Dolmen Press was founded by Liam and Josephine Miller in 1951.

History

In 1951 Liam acquired an Adana hand press from Blanaid and Cecil Ffrench Salkeld on loan which they had used for their

Gayfield Press Gayfield Park, commonly known as Gayfield, is a football stadium in Arbroath, Angus, Scotland. It is the home ground of Scottish Professional Football League team Arbroath F.C. The club have played at Gayfield since 1880, although the pitc ...

, with a case of

Bodoni Bodoni is the name given to the serif typefaces first designed by Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) in the late eighteenth century and frequently revived since. Bodoni's typefaces are classified as Didone or modern. Bodoni followed the ideas o ...

type. Some accounts state that the first publication of the press was 500 copies of a collection of four ballads, ''Travelling Tinkers,'' by

Sigerson Clifford Sigerson Clifford (1913 – 1 January 1985) was an Irish poet, playwright and civil servant. Clifford was born at 11 Dean St, Cork City, and was christened Edward Bernard Clifford. His parents, Michael Clifford and Mary Anne Sigerson, were f ...

. Others believe that the first publication printed was

Thomas Kinsella Thomas Kinsella (4 May 192822 December 2021) was an Irish poet, translator, editor, and publisher. Born outside Dublin, Kinsella attended University College Dublin before entering the civil service. He began publishing poetry in the early 1950s ...

’s ''The Starlit Eye''. The Press took printing jobs from publishers as well as theatres, art galleries, businesses and individuals. The Press later printed using an Albion flat bed press and

Caslon Caslon is the name given to serif typefaces designed by William Caslon I (c. 1692–1766) in London, or inspired by his work. Caslon worked as an engraver of punches, the masters used to stamp the moulds or matrices used to cast metal ty ...

type. Founded to provide a publishing outlet for

Irish poetry Irish poetry is poetry written by poets from Ireland. It is mainly written in Irish language, Irish and English, though some is in Scottish Gaelic literature, Scottish Gaelic and some in Hiberno-Latin. The complex interplay between the two mai ...

, the Press published the work of Irish artists. The scope of the press grew to include prose literature by Irish authors as well as a broad range of critical works about

Irish literature Irish literature comprises writings in the Irish, Latin, English and Scots ( Ulster Scots) languages on the island of Ireland. The earliest recorded Irish writing dates from the 7th century and was produced by monks writing in both Latin an ...

and

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

. The Press published a variety of works by W.B. Yeats, as well as the Yeats Centenary Series. In 1969, the Press published Thomas Kinsella's translation of

The Táin ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

which took 15 years from concept to final publication and featured

illustrations An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process, designed for integration in print and digital published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, video ...

Louis le Brocquy __NOTOC__ Louis le Brocquy ''HRHA'' (; 10 November 1916 – 25 April 2012) was an Irish painter born in Dublin to Albert and Sybil le Brocquy. His work received many accolades in a career that spanned some seventy years of creative practice ...

. The Press created the Brogeen Books division in the 1980s for books aimed at young readers. The Press operated in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

from 1951 until Liam Miller's death in 1987. The

National Library of Ireland The National Library of Ireland (NLI; ga, Leabharlann Náisiúnta na hÉireann) is the Republic of Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The mission of the National Library of Ireland is ...

purchased the Dolmen Press collection of

ephemera Ephemera are transitory creations which are not meant to be retained or preserved. Its etymological origins extends to Ancient Greece, with the common definition of the word being: "the minor transient documents of everyday life". Ambiguous in ...

in 2009 from Jack Gamble of Emerald Isle Books.

Book series

* The Irish Theatre SeriesIrish Theatre Series (Dolmen Press) - Book Series List
publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 31 December 2019. * The Tower Series of Anglo-Irish Studies

References

External links

Dolmen Press Collection - Printing Block Series
digital collection at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library,

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...

Dolmen Press collection
at University of Victoria, Special Collections {{Authority control Publishing companies of the Republic of Ireland Publishing companies established in 1951 Book publishing companies of Ireland Irish companies established in 1951

History

Book series

Further reading

References

External links