Leonard and Virginia Woolf as Publishers: The Hogarth Press, 1917-41

In this exemplary work of scholarship, Willis, an English professor at the College of William and Mary, traces the history of Hogarth Press, Leonard and Virginia Woolf's publishing enterprise, from its beginnings as a hand press in their drawing room to its later success as a small, profitable commercial printing press, run in partnership with the poet John Lehmann. In the early years, the Woolfs limited Hogarth Press to literary works, such as short stories by Katherine Mansfield or T. S. Eliot's poetry, but they later published books of political, historical and social importance by such pioneers as Sigmund Freud and John Maynard Keynes. Initially conceived by Leonard Woolf as a diversion for himself and his wife from the demands of their work, Hogarth became the vehicle through which Virginia Woolf was able to publish her writing free from the constraints of editors. A readable and carefully researched addition to Bloomsbury studies. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Sept.)