies...
, illustrated by Peter Barnfield [1976] - Four Ways With a Ruin by Shirley Toulson, illustrated by Anthea Lawrence
- The Line of the Morning by Robin Munro, illustrated by Julius B. Stafford-Baker
- Two Images of Continuing Trouble by Jon SilkinJon SilkinJon Silkin was a British poet.-Early life:Jon Silkin was born in London, in a Jewish immigrant family and named after Jon Forsyte in The Forsyte Saga, and attended Wycliffe College and Dulwich College During the Second World War he was one of the children evacuated from London ; he remembered that...
, illustrated by Alison Dalwood - Rider and Horse by Martin BoothMartin BoothMartin Booth was a prolific British novelist and poet. He also worked as a teacher and screenwriter, and was the founder of the Sceptre Press.-Early life:...
, illustrated by Warwick HuttonWarwick HuttonWarwick Hutton was an English painter, glass engraver, illustrator, and children's author.He is most widely known for elegant pen and ink and watercolor illustrations for children’s books... - : Cliff Walk by Anne StevensonAnne StevensonAnne Stevenson is an American-British poet and writer.-Life:Stevenson's parents Louise Destler Stevenson and C.L. Stevenson met at a Cincinnati High School. They were living in Cambridge, England, where Charles was studying philosophy under I. A. Richards and Wittgenstein, when their first...
, illustrated by Ann Newnham [1977] - Buying a Sweater by Daniel Stokes, illustrated by Daphne Lord
- After Rowlandson by Gordon Symes, illustrated by Thomas RowlandsonThomas RowlandsonThomas Rowlandson was an English artist and caricaturist.- Biography :Rowlandson was born in Old Jewry, in the City of London. He was the son of a tradesman or city merchant. On leaving school he became a student at the Royal Academy...
- :The Saddled Man by George MacbethGeorge MacBethGeorge Mann MacBeth was a Scottish poet and novelist. He was born in Shotts, Lanarkshire.When he was three, his family moved to Sheffield....
, illustrated by Katherine Kadish [1978] - The Ill Match by Alan Tucker, illustrated by Helen Gleadow
- On the Set by John MoleJohn MoleJohn Mole was an English bass guitar player.Mole was born in Stratford, London. A member of Jon Hiseman's reformed Colosseum II, he went on to work with fellow band members Gary Moore and Don Airey...
, illustrated by George SzirtesGeorge SzirtesGeorge Szirtes is a Hungarian-born British poet, writing in English, as well as a translator from the Hungarian language into English. He has lived in the United Kingdom for most of his life.-Life:... - Les Tres Riches Heures by Peter PorterPeter Porter (poet)Peter Neville Frederick Porter, OAM was a British-based Australian poet.-Life:Porter was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1929. His mother, Marion, died of a burst gall-bladder in 1938. He attended the Church of England Grammar School and left school at 18, and went to work as a trainee journalist...
, illustrated by John PiperJohn PiperJohn Piper may refer to:* John Piper , 20th century English painter and printmaker* John Piper , 20th century BBC radio host* John Piper , 19th century lieutenant-governor of Norfolk Island... - : At the Sink by George SzirtesGeorge SzirtesGeorge Szirtes is a Hungarian-born British poet, writing in English, as well as a translator from the Hungarian language into English. He has lived in the United Kingdom for most of his life.-Life:...
, illustrated by Clarissa Upchurch [1979] - Scrolls by Lotte Kramer, illustrated by Trevor Covey
- Walking in the Harz Mountains by D J Enright, illustrated by Madeline Enright
Selected publications
- Purple Gold Mountain: Poems from China by Ahmed AliAhmed AliAhmed Ali was an Indian novelist, poet, critic, translator, diplomat and scholar, who was responsible for writing Twilight in Delhi. Born in Delhi, India, he was involved in progressive literary movements as a young man...
(1960) - Landscapes by Camillo Pennati; English translation by Peter RussellPeter Russell (poet)Irwin Peter Russell was a British poet, translator and critic. He spent the first half of his life—apart from war service—based in Kent and London, being the proprietor of a series of bookshops, editing the influential literary magazine Nine and being part of the literary scene...
; introduction by Salvatore QuasimodoSalvatore QuasimodoSalvatore Quasimodo was an Italian author and poet. In 1959 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times". Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale, he is one of the foremost Italian poets...
(1964) - Throwaway Lines by Gavin EwartGavin EwartGavin Buchanan Ewart was a British poet best known for contributing to Geoffrey Grigson's New Verse at the age of seventeen.-Life:...
