The Hogarth Press
Virginia Woolf’s diary entry for January 25, 1915 reveals that Leonard Woolf took Virginia out for her birthday and while they were at tea, they decided three things:
“In the first place to take Hogarth House if we can get it; in the second to buy a printing press, in the third to buy a bulldog, probably called John. I’m very much excited by the idea of all three, particularly the press.”
Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press published 527 titles between 1917 and 1946. Early titles from the press were hand-printed using a printing press purchased by the Woolfs. The press published works of contemporary fiction by such writers as Vita Sackville-West, Katherine Mansfield, and of course the novels and essays of Virginia Woolf. The press also published works that might not appeal to more commercial publishers: books of political commentary, economics and psychology. Virginia’s sister Vanessa Bell was often enlisted to provide dust jacket designs, particularly for Virginia’s books.
1. Clive Bell. The legend of Monte della Sibilla: or, Le paradis de la reine Sibille. Richmond: Printed and published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1923.
2. Victoria Sackville-West. Sissinghurst. London: Printed by hand by Leonard & Virginia Woolf and published at The Hogarth Press, 1931. "This edition, set by hand at The Hogarth Press, is limited to 500 numbered copies, signed by the author, for sale."
3. Roger Fry. Twelve original woodcuts. Richmond: Printed and published by Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1921.
4. Vanessa Bell. Preliminary sketch for one of the decorated pages in the third edition of Virginia Woolf's Kew Gardens [1927] Double sided, pen and ink/wash on paper. The snail depicted here does not appear in the published version. On the verso is a pen-and-ink design based on what appears to be a parterre, and possibly intended for use as one of the covers in the Hogarth Stories series (1927).
5. Virginia Woolf. Kew Gardens. Woodcuts by Vanessa Bell. London : Published by the Hogarth Press, 1927.
6. T. S. Eliot. The waste land. Richmond : Printed and published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1923.
7. T. S. Eliot. Poems. Richmond: Printed & published by L. & V. Woolf at The Hogarth Press, 1919.