Barbarian Press was established in 1977 in Kent, England, where the Elsteds worked with Graham Williams at the Florin Press. Having acquired three flatbed hand presses – an 1850 super royal Hopkinson & Cope Albion, an 1833 foolscap folio Barrett bench Albion, and an 1854 foolscap folio Sherwin & Cope Imperial – together with many cases of type, they returned to their native Canada in 1978 and set up shop in Mission, British Columbia, about 50 miles east of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley, where they remain. To the English hand presses they have added Vandercook Universal I and Universal III proofing presses, two Chandler & Price vertical platen presses, much more type, and a small hand bindery.
The press’s publications range from new English translations of poetry and prose from various languages and new poetry in English to bibliography, illustrated classics, typography, and books on wood engraving. This last has become a particular speciality since the publication in 1995 of Endgrain: Contemporary Wood Engraving in North America, which was greeted with considerable acclaim, and is now widely sought after. This has spawned an ongoing series of books called Endgrain Editions, each showing selected work of a single engraver, printed from the original blocks, with an introduction and a catalogue of major works. The first of these, on Canadian engraver Gerard Brender à Brandis, appeared in 2000; the fourth volume, on Simon Brett, was published in 2014, and further volumes are planned.
Published
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto
Papers for its commissioned and non-commissioned work. Includes correspondence, designs, dummies, proofs from blocks and page proofs.
Published
Papers for its commissioned and non-commissioned work. Includes correspondence, designs, dummies, proofs from blocks, and page proofs.
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://aeon.library.utoronto.ca
http://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/sites/fisher.library.utoronto.ca/files/barbarian316.pdf
Published
This gift contains Proofs and Design Drawings for C. Toselli’s Immobile correndo (Motionless in Motion) from proofs to deluxe edition, Crispin Elsted’s A Natural History of Surprise, Abigail Rorer’s Endgrain Editions Two, Arnold Shives’ Mountain Journal, and miscellaneous. There are also Proofs and Design Drawings for Founts and Circumstance and A Sloth of Bears,
Purchase, 2003
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://aeon.library.utoronto.ca
http://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/sites/fisher.library.utoronto.ca/files/barbarian412.pdf
Published
This accession consists of the manuscripts, illustrations, page proof sheets, correspondence and other editorial material for Barbarian Press books released between 2002 and 2005, including: Endgrain Editions Three: Peter Lazarov (2002), John Keats’ Eve of Saint Agnes (2003), Hoi Barbaroi: A Quarter Century at Barbarian Press (2004), Emily: Opposites Attract (2004), Carlo Toselli’s What is Time? (2004) and John Loney’s Gallipoli (2005). It also contains material for smaller, miscellanous Barbarian Press projects, including catalogues, wedding invitations and broadsheets.
Purchased from Barbarian Press, 2005.
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://aeon.library.utoronto.ca
http://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/sites/fisher.library.utoronto.ca/files/barbarian464.pdf
Published
This collection complements the existing Barbarian Press Papers held at the Fisher Library. It consists of a variety of material – including correspondence, manuscripts, and other production material – related to the production and publishing of the Barbarian titles Venus & Adonis (published 2005), The Wolf’s Carol (2006), Under Strange Sail (2007), Amours de Voyage (2007) and Not Yet (privately printed in 2006), as well as various pamphlets, broadsheets and ephemera produced by the Mission, B.C. team of Crispin and Jan Elsted.
Purchased from Barbarian Press, 2008.
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://aeon.library.utoronto.ca
http://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/sites/fisher.library.utoronto.ca/files/barbarian554.pdf
Published
This accession contains papers relating to the production of The Play of Pericles Prince of Tyre, Illustrated with wood engravings by Simon Brett. The collection includes correspondence, proofs of engravings, designs, dummies, and page proofs.
Papers are a gift of Jan and Crispin Elsted, 2012. Engraved woodblocks are a gift of Simon Brett, 2017.
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://aeon.library.utoronto.ca