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Folio Society

April 11, 2023

The Folio Society is a London-based publisher, founded by Charles Ede in 1947 and incorporated in 1971.[1][2] Formerly privately owned,[3] it operates as an employee ownership trust since 2021.

Folio Society
Founded1947; 76 years ago (1947)
FounderCharles Ede
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Headquarters location4 Maguire Street, London
DistributionWorldwide
Key peopleLord Gavron
Publication typesBooks, Limited Editions
Official websitefoliosociety.com

It produces illustrated hardback editions of classic fiction and non-fiction books, poetry and children's titles. Folio editions feature specially designed bindings and include artist-commissioned illustrations (most often in fiction titles) or researched artworks and photographs (in non-fiction titles). Most editions come with their own slipcase.

For many years the Folio Society had a bookshop in Holborn, London, but the bookshop closed in December 2016 when the company moved premises. Folio editions can be purchased only online through their website, by post or over the telephone. Some editions used to be stocked by independent bookstores, by Blackwell's in Oxford, and by Selfridges, Harrods and Hatchards in London.

History

The Folio Society was founded in 1947 by Charles Ede, Christopher Sandford (of Golden Cockerel Press), and Alan Bott (founder of Pan Books).[4] The firm's goal was to produce "editions of the world's great literature, in a format worthy of the contents, at a price within the reach of everyman."[5] Folio and the Golden Cockerel Press shared premises in Poland Street until 1955.[6] Subsequent offices were located in the Mayfair and Borough areas of London, such as 70 Brook Street in the late 1950s. [7] The Folio Society moved to its location in 44 Eagle Street, Holborn, in 1994[8] – in 2017, their offices moved to 4 Maguire Street, London.

The society issued its first three titles in 1947. In October of that year Tolstoy's Tales went on sale[9] for sixteen shillings (this would have been about US$3 in 1947, or just over US$33 in 2018.[10][11]) Tales was followed in November and December by George du Maurier's Trilby[12] and a translation of Aucassin et Nicolette, establishing a pattern of monthly publication.

In 1971 The Folio Society was incorporated and purchased by John Letts and Halfdan Lynner.[2] Under their ownership, The Folio Society published the collected novels of Dickens, Trollope, Hardy, Elizabeth Gaskell and Conrad.

Lord Gavron was owner and chairman of The Folio Society from 1982 until his death in 2015.

Membership and non-member sales

At its inception, The Folio Society operated as a membership-based book club; as the list of titles grew, the membership commitment was established as four books per year. Since 2011, anyone has been able to purchase from the Folio Society list without committing to membership. On 1 September 2016, the company ended its membership-based structure.[citation needed]

In 2021, The Folio Society started operating as an employee ownership trust.[13]

Production trends and bindings

The company currently publishes more than 60 titles a year, including multi-volume sets. Most titles are digitally typeset, then printed by offset at printers in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Until 1954, most Folio books were issued with printed dust jackets, but during the latter half of the 1950s coloured card slip cases were introduced, to protect the books and retain focus on the decorative bindings. Solander boxes are generally used to protect the limited editions.

Folio publications are printed in a range of standard sizes (in 1951, for example, these included Royal Octavo, Medium Octavo, Crown Octavo and Demy Octavo), and custom sizes are also employed. The most common material for bindings is buckram or a similar bookcloth, but there are many exceptions: aluminium foil was used in binding Aldous Huxley's Brave New World in 1971, and vegetable parchment in binding Voltaire's The Calas Affair in 1994; more commonly, marbled papers (often produced by Ann Muir Marbling Ltd.) have been used for several volumes in recent years, either as endpapers or as board-papers of quarter bindings; moiré silk (usually artificial) has been used sporadically over the years as a binding material, and leather (vellum and goatskin) and bonded leather are sometimes used, chiefly for the more expensive editions. Most bindings for works of fiction are designed by the illustrator. Non-fiction binding designers include David Eccles, Jeff Clements, and Neil Gower.

Beginning in 2007, the company used traditional letterpress printing (the method which Johannes Gutenberg devised in the middle of the fifteenth century) to publish each of Shakespeare's plays, as well as the Sonnets and Poems, in large-format editions. This landmark project of 39 volumes was finally completed in 2014.

Illustrators

Notable among the hundreds of illustrators of Folio books are:

Fine artists who have illustrated books for the Society include:

Prominent wood engravers include:

Some recent commissions are from:

