"Meticulously researched ... Those studying the small press scene and late nineteenth-century Oxford will find this book indispensable."
- Ada Coghen, TLS

"The Daniel Press &The Garland of Rachel is a thoroughly enjoyable book, and if future censuses follow the typographical design of this one, we are in for a treat."
- Paul van Capelleveen, Quarendo

"William S. and Sylvia Holton Peterson have provided what will be forever the definitive account of this famous little book. Intended primarily as a census of the surviving copies, it is much more than that... above all perhaps this is a miniature study in cultural history, a portrait of a small local society which has colour, period interest and occasionally pathos... beautifully produced by the Oak Knoll Press."
- John Maddicott, The Book Collector

The Daniel Press was a celebrated private press operated by Henry Daniel, a don at Worcester College, Oxford University, during the final decades of the nineteenth century. Unlike some of its more imposing English contemporaries, the Daniel Press was a small family operation. The printing was done entirely by Daniel himself, with some help from his wife and two daughters, and the texts were usually provided by friends and acquaintances in their literary circle. Despite its modest aspirations, the history of the Daniel Press provides a fascinating glimpse of late Victorian Oxford and at the same time displays, in a local setting, the renewal of the art of printing during that period.

This account focuses especially on The Garland of Rachel (1881), by far the best-known publication of the Daniel Press. The Garland consists of a series of poetic
tributes to the Daniels' daughter Rachel, born a year earlier, by various writers of the day, including Robert Bridges, Lewis Carroll, Edmund Gosse, W. E. Henley, Andrew Lang, John Addington Symonds, and Margaret Woods. Because only thirty-six copies were issued, the Garland is today one of the most sought-after of English rare books. This account includes eight pages of color illustrations.

The book includes: a biographical account of the Daniels; notes on each of the contributors to the Garland; a census with provenance of known copies; correspondence connected with the books production and information about the binders; auction records; and a reprint of the complete text.

The authors have previously collaborated on The Kelmscott Chaucer: A Census (2011) and co-compilers of a digital catalogue of William Morris's library.