In 1933, while he was the publisher at Endeavour Press, P. R. Stephensen had been approached by Xavier Herbert with a 'sprawling novel'. This manuscript soon became the 'flagship project' for Stephensen's own imprint, P. R. Stephensen and Company, which Stephensen founded within a couple of days of his resignation from Endeavour Press in late 1933. Towards the end of 1933, his sister Rosaline joined him in his new venture, and Jack Kirtley, from the early days of Fanfrolico Press in London, became his 'business manager, read manuscripts and assisted with production'.
The offices of the company were on the first floor of the Waltham Buildings at 24 Bond Street, Sydney and the first titles, released in December 1933, were Henry Handel Richardson's The Bath (1933), along with Louise Mack's Teens Triumphant (1933), a sequel to Teens which had been published 35 years earlier in London. The company also reissued Australian editions of classic titles such as Lancaster's Sons of Men and Miles Franklin's Old Blastus of Bandicoot in its 'Southern Classic Library' series. Finally, it seemed, Stephensen was free to indulge his passion for fine book production. However finances were already problematic and much energy was spent on attempting to raise capital.
Stephensen and Co. was widely recognised for its high book production values. The Melbourne Sun, for example, praised the design of book jackets on Price's Gods in the Sand, and Berrie's Threebrooks. At the same time, some in Australia's literary community were privately disappointed in Stephensen's literary standards. Marjorie Barnard, whose A House Is Built was under consideration by Stephensen and Co. for an Australian reprint, wrote to Nettie Palmer in 1934: 'Yes Stephensen and A&R seem to be vying with one another as to who can publish the greatest literary rubbish with the most eclat.'
Yet Stephensen's literary goals were ambitious. In an early issue of his monthly Circular, he had asked: 'Who will write, and who will publish, the Great Australian Novel for which the world is waiting?' In the May 1934 issue, he answered his own question:
Stephensens have in press a novel of epic proportions, over 200,000 words in length, entitled Capricornia, by Xