The Corvinus Press was a

private press Private press publishing, with respect to books, is an endeavor performed by craft-based expert or aspiring artisans, either amateur or professional, who, among other things, print and build books, typically by hand, with emphasis on Book design ...

established by George Lionel Seymour Dawson-Damer,

Viscount Carlow A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. The status and any domain held by a viscount is a viscounty. In the case of French viscounts, the title is s ...

(1907–1944) in Red Lion Court, off

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in early 1936. Carlow was a keen book-collector, amateur linguist and typographer, and ran the Press purely as a hobby, with the help of a press-man (latterly Arthur Harry Cardew) and secretary. He was friendly with many of the leading literary figures of the age, some of whom allowed him to print their works at his Press. Corvinus published new work by

T. E. Lawrence Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British Army officer, archaeologist, diplomat and writer known for his role during the Arab Revolt and Sinai and Palestine campaign against the Ottoman Empire in the First W ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...

Edmund Blunden Edmund Charles Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was als ...

Stefan Zweig Stefan Zweig ( ; ; 28 November 1881 – 22 February 1942) was an Austrian writer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular writers in the world. Zweig was raised in V ...

Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fi ...

and

H. E. Bates Herbert Ernest Bates (16 May 1905 – 29 January 1974) was a British writer known for his gritty, realistic short stories (he wrote more than 25 collections) and novels set predominantly in early- to mid-20th century England. His rural u ...

Berthold Wolpe Berthold Ludwig Wolpe (29 October 1905 – 5 July 1989) was a German calligrapher, typographer, type designer, book designer and illustrator. He was born into a Jewish family at Offenbach near Frankfurt, emigrated to England soon after t ...

designed Zweig's ''George Frederick Handel's Resurrection.'' Only thirty-two were printed. Carlow was interested in contemporary European typography, and bought new types from the Bauer typefoundry at

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

am Main and other European founders, which he often used in an experimental way at the Corvinus Press. His taste in binding was also individual, and he generally produced a few special copies of each book which he had bound by one of the leading craft

bookbinder Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated processes. Firstly, one binds the sheets of papers alon ...

s of the age. During the war, Carlow undertook diplomatic duties elsewhere in Europe, but oversaw the work of the Press at a distance. He was killed in an aeroplane crash on 17 April 1944. The Press continued to operate for around a year while Cardew completed some of the books which Carlow had chosen for publication, before the printing equipment and press-man were acquired by the Dropmore Press in 1945.

References

* Paul W. Nash and A. J. Flavell. ''The Corvinus Press: a history and bibliography''. Aldershot: Scolar, 1994. * Paul W. Nash, 'Viscount Carlow, T.E. Lawrence and the Corvinus Press' in ''The Private Library'' 5th series, 3:1, Spring 2000, pp. 47. Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Publishing companies established in 1936 Small press publishing companies {{UK-publish-company-stub de:Doves Press