Nonesuch Press Complete Collection - The Nonesuch Shakespeare Works Dickens Genesis Poems in English A History Press Writings Idylls King and Other Arthurian Iliad Odyssey Tootleoo Two Don Quixote Divine Comedy Century Tale Mr Essays Lovely Food Anatomy of Melancholy Lives Noble Grecians Romans Oscar Wilde Mister One & Memoriam Love More Selected phanseys Holy Bible Book Ruth Anacreon Illustrations for Thornton's Thornton Thorntons Virgil Confessions Dramatic Poetry Prose Pencil Drawings Anatomical Exercises etc Compleat Angler Irene Iddesleigh Temple Miscellaneous Week-end Life William Blake Chapman Receipt Benito Cereno Paradoxes Problemes Plurality Worlds Directions Gardiner at Says-Court Anthology Symposium Memoires my Grand-son Vathek

Apuleius William Beckford Hilaire Belloc Blake John Bunyan Robert Burton Cavendish Cervantes Samuel Taylor Coleridge Congreve Joseph Conrad Dante Bernard & Elinor Darwin de Fontenelle Charles Dickens Donne Dreyfus Dryden Evelyn Harvey Hazlitt Herbert Havelock Ellis George Farquhar Herodotus Homer Gerard Manley Hopkins Leslie Hotson Ben Jonson Geoffrey Keynes Henry King Henry Lawes D. H. Lawrence Ruth Lowinsky Andrew Marvell Herman Melville Dmitri Merejcovski Francis Meynell Milton Montaigne Moore Morris Thomas Otway Perrault Plato Plutarch Pope Alexander Pushkin Quincey Elizabeth Raper Rochester Amanda Ros Rousseau Shakespeare A. J. A. Symons Alfred Tennyson Vanbrugh Hendrik van Loon Vaughan Izaak Walton Gilbert White Mona Wilson Wycherley

Published by Complete collection of UK published titles of the Nonesuch Press, London, 1923 - 1990. Compiled by Max Reinhardt for his own library, its co-director from 1952 and last owner from 1986, publishing till 1990., London, 1923

About this Item

THIS COLLECTION WEIGHS HALF A TON (UK). PLEASE TALK TO US DIRECT TO DISCUSS IT & ITS TRANSPORT BEFORE PLACING AN ORDER.
See the ?Contact Seller? link below.

IT IS OFFERED AS A WHOLE AT MAX REINHARDT?S REQUEST AND BECAUSE OF THE ACHIEVEMENT OF BUILDING SO COMPLETE A COLLECTION, WITH THE SPECIAL PROVENANCE OF BEING THAT OF ITS LAST PUBLISHER. ALSO AS IT CONTAINS THE DOCUMENTED HISTORY OF FRANCIS MEYNELL?S AND MAX?S DETERMINATION TO PRODUCE BOOKS AT A FINE LEVEL OF THE BOOKMAKER?S ART, AT LOWER COST, YET HIGHER QUALITY OF MATERIALS, TYPOGRAPHY & LEGIBILITY FOR READERS HOLDING THE BOOKS IN THE HAND. A DELIGHT OF 20TH CENTURY BOOKMAKING.

PROCEEDS FROM THIS SALE WILL BENEFIT MAXLITERACY, WHICH INSPIRES CREATIJVE WRITING IN YOUNG PEOPLE, SET UP IN MEMORY OF MAX AND HIS AUTHORS.

NB. As large collections of Nonesuch are so scarce we have used the Author and Title fields in cryptic form as they have character limits. By cutting duplicated words in names and titles, searches for single books can find this collection, assisting awareness. Eg. instead of ?William Beckford, William Blake, William Harvey,? we enter ?William Beckford Blake Harvey?. A complete list of authors and titles is in the photos. The condition of the books is very good (with many fine, only a few poor).

NONESUCH PRESS COLLECTION. In 1923 Nonesuch was founded by Francis Meynell - its 1st publisher/designer. In 1952 he invited Max Reinhardt to be managing director and publisher. After Meynell?s death in 1975, Max continued that role till 1986 when he bought the Press, publishing till 1990 - its last owner/publisher. Already owner of The Bodley Head that he revolutionised, he was an able successor of Meynell?s desire to produce fine, readable, books at more affordable prices than most private presses.
So, this is the personal collection of Max Reinhardt, begun many years before he joined the Press. By his own death in 2002, it held all titles published for sale in the UK from 1923-1990, the most complete assembled, I believe, with the special provenance possible for the Press?s final publisher. Using the catalogue in John Dreyfus?s History of the Nonesuch Press, I count 182 books and 26 Prospectuses. We can supply a list identifying all items according to Dreyfus.
The scarcest is the Coronation Shakespeare of 1953 (no 119, Dreyfus). A remarkable edition of Shakespeare both for best scholarship and production. It was in an issue of only 4 copies bound in limp vellum - one was presented to the Queen; one for Francis, whereabouts unknown; two for Max, one of which is here and one elsewhere. Only one copy of this very limited issue could have previously appeared for sale. It does not seem to have. The unlimited trade edition is present here too.
The most magisterial is the controversial 1937 Nonesuch Dickens (no 108, Dreyfus), nonetheless considered the finest of Dickens Works produced.
With the books are 50 linear cms of at times spirited letters between Reinhardt, Meynell & trade members from 1952-1975 and with Alix, Francis?s wife, to 1990 discussing all matters to do with their craft, promotion, production, distribution, sales & legal. The body language of aesthetic choice.
Given the international reputation of the Press, it forms an unusually extended and detailed picture of quality book production and publishing in the 2nd half of the 20thC - for this press particularly, as all its earlier records were destroyed at the start of WW2. There are near 700 signed items from Meynell, many more from Reinhardt in copy, many from Brooke Crutchley of Cambridge UP; Vivian Ridler from OUP; some to and from Geoffrey Keynes; Stephen Potter, etc. And with Alix Meynell, Francis?s wife.
There is biographical material on Francis & his publishing life including Pelican Press which he ran with Stanley Morrison; several of his own books and articles; FM?s annotated typescript of his autobiography, My Lives, addressed to Max, who published it.

Seller Inventory # MR.NONESUCH.6.26

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Nonesuch Press Complete Collection - The Nonesuch Shakespeare Works Dickens Genesis Poems in English A History Press Writings Idylls King and Other Arthurian Iliad Odyssey Tootleoo Two Don Quixote Divine Comedy Century Tale Mr Essays Lovely Food Anatomy of Melancholy Lives Noble Grecians Romans Oscar Wilde Mister One & Memoriam Love More Selected phanseys Holy Bible Book Ruth Anacreon Illustrations for Thornton's Thornton Thorntons Virgil Confessions Dramatic Poetry Prose Pencil Drawings ...
• Publisher: Complete collection of UK published titles of the Nonesuch Press, London, 1923 - 1990. Compiled by Max Reinhardt for his own library, its co-director from 1952 and last owner from 1986, publishing till 1990., London
• Publication Date: 1923
• Language: English
• Condition: Very Good