Printers

Manning Pike had first been introduced to Lawrence when Kennington took him down to Clouds Hill on what was also the artist's first visit to the Dorset retreat. He was an American, born in Minnesota, and his only formal training had been the experience gained in a small firm of commercial printers in his home town. He had certainly never undertaken any project such as that which now faced him, the magnitude of which he doubtless could not have appreciated as he began the work. Lawrence was later to describe Pike to Charlotte Shaw as 'an artist of great severity and carefulness . . . his pages are made as beautifully as he can compass them' (1), and to Bruce Rogers as a 'difficult man, but a fine workman, and ingenious engineer and artist'. (2)

The imprint in SP states that the book was 'printed by Manning Pike with the assistance of H J Hodgson at 25 Charles Street, London, W.11', while in History Lawrence wrote 'Printed at 44 Westbourne Terrace North, Paddington'. The work was in fact carried on at both addresses - the Paddington directories for 1925 and 1926 contain entries for Pike at 44 Westbourne Terrace, now swallowed up in the Westway road development, and there are records that he leased the premises from the listed occupier and ratepayer, George Noble, at £1 a week. Charles Street, now re-named Queensdale Place, is a cul-de-sac off the north side of Queensdale Road, W11. In the 1920s, number 25 formed part of a works complex used by welders, mechanical engineering firms and the like, and possibly afforded better facilities than Westbourne Terrace. The local Kelly's Directory for 1927 lists Pike at 25 Charles Street, consistent with a 1926 occupancy, and it was to this address that subscribers were asked to return the slips acknowledging receipt of their books.

C J Hodgson had been employed when the mounting complexity of the work became too much for Pike. Lawrence had sought the advice of St John Hornby, proprietor of the Ashendene Press, and he suggested Hodgson, who later became pressman at the Gregynog Press from 1927 to 1936, as a printer who had the solid experience which Pike lacked.

1	Mrs GBS, Janet Dunbar, Harrap, 1963, p 272
2	TES-Bruce Rogers, 10/10/28

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