Skip to main content

The Holloway Press records.

 Collection
Identifier: MSS-Archives-2014/15

Scope and Contents

This collection incorporates eight separate accessions donated by The Holloway Press since its establishment in 1994. The bulk consists of production files relating to most of The Holloway Press publications. The remainder of the collection includes financial records, correspondence, files relating to projects not published, printer's records and other printing work undertaken by the Press.

To collection is arranged in the following eight series:

1. Production files 2. Projects not published 3. Correspondence 4. Financial records 5. Printers' records 6. Other printing work 7. Audio-visual 8. Realia

Glossary

The following printing terms as defined in Collin, P.H. (2006). Dictionary of publishing and printing have been used to describe material in this collection:

Broadsheet: anything printed on large sheets of paper

Case: a stiff cardboard cover glued/sewn onto a book formed of two pieces of cardboard and the spine.

Clean proof: a proof which does not need any corrections

Dates

  • 1994 - 2014

Creator

Partly restricted.

Records restricted for reasons of privacy and confidentiality are marked on the finding aid. Access to restricted files requires the permission of the Special Collections Manager.

Conditions Governing Use

Wear gloves when handling items 8/1 - 8/3.

Biographical / Historical

The Holloway Press was established in 1994 under the management of poet and printer Alan Loney with Associate Professor Peter Simpson (English) as Co-Director. It was set up in the University of Auckland Tamaki Campus Library and consisted of equipment, materials and archives donated by its namesake Ronald Holloway, printer and publisher of The Griffin Press.

The donation of Ron and Kay Holloway was accepted by Peter Simpson on behalf of the University of Auckland in August 1993. At the time former literary fellow, and tutor of the English Department, Alan Loney was employed part time to oversee the transfer of the press and its operation in consultation with Peter Simpson. The Holloway Press was officially opened at a function on 7 October 1994 which coincided with the launch of the Press's first publication Looking West, late afternoon, low water by poet Allen Curnow.

The Holloway Press's publication policy was to print and publish a range of texts which had unusual literacy, artistic, scholarly and/or historical interest and were unsuitable for commercial publication. It was also intended to be used for teaching purposes with Alan Loney tasked to develop modules for English courses about textual transmission, typography and printing.

During his time at the Press, Loney produced ten publications before his retirement from the University of Auckland in 1998, when he left New Zealand for Australia. The Press remained inactive until it was revived in 2001, with Peter Simpson as publisher and renowned graphic designer and printer, Tara McLeod as designer and printer.

From 2001 to 2014 The Holloway Press continued to produce a large number of publications, building upon its reputation as one of New Zealand's most eminent private presses. In September 2014, twenty years since its establishment, The Holloway Press was closed after the University decided that funding be withdrawn. By the time of its closure it had produced forty publications involving an impressive ensemble of New Zealand artists, poets, writers, printers and designers. As noted by Francis McWhannell the Press has not only participated in the tradition of fine press printing in this country, it has furthered it considerably.

References:

Dart, W. (2008). Building on a Tradition, Auckland’s Holloway Press. Art New Zealand, Issue 125, Summer 2007-2008.

McWhannell, F. (2014). The Holloway Press, 1994-2013 : a checklist of publications. Auckland : The Holloway Press.

University of Auckland. (1994). Press keeps alive traditional printing techniques. University News, Vol. 24 (No. 10).

Extent

5.03 metres (13 boxes, 7 outsize boxes, 2 videocassettes and 10 CDs.)

Language of Materials

English

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Tara McLeod (Printer and Designer, The Holloway Press) and Peter Simpson (Director, The Holloway Press) as separate accessions between 2000-2015.

