written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . may 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message folio society founded 1947 founder charles ede country of origin united kingdom headquarters location 44 eagle street london distribution worldwide key people lord gavron publication types books limited editions official website www.foliosociety.com the folio society is a privately owned 1 london based publisher founded by charles ede in 1947 and incorporated in 1971 . 2 3 it produces illustrated hardback editions of classic fiction and non fiction books poetry and children s titles . folio editions feature specially designed bindings and include artist commissioned illustrations most often in fiction titles or researched artworks and photographs in non fiction titles . many editions come with their own slipcase . contents 1 history 2 membership and non member sales 3 production trends and bindings 4 folio society limited editions 5 illustrators 6 introducers 7 the book illustration competition 8 see also 9 references and sources 10 external links history edit the folio society was founded in 1947 by charles ede christopher sandford of golden cockerel press and alan bott founder of pan books . 4 the firm s goal was to produce editions of the world s great literature in a format worthy of the contents at a price within the reach of everyman . 5 folio and the golden cockerel press shared premises in poland street until 1955 . 6 7 subsequent offices were located in the mayfair and borough areas of london . the folio society moved to its current location 44 eagle street holborn in 1994 . 8 the society issued its first three titles in 1947 . in october of that year tolstoy s tales went on sale 9 for sixteen shillings this would have been about us 3 in 1947 or just over us 110 in 2014 . 10 11 tales was followed in november and december by george du maurier s trilby 12 and a translation of aucassin et nicolette establishing a pattern of monthly publication . in 1971 the folio society was incorporated and purchased by john letts and halfdan lynner . 3 under their ownership the folio society published the collected novels of dickens trollope hardy elizabeth gaskell and conrad . lord gavron was owner and chairman of the folio society from 1982 until his death in 2015 . membership and non member sales edit at its inception the folio society operated as a membership based organisation ; as the list of titles grew the membership commitment was established as 4 books per year . since 2011 anyone has been able to purchase from the folio society list without committing to membership . on 1 september 2016 the company ended its membership based structure . citation needed production trends and bindings edit the company currently publishes more than 60 titles a year including multi volume sets . most titles are digitally typeset then printed by offset at printers in the united kingdom germany italy and spain . until 1954 most folio books were issued with printed dust jackets but during the latter half of the 1950s coloured card slip cases were introduced to protect the books and retain focus on the decorative bindings . solander boxes are generally used to protect the limited editions . folio publications are printed in a range of standard sizes in 1951 for example these included royal octavo medium octavo crown octavo and demy octavo and custom sizes are also employed . the most common material for bindings is buckram or a similar bookcloth but there are many exceptions aluminium foil was used in binding aldous huxley s brave new world in 1971 and vegetable parchment in binding voltaire s the calas affair in 1994 ; more commonly marbled papers often produced by ann muir marbling ltd. have been used for several volumes in recent years either as endpapers or as board papers of quarter bindings ; moir silk usually artificial has been used sporadically over the years as a binding material and leather vellum and goatskin and bonded leather are sometimes used chiefly for the more expensive editions . most bindings for works of fiction are designed by the illustrator . non fiction binding designers include david eccles jeff clements and neil gower . beginning in 2007 the company used traditional letterpress printing the method which johannes gutenberg devised in the middle of the fifteenth century to publish each of shakespeare s plays as well as the sonnets and poems in large format editions . this landmark project of 39 volumes was finally completed in 2014 . folio society limited editions edit strictly limited bound to order and numbered by hand folio society limited editions are outstanding works of literary or historical significance reproduced as works of art in their own right . in every detail from artwork to binding materials the folio society strives to make limited editions that are as beautiful as possible marrying form and content setting new standards in publishing excellence . they unite the skills of many experts employing both traditional crafts and state of the art technology and representing a labour of love for everyone involved . many of the limited editions draw on the expertise of some the world s most renowned literary institutions academics illustrators and collectors . whether formed to develop pioneering interpretations of classic texts or meticulously to reproduce rarely seen treasures the resulting collaborations are often fascinating stories in themselves . some occur through chance meetings some are the result of years of careful research while others result from the ambitions of a particular artist or scholar . illustrators edit cover of folio society edition of tristram shandy illustrated by john lawrence notable among the hundreds of illustrators of folio books are edward ardizzone r l stevenson travels with