Noel Lewis Carrington (1895 – 11 April 1989) was an English

book designer Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, Word processor, format, design, and sequence of the various components and elements of a book into a coherent unit. In the words of renowned typographer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974), book ...

, editor, publisher, and the originator of

Puffin Books Puffin Books is a longstanding children's imprint of the British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s, it has been among the largest publishers of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world. The imprint now belongs t ...

. He was the author of books on design and on recreation and also worked for

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 ...

and

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Dora Carrington Dora de Houghton Carrington (29 March 1893 – 11 March 1932), known generally as Carrington, was an English painter and decorative artist, remembered in part for her association with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton ...

, Noel Carrington was born in

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

in 1895. He was educated at

Bedford School :''Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School, Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas or Bedford Academy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.'' Bedford School is a public school (English indep ...

and at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

. In 1925 Noel Carrington married Catharine Alexander (1904–2004), who had been a student at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

. They had three children, Paul,

Joanna Joanna is a feminine given name deriving from from he, יוֹחָנָה, translit=Yôḥānāh, lit=God is gracious. Variants in English include Joan (given name), Joan, Joann, Joanne (given name), Joanne, and Johanna. Other forms of the name in ...

and Jane, and lived in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

until soon after 1945 when they moved to

Lambourn Lambourn is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It lies just north of the M4 Motorway between Swindon and Newbury, and borders Wiltshire to the west and Oxfordshire to the north. After Newmarket it is the largest centre of ra ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, to farm at Long Acre. Some of Noel Carrington's correspondence with his sister Dora has been published. He died on 11 April 1989, aged 94.

Oxford University Press

Geoffrey Cumberlege and Noel Carrington replaced

E. V. Rieu Emile Victor Rieu CBE (10 February 1887 – 11 May 1972) was a British classicist, publisher, poet and translator. He initiated the Penguin Classics series of books in 1946 and edited it for twenty years. Biography Rieu was born in London, the y ...

in the management of the Indian branches of Oxford University Press in 1920. Noel got Dora to illustrate his ''Stories Retold'' edition of ''

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...

'' for the Indian market. Their father, Charles Carrington, had been a railway engineer in India in the nineteenth century. Noel Carrington's unpublished memoir of his six years in India is in the

Oriental and India Office Collections The Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections previously called the Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC) form a significant part of the holdings of the British Library in London, England. India Office collection The collections include the do ...

of the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

. By 1915 there were makeshift depots at Madras and Calcutta. In 1920 Noel Carrington went to Calcutta to set up a proper branch. There he became friendly with Edward Thompson who involved him in the abortive scheme to produce the 'Oxford Book of Bengali Verse'.Rimi B. Chatterjee, 'Canon Without Consensus: Rabindranath Tagore and the "Oxford Book of Bengali Verse"'. ''Book History'' 4:303-33.

Selected publications

*1933: ''Broadway and the Cotswolds'', ed. by Noel Carrington. Birmingham: Printed & published for the Lygon Arms,

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

by the

Kynoch Press The Kynoch Press was an English-based fine press in Witton, Birmingham, founded in 1876 as a company press for Kynoch, a British manufacturer of ammunition. Initially, the press was used to print packaging. The press closed in 1981. History To ...

*1933: ''Design in the Home'' *1943 - 1946 ''Achievement Books''. London: Pilot Press *1950: ''Camping by Water''; ed. by Noel Carrington and Patricia Cavendish. London: Peter Davies *1954: ''Colour and Pattern in the Home''. London: B.T. Batsford. 1954 *1978: ''Carrington: paintings, drawings and decorations''. Oxford: Polytechnic Press ; (Carrington =

Dora Carrington Dora de Houghton Carrington (29 March 1893 – 11 March 1932), known generally as Carrington, was an English painter and decorative artist, remembered in part for her association with members of the Bloomsbury Group, especially the writer Lytton ...

; limited ed. of 1,000 copies; collector's ed. of 100 copies)

References

1895 births 1989 deaths People educated at Bedford School Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford English book editors English book publishers (people) Oxford University Press people Penguin Books people People from Hereford 20th-century English businesspeople {{publish-bio-stub