Holbrook Jackson
Template:Short description Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person George Holbrook Jackson (31 December 1874 – 16 June 1948) was a British journalist, writer and publisher. He was recognised as one of the leading bibliophiles of his time.
BiographyEdit
Holbrook Jackson was born in Liverpool, England. He worked as a clerk, while freelancing as a writer. Around 1900 he was in the lace trade in Leeds, where he met A. R. Orage; together they founded the Leeds Arts Club. At that time Jackson was a Fabian socialist, but also influenced by Nietzsche. It was Jackson who introduced Orage to Nietzsche, lending him a copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra in 1900.<ref>David S. Thatcher, Nietzsche in England: 1890–1914, Toronto, 1972, p 221</ref>
Later they separately moved to London as journalists. In 1906, shortly after arriving in the capital, Jackson suggested founding a similar group to the Leeds Arts Club, the Fabian Arts Group. This eventually led to a split from the Fabian Society, whose interest was economic and political. In 1907, Jackson and Orage bought The New Age, a struggling Christian Socialist weekly magazine, with financing from Lewis Wallace and George Bernard Shaw.
Initially Jackson and Orage co-edited, with Jackson setting the editorial line with Cecil Chesterton and Clifford Sharp (later the editor of the New Statesman). In 1908 Jackson left and Orage continued as sole editor. Around this time, Orage's wife left him for Jackson, but refused to divorce Orage.<ref>John Carswell, Lives and Letters, London, 1978, Template:ISBN, p 31</ref>
From 1911 Jackson had an editorial position on T. P. O'Connor's T.P.'s Weekly, a newspaper with a strong literary emphasis. He took over as editor from Wilfred Whitten in 1914. Later he bought the publication, and converted it into his own literary magazine, To-Day, which was published 1917 to 1923, when it merged with Life and Letters.
At the same period he set up in 1912 or 1913 the Flying Fame Press, with the poet Ralph Hodgson and designer Claud Lovat Fraser.<ref>Harding, John, Dreaming of Babylon. The Life and Times of Ralph Hodgson. (Greenwich Exchange 2008) https://greenex.co.uk/</ref> This was the beginning of a long association with small press and the worlds of typography and book collecting, on which he wrote extensively. He was in the short-lived Fleuron Society (1923) with Stanley Morison, Francis Meynell, Bernard Newdigate and Oliver Simon. He did more, as a patron of the Pelican Press amongst others, to encourage the raising of production standards of books.
After World War I, Jackson introduced Orage to C. H. Douglas, who subsequently wrote economics articles for The New Age, expounding his theory of Social Credit.
In popular cultureEdit
James Joyce singled out Jackson to Sylvia Beach as someone who "resembles" Leopold Bloom.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The photo that Joyce dismissed as "not a good likeness" is online.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
WorksEdit
By Holbrook JacksonEdit
- Edward Fitzgerald and Omar Khayyam: an Essay and Bibliography (1899)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Eternal Now (1900)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Everychild: a Book of Verses (1903)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Bernard Shaw (1907)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Great English Novelists (1908) essays<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- William Morris: Craftsman-Socialist (1908)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Romance and Reality: Essays and Studies (1911)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Platitudes in the Making (1911)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Great Soldiers (1911) as George Henry Hart (?)
- All Manner of Folk, Interpretations and Studies (1912) essays<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Town: An Essay (1913)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Eighteen Nineties: A Review of Art and Ideas at the Close of the Nineteenth Century (1913)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Southward Ho! and Other Essays (1914) compilation<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Contingent Ditties. and Other Soldier Songs of the Great War by Frank S. Brown (1915) editor<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Southward Ho! and Other Essays (1914) compilation<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Occasions (1922) essays<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Brief Survey Of Printing History & Practice (Kynoch Press 1923) with Stanley Morison<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Private Presses in England (1923)
- William Morris (1926)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Bibliophile's Almanack for 1927 (The Fleuron 1927) with Harold Child, Osbert Sitwell, W.J. Turner and Frank Sidgwick
- Essays of To-day and Yesterday (1929) with Philip Guedalla, Allan Monkhouse, Ivor Brown<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Anatomy of Bibliomania (Soncino Press, 1930)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Fear of Books (Soncino Press, 1932)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- William Morris and the Arts and Crafts. (Oriole Press 1934)
- Maxims of Books and Reading (1934)
- Three Papers on William Morris (Shenval Press 1934) with Graily Hewitt and James Shand
- A Cross-Section of English Printing : The Curwen Press 1918–1934 (Curwen Press 1935)
- The Early History of the Double Crown Club (1935)
- Opening Speech at an Exhibition of Percy Smith's Typographical work (First Edition Club, 1935)
- Of the Uses of Books (1937)
- Shopping and Taste: a lecture (1937)
- The Printing of Books (1938)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Aesthetics of Printing. (1939)
- The Story of Don Vincente (Corvinus Press 1939)
- Bookman's Holiday: A Recreation for Booklovers (Faber & Faber 1945)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Reading of Books (Faber and Faber 1946)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The Hunting of Books (1947)
- The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear (Faber & Faber, 1947)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- On Art and Socialism. Essays and Lectures by William Morris (John Lehmann, 1947) editor
- Dreamers of Dreams: The Rise and Fall of 19th Century Idealism (Faber & Faber, 1948) essays<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Pleasures of Reading (1948)
- Typophily (1954) reprinted essay
- William Caxton (the first English printer) (Oriole Press, 1959)
- Sanctuary of Printing: the Record Room at the University Press, Oxford
- Thoughts on Book Design (1968) with Paul Valery and Stanley Morison
- Platitudes Undone: a Facsimile Edition of Holbrook Jackson's "Platitudes in the Making" With Original Handwritten Responses by G. K. Chesterton (Ignatius Press 1997)
About Holbrook JacksonEdit
- Sir Francis Meynell, The Holbrook Jackson Library: A Memorial Catalogue with an Appreciation, Bishop's Stortford: Elkin Mathews, 1951 (Elkin Mathews Catalogue 119)