The Keepsake Press was a private press founded by English writer Roy Lewis. The press published more than 100 books and chapbooks using letterpress techniques. It ceased to operate in 1996 when Lewis died. Its archive is now housed at Reading University.[1]
A series of 39 poetry chapbooks, The Keepsake Poems, was published between 1972 and 1979 by the press.[2] All have a standard format of crown quarto wrapper enclosing a trimmed folded sheet. A poem and illustration were printed on the centre pages and the print run was generally of 180 copies. Contributors are listed as:[3]
At school in Birmingham in 1928, Roy Lewis was introduced to the possibilities of letterpress magazine publishing and bought his first printing press shortly after. On this press he produced amateur magazines, The Lilliputian and The Meanderer. His father was keen to support his hobby and supplied him with a large quantity of type.[4] During the Great Depression he sold his press, later recalling, "I cut printing out of my heart... and decided to grow up completely."[5]
It was not until the late 1950s that Lewis began printing again, when he decided to demonstrate the craft to daughters Elizabeth and Miranda, using material produced by them. The Keepsake Press was founded in the garden shed soon after, with the intention of publishing both established and un-established writers and artists.[6] Its commercial policy was equally reach-me-down, the sales 'office' being "confined to some ring binders and a pile of filing boxes". Since print-runs were limited, most impressions were sold out within 18 months or less.[7]
The press' association with Edward Lowbury, whom Lewis had known at university, was particularly close.[8] Lowbury's Metamorphoses (1958) was the first non-family production from the press, followed by eight more by him of which the last, First Light, was printed in 1990, two years after the press had officially ceased business. The following is a check list of these:
Lewis learned as he went along and was constantly experimenting. The production of Metamorphoses helped him master a large Columbian press that printed four pages at a time. In 1976 he went to night school in order to learn monotype and so was able to produce the ambitious large work represented by Poetry and Paradox.[9] Previously his largest book had been the 24-page anthology Moments of Truth containing short poems by 19 high-profile poets of the day: George Barker, Martin Bell, John Betjeman, Edwin Brock, Robert Conquest, Gavin Ewart, Roy Fuller, Thom Gunn, Bernard Gutteridge, Francis Hope, Ted Hughes, Edward Lowbury, Kathleen Nott, Peter Porter, Peter Redgrove, James Reeves, Peter Russell, David Wevill and Hugo Williams. Published in 1965, twelve copies were given each poet and the remaining 100 were offered for sale.
Not all the work was by contemporary authors. There was a holograph Robert Burns poem, a translation of poems by Hans Christian Andersen and a very limited edition of Oscar Wilde's The Harlot's House. This involved the press in its boldest experiment of all, which was achieved with the help of the Happy Dragons' Press. The artist Daphne Lord provided drawings which Julius Stafford-Baker of Happy Dragons then made into lino cuts. A special process was used to create silhouettes by blowing aerosol paint through the stencils in five colours, including gold and silver metallics. About 50 copies were produced as Christmas gifts for 1967.
The connection with Edward Lowbury also brought in other contributions to the press. Principally he was responsible for the Parables of his late father-in-law, Andrew Young (1985). A selection of the author's mini-sermons originally published anonymously in his parish magazine, it ran into two editions of 200 copies each. Seven of the 16 pages had wood engravings by Joan Hassall, illustrator of several of Young's books, including the Collected Poems of 1950 and 1960. Keepsake's little work was a celebratory accompaniment to The Poetical Works of Andrew Young which appeared that same year, edited by Lowbury and his wife Alison and, again, illustrated by Joan Hassall. Other artists introduced to the press by Lowbury included Kenneth Lindley, who provided the woodcuts for Birmingham! Birmingham!, and Bryan Brooke, who illustrated Figures of Eight. The latter was a medical colleague that Lowbury had got to know while he was working at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Lowbury was himself a distinguished medical specialist and had been living in the city since 1949.
Lewis' former connection with Birmingham formed another bond and lay behind the choice of other items printed by the press. Looking over Lowbury's manuscripts while on a visit, Lewis noticed two or three poems about the city and persuaded him to write more to form the collection Birmingham! Birmingham![6] Even before that, however, Lewis had printed Cannon Hill Park (1969) about another city location, in this case consisting of three ballads with music and design by Don Collis. Yet one more Birmingham connection surfaces in Robert Leach's Cats Free and Familiar (1974), whose author had been Head of English at Great Barr Comprehensive School and was then on the way to make a local name for himself in theatre.
Roy Lewis left his printing equipment and metal type to Julius Stafford-Baker of the Happy Dragons' Press, a friend and printer who had assisted with a number of the Keepsake Poems. The press also 'inherited' editor Shirley Toulson from Keepsake and under her guidance began a programme of poetry publishing closely related to the Keepsake Poems.[10]