Carlow was a keen book-collector, amateur linguist and typographer, and ran the Press purely as a hobby, with the help of a press-man (latterly Arthur Harry Cardew) and secretary.
He was friendly with many of the leading literary figures of the age, some of whom allowed him to print their works at his Press.
Corvinus published new work by T. E. Lawrence, James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, Edmund Blunden, Stefan Zweig, Walter de la Mare and H. E. Bates.
His taste in binding was also individual, and he generally produced a few special copies of each book which he had bound by one of the leading craft bookbinders of the age.
During the war, Carlow undertook diplomatic duties elsewhere in Europe, but oversaw the work of the Press at a distance.