Faber and Faber, Ltd. (London, UK)
Series dates: 1932-1942
Size: 5″ x 7″
The Porpoise Press (Edinburgh, UK)
Series dates: 1932
Size: 5″ x 7″
Updates: 5/25/2024
Faber and Faber’s The Faber Library started in 1932 with six titles and expanded to 52 titles with series numbers up to #55. Two series numbers were not used and one title with a series number was announced but not published. One was published in the series by a subsidiary press (Porpoise Press).
I can account for 52 titles actually published in the pre-WW2 Faber Library series. The series numbers run to #55. Series numbers are sometimes changed, probably because announced titles were postponed or canceled. #29 and #41 never seem to have been used for a published title. #29 is announced as Ding Dong Bell, Selected Poems by Auden, and Elizabethan Essays on different dust jackets, but all are eventually published using other series numbers. #23: Dwarf’s Blood, by Edith Oliver seems to have not been published and the number not used.
The list below contains titles and series numbers I’ve found on WorldCat or other sources – thus actual books published with particular series number. I’ve included the year of publication in the series. Years of publication don’t necessarily follow the series numbering.
1. Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, by Siegfried Sassoon (1932)
2. Memoirs of An Infantry Officer, by Siegfried Sassoon (1932)
3. The Beautiful Years, by Henry Williamson (1932)
4. Poems, 1909-1925, by T. S. Eliot (1932)
5. Memoirs of a Midget, by Walter De La Mare (1932)
6. Under The Red Ensign, by H. M. Tomlinson (1932)
7. Morning Tide, by Neil Gunn (1932) (this series title was published by the Porpoise Press, Edinburgh. which Faber & Faber acquired in 1930 [see below])
8. Disraeli and Gladstone, by D.C. Somervell (1932)
9. Dandelion Days, by Henry Williamson (1932)
10. Adamastor: Poems, by Roy Campbell (1932)
11. On The Edge: Short Stories, by Walter De La Mare (1932)
12. Commando: A Boer Journal of the Boer War, by Deneys Reitz (1932)
13. The Meeting Place, by J.D. Beresford (1933)
14. The Dream of Fair Women, by Henry Williamson (1933)
15. Albert Grope, by F.O.Mann (1933)
16. The Pathway, by Henry Williamson (1933)
17. Selected Poems, by Ezra Pound (1933)
*18. Louder and Funnier, by P G Wodehouse (1932)
19. Farmer’s Glory, by A.G. Street (1934)
20. An Adventure, by C.A.E. Mollerly & E.F. Jourdain (1934)
21. Strawberry Roan, by A.G. Street (1934)
*22. The Seraphim Room, by Edith Olivier (1934)
* **23. Dwarf’s Blood, by Edith Oliver
24. Elizabethan Essays, by T.S. Eliot (1934)
25. Hedge-Trimmings, by A.G. Street (1935)
26. The Progress of a Ploughboy by William Cobbett (1933)
27. The Riddle, by Walter De La Mare (1938)
*28. Ur of the Chaldees, by Charles Leonard Woolley (1935)
*29. No title published
30. The Book of Joad, by C.E.M. Joad (1935)
31. Collected Poems, by Edward Thomas (1936)
32. Country Days, by A.G. Street (1936)
33. The English Eccentrics, by Edith Sitwell (1933)
34. Pornography and So On, by D.H. Lawrence (1936)
35. Thinking Aloud, by A.G. Street (1942)
36. The Country Child, by Alison Uttley (1936)
***37. The Daring Young Man …, by William Saroyan
38. Loved River, by H.R. Jukes (1938)
39. Selected Poems, by W.H. Auden (1938)
40. The Endless Furrow, by A.G. Street (1938)
*41. No title published
42. The Testament of Joad, by C.E.M. Joad (1937)
43. Ding Dong Bell, by Walter De La Mare (1936)
44. The Open Air, by Adrian Bell (1940)
45. Sherston’s Progress, by Siegfried Sassoon (1940)
46. Richard Jefferies, by Henry Williamson (1940)
47. Ambush of Young Days, by Alison Uttley (1940)
48. The Burning Cactus, by Stephen Spender (1936)
49. Little Children, by William Saroyan (1941)
50. Later Poems, by T.S. Elliot (1941)
*51. John Mistletoe, by Christopher Morley (1941)
52. Salar The Salmon, by Henry Williamson (1943)
53. Henry Brocken, by Walter De La Mare (1942)
54. The First Lover, by Kay Boyle (1942; London: Reiss)
*55. The Listeners and Other Poems, by Walter De la Mare (1942)
*Titles absent from an October 1942 edition of #20 An Adventure and thus not in print at that date.
**This title appears to have not been published.
***Thanks to Chris Garcia at Forever Saroyan for confirming the publication of this title in the series.
Seven books published by Faber & Faber and sometimes listed as Faber Library series titles are below. They are not in the Faber Library. Jackets for these books include an advertisement for the Faber Library on the back which may suggest the titles were part of the Faber Library.
Two Tales of Shem and Shaun, by James Joyce (1932).
Sweeney Agonistes, by T.S. Eliot (1932)
The Dance of Death, by W.H. Auden (1935)
Words, Beasts & Fishes, by Marmaduke Dixey (1936)
The Flax of Dream, by. Henry Williamson Flax of Dream (1936)
Polite Essays, by Ezra Pound (1937)
Victoria of England, by Edith Sitwell (1943)
Between 1932 and 1940 series jackets and bindings remained constant, with modifications in the list of titles on the back of the jacket. Author and title information is printed on commonly designed jackets. The books are described on the front flap, along with the price (3s./6d.). This copy of De La Mare’s Memoirs of a Midget is dated 1932.
The back of the jacket has current titles in the series, in this case, the first six titles. You can contact Faber and Faber for a prospectus for the series, as well as other titles.
Bindings are consistently green with silver stamping and a blank front cover.
The series name and book serial number are included on the page before the title page.
The title page.
Copyright and printing information on the reverse of the title page indicates printing information in the series. Reprints are indicated and dated.
An oddity in reprint series history, this copy of Morning Tide by Neil M. Gunn was published as #7 in the series in 1932 by the Porpoise Press of Edinburgh. This book, a collection of interconnected short stories, was first issued with a 1930 copyright date by the Porpoise Press which were in many cases replaced with a 1931 tipped in title page. Harcourt, Brace and Co. published the book in the U.S. in 1931. The Faber Library edition is also dated 1931.
The Porpoise Press, part of the Scottish literary revival of the early 1900s, was established in 1922 and bought by Faber & Faber in 1930. The last titles were published in 1938 and the Press is discontinued in 1939. (source).
While the title page indicates the Porpoise Press, the book and jacket spine both indicate Faber & Faber.
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Two additional dust jacket paper colors, green and purple. Farmer’s Glory and Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man both have 1936 print dates.
A list of the first 39 titles in the series is on the jacket from the late 1930s.
In the early 1940s titles from the series were redesigned to meet wartime standards as indicated by information on the back of the title page of this 1942 copy of Williamson’s The Beautiful Years.
The jacket on this war economy standard book is simpler but has content similar to the earlier jackets. Both reprint and new titles were issued in this style.
The back of the jacket lists 54 titles. At least one more title, Walter de la Mare’s The Listeners and Other Poems (#55) was published (in 1942).
Bindings remain the same, but the paper in the book is cheaper and more coarse than the paper in earlier books.
There are no new titles issued after 1942 although some books continued to be printed into the 1950s according to WorldCat records.
Faber revived the Faber Library series in 1995 and continued to issue new titles until about 1997.
