Tidcombe, Marianne The Doves Press , London: British Library, 2002.

Illustrated by Numerous Illustrations / Plates. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Very Good. 4to 0712347089 Dust jacket complete. Green cloth with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership inscription. Numerous Illustrations / plates. 258 pages clean and tight. The books of the Doves Press formed a key stage in the development of modern book design. The Doves Press is the fullest account to date of this, the first and most famous private press of the twentieth century. Beginning with the full text of T. J. Cobden-Sanderson's `The Ideal Book', and its .author's reaction to the books printed by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press, The Doves Press tells the story of the cutting of the famous Doves type, the printing of Paradise Lost, Paradise Regain'd, and The English Bible, and CobdenSanderson's close collaboration with the .calligrapher Edward Johnston. The saga of Cobden-Sanderson's short and stormy partnership with Emery Walker is recounted in detail, leading ultimately to the final episode where Cobden-Sanderson throws the Doves type into the River Thames to prevent it from falling into Walker's hands after his death. Cobden-Sanderson's defence and explanation of this dramatic gesture are given in his previously unpublished memoir `Pro iracundia sua Apologia'. A detailed descriptive bibliography of all the hooks and papers printed at the Doves Press is provided, together with a list of all ephemeral items. This book will be welcomed by all those o with an interest in the history of printing, the Arts and Crafts movement, private presses, calligraphy, and fine hooks. ([THE DOVES PRESS was founded in 1900 to attack the problem of Typography as presented by ordinary Books in the various forms of Prose, Verse, and Dialogue and, keeping always in view the principles laid down in the Book Beautiful, to attempt its solution by the simple arrangement of the whole Book, as a whole, with due regard to its parts and to the emphasis of its capital divisions rather than by the addition & splendour of applied ornament. ([The Books selected for this purpose have been chosen partly for the sake of the particular typographical problems presented by them, but partly also in view of the second objet of the Press, viz., to print in a suitable form some of the great literary achievements of man's creative or constructive genius. To-day there is an immense reproduction in forms at once admirable & cheap of all books which in any language have stood the test of time. But such reproduction is not a substitute for the more monumental production of the same books, and such a production, expressive of man's admiration, is a legitimate ambition of the Printing Press & of some Press the imperative duty. ([THE ENGLISH BIBLE is a supreme achievement of English Literature, if not of English thought. On the other hand PARADISE LOST-'a unique monument of the English language"-is a sublime attempt of English Puritanism to"justifie the wayes of God to men," FAUST reopens the eternal debate between the unseen and the seen, the finite & the infinite: and SARTOR RESARTUS, EMERSON'S ESSAYS, and UNTO THIS LAST are attempts to transform the EVER LASTING NO of scepticism into the EVERLASTING YEA of affirmation, and amid the inexplicable and enshrouding mysteries of the infinite - of God, of Nature, and of the Soul-to set man again at work upon the creation of the Fit, the Seemly, and the Beautiful. MEN & WOMEN and DRAMATIS PERSONAE are poetical presentments of the same positive position. These works together constitute the main argument of the selection. Other like sequences are the POEMS and PLAYS of SHAKESPEARE, preluded by the earlier imagined PERVIGILIUM VENERIS, and the POEMS of GOETHE, WORDSWORTH, SHELLEY, & KEATS. HUMBOLDT'S COSMOS, which I had intended to print, I have abandoned. It was too great an enterprise for The Doves Press under present circumstances. But I have retained the name, COSMOS, in the Catalogue and have affixed to it an asterisk to indicate that its place is vacant. In some happier time perhaps, when man is again at peace with man, the COSMOS will be re-imagined. (Book ref. 129807)  £44.00

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