Viscount Carlow

Viscount Carlow

Publisher of the Corvinus Press. George Lionel Seymour Dawson-Damer, styled Viscount Carlow (a Viscountcy in the Peerage of Ireland) was an Air Commodore with the Auxiliary RAF. As a young lieutenant in the British army, he met T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"); their shared interest in fine printing and book collecting led to Carlow's founding of the Corvinus Press in 1936. His first titles were several limited editions by and about Lawrence. Titles by other contemporary writers, including Louis Golding, L. A. G. Strong, and Edmund Blunden, followed. Seeking new manuscripts, he contacted JJ in 1936, who suggested the publication of Storiella as She Is Syung. Published in 1937, it was one of the press's most elaborate productions, using a variety of typefaces in black and red ink, an initial letter designed by Lucia Joyce, and an orange binding with the title printed in gold. JJ and Carlow corresponded occasionally through the next few years. The Corvinus Press published some 58 titles through 1945. An avid pilot throughout his adult life, Carlow was killed in action towards the end of World War II. William Brockman