a donkey quentin blake voltaire candide ; george orwell animal farm harry brockway s t coleridge the rime of the ancient mariner john lawrence laurence sterne tristram shandy ; t h white the once and future king beryl cook christopher isherwood mr norris changes trains ; muriel spark the prime of miss jean brodie anthony colbert jane eyre geoff grandfield novels and stories of raymond chandler sam weber william golding lord of the flies and frank herbert dune fine artists who have illustrated books for the society include elisabeth frink horace odes paul cox works by p g wodehouse jean hugo 1950 edition of romeo and juliet charles keeping complete novels of charles dickens francis mosley complete joseph conrad charles van sandwyk kenneth grahame the wind in the willows ; lewis carroll alice in wonderland neil packer umberto eco the name of the rose ; joseph heller catch 22 tom phillips samuel beckett waiting for godot prominent wood engravers include simon brett poems by keats shelley and byron peter reddick complete novels and stories of thomas hardy paula rego english nursery rhymes compilation and j m barrie peter pan and wendy some recent commissions are from a richard allen kingsley amis lucky jim elena and anna balbusso pushkin eugene onegin james boswell j g ballard the drowned world ; margery allingham traitor s purse jonathan burton douglas adams the hitchhiker s guide to the galaxy ; george orwell nineteen eighty four fay dalton ian fleming casino royale jeff fisher lewis carroll the hunting of the snark david hughes ken kesey one flew over the cuckoo s nest ; mark twain a connecticut yankee in king arthur s court federico infante vladimir nabokov lolita igor karash leo tolstoy war and peace ; angela carter the bloody chamber and other stories john vernon lord james joyce finnegans wake shotopop philip k dick the man in the high castle jillian tamaki christina rossetti goblin market joe wilson arthur c clarke 2001 a space odyssey introducers edit over the years the folio society has commissioned original introductions to its editions from leading figures in literature the arts media science philosophy and the academic world . these include the former archbishop of canterbury dr rowan williams confessions of st augustine and eusebius the history of the church ; ruth rendell p. d. james cover her face ; a. s. byatt andrew lang the pink fairy book ; jenny uglow liza picard restoration london ; simon mawer leo marks between silk and cyanide ; will self franz kafka metamorphosis and other stories ; john banville bram stoker dracula ; michael cunningham virginia woolf mrs dalloway ; damon galgut albert camus the outsider ; amit chaudhuri the bhagavad gita ; colm t ib n lady augusta gregory irish myths and legends and d. h. lawrence sons and lovers ; paul krugman isaac asimov the foundation trilogy ; william trevor v. s. pritchett the camberwell beauty and other stories ruth padel selected poems and prose of gerard manley hopkins ; brian cox richard feynman surely you re joking mr feynman ; david malouf frederic manning the middle parts of fortune ; a. l. kennedy muriel spark the girls of slender means ; nigel kneale the ghost stories of m. r. james ; melvyn bragg bede history of the english church and people carol ann duffy a folio anthology of poetry ; patti smith wuthering heights ; eimear mcbride selected poems by anna akhmatova ; michael moorcock 2001 a space odyssey . the book illustration competition edit established in 2011 the book illustration competition is a partnership between the folio society and house of illustration . the annual international competition is open to illustrators over the age of 18 both students and professionals not previously published by the folio society . the competition winner receives a prestigious commission to illustrate a future folio society publication . previous winners include matthew richardson the outsider by albert camus 2011 igor karash the bloody chamber and other stories by angela carter 2012 finn dean brave new world by aldous huxley 2013 sean mcsorley heart of darkness by joseph conrad 2014 david mcconochie the folio book of ghost stories 2015 alan marks war horse by michael morpurgo 2016 see also edit easton press franklin library a history of england golden cockerel press references and sources edit references digital dots ltd. pdf document the folio society about us . . the folio society 2011 . retrieved 19 december 2011 . a b companies in the uk incorporation bott obituary charles ede obituary in the telegraph 6 june 2002 . retrieved 21 december 2011 . archived here . books and writers the folio society books and writers golden cockerel london online open library tales listing historical currency exchange rates currency value over time library content and services sources cave roderick & sarah mason a history of the golden cockerel press 1920 1960 2002 . british library & oak knoll press nash paul w. folio 50 a bibliography of the folio society 1947 1996 1997 . folio press in association with the british library nash paul w. folio 60 a bibliography of the folio society 1947 2006 2007 . folio society includes essays by sue bradbury joseph connolly and david mckitterick nash paul w. folio fine editions in parenthesis 4 april 2000 pp. 22 24 . includes a checklist of fine editions giving print runs external links edit the folio society retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title folio society & oldid 738377517 categories book publishing companies of the united kingdompublishing companies established in 1947book clubs1947 establishments in englandhidden categories articles with a promotional tone from may 2016all articles with a promotional toneall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from may 2013 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create