Bibliography of The Holloway Press publications

1) Looking West, late afternoon, low water / Allen Curnow (1994)

2) The victory hymn, 1935-1995 / Robin Hyde ; with an essay by Michele Leggott ; [photograph of Robin Hyde by Herbert Tornquist used for frontispiece by courtesy of Derek Challis] (1995)

3) Leda’s daughter : poems / Helen Shaw ; decorations by Vanya Lowry (1995)

4) On a dark mirror : four romance poems / Helen Shaw (1996)

5) Tomarata / Kendrick Smithyman ; with an afterword by Peter Simpson (1996)

6) Castor Bay : pictures and prose / Wystan Curnow (1996)

7) The love songs of Ibykos : 22 fragments / translated and introduced by Ted Jenner ; with drawings/images by John Reynolds (1997)

8) Fantastica : thirteen drawings / Leo Bensemann ; introduction by Peter Simpson (1997)

9) A shipboard diary / written by Annie and Harold Beauchamp / edited with an introduction by Ian A. Gordon (1998)

10) The dogs of Auckland / poem by Robert Creeley ; drawings by Max Gimblett (1998)

11) Nga waiata aroha a Hekepia = Love sonnets by Shakespeare : nine sonnets / translated into Maori by Merimeri Penfold (2000)

12) Rita : seven poems / Colin McCahon ; edited with an afterword and notes by Peter Simpson (2001)

13) A voice for the minotaur : selected poems / Maurice Duggan ; edited by Ian Richards (2001)

14) Last poems / Kendrick Smithyman (2002)

15) Happy moments / text and images by Len Lye ; edited & with an afterword by Roger Horrocks (2002)

16) Four short stories, 1931-35 / R.A.K Mason ; with an afterword by Rachel Barrowman (2003)

17) Engravings on wood / Leo Bensemann ; with an introduction and notes by Peter Simpson (2004)

18) Searchings / Max Gimblett ; selections from the artist’s journals chosen & arranged by Alan Loney (2005)

19) Journey to Portugal / poems by Michele Leggott ; images by Gretchen Albrecht (2006)

20) Collected poems / Charles Spear ; edited and with an afterword by Peter Simpson ; with images by Tony Lane (2007)

21) Fishwork / Alan Loney ; Max Gimblett ; foreword by John Yau (2009)

22) The fruits of / Murray Edmond, text ; Joanna Forsberg, images (2009)

23) Body English / text & images by Len Lye ; edited & with an afterword by Roger Horrocks (2009)

24) Dear Charles, dear Janet : Frame and Brasch in correspondence / selected and edited by Pamela Gordon and Denis Harold (2010)

25) Mama mortality corridos : poems and drawings / Lisa Samuels (2010)

26) Devonport : a diary ; Esplanade / Bill Direen (2011)

27) Two walk in Edinburgh / photographs by Mari Mahr ; poem by Gregory O’Brien ; afterword by Jenny Bornholdt (2011)

28) The green bicycle / poems by Chris Price ; drawings by Max Gimblett ; music by Jonathan Besser (2011)

29) Dark arts : notes on printing, publishing and painting / Leo Bensemann ; edited with an introduction and notes by Peter Simpson (2011)

30) Three travels / Murray Edmond ; illustrated by Joanna Forsberg (2012)

31) Under new stars : poems of the New Zealand exile / Karl Wolfskehl ; German and English ; translations by Andrew Paul Wood, Margot Ruben and Renate Koch ; edited by Friedrich Voit (2012)

32) You’re so pretty when you’re unfaithful to me / poems by David Howard ; images by Peter Ransom (2012)

33) The place of stones / Martin Edmond ; photographs by Maggie Hall (2012)

34) Always my sister : a play / Michelanne Forster (2013)

35) Page, stone, leaf / poems by Dinah Hawken ; drawings by John Edgar (2013)

36) The Holloway Press, 1994-2013 : a checklist of publications / Francis McWhannell (2014)

37) Letters to Ron / Alan Loney (2014)
Title
Inventory of the records of the Holloway Press, 1994-2014.
Status
Completed
Author
Leah Johnston
Date
2014
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections, University of Auckland Repository

Contact:
5 Alfred Street
Private Bag 92019
Auckland 1142 New Zealand