Shelmerdine and Grierson began printing in 1930, at a cottage in Stuart Road, Warlingham in Surrey, and produced a number of small books and a good deal of ephemera.
They exhibited their work in Edinburgh: first at Grierson's family home in 1934[1] and then "books, woodcuts, lino-cuts, new Christmas cards" at Parsons' Gallery, Queen Street.
In 1933 her translation from Latin of Historia de Duobus Amantibus by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II) was published as The Tale of the Two Lovers.
Joan Mary Shelmerdine (1899–1994) was born in Lancashire[11] and studied French at Somerville College, Oxford where she met Flora Grierson.
In 1929 she published a translation with introduction to The Secret History of Henrietta, Princess of England, first wife of Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, together with Memoirs of the Court of France for the Years 1688-1689.
When Shelmerdine died in 1994, the death announcement in The Times described her as "Founder of the Samson Press and lifelong friend of the late Flora Grierson".