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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Typ 1122

Edward Gordon Craig proofs for the Cranach Presse edition of Shakespeare's Hamlet

Overview

Proofs for the illustrations by Edward Gordon Craig for the Cranach Presse editions of Hamlet, published both in English and in German, and also additional materials concerning this publication.

Dates

  • Creation: 1911-1930

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Access to originals is restricted; contact the Curator of Printing & Graphic Arts.

Extent

1 linear foot (1 box and 1 portfolio box)

The collection consists of proofs and other material concerning the illustrations by Edward Gordon Craig for the Cranach Presse editions of Hamlet, published both in English and in German.

The descriptions for the proofs in series I, provide the page number for each image and refer to the English edition. The titles to the individual images, given in italics, are derived from the list given in The Book as a Work of Art: The Cranach Press of Count Harry Kessler (2005), pp. 328-329. The proofs are grouped by the page(s) on which they occur, with multiple blocks and states of the same image placed in the same folder. The complex foldering and subfoldering system inherited with the archive has been preserved, together with the original folders, as these carry notes, both in Craig's hand and in the hands of others, identifying blocks and states, dates of printing, the number of copies, and the disposition of copies over time.

Series II, additional material, includes: unused block impressions, prospectuses for the English edition, an Emery Walter letter to EGC and sample woodcut, galley proofs for the German edition (1927), and lists of blocks.

Biographical / Historical

Edward Gordon Craig (1872–1966) was an English actor, theatre director, designer, wood engraver, critic, publisher and self taught artist. He wrote many books on the theatre, produced over 500 wood engravings, and designed for theatre throughout Europe and in Moscow.

Arrangement

Arranged in two series:

  1. I. Proofs
  2. II. Additional material

Physical Location

b, pf

Immediate Source of Acquisition

2002H-103pf. Purchased with the Philip Hofer Trust fund and the Bayard Livingston and Kate Gray Kilgour Fund; received: 2002 October 23.

Related Materials

Houghton Library has a copy of the printed book, Typ 920.30.7850 F, cataloged as HOLLIS number 3729166: William Shakespeare. The tragedie of Hamlet prince of Denmarke. Edited by J. Dover Wilson...from the text of the second qvarto printed in 1604-5...with which are also printed the Hamlet stories from Saxo Grammaticus and Belleforest and English translations therefrom. Illustrated by Edward Gordon Craig. Weimar: Count Harry Kessler at the Cranach Press, 1930.

Processing Information

Processed by: Caroline Duroselle-Melish

Title
Craig, Edward Gordon, 1872-1966. Edward Gordon Craig proofs for the Cranach Presse edition of Shakespeare's Hamlet, 1911-1930: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou01927

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
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Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
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