John Peters

Deconstructed pages: publications from the private presses of England

My research proposal will investigate the relationship between author and the private press. This builds on my postgraduate study, on the work of the Vine Press and typographer John Peters. In my research for this dissertation, I established that the trade of the private printer could extend from the composition of metal type, types of papers, methodology of applying ink to paper to the binding and cover. As owners of the printing press, this frequently included the selection of the text to be printed. Why was certain material was chosen and how did this selection aid the author. The paper will evaluate the composition of selected titles covering a range of decades and a discussion of printers in the context of books as an art form within the tradition of the private press movement. 

Since the invention of moveable type and development of oil inks in 1440 by Gutenberg, authors have turned to the tools of the printer to gain an audience for their work. The private printing press has played a key role in the history of literature, during the Reformation, the Renaissance and at times of revolution, as a tool capable of disseminating powerful, influential information in high volume. The printing press empowered great thinkers such as Samuel Johnson and John Locke during the Enlightenment. London experienced an unprecedented increase in literacy during this period. The number of books published in 1620 was 6,000 and this figure had grown to 56,000 by 1780.

William Morris embraced a revival of Gutenberg’s aesthetic values at The Kelmscott Press, conversely The Doves Press took a modernist view of similar texts. Much as been written regarding The Kelmscott Press, owned by William Morris and Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press but within this category falls experimental work by Kipling, Louis Stevenson and William Blake.

The thesis will draw on literature from a range of sources and periods including the history of publishing and print, the work of small presses including The Strawberry Hill Press founded by Horace Walpole to the Stanbrook Abbey Press which sought advice on printing techniques from Peters. It will examine the records of private presses held at the St Brides Foundation, Cambridge University Library and archives at The John Jarrold Printing Museum, The Arts and Craft collection at the Cheltenham Art Gallery including the Emery Walker library.

I propose to outline the historical importance of the private press to the author, the functions of a private press and the relationship with the writer, the process of selection and execution of work including technique and illustration.