Horace Henry Hart (1840 – 9 October 1916) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
printer and biographer. He was the author of ''
Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers'', first issued in 1893.
Early life and early career
Hart was born in
Suffolk in 1840; his father was a shoemaker. He was sent to the printers Woodfall & Kinder in London at the age of fourteen, and was apprenticed to the compositor’s trade two years later. He became the manager of Woodfall & Kinder by the age of twenty-six, but left to take over management of the London branch of the
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
-based
Ballantyne Press The Ballantyne Press was founded in 1799 by James Ballantyne and his brother John Ballantyne. James was particularly noted for his friendship with Sir Walter Scott who partially financed the printer after he moved his press to Edinburgh
Edin ...
.
He left Ballantyne Press in 1880, when he was appointed manager of the head office and main works of
William Clowes & Sons, which was then the biggest printing house in Britain. He left, however, after only three years at Clowes, when vacancy for Controller of the
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
(OUP) was advertised.
Oxford University Press
Hart served as Printer to the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
and Controller of the University Press between 1883 and 1915. During that time, he convinced the Press to begin using wood-pulp paper, and also introduced collotype and printing by
lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
. In 1896, he wrote a monograph on ''Charles, Earl Stanhope and the Oxford University Press''. In 1900, he wrote ''Notes on a Century of Typography at the University Press Oxford 1693–1794''.
In 1893 he issued the first version of what became known as
Hart's Rules
''Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford''—today published under the short title ''New Hart's Rules''—is an authoritative reference book and style guide published in England by Oxford University Press (OUP ...
as a single broadsheet page for in-house use. Although first issued internally at the Oxford University Press in 1893, these rules had their origins in 1864, when Hart was a member of the London Association of Correctors of the Press, working for Woodfall & Kinder. With a small group of fellow members from the same printing house, he drew up a list of "rules", which was constantly updated and revised during his career at three other printing houses.
Health issues and death
The last twenty years of Hart's life were plagued by bouts of
depression and
insomnia
Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...
. He suffered his first
nervous breakdown
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...
in 1887, followed by another in 1888. A final, severe breakdown led to his retirement from the OUP in 1915 at the age of seventy-five. The following year, he drowned himself in Youlbury Lake near Oxford, a secluded lake in the grounds of a neighbour's garden. His gloves were folded neatly on the bank.
References
* ''The Oxford Manual of Style'' (OUP, 2002) Introduction
External links
*
1840 births
1916 suicides
English biographers
English printers
Businesspeople from Suffolk
Suicides by drowning in England
Writers of style guides
19th-century English businesspeople
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