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Oak Knoll Press - Oak Knoll Books

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<strong>Oak</strong> <strong>Knoll</strong> <strong>Press</strong> 9<br />

The kelmscott chaucer<br />

A Census<br />

by William S. Peterson and Sylvia Holton Peterson<br />

When William Morris founded the Kelmscott <strong>Press</strong>, his celebrated<br />

private press, in 1891, one of the books he intended to print<br />

was an edition of the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer. Because of<br />

its size and complexity, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer did not emerge<br />

from the press until June 1896, shortly before Morris’s death. Even<br />

at the time of publication, there was almost universal recognition<br />

that it was the most ambitious and remarkable book produced in<br />

the nineteenth century. Morris himself designed the type, initials,<br />

and borders. His old friend Sir<br />

Edward Burne-Jones created the<br />

eighty-seven wood-engraved illustrations,<br />

and the book was printed<br />

on a hand-press with ink, paper,<br />

and vellum made to Morris’ exact<br />

specifications.<br />

According to Sydney<br />

Cockerell, the second Secretary<br />

of the Kelmscott <strong>Press</strong>, Morris<br />

printed 425 copies of the Chaucer book on paper and thirteen on vellum. This Census<br />

locates and describes as many of those books (which are now scattered all over the world) as<br />

possible and reconstructs their complicated history of ownership, supplying a narrative of<br />

the fortunes of each known copy that came off the press in 1896. New information about<br />

unlocated copies, copies that have been sold by book dealers and auction houses, and the<br />

binders who have subsequently rebound many of the copies is also included. Three substantial appendices record the copies<br />

sold by Bernard Quaritch (the London bookseller most closely<br />

associated with the production of the Chaucer), the mailing list<br />

of the Kelmscott <strong>Press</strong>, and other unpublished contemporary<br />

documents.<br />

2011, hardcover, dust jacket, 8.5 x 11 inches, 300 pages<br />

ISBN 9781584562894, Order No. 103887, $95.00<br />

Available January 2011<br />

William S. Peterson (Professor of English Emeritus,<br />

University of Maryland) has written extensively about the<br />

Kelmscott <strong>Press</strong> and other aspects of fine printing in Britain<br />

and America. He is currently the editor of Printing History, the<br />

journal of the American Printing History Association. Sylvia<br />

Holton Peterson (Professor of English Emeritus, University<br />

of the District of Columbia) is a medievalist and the co-author<br />

(with Jackson Campbell Boswell) of Chaucer’s Fame in England: STC<br />

Chauceriana, 1475–1540 (2004).<br />

800-996-2556 www.oakknoll.com oakknoll@oakknoll.com

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