Poetry Book Society

Enitharmon Press is the most venerable of the independent poetry presses. Founded in 1967 by the bibliophile and collector Alan Clodd, it soon established a reputation for high production quality and painstaking editorial standards. The name of the press derived from William Blake's Enitharmon, a muse of poetry and painting and representation of spiritual beauty. Through his close friendship with the poet Kathleen Raine, Clodd regarded the truest poetry as romantic and visionary, and this was reflected at the heart of his list with important texts by David Gascoyne, John Heath-Stubbs, Vernon Watkins and Raine herself, and with the only artist's book from that period, Samuel Beckett's The North, with etchings by Avigdor Arikha (1972).

I did some editing for the Press in the early 1980s, when I was earning my keep as a schoolteacher, and when Clodd decided to retire in 1987, he asked me if I would succeed him as Director. It was a wonderful opportunity for anyone immersed in literature, and I jumped at the chance, publishing my first book, Jeremy Hooker's Master of the Leaping Figures, in the same year.

In my first 15 years as Director there was no regular funding, and the publication programme had to be supported by my own freelance earnings - emphatically not a recipe to recommend to fledgling publishers. As the 1990s progressed, the poetry list was also supported by an ambitious and successful series of artists' books, unique in the UK for the distinction of the collaborations between artists (including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Jim Dine, Gilbert & George, R B Kitaj, Victor Pasmore and Paula Rego) and eminent writers (among them Thom Gunn, Ted Hughes and Blake Morrison).

The trade list, while specialising in poetry, diversified to include translations, memoirs, fiction and literary criticism. Poets published during this period included Sebastian Barker, Edwin Brock, Alan Brownjohn, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Neil Curry, U A Fanthorpe, John Heath-Stubbs, Phoebe Hesketh, Jeremy Hooker, Jenny Joseph, Judith Kazantzis, Christopher Middleton, Ruth Pitter, Jeremy Reed, Vernon Scannell, Myra Schneider, C H Sisson and Anthony Thwaite. Newcomers included Martyn Crucefix, Jane Duran and Pascale Petit; memoirs were provided by Michael Hamburger (Larkin), Anne Ridler (Eliot), Edward Upward (Auden and Isherwood), and Edmund White (autobiographical); and there was prose from David Gascoyne and Edward Upward, two veteran writers championed by the Press over a long period.

A significant milestone was the award of an Arts Council grant in 2001, which was the first step in becoming a regularly funded organisation. This has enabled us to have a dedicated office space and staff, and a more extensive list, now running to hundreds of titles. As Enitharmon has expanded its reputation, the number of submissions has grown hugely, and so too have approaches from writers on loan from other publishing houses, most notably Dannie Abse, Simon Armitage, Geoffrey Hill, Michael Longley and Paul Muldoon, all of whom had Enitharmon collections published in the last few years.

Translations, in bilingual editions, have extended to 20 languages. In a series celebrating neglected writers of the past, new light has been shone on C Day Lewis, David Jones, Alun Lewis, Isaac Rosenberg, Edward Thomas and Denton Welch. The artists' book list, now published by a separate company, Enitharmon Editions, has blossomed to include texts by Robert Creeley, Seamus Heaney and Harold Pinter, with artwork by Tony Bevan, Peter Blake, Duane Michals, Hughie O'Donoghue and Paula Rego.

Enitharmon publishes in a number of book forms: chapbooks, paperbacks, hardbacks, signed limited editions, and still prides itself on elegant design and typography (the latter by Libanus Press), sewn sections, quality papers and distinctive bindings. Our marketing manager works closely with our representatives and distributors in the UK, USA and Canada, and a new website (designed by Pedalo) is a crucial element in publicity and international selling. E-books, though for us a thing of the future, are being actively researched and are likely to make their appearance before long. And print-on-demand, now much more respectable in terms of its print quality, is being used for selected backlist titles which we want to keep in print permanently.

When considering submissions, we look for technical skill, imagination, intelligibility, variety and natural talent, rather than something forced into being by creative writing classes. We say on the website and in reference books that we're unable to look at unsolicited manuscripts, but still they pour in. The best make their way to a panel of readers whose assessment is considered before any decision is made. In the current economic climate there is little possibility of expansion.

The forthcoming list consists of writers who have been associated with Enitharmon for many years (Sebastian Barker, Alan Brownjohn, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Jane Duran, Jeremy Hooker, Martha Kapos); poets at second-collection stage (Rhian Gallagher, Roger Moulson, Sharon Morris, Lucy Newlyn); the next book in the Enitharmon New Poets series (by Andrew Bailey); a retrospective of Frances Cornford; translations of Lorca by Jane Duran and Gloria Garcia Lorca, Rilke by Martyn Crucefix, and Ritsos by David Harsent; Thomas Dilworth's David Jones and the Great War; and Ronald Blythe's semi-autobiographical In the Yeoman's House, a beautiful evocation of rural life.

It's difficult to predict the future of poetry publishing - certainly in book form. Most commercial houses have abandoned it, and all the specialists are predictably dependent upon Arts Council subsidy, since without it they would be bludgeoned to death by the excessive demands of wholesalers and bookselling chains. At the moment we await our fate: funding for 2012-15 is being decided now and the verdict will be announced at the end of March. Whatever happens, I'd like to think that Enitharmon can celebrate its 50th birthday and many more beyond.


Stephen Stuart-Smith (right in picture) has been Publisher of Enitharmon Press since 1987 and of Enitharmon Editions since 2001. He has been chair of The Poetry School, a member of the Literature Advisory Group at London Arts and a lecturer at literary festivals. He was previously an editor for Macmillan, Phaidon and Thames & Hudson.