As well as publishing a regular series of pamphlets by undergraduate and graduate poets between 1952 and 1957, it also brought out longer collections by some, as well as anthologies of university poetry containing their work.
The firm was established by Oscar Mellor in Swinford, Oxfordshire, primarily to finance his work as an artist,[1] but gained a high-profile through publishing a series of poets who became major figures of The Movement and The Group - as well as others who went on to make their name in the US, such as Donald Hall, Adrienne Rich, Richard Selig and George Steiner.
[2] English Poets who had early works published by the Fantasy Press included Elizabeth Jennings,[3] Thom Gunn,[4] Philip Larkin,[5] and Geoffrey Hill.
These included Thom Gunn's original "Fighting Terms" (1954);[7] two by George MacBeth ("A Form of Words", 1954, and "Lecture to the Trainees", 1962);[8] Charles Tomlinson (the original "The Necklace", 1955);[9] Gordon Wharton, ("This and That", 1955);[10] Donald Davie ("The Brides of Reason", 1955);[11] Lucien Stryk, ("The Trespasser", 1956);[12] Kingsley Amis ("The Evans Country", 1962);[13] Peter Dale, ("A Walk from the House", 1962);[14] Michael Fried, ("Other Hands, 1962").
[15] Up until 1953, the Basil Blackwell imprint had been the chief recourse for university poets and had published annual Oxford Poetry anthologies until 1953, when Fantasy Press took the project over.