See also

References and sources

References
  1. ^ The Folio Society: About Us.. The Folio Society, 2011. Retrieved 19 December 2011.
  2. ^ a b "FOLIO SOCIETY LIMITED(THE), SE1 2NQ LONDON Financial Information". CompaniesInTheUK.
  3. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
  4. ^ "Alan Bott MC - Founder of PAN Books Ltd".
  5. ^ Charles Ede Obituary in The Telegraph, 6 June 2002. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  6. ^ "Books and Writers - Books and Writers". www.booksandwriters.co.uk.
  7. ^ "The Folio Society of London (Advertisement)". The New Yorker. 10 October 1959. p. 192.
  8. ^ "Folio Society, London (Eagle Street)". www.londononline.co.uk.
  9. ^ "Tales | Open Library". Open Library.
  10. ^ "US Inflation Calculator". US Inflation Calculator.
  11. ^ "Inflation Calculator". www.dollartimes.com.
  12. ^ Du Maurier, George; Folio Society (London, England) (23 July 1947). Trilby. Folio Society. OCLC 004748363.
  13. ^ a b Bain, Helen (12 December 2022). "Inside the spine-tingling success of The Folio Society". Financial Times. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  14. ^ "The Folio Life: Peter Forster (1934–2021)".
Sources
  • Cave, Roderick & Sarah Mason, A History of the Golden Cockerel Press, 1920–1960 (2002. British Library & Oak Knoll Press)
  • Nash, Paul W., Folio 50: a bibliography of the Folio Society, 1947–1996 (1997. Folio Press in association with The British Library)
  • Nash, Paul W. Folio 60: a bibliography of the Folio Society, 1947–2006 (2007. Folio Society) (Includes essays by Sue Bradbury, Joseph Connolly and David McKitterick)
  • Nash, Paul W., 'Folio fine editions', in Parenthesis (4 April 2000), pp. 22–24. (Includes a checklist of 'Fine editions', giving print-runs)

