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E-List #15
[The Fanfrolico Press]
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On October 23, 1923, the Sydney Morning Herald published a short, unsigned review of a recently-published poetry collection. The author's verses, the reviewer wrote, "are vigorous and colourful, and intensely vital, although in this collection their preoccupation with sex amounts to almost an obsession." The poet in question was a twenty-three-year-old Queensland student named Jack Lindsay, and the book under review was called Fauns and Ladies. It was produced on the hand press of John T. Kirtley and adorned with etchings by the poet's father, the renowned cartoonist and artist Norman Lindsay. It was, according to bibliographer John Arnold, "arguably the first Australian private press book in the tradition of the arts and crafts and subsequent private press movement in England." It encapsulated Lindsay and Kirtley's Fanfrolico Press in its primordial state.
Nineteen-twenty-three was a significant year for the English private press. The stringent tradition of the old guard private presses of Kelmscott and Doves had passed and experimentation with machine printing was opening new avenues for printers, publishers, and designers, Harold Curwen arguably at the forefront. That year also saw the inaugural publication of the Nonesuch Press and the inaugural issue of the typography and book arts journal "The Fleuron." Just ten thousand miles away, young John Kirtley wanted to print beautiful limited editions too, on his Chandler & Price bench hand platen, while his associate Jack Lindsay sought an appropriate outlet to publish his (often suppressed) poetry and "propagate the Lindsay aesthetic." The two young men, both still in their mid-twenties by 1925, therefore decided to set sail for London with just £500 in investment money.
Investments were not forthcoming and the men’s' relationship quickly frayed. By the middle of 1927 P.R. (Inky) Stephenson had replaced Kirtley as Lindsay's main business partner and, after doing a few sums, had calculated that the Fanfrolico Press had just £95 "for carrying on." It was time to get to work.
The following short list consists almost entirely of works published during this final, prolific era of the Press before it went bankrupt at the end of 1930. The books exemplify Lindsay's interests in poetry and classical literature (he was nicknamed "Plato" by his university classmates), while showcasing the many etches that his father Norman had entrusted him with before boarding the ship to London. Each volume is different, some ambitious (purple ink, grass green vellum, outré etchings), others staid. After the Press folded, Lindsay turned to political journalism, historical fiction, and the Communist Party of Great Britain, of which he was a member from the 1930s until his death in 1990. He wrote or edited a total of 175 books. A quick calculation indicates that the twelve volumes below make up just 6.8% of his professional output. No matter.
– Capitol Hill Books
December 13, 2022
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ONE OF THE FINAL KIRTLEY CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PRESS
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1. Jack Lindsay [ed.]; Norman Lindsay [illus.]; Robert Graves [foreword]; Peter Warlock [musical transcriptions]
Loving Mad Tom: Bedlamite Verses of the XVI and XVII Centuries [Limited Edition]
London: Fanfrolico Press, [1927 but 1928]. First Edition, Limited to 375 copies of which this is no. 227. Large, slim quarto; publisher's parchment over green pictorial boards, upper cover and spine stamped in gilt, top edge gilt; 110pp.; full-page illus. and sheet music throughout. Parchment rather discolored from dust-soil, brief scuffing at spine ends and corners, small soil spot to rear cover, contemporary bookseller ticket "At the Sign of the Mermaid" (i.e. Michael Joseph) to front pastedown, else Very Good, internally clean and sound. ALBERT 17.
Price: $250
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JUST DEFINING THE LYRICAL BASIS IN LIFE, NBD
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2. Jack Lindsay; Norman Lindsay [illus.]
Inspiration: An anthology of utterances by Creative Minds defining the creative act and its lyrical basis in life [Limited Edition]
London: Fanfrolico Press, 1928. First Edition, Limited to 725 copies of which this is no. 470. Octavo; publisher's blue pictorial cloth, upper cover and spine stamped in gilt, blue topstain; 124pp.; six leaves of plates, plus two text illus. by Norman Lindsay. Spine rather sunned, corners slightly scuffed, textblock a shade toned, else Very Good, internally clean and sound.
Collection of poems, dramatic excerpts, aphorisms, and artwork divided by era, though it should be mentioned that the table of contents missed the plate after Albrecht Dürer facing p. 46. A relatively slight work by the press, and only nominally limited in publication run, published "to promote the Lindsay/Fanfrolico aesthetic" (Arnold, p. 147). ARNOLD 21.
