Description
The Hogarth Press is perhaps most famous for its association with Virginia Woolf, as she was both a partner in the Press and its most important author. But there is more to the Press than Woolf herself. This catalogue, published to accompany a 2009 exhibit at the University of Alberta's Bruce Peel Special Collections Library, highlights the broad international scope of the Hogarth Press, as well as the variety of genres and surprisingly diverse range of titles it published.
Reviews
"The immaculate care taken by the University of Alberta in this catalogue about publishing is impressive and entirely consistent with the subject illuminated by it. There is a clarity of purpose, prose, and illustration that I, at least, find not only informed but refreshing.... The catalogue informs an exhibit on publishing by the Hogarth Press and not only on the Woolfs and their circle-though the title does have a lupine cachet. Like Hoff [Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway], Gordon eschews jargon, but unlike Hoff, speaks with directness and economy of language. The catalogue is organized into thirteen parts, beginning (appropriately) with 'Beginnings' and ending with 'Endings and Further Beginnings.' The covers and 'logos' (illustrated and described in Introduction: Highlights and New Lights) are colorful and scrupulously reproduced... Molly Hoff, Alice Lowe, and Elizabeth Willson Gordon have added not only to our appreciation of Virginia Woolf, but to the history of her books-those she wrote and those she published. We should all applaud the little press and particularly Clemson University Digital Press [Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway], Cecil Woolf [Beyond the Icon], and the University of Alberta Libraries [Woolf's-head Publishing] for celebrating the book and perpetuating the tradition and spirit of the Woolfs' own Hogarth Press." Karen Levenback, Virginia Woolf Miscellany, Spring 2011
"[Woolf's-head Publishing is] not only a wonderful collection of cover designs, book jackets, and illustrations - but a beautiful example of book production in its own right.... The authors represented stretch from the famous names who made the Press such a commercially successful venture - T.S.Eliot, Freud, Woolf, Vita Sackville-West - to people who have since disappeared into literary obscurity - Ena Limebeer, R.C.Trvelyan, and Virginia's sixteen-year-old discovery Joan Adeney Easdale.... The other Press publications upon which the collection focuses are those by Virginia Woolf herself - all illustrated by her sister Vanessa Bell.... This book is a genuine collector's item, and only months after its first publication it has started to win awards for its design and production values. Anyone with the slightest interest in book production, graphic design, typography, or Bloomsbury will want to own a copy the minute they clap eyes on it." Mantex.co.uk, undated. [Full entry at http://bit.ly/SC5HBw]
"I was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the accompanying catalogue was - a lovely addition to my Woolf book collection (alas, no first editions there). Written by Dr. Elizabeth Willson Gordon, it uses fonts, paper, and production elements selected, 'with the hope of evoking something of the aesthetic feel of the Press books: colourful, exuberant, pleasurably tactile, pleasing to the eye without being precious'." Julia Hedge's Laces, May 3, 2009. [Full entry at http://bit.ly/XjfIa7]