The Hogarth Press was founded in 1917 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, primarily as a therapeutic diversion for Virginia. The 'hobby' aspect of the Press was retained for many years, and the appearance of the first books reflects the amateurism of the publishers and printers. Being merely a diversion, the Press stands in a unique biographical position since each book reflects the tastes of the Woolfs. As publishers, the Woolfs drew on the multifarious talents of their friends and acquaintances to write books, design covers, execute illustrations, and latterly, work with them. In 1919 and 1920 the Press evolved from its distinctly diversionary position to that of a publishing firm. The Woolfs realised that they could not keep full rein on the growing Press without sacrificing in part their own careers as writers. Growth in turn meant employees, and employees meant problems for Leonard who became curiously and uncharacteristically irrational about his Press. But growth also meant that the Press could keep pace with Virginia's own development as a novelist and essayist, setting her free from the anguish of vast impersonal publishers. The Press is investigated to 1923 both as a biographical aspect of the Woolfs' life, and as an entity in itself. Both published and unpublished material have been consulted. The published books themselves are important and certain volumes are selected for critical discussion. Apart from Virginia's own books, the Russian translations stand as the single most important series of Hogarth publications. The employment of Ralph Partridge which culminated in March, 1923 sets the standard for what was to become a series of unsuccessful employee/ employer relationships. The Press is both a backdrop and a main character in the following pages.

This thesis explores the importance of Puffin Books to the making of modern children’s literature during the 1960s and 1970s. It examines the contemporary reception of Puffin Books to assess their quality as an imprint and argues that being a paperback imprint did not prevent the series from wielding great influence in shaping this period of book history. In particular the thesis investigates the role of Kaye Webb, the Puffin editor during these two transformational decades, in achieving Puffin’s high status. The study argues that Webb personally played a large part in the success of the company in her creation of a reading community which provided an audience for such high quality books and was the basis for a future generation of literary readers. Much of this was achieved through the Puffin Club and its magazine Puffin Post, started by Webb in 1967. The thesis first provides historical background for the Puffin imprint from its inception in 1940 as part of the Penguin family. It continues by examining how Webb’s early work led to her arrival at Puffin as a pioneering career woman. The focus of the remainder of the study is on key aspects of Puffin’s history which demonstrate how a combination of innovative business methods and artistic idealism gave rise to the Puffin phenomenon. These are: • 1963, a year in which Puffin’s quality is demonstrably high; • 1967, the year in which Puffin Post was founded; • historical fiction as a privileged genre of the 1960s; • realistic fiction of the 1970s. Research is heavily based on unpublished material at Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books in Newcastle upon Tyne. A wide range of Puffin Books is covered as part of the methodology for demonstrating reception and quality.

The principal argument of this thesis is that royalist literary publishing in the civil wars and Interregnum was a more coherent and wider movement than has been recognised. It asserts the importance of print culture to royalists, both as a vehicle for personal responses to political circumstances, and as a means to criticize and undermine the opposition. The thesis uses the publisher Humphrey Moseley as a lens through which to examine the publisher's role in the dissemination of a wide range of royalist texts. It demonstrates that publishers, as well as authors, were driven by their political and ideological opinions. The thesis begins by establishing that the royalist and Anglican convictions expressed within the texts published by Moseley corresponded with his own. This opening chapter also demonstrates the editorial control that he exerted when publishing a book. Next follow five case studies. In the second chapter I examine writings of Moseley's most prolific author, James Howell. I show that until the censorship legislation of September 1649, Howell published royalist polemical pamphlets. I argue that in response to the censorship act Howell shifted to a more subtle method of polemical writing, most notably when he embedded extracts from his polemical pamphlets in his historical allegory Dodona's Grove which Moseley published in 1650. Chapters Three to Six are genre-based case studies. These chapters analyse the ways that a variety of genres were used by royalists in support of the Stuart cause and the Anglican Church. In the final chapter I set Moseley within the context of royalist publishing more widely. I review the careers of Henry Seile and Richard Royston to demonstrate that Moseley was not the only publisher committed to the royalist cause and that his productions belonged to a broad spectrum of royalist publishing.