Price: $40
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3. [Nietzsche] Jack Lindsay; R.L. Hall [foreword]
Dionysos, Nietzsche Contra Nietzsche: An essay in lyrical philosophy [Limited Edition, Signed by Lindsay] [Printer's File Copy]
London: Fanfrolico Press, n.d. but 1928. First Edition, Limited to 500 copies of which this is no. 199. Large octavo; publisher's pictorial blue patterned cloth, upper cover and spine stamped in gilt, top edge gilt, housed in custom cloth slipcase; xi,[1],243pp.; twelve (12) leaves of plates, additional diagrams throughout text. Corners rather bumped and spine sunned, endpapers toned, else a Very Good copy, internally clean and sound.
Signed by the author on colophon below which is a contemporary inscription, "Purnell & Sons File Copy with compliments from the Fanfrolico Press." Purnell & Sons were one of two companies to supervise the printing of this volume according to the printer's slug on title page verso. ALBERT 26.
Price: $150
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THE PURPLE NOT FOR EVERYONE, BUT IT IS FOR US
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4. Lord Byron; Frederick Carter [illus.]
Manfred: A Tragedy [Limited Edition]
London: Fanfrolico Press, 1929. First Thus, Limited to 550 copies of which this is no. 436. Large, slim octavo; publisher's parchment over pictorial purple moiré cloth, upper cover and spine embossed in gilt, top edge gilt, housed in custom cloth slipcase; [80]pp.; four leaves of plates and title page decoration printed in purple, additional text vignettes printed in black. Spine ends and corners very gently tapped, endpapers toned, else a Very Good or better copy, internally clean and sound. ARNOLD 29.
Price: $50
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5. Theocritos; Jack Lindsay [trans.]; Lionel Ellis [illus.]; Edward Hutton [intro.]
Theocritos: The Complete Poems [Limited Edition]
London: Fanfrolico Press, n.d. but 1929. First Thus, Limited to 500 copies of which this is no. 161. Large octavo; publisher's full grass-green pictorial vellum, upper cover and spine stamped in gilt, top edge gilt; xxiv,162pp.; wood-engraved frontispiece, nineteen (19) leaves of plates. Spine rather sunned, corners gently tapped, contemporary ownership ex libris to front pastedown with very minor offsetting, about half the plates lacking laid in tissue guards, else a Very Good, still quite attractive copy, internally clean and sound. ALBERT 32.
Price: $75
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SNEAKILY MISLEADING COLOPHON
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6. Herondas [a.k.a. Herodas]; Jack Lindsay [trans.]; Alan Odle [illus.]; Brian Penton [foreword]
The Mimiambs of Herondas [Limited Edition]
[London]: Fanfrolico Press, n.d. but 1929. First Thus, Limited to 375 copies of which this is no. 39. Large, slim quarto; publisher's green cloth over Japanese floral patterned paper boards, gilt-lettered spine, housed in custom cloth slipcase; [80]pp.; text illus. throughout, some full-paged. Light shelf wear, very brief spotting to upper cover cloth sizing, endpapers toned, else Very Good or better, internally clean and sound.
Colophon rather misleadingly states that this is "The First Book Printed by the Fanfrolico Press London." This was actually the Press's thirty-fifth publication, but the first to actually be printed in London with composition and presswork by Jack Lindsay and W.J. Hatton. ARNOLD 35.
Price: $150
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ONE OF THEIR MOST AMBITIOUS PUBLICATIONS
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7. Gaius Valerius Catullus; Jack Lindsay [trans.]; Lionel Ellis [illus.]
The Complete Poetry of Gaius Catullus [Limited Edition, Signed by Lindsay]
London: Fanfrolico Press, [1929]. First Thus, Limited to an unspecified number of copies (325 per Arnold) of which this is no. 169. Octavo; publisher's full reddish-brown morocco, gilt-lettered spine, top edge gilt, housed in custom cloth slipcase; [252]pp.; woodcut vignettes throughout. Minor wear to leather extremities, spine a shade toned, else a Very Good example, signed by the translator on colophon.
One of Fanfrolico Press's major productions, the complete poems followed by a 50,000-word essay by Jack Lindsay on "Catullus Clodia and their circle including a full version of Cicero's speech for Caelius and numerous contemporary verses" (title page). ARNOLD 36.
Price: $250
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HART CRANE'S COPY? (PROBABLY NOT)
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8. [Hart Crane] Cyril Tourneur; Allardyce Nicoll [ed.]; Frederick Carter [illus.]
The Works of Cyril Tourneur [Limited Edition] [Hart Crane's Bookplate]
London: Fanfrolico Press, n.d. but 1930. First Thus, Limited to 750 copies of which this is no. 213. Large octavo; publisher's blue-green pictorial cloth, upper cover and spine stamped in gilt, top edge gilt, housed in custom cloth slipcase; ix,[1],344pp.; illus. throughout. A few faint surface scratches, spine a shade toned, corners gently tapped, else a Very Good copy overall. ALBERT 37.
