Oliver Simon

The Oliver Simon Collection consists of a large part of the library of Oliver Simon who was typographer to the Curwen Press from the early 1920’s until his death in 1956.

From 1940 he was the chairman of the Company. It is strongest in material printed by the Press, but also contains interesting works relating to aspects of book production.

Some of these are historical items collected by Simon, others are presentation copies from other typographers, both British and European. There is much ephemera relating to  the Double Crown Club.

The material is categorised using a mixed notation of a letter and number.

Categories are as follows:

• Material  relating to the Curwen Press
• Books printed by the Curwen Press.
• Periodicals printed by the Curwen Press.
• Books in English relating to the book arts
• Fine printing from United Kingdom and USA
• Fine printing from European countries and other foreign language material
• Miscellaneous ephemera,scrapbooks,etc.

All books carry the Oliver Simon Collection bookplate

The Curwen Press itself was started by the Reverend John Curwen in 1863. A published work by Robin Phillips entitled Oliver Simon at the Curwen Press is available in the Hugh Owen Library class number Z232.C98.P5.

An updated online version of the bibliography is available here: https://sinenomine.co.uk/curwen/