The Private Press

Faber and Faber, 1971 4to (25.5 cm), front., 376 pp, 72 plates. Publisher's cloth and dust jacket (dj slightly rubbed at extremities). "Ever since Gutenberg's invention of printing from movable types five hundred years ago, as well as commercial printers there have been amateurs who have been fascinated by the authority which printing confers on the written word. Previous studies have in the main been limited to those private presses which from William Morris's Kelmscott onwards have been concerned with the production of fine books. Roderick Cave examines the earlier presses as well, from those set up by penurious scholars to print their own books to those of aristocrats like Horace Walpole or Frederick the Great who had presses as playthings; from the presses which have operated secretly to avoid censorship to those which regarded printing as a fine art. He describes representative presses of these different kinds, examining the equipment they used and the books they produced. Particular attention is paid to the growth of printing as a middle-class hobby in Victorian England, and to the postwar revival of printing for pleasure. As editor of the Private Libraries Association's annual bibliography Private Press Books, the author is particularly well qualified to describe and assess the work of contemporary private presses in Britain and the United States." (from the blurb)