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Hogarth Press

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

British publishing house

The Hogarth Press is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond (then in Surrey and now in London), where they began hand-printing books as a hobby during the interwar period. Hogarth originally published the works of many members of the Bloomsbury Group, and was at the forefront of publishing works on psychoanalysis and translations of foreign works, especially Russian.2 It ceased to exist in 1946.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1917Founded1

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Hogarth Press blue plaque, Richmond, London
Photo: MaxHund at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

The Hogarth Press is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in Richmond (then in Surrey and now in London), where they began hand-printing books as a hobby during the interwar period.2

The story

Founded by Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf in 1917.1

History

Printing began as a hobby for the Woolfs, and it provided a diversion for Virginia when writing became too stressful. The couple bought a handpress in 1917 for £19 (equivalent to about £1295 in 2018) and taught themselves how to use it. The press was set up in the dining-room of Hogarth House, where the Woolfs lived, lending its name to the publishing company they founded. In July 1917, they published their first text, Two Stories, a book with one story written by Leonard and another written by Virginia.

From these origins as a "little press", by the late 1920s the Hogarth Press had become a larger operation, using commercial printers and distributing to an international readership, with some of its bestsellers printed in the tens of thousands.

Between 1917 and 1946, the Press published 527 titles. It moved to Tavistock Square in 1924.

Notable title history

Paris: A Poem (1920) by Hope Mirrlees

Twelve Original Woodcuts (1921), a portfolio by Roger Fry hand-printed by the Woolfs.

Monday or Tuesday (1921) by Virginia Woolf, with woodcuts by Vanessa Bell

Jacob's Room (1922) by Virginia Woolf; the first of her novels published by The Hogarth Press

The Devils (1922) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – co-translated by Virginia Woolf

Read the full text

The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot (1923) – first UK book edition

The Common Reader (1925) by Virginia Woolf

Karn (1922) and Martha Wish-You-Ill (1926) – poetry by Ruth Manning-Sanders

Orlando (1928) by Virginia Woolf

Living (1929) by Henry Green

A Room of One's Own (1930) by Virginia Woolf

The Waves (1931) by Virginia Woolf

In a Province (1934) – first book by Laurens van der Post

What I Believe (1939) by E. M. Forster

Party Going (1939) by Henry Green

Twilight in Delhi (1940) by Ahmed Ali

Loving by Henry Green (1945)

The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (1956–1974), general-edited and translated by James Strachey, in collaboration with Anna Freud

The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis (1977) by Jacques Lacan, his first published Seminar.

From Wikipedia’s article on Hogarth Press, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Leadership

Who has led Hogarth Press, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Timeline

  1. 1946Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1917Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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