Virginia Woolf & the Hogarth Press > Virginia Woolf, publisher
Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. Two Stories
[London]: The Hogarth Press, 1917
Columbia RBML (Samuels)
Two Stories, the first publication of the Hogarth Press. For this very first publication of the Hogarth Press in 1917, Virginia contributed the story “The Mark on the Wall” and Leonard the story “Three Jews.” Virginia set the type and Leonard operated the press. The small pamphlet contains five charming illustrations done by Carrington. Later works would include woodcuts by Virginia's sister, Vanessa Bell.
Their second publication was Katherine Mansfield's story "Prelude." Mansfield sent the manuscript of the story to the Woolfs unsolicited; she was not a known writer at the time. In the course of their second publication, they Woolfs learned that they needed to outsource the book's production. Quickly they were operating more like a commercial (if alternative press) publisher than a private press, receiving many unsolicited manuscripts and sending off most books after (very light) editing to be printed elsewhere. Early on, they were approached by James Joyce's patron Harriet Shaw Weaver to publish Ulysses. Not much liking the prose and fearing an obscenity charge, they declined.
T. S. Eliot. Poems
London: The Hogarth Press, 1919
Columbia RBML B812EL46 L3 1919
The Hogarth Press publishes T. S. Eliot. Even after the Woolfs had begun to out-source the production of most of their titles, Virginia set selected titles by hand, including T. S. Eliot's Poems. This small pamphlet with its paint-spattered cover was the first publication of any of T. S. Eliot’s poems except for a periodical publication in 1919. Virginia would also set The Wasteland when the Hogarth Press published Eliot’s long poem in 1924.
Edith Sitwell. Poetry & Criticism
London: The Hogarth Press, 1925
Columbia RBML B825Si893 U53 1925
Hogarth Essays. One of the Woolfs’ interests in establishing the Hogarth Press was to publish short critical pamphlets (aesthetic and political) that would not be considered by commercial publishers. To this end they established the Hogarth Essays series in which Edith Sitwell's Poems and Criticisms appeared in 1925. The series started with Virginia Woolf’s Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown and also included essays by T. S. Eliot and Robert Graves. Edith Sitwell was a British poet, critic, eccentric, and author of books about the British queens Victoria and Elizabeth the First.