Provenance: Ex libris of Hart Crane to front pastedown with ball point pen note on facing front free endpaper, "Hart Crane's copy." It should be noted, however, that Hart Crane's friend (and possible lover) Samuel Loveman received a cache of such bookplates after the poet's untimely death. In the 1940s Loveman established the Bodley Book Shop in Greenwich Village, where he was known to add this bookplate to volumes from his inventory that he thought could have feasibly been in Crane's personal library. Given that Crane usually added an ownership signature to his books, it is likely this is one such example of fraudulent provenance. (See Joe Nickell's Real or Fake (2009), which also extensively covers Loveman's Emily Dickinson forgery.)
Price: $250
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9. Jack [a.k.a. John] Donne; Norman Lindsay [illus.]
A Defence of Women for Their Inconstancy & Their Paintings [Limited Edition]
London: Fanfrolico Press, n.d. but 1930. First Edition, Limited to 370 copies of which this is no. 349. Small, slim octavo; publisher's brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine; [12]pp.; five illus. in text. Light shelf wear, else a Very Good to Near Fine copy.
Published in a somewhat unusual square format due to Jack Lindsay's use of offcuts of paper from the earlier Fanfrolico publication "Women in Parliament." ARNOLD 42.
Price: $50
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ILLUSTRATED BY A CURWEN PRESS APPRENTICE
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10. Decimus Magnus Ausonius; Jack Lindsay [trans.]; Edward Bawden [illus.]
Patchwork Quilt [Limited Edition] [Moses Hadas' Copy]
[London: Fanfrolico, n.d. but 1930.] First Thus, Limited to 400 copies of which this is no. 64. Slim octavo; publisher's patchwork-patterned blue cloth, gilt-lettered spine; [72]pp.; illus. throughout, many full-paged. Spine slightly cocked and significantly toned, light scuffing at corners, contemporary bookseller ticket to front pastedown, else Very Good, internally clean and sound.
Very early example of the artwork of Edward Bawden (1903-1989), at the time of this commission working part-time at the Curwen Press. He is today best remembered as a war artist during World War II, capturing the evacuation of Dunkirk before being posted in North Africa with the War Artists' Advisory Committee. ARNOLD 43.
Provenance: Attractive contemporary ownership ex libris of Moses Hadas (1900-1966), himself a classical scholar who translated numerous works from the Ancient Greek and Latin.
Price: $50
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JACK LINDSAY'S FAVORITE PUBLICATON, AND THE PRESS' LAST
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11. William Morris; Dante Gabriel Rossetti [illus.]; Gordon Bottomley [foreword]; Jack Lindsay [printer]
Guenevere: Two Poems [...] The Defense of Guenevere and King Arthur's Tomb [Limited Edition]
London: Fanfrolico Press, [1930]. First Thus, Limited to 450 copies of which this is no. 440. Slim octavo; publisher's half black linen over grey-brown paper boards, upper cover and spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt; [48]pp.; eight collotypes after line drawings by Rossetti throughout text. A few faint surface scratches, else Just About Fine.
The final volume published by the Fanfrolico Press and one of its most muted titles, though it endured as Jack Lindsay's favorite work issued by the press. As late as 1978 he inscribed a copy to his bibliographer as the "book which I like best of all the Fanfrolico editions" (cf. Arnold, p. 153). ARNOLD 46.
Price: $150
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FULL CIRCLE BACK TO LINDSAY'S YOUTHFUL "OBSESSION" (FLANKS)
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12. Jack Lindsay; Helen Lindsay [illus.]
Collected Poems [Limited Edition, Signed by the Author and Illustrator]
Lake Forest, IL: Chiron Press, 1981. First Edition, Limited to 26 Lettered Copies with original drawing and typescript poem, of which this is copy F. Thick octavo; publisher's brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine, accompanied by plain paper chemise containing Helen Lindsay's original drawing and an original typescript poem by Jack Lindsay with manuscript annotations; housed in original cloth slipcase; xvi,[2],605pp.; frontispiece, illus. throughout. A Fine example. Signed by both the Lindsays on colophon in rear of volume; original illustration and poem each signed by the creator.
A special edition issued late in the publisher-poet's career (Jack Lindsay was 81 at the time of publication), issued with Helen Lindsay's original drawing of a pair of scissors and the original typescript with manuscript corrections of sections iii and iv of the lengthy poem "Face to Face or Canzonets of Casuistry," titled "Truelove" and "Pendulum" respectively. The published versions can be found on pp. 139-140 in the section titled "Strain, Stress, and Break," subsection "First Impact of Europe (Poems 1926-1930)," placing the writing of these lines at the height of the Fanfrolico Press era.
Price: $150
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