The Fantasy Press was an English publisher of poetry between 1951 and 1962, allied to the Oxford University Poetry Society and superintended by the painter and illustrator Oscar Mellor. As well as publishing a regular series of pamphlets by undergraduate and graduate poets between 1952 and 1957, it also brought out longer collections by some, as well as anthologies of university poetry containing their work.
A local stimulus The firm was established by Oscar Mellor in Swinford, Oxfordshire, primarily to finance his work as an artist,You Muddy Fools Letter by Trevor Denning to the London Review of Books, 7 February 2002 but gained a high-profile through publishing a series of poets who became major figures of The Movement and The Group - as well as others who went on to make their name in the US, such as Donald Hall, Adrienne Rich, Richard Selig and George Steiner.James Keery, "Menacing Works in my Isolation" in The Thing About Roy Fisher, Liverpool University, 2000, p.53 English Poets who had early works published by the Fantasy Press included Elizabeth Jennings,Obituary: Elizabeth Jennings Grevel Lindop, The Guardian, Wednesday October 31, 2001 Thom Gunn, Thom Gunn (1929 - 2004), The Poetry Foundation Philip Larkin,Biography - Philip Larkin (1922-85) The Philip Larkin Society and Geoffrey Hill."Fantasy Press", Peter Harrington
As well as those who made a short first appearance in the Fantasy Poets series, some proceeded to publish more substantial collections from the press. These included Thom Gunn's original "Fighting Terms" (1954);Biblio two by George MacBeth ("A Form of Words", 1954, and "Lecture to the Trainees", 1962);"George MacBeth 1932-92", Old Edwardians Charles Tomlinson (the original "The Necklace", 1955);Biblio Gordon Wharton, ("This and That", 1955);Richard Warren, "Back from oblivion: tracking the poetry of Gordon Wharton" Donald Davie ("The Brides of Reason", 1955);Biblio Lucien Stryk, ("The Trespasser", 1956);Abe Books Kingsley Amis ("The Evans Country", 1962);Clearwater Books Peter Dale, ("A Walk from the House", 1962);Poetry Archive Michael Fried, ("Other Hands, 1962").World Cat
Up until 1953, the Basil Blackwell imprint had been the chief recourse for university poets and had published annual Oxford Poetry anthologies until 1953, when Fantasy Press took the project over.Valentine Cunningham, "Literary Culture", in The History of the University of Oxford, OUP 1994, vol. VIII (The Twentieth Century), p.424 Work in the successive anthologies was the choice of students from the Oxford University Poetry Society, who were also made aware at this time of the poetry being written by their Cambridge contemporaries.William Wootten, The Alvarez Generation, Liverpool University Press, 2015, p.3ff Another Fantasy Press venture of this period, for example, Poetry from Cambridge 1952-4, contained early work by Ted Hughes and by Gunn.Abe Books
Fantasy Poets series This was a numbered series of 35 booklets published by the press between 1952 and 1957. Each was in octavo format, card-wrapped and centre-stapled, containing a small eight-page selection of poems by an individual poet. Some 300 copies of each were printed.John Cotton, The Fantasy Press (Dodman Press, 1977) Google Books
1. Elizabeth Jennings (1952) 2. Pearce Young 3. James Price 4. Donald Hall 5. Simon Broadbent 6. Peter Dale Scott 7. Paul West 8. F. George Steiner 9. Lotte ZurndorferA. T. Tolley, "Lotte Zurndorfer: A Forgotten Poet", PN Review 213 (2013) 10. Martin Seymour-Smith 11. Geoffrey Hill 12. Adrienne Cecile Rich 13. Michael Shanks 14. Michael Raper 15. A. Alvarez 16. Thom Gunn (1954) 17. Anthony Thwaite (1953) 18. Arthur Boyars 19. Donald Davie 20. Jonathan Price (1954)Oliver Tearle, "The Forgotten Movement Poet: The Poetry of Jonathan Price" (1931-85), Interesting Literature 21. Philip Larkin (1954) 22. Kingsley Amis 23. Richard Selig (1954)Selig, Richard, 1929-1957, snac 24. Adrian Mitchell (1954) 25. Edward Lucie-Smith (1954) 26. John Holloway (1954) 27. Richard Drain (1955) 28. Laurence D. Lerner (1955) 29. Daibhidh Michell (1955) 30. H.S. Eveling 31. Mark Holloway (1956)"HOLLOWAY, Mark 1917-2004, Encyclopedia.com 32. Richard Aldridge (1956)"Aldridge, Richard (1930 - 1994)", Maine State Library 33. Kenneth Wood (1956) 34. Dennis Keene (1957)"KEENE, Dennis 1934–", Encyclopedia.com 35. Richard Kell (1957)
References