Skill of printers

The printing of SP was also a remarkable combination of skill and art on the part of Pike and Hodgson. The 14pt Caslon type, which was produced by the Lanston Monotype Corporation, came to Manning Pike in page blocks of separate letters - Lawrence was later to write to Edward Garnett that the book's 'type is too large for my taste, but the Lanston people hadn't a decent 11 point in 1923.' (1) The printing was done on a small electrically-driven patten press, for the Morris-inspired ideal of inking with a handball, or even using a hand-press, would have proved too slow a process. Hand-made paper of the highest quality, supplied by Batchelors, was used for the book - following William Morris's principle that 'Our ideal book must, I think, be printed on hand-made paper as good as it can be made; penury here will make a poor book of it' (2) - and the sheets had to be dampened so that they would take the ink properly. This in itself was an exacting task, but in addition the degree of dampness had to be maintained for the interval of time between the printing of opposite sides, to allow for the stretching of the paper. Even then, ceaseless care was required to obtain an even impression on each sheet. Lawrence was to describe Pike's work as 'glorious' and 'as good presswork as has ever been done.' (3)

1	L 327, 1.XII.27
2	The Ideal Book, William Morris - a paper read before the Bibliographical Society, 19 June 1893, quoted by May Morris in William Morris, Artist, Writer, Socialist, Vol I, Blackwell, 1936, p 316
3	Letter to Eric Kennington, 7th March, 1925, HRC, quoted in Charles Grosvenor essay in The T E Lawrence Puzzle, University of Georgia Press, 1984, p 178

Next section - 'Procrustean labour'

The writing of Seven Pillars of Wisdom - full listing