Hogarth Press first edition book jacket designs
Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader: Second Series (1932) Cover design by Vanessa Bell
The second collection of essays was published when Woolf’s stature as an author had substantially increased. In this volume Woolf writes about Donne, Dorothy Osborne’s letters, George Gissing, Thomas Hardy, and more. This collection also includes the often quoted essay “How Should One Read a Book?” in which Woolf gives some excellent advice.: “The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions”. Bell’s cover also emphasises the reading experience. Woolf urges people to read broadly, to explore with an open miond. The essay concludes with something every book lover can appreciate: “when the Day of Judgement dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their awards – their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble – the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when He sees us coming with our books under our arms, ‘Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them here. They have loved reading’.”
Elizabeth Willson Gordon, Woolf’s-head Publishing: The Highlights and New Lights of the Hogarth Press
Hogarth Press studies
Woolf’s-head Publishing is a wonderful collection of cover designs, book jackets, and illustrations – but also a beautiful example of book production in its own right. It was produced as an exhibition catalogue and has quite rightly gone on to enjoy an independent life of its own. This book is a genuine collector’s item, and only months after its first publication it 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.
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Leonard and Virginia Woolf as Publishers: Hogarth Press, 1917-41 John Willis brings the remarkable story of Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s success as publishers to life. He generates interesting thumbnail sketches of all the Hogarth Press authors, which brings both them and the books they wrote into sharp focus. He also follows the development of many of its best-selling titles, and there’s a full account of the social and cultural development of the press. This is a scholarly work with extensive footnotes, bibliographies, and suggestions for further reading – but most of all it is a very readable study in cultural history.
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© Roy Johnson 2005
Is there a way to purchase copies of the Hogarth press book covers?
There’s a full review of Woolf’s Head Publishing on this site. If you put the ISBN into a search at Amazon.com, you can find it there. I bought my copy directly from the University of Alberta.