Olwyn Hughes and Ted Hughes | Objects relating to the Rainbow Press

Property of Frieda Hughes

Olwyn Hughes and Ted Hughes

Objects relating to the Rainbow Press

Material from Olwyn Hughes and Ted Hughes' Rainbow Press, comprising:

i) Printing blocks: printing plate of Ted Hughes' design for upper cover of "Earth-Moon" (108 x 72 x 5mm.); 2 title block strips for Ted Hughes' "Orts" (185 x 16 x 5mm.); title block strip for spine of Plath's "Lyonesse" (249 x 14 x 5mm.); block with text in the style of Plath's handwriting, used as a stamp for the upper cover of "Lyonesse" (72 x 52 x 5mm.); block for title-page of Seamus Heaney's "Bog Poems" (100 x 72 x 5mm.); block for front cover of Plath's "A Winter Ship" (54 x 21 x 25mm.); block for Leonard Baskin's design for Rainbow Press colophon (45 x 85 x 24mm.); etching plate of Leonard Baskin's design for Plath's "Pursuit" (255 x 181 x 24mm.);

ii) Olwyn Hughes' Eastlight box file: uncut loose sheets of Ted Hughes' "Eat Crow" (1971), 2 copies, each 22pp., plus further copy of pp. 1-16 with Olwyn Hughes' manuscript notes on typography on the title-page and 2 further title-pages (one without Baskin drawing, another with a portion cut out), 4to (194 x 156mm.); 4 black and white photographs by Fay Godwin illustrating rural life (between 172 x 254mm. and 254 x 302mm.); carbon copy of letter from Olwyn Hughes to Juliet Standing, Daedalus Press, thanking her for "sending... the block of the small bird and the large monster", asking her to send "the block we used in EAT CROW", and promising to "return the proofs" of "Prometheus", dated 10 May 1973, 1p.; 2 similar (but not identical) sets of etchings, each with one sheet of an "Introduction" to Sylvia Plath's prose pieces, 9pp. + 8pp. (approximately 310 x 235mm.); 2 folded sheets, each including half-title of Seamus Heaney's "Bog Poems" and the final page of a short essay by Heaney thanking Ted Hughes, Barrie Cooke, and Olwyn Hughes, some wear;

iii) box containing multiples of etchings illustrating Sylvia Plath's poems: each 137 x 108mm., c. 500 prints;

iv) unbound sheets for Ted Hughes' "Orts": 20 sets, 379 x 595mm., some folded, leaves uncut, lacking second part, a few sheets with creasing, dust-soiling, and staining, one sheet with annotations in pencil and ballpoint pen 

The Rainbow Press was a creative collaboration between Olwyn Hughes, Ted Hughes, and others, notably the artist Leonard Baskin (see lots 350-357). The press produced sixteen books between 1971 and 1981, including editions of works by Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Thom Gunn, and Seamus Heaney.

It was Olwyn who "played the major role in the Rainbow Press publications" as she not only "chose the printer and binder for each edition", but also often selected "the paper on which it was to be printed" (Ann Skea). Ted Hughes also contributed design ideas, such as chosing the Bodoni type that was used in many Rainbow Press publications. The brother-sister publishing relationship between Ted and Olwyn had a famous literary precedent in the sibling collaboration between William Butler Yeats and his elder sister Elizabeth.

The Rainbow Press edition of Orts was published in August 1978 in an edition of 200 copies.

LITERATURE:

Skea, "Ted Hughes and Small Press Publication"; Skea, "List of Rainbow Press Publications"; Sagar and Tabor, Ted Hughes: A Bibliography, 1946-1995 (1998).