(1964) - Poems and Drawings by Mervyn PeakeMervyn PeakeMervyn Laurence Peake was an English writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J. R. R...
(1965) - Unpublished poems and drafts by James Elroy FleckerJames Elroy FleckerJames Elroy Flecker was an English poet, novelist and playwright. As a poet he was most influenced by the Parnassian poets.-Biography:...
(1971) - A Winnowing of Silence by Martin BoothMartin BoothMartin Booth was a prolific British novelist and poet. He also worked as a teacher and screenwriter, and was the founder of the Sceptre Press.-Early life:...
( 1971) - The Gift by Peter ScuphamPeter Scupham-Life:He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.He founded The Mandeville Press with John Mole. He lives in Norfolk, and runs a catalogue book business with Margaret Steward.-Awards:* 1990 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature...
(1973) - The Other Planet by Roy FullerRoy FullerRoy Broadbent Fuller was an English writer, known mostly as a poet. He was born in Failsworth, Lancashire, and brought up in Blackpool. He worked as a lawyer for a building society, serving in the Royal Navy 1941-1946.Poems was his first book of poetry. He began to write fiction also in the 1950s...
(1979) - The Epodes of Horace: a new English version by John Penman (1980)
- Politics and printing in Winchester, 1830-1880 by Roy Lewis (1980)
- Parables by Andrew YoungAndrew Young (poet)Andrew John Young was a Scottish poet and clergyman. His status as a poet was recognised quite late and he received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1952.-Life:...
(1985) - Elizabeth Sorrell of Wells, her recipes and remedies: an eighteenth century kitchen commonplace book (1986)
- Prints and drawings by Owen Hickey (1986)
Development
At school in Birmingham in 1928, Roy Lewis was introduced to the possibilities of letterpress magazine publishing and bought his first printing press shortly after. On this press he produced amateur magazines, The Lilliputian and The Meanderer. His father was keen to support his hobby and supplied him with a very large quantity of type.During the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
he sold his press:
He began printing again in the late 1950s, when he decided to demonstrate the craft to daughters Elizabeth and Miranda. The Keepsake Press was founded soon after, with the intention of publishing both established and un-established writers and artists from the garden shed. Its commercial policy was equally reach-me-down, the sales 'office' being 'confined to some ring binders and a pile of filing boxes'. Since print-runs were limited, most impressions were sold out within 18 months or less.
The press' association with Edward Lowbury
Edward Lowbury
Edward Joseph Lister Lowbury was a pioneering and innovative English medical bacteriologist and pathologist, and also a published poet.-Life:...
, whom Lewis had known at university, was particularly close. Lowbury's Metamorphoses (1958) was the first non-family production from the press, followed by eight more by him of which the last, First Light, was printed in 1990, two years after the press had officially ceased business. The following is a check list of these:
- Metamorphoses, 1958, 16pp, 80 copies
- New Poems, 1965, 180 signed copies
- Figures of Eight, with drawings by Bryan Brooke, 1969, 22pp, 150 copies
- Two Confessions, with a linocut by Elizabeth Lewis (the printer’s daughter), #8 in the Keepsake Poems series , 1973, 4pp, 180 copies – 12 signed by poet and artist
- Poetry and Paradox: an essay with 19 relevant poems, 1976, 32pp, 250 copies in three different bindings: ISBN 0901924407
- A Letter from Masada, with drawings by Miriam Sachs, 1982, 12pp, 200 copies: ISBN 090192458X
- Birmingham! Birmingham!, with drawings by Kenneth Lindley, 1985, 32pp, 340 copies: ISBN 0901924695
- A Letter from Hampstead: a doctor remembers his patient, Bernard van DierenBernard van DierenBernard Hélène Joseph van Dieren was a Dutch composer, critic, author, and writer on music.Van Dieren was the last of five children of a Rotterdam wine merchant, Bernard Joseph van Dieren, and his second wife, Julie Françoise Adelle Labbé...
, published on the centenary of the composer’s birth, 1987, 18pp, 250 copies: ISBN 090192475X - First Light, 1991, card cover, 16pp, 135 copies: ISBN 0901924792
Lewis learned as he went along and was constantly experimenting. The production of Metamorphoses helped him master a large Columbian press that printed four pages at a time. In 1976 he went to night school in order to learn monotype
Monotype (disambiguation)
A monotype is a print made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface.Monotype may also refer to:* A monotypic taxon* Monotype Corporation, a typesetting and typeface design company....
and so was able to produce the ambitious large work represented by Poetry and Paradox. Previously his largest book had been the 24-page anthology Moments of Truth containing short poems by 19 high profile poets of the day: George Barker
George Barker (poet)
George Granville Barker was an English poet and author.-Life and work:Barker was born in Loughton, near Epping Forest in Essex, England, elder brother of Kit Barker [painter] George Barker was raised by his Irish mother and English father in Battersea, London. He was educated at an L.C.C. school...