External links

April 11, 2023
folio, society, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, january, 20. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Folio Society news newspapers books scholar JSTOR January 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Folio Society is a London based publisher founded by Charles Ede in 1947 and incorporated in 1971 1 2 Formerly privately owned 3 it operates as an employee ownership trust since 2021 Folio SocietyFounded1947 76 years ago 1947 FounderCharles EdeCountry of originUnited KingdomHeadquarters location4 Maguire Street LondonDistributionWorldwideKey peopleLord GavronPublication typesBooks Limited EditionsOfficial websitefoliosociety wbr comIt produces illustrated hardback editions of classic fiction and non fiction books poetry and children s titles Folio editions feature specially designed bindings and include artist commissioned illustrations most often in fiction titles or researched artworks and photographs in non fiction titles Most editions come with their own slipcase For many years the Folio Society had a bookshop in Holborn London but the bookshop closed in December 2016 when the company moved premises Folio editions can be purchased only online through their website by post or over the telephone Some editions used to be stocked by independent bookstores by Blackwell s in Oxford and by Selfridges Harrods and Hatchards in London Contents 1 History 2 Membership and non member sales 3 Production trends and bindings 4 Illustrators 5 See also 6 References and sources 7 External linksHistory EditThe Folio Society was founded in 1947 by Charles Ede Christopher Sandford of Golden Cockerel Press and Alan Bott founder of Pan Books 4 The firm s goal was to produce editions of the world s great literature in a format worthy of the contents at a price within the reach of everyman 5 Folio and the Golden Cockerel Press shared premises in Poland Street until 1955 6 Subsequent offices were located in the Mayfair and Borough areas of London such as 70 Brook Street in the late 1950s 7 The Folio Society moved to its location in 44 Eagle Street Holborn in 1994 8 in 2017 their offices moved to 4 Maguire Street London The society issued its first three titles in 1947 In October of that year Tolstoy s Tales went on sale 9 for sixteen shillings this would have been about US 3 in 1947 or just over US 33 in 2018 10 11 Tales was followed in November and December by George du Maurier s Trilby 12 and a translation of Aucassin et Nicolette establishing a pattern of monthly publication In 1971 The Folio Society was incorporated and purchased by John Letts and Halfdan Lynner 2 Under their ownership The Folio Society published the collected novels of Dickens Trollope Hardy Elizabeth Gaskell and Conrad Lord Gavron was owner and chairman of The Folio Society from 1982 until his death in 2015 Membership and non member sales EditAt its inception The Folio Society operated as a membership based book club as the list of titles grew the membership commitment was established as four books per year Since 2011 anyone has been able to purchase from the Folio Society list without committing to membership On 1 September 2016 the company ended its membership based structure citation needed In 2021 The Folio Society started operating as an employee ownership trust 13 Production trends and bindings EditThe company currently publishes more than 60 titles a year including multi volume sets Most titles are digitally typeset then printed by offset at printers in the United Kingdom Germany Italy and Spain Until 1954 most Folio books were issued with printed dust jackets but during the latter half of the 1950s coloured card slip cases were introduced to protect the books and retain focus on the decorative bindings Solander boxes are generally used to protect the limited editions Folio publications are printed in a range of standard sizes in 1951 for example these included Royal Octavo Medium Octavo Crown Octavo and Demy Octavo and custom sizes are also employed The most common material for bindings is buckram or a similar bookcloth but there are many exceptions aluminium foil was used in binding Aldous Huxley s Brave New World in 1971 and vegetable parchment in binding Voltaire s The Calas Affair in 1994 more commonly marbled papers often produced by Ann Muir Marbling Ltd have been used for several volumes in recent years either as endpapers or as board papers of quarter bindings moire silk usually artificial has been used sporadically over the years as a binding material and leather vellum and goatskin and bonded leather are sometimes used chiefly for the more expensive editions Most bindings for works of fiction are designed by the illustrator Non fiction binding designers include David Eccles Jeff Clements and Neil Gower Beginning in 2007 the company used traditional letterpress printing the method which Johannes Gutenberg devised in the middle of the fifteenth century to publish each of Shakespeare s plays as well as the Sonnets and Poems in large format editions This landmark project of 39 volumes was finally completed in 2014 Illustrators EditNotable among the hundreds of illustrators of Folio books are Edward Ardizzone R L Stevenson Travels with a Donkey Quentin Blake Voltaire Candide George Orwell Animal Farm Harry Brockway S T Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner John Lawrence Laurence Sterne Tristram Shandy T H White The Once and Future King Beryl Cook Christopher Isherwood Mr Norris Changes Trains Muriel Spark The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Anthony Colbert Jane Eyre Geoff Grandfield novels and stories of Raymond Chandler Sam Weber William Golding Lord of the Flies Gene Wolfe The Book of the New Sun Frank Herbert Dune Margrethe II of Denmark as Ingahild Grathmer J R R Tolkien The Lord of the Rings Dave McKean Gormenghast 13 Fine artists who have illustrated books for the Society include Elisabeth Frink Horace Odes Paul Cox works by P G Wodehouse Jean Hugo 1950 edition of Romeo and Juliet Charles Keeping complete novels of Charles Dickens Francis Mosley complete Joseph Conrad Charles van Sandwyk Kenneth Grahame The Wind in the Willows Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland Neil Packer Umberto Eco The Name of the Rose Joseph Heller Catch 22 Tom Phillips Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot T S Eliot The Waste Land Prominent wood engravers include Simon Brett poems by Keats Shelley and Byron Peter Forster Canterbury Tales by Chaucer novels of George Eliot plays and sonnets of Shakespeare and selected works by Oscar Wilde 14 Peter Reddick complete novels and stories of Thomas Hardy Paula Rego English nursery rhymes compilation and J M Barrie Peter Pan and Wendy Some recent commissions are from A Richard Allen Kingsley Amis Lucky Jim Elena and Anna Balbusso Pushkin Eugene Onegin James Boswell J G Ballard The Drowned World Margery Allingham Traitor s Purse Jonathan Burton Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy George Orwell Nineteen Eighty Four Fay Dalton Ian Fleming Casino Royale From Russia with Love Jeff Fisher Lewis Carroll The Hunting of the Snark Stephen Hickman Robert Heinlein Starship Troopers David Hughes Ken Kesey One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest Mark Twain A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur s Court Federico Infante Vladimir Nabokov Lolita Igor Karash Leo Tolstoy War and Peace Angela Carter The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories John Vernon Lord James Joyce Finnegans Wake Shotopop Philip K Dick The Man in the High Castle Jillian Tamaki Christina Rossetti Goblin Market Joe Wilson Arthur C Clarke 2001 A Space Odyssey See also EditEaston Press Franklin Library A History of England Golden Cockerel PressReferences and sources EditReferences The Folio Society About Us The Folio Society 2011 Retrieved 19 December 2011 a b FOLIO SOCIETY LIMITED THE SE1 2NQ LONDON Financial Information CompaniesInTheUK Digital Dots Ltd pdf document PDF Archived from the original PDF on 3 March 2016 Retrieved 3 January 2012 Alan Bott MC Founder of PAN Books Ltd Charles Ede Obituary in The Telegraph 6 June 2002 Retrieved 21 December 2011 Archived here Books and Writers Books and Writers www booksandwriters co uk The Folio Society of London Advertisement The New Yorker 10 October 1959 p 192 Folio Society London Eagle Street www londononline co uk Tales Open Library Open Library US Inflation Calculator US Inflation Calculator Inflation Calculator www dollartimes com Du Maurier George Folio Society London England 23 July 1947 Trilby Folio Society OCLC 004748363 a b Bain Helen 12 December 2022 Inside the spine tingling success of The Folio Society Financial Times Retrieved 15 December 2022 The Folio Life Peter Forster 1934 2021 SourcesCave Roderick amp Sarah Mason A History of the Golden Cockerel Press 1920 1960 2002 British Library amp Oak Knoll Press Nash Paul W Folio 50 a bibliography of the Folio Society 1947 1996 1997 Folio Press in association with The British Library Nash Paul W Folio 60 a bibliography of the Folio Society 1947 2006 2007 Folio Society Includes essays by Sue Bradbury Joseph Connolly and David McKitterick Nash Paul W Folio fine editions in Parenthesis 4 April 2000 pp 22 24 Includes a checklist of Fine editions giving print runs External links EditOfficial website Folio Society at Library of Congress with 17 library catalogue records Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Folio Society amp oldid 1137224254, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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