Details
[MEYNELL, Francis (1891-1975)]. Meditations from the Note Book of Mary Carey 1649-1657. Westminster: Francis Meynell, 1918. 12°. HAND-SET IN FELL TYPE, WITH FELL ORNAMENTS. Original green decorated paper over boards (perished and discoloured at spine, tissue dust-jacket perished), paper label. ONE OF 100 COPIES. Second edition. Printed 'in the fifth year of the war' and dedicated by Meynell 'to Lilias and to Robert in prison'. With a torn autograph note presenting the volume 'With Christmas greetings, from Hilda and Francis Meynell'. SCARCE FORERUNNER OF THE NONESUCH PRESS.
Second of the two titles produced by the 'Romney Street Press'. Printed by Meynell on a hand-press in his dining room, using Fell Type he had bought from Oxford University Press, which retained the legal title 'so that if I were to misuse this cherished type they could at any time call upon me to surrender it' (Nonesuch Century, 1936, p.37)
Ould and Thomas describe this as 'one of the most delightful books printed in the Fell types that we have seen ... A large type on a small page, and a treasure. The subtle patterned papers on light boards add to the delicacy', and quote a letter written by Meynell in 1972: 'The first issue of Mary Carey was in October 1917: "32 copies of which 30 are for sale." But the paper used was a rough hand-made and the impression was so deplorably uneven that I destroyed a number of the 32 ... So, a few months later, I printed an edition of 100 on a smooth paper' (The Fell Revival, 2000, p.53).
Meynell was a conscientious objector and had been a member of Bertrand Russell's anti-war Union of Democratic Control since 1914.
Second of the two titles produced by the 'Romney Street Press'. Printed by Meynell on a hand-press in his dining room, using Fell Type he had bought from Oxford University Press, which retained the legal title 'so that if I were to misuse this cherished type they could at any time call upon me to surrender it' (Nonesuch Century, 1936, p.37)
Ould and Thomas describe this as 'one of the most delightful books printed in the Fell types that we have seen ... A large type on a small page, and a treasure. The subtle patterned papers on light boards add to the delicacy', and quote a letter written by Meynell in 1972: 'The first issue of Mary Carey was in October 1917: "32 copies of which 30 are for sale." But the paper used was a rough hand-made and the impression was so deplorably uneven that I destroyed a number of the 32 ... So, a few months later, I printed an edition of 100 on a smooth paper' (The Fell Revival, 2000, p.53).
Meynell was a conscientious objector and had been a member of Bertrand Russell's anti-war Union of Democratic Control since 1914.
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