, Martin Bell
Martin Bell
Martin Bell, OBE, is a British UNICEF Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician...
, John Betjeman
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman, CBE was an English poet, writer and broadcaster who described himself in Who's Who as a "poet and hack".He was a founding member of the Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture...
, Edwin Brock
Edwin Brock
Edwin Brock was a British poet. Brock wrote two of the best-known poems of the last century, Five Ways to Kill a Man and Song of the Battery Hen.-Early life:...
, Robert Conquest
Robert Conquest
George Robert Ackworth Conquest CMG is a British historian who became a well-known writer and researcher on the Soviet Union with the publication in 1968 of The Great Terror, an account of Stalin's purges of the 1930s...
, Gavin Ewart
Gavin Ewart
Gavin Buchanan Ewart was a British poet best known for contributing to Geoffrey Grigson's New Verse at the age of seventeen.-Life:...
, Roy Fuller
Roy Fuller
Roy Broadbent Fuller was an English writer, known mostly as a poet. He was born in Failsworth, Lancashire, and brought up in Blackpool. He worked as a lawyer for a building society, serving in the Royal Navy 1941-1946.Poems was his first book of poetry. He began to write fiction also in the 1950s...
, Thom Gunn
Thom Gunn
Thom Gunn, born Thomson William Gunn , was an Anglo-American poet who was praised both for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement and his later poetry in America, even after moving toward a looser, free-verse style...
, Bernard Gutteridge
Bernard Gutteridge
Bernard Gutteridge was an English poet, known for poems about the Spanish Civil War, or from his World War II experiences in Madagascar, India and with the 36th Division of the British Army in Burma ....
, Francis Hope, Ted Hughes
Ted Hughes
Edward James Hughes OM , more commonly known as Ted Hughes, was an English poet and children's writer. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath, from 1956 until...
, Edward Lowbury
Edward Lowbury
Edward Joseph Lister Lowbury was a pioneering and innovative English medical bacteriologist and pathologist, and also a published poet.-Life:...
, Kathleen Nott
Kathleen Nott
Kathleen Cecilia Nott, FRSL, , was a British poet, novelist, critic, philosopher and editor.-Life:Kathleen Nott was born in Camberwell, London. Her father, Philip, was a lithographic printer, and her mother, Ellen, ran a boarding house in Brixton; Kathleen was their third daughter...
, Peter Porter
Peter Porter (poet)
Peter Neville Frederick Porter, OAM was a British-based Australian poet.-Life:Porter was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1929. His mother, Marion, died of a burst gall-bladder in 1938. He attended the Church of England Grammar School and left school at 18, and went to work as a trainee journalist...
, Peter Redgrove
Peter Redgrove
Peter William Redgrove was a prolific and widely respected British poet, who also wrote works with his second wife Penelope Shuttle on menstruation and women's health, novels and plays.-Life:...
, James Reeves, Peter Russell
Peter Russell (poet)
Irwin Peter Russell was a British poet, translator and critic. He spent the first half of his life—apart from war service—based in Kent and London, being the proprietor of a series of bookshops, editing the influential literary magazine Nine and being part of the literary scene...
, David Wevill
David Wevill
David Wevill is a Canadian poet and translator. He became a dual citizen in 1994. Wevill is a professor emeritus in the Department of English at The University of Texas at Austin....
and Hugo Williams
Hugo Williams
Hugo Williams is a British poet, journalist and travel writer. His full name is Hugh Mordaunt Vyner Williams He is the son of actor Hugh Williams and the model and actress Margaret Vyner, who co-wrote some upper-middle-class comedies in the late 1950s...
. Published in 1965, twelve copies were given each poet and the remaining 100 were offered for sale.
Not all the work was by contemporary authors. There was a holograph Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
poem, a translation of poems by Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
and a very limited edition of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
's The Harlot's House. This involved the press in its boldest experiment of all, which was achieved with the help of the Happy Dragons' Press
Happy Dragons' Press
The Happy Dragons' Press is a non-profit private press in North Essex, UK, which publishes limited edition volumes of poetry using letterpress printing methods. There are currently two series produced by the press, the Dragon Poems in Translation series and the New Garland series...
. The artist Daphne Lord provided drawings which Julius Stafford-Baker of Happy Dragons then made into lino cuts. A special process was used to create silhouettes by blowing aerosol paint through the stencils in five colours, including gold and silver metallics. About 50 copies were produced as Christmas gifts for 1967.
The Birmingham Connection
The connection with Edward Lowbury also brought in other contributions to the press. Principally he was responsible for the Parables of his late father-in-law, Andrew Young (1985). A selection of the author's mini-sermons originally published anonymously in his parish magazine, it ran into two editions of 200 copies each. Seven of the 16 pages had wood engravings by Joan HassallJoan Hassall
Joan Hassall, was a wood engraver, book illustrator and typographer. Her subject matter ranged from natural history to illustrations for English literary classics...
, illustrator of several of Young's books, including the Collected Poems of 1950 and 1960. Keepsake's little work was a celebratory accompaniment to The Poetical Works of Andrew Young which appeared that same year, edited by Lowbury and his wife Alison and, again, illustrated by Joan Hassall. Other artists introduced to the press by Lowbury included Kenneth Lindley, who provided the woodcuts for Birmingham! Birmingham!, and Bryan Brooke, who illustrated Figures of Eight. The latter was a medical colleague that Lowbury had got to know while he was working at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Lowbury was himself a distinguished medical specialist and had been living in the city since 1949.
Lewis’ former connection with Birmingham formed another bond and lay behind the choice of other items printed by the press. Looking over Lowbury’s manuscripts while on a visit, Lewis noticed two or three poems about the city and persuaded him to write more to form the collection Birmingham! Birmingham! Even before that, however, Lewis had printed Don Collis’ Cannon Hill Park (1969) about another city location. Yet one more Birmingham connection surfaces in Robert Leach’s Cats Free and Familiar (1974), whose author had been Head of English at Great Barr Comprehensive School and was then on the way to make a local name for himself in theatre.
Association with the Happy Dragons' Press
Roy LewisRoy Lewis
Roy Lewis was an English writer and small press printer.-Life and work:Although born in Felixstowe, Lewis was brought up in Birmingham and educated at King Edward's School. After studying at University College, Oxford, earning his BA in 1934, he went on to study at the London School of Economics...
left his printing equipment and metal type to Julius Stafford-Baker of the Happy Dragons' Press
Happy Dragons' Press
The Happy Dragons' Press is a non-profit private press in North Essex, UK, which publishes limited edition volumes of poetry using letterpress printing methods. There are currently two series produced by the press, the Dragon Poems in Translation series and the New Garland series...
, a friend and printer who had assisted with a number of the Keepsake Poems. The Happy Dragons' Press also 'inherited' editor Shirley Toulson from the Keepsake Press. Under her guidance the Press began a programme of poetry publishing closely related to the Keepsake Poems.
See also
- Private PressPrivate pressPrivate press is a term used in the field of book collecting to describe a printing press operated as an artistic or craft-based endeavor, rather than as a purely commercial venture...
- Roy LewisRoy LewisRoy Lewis was an English writer and small press printer.-Life and work:Although born in Felixstowe, Lewis was brought up in Birmingham and educated at King Edward's School. After studying at University College, Oxford, earning his BA in 1934, he went on to study at the London School of Economics...
- Dennis O'DriscollDennis O'DriscollDennis O’Driscoll is an Irish poet, essayist, critic, and editor born in Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland. Although not widely recognized in the United States, he is considered one of the best European poets of his time. In all, he has written eight books of poetry, two chapbooks, and a...
- Gregynog PressGregynog PressThe Gregynog Press, also known as Gwasg Gregynog, is a printing press and charity in Wales.Founded in 1922 by the sisters and art patrons Margaret and Gwendoline Davies, the press was named after their mansion Gregynog Hall. It rose to prominence in the pre-war era as among the more important...
- Golden Cockerel PressGolden Cockerel PressGolden Cockerel Press was a major English private press operating between 1920 and 1961.The Press was founded by Harold Midgley Taylor in 1920 and was first in Waltham St Lawrence in Berkshire where he had unsuccessfully tried fruit farming...
- Happy Dragons' PressHappy Dragons' PressThe Happy Dragons' Press is a non-profit private press in North Essex, UK, which publishes limited edition volumes of poetry using letterpress printing methods. There are currently two series produced by the press, the Dragon Poems in Translation series and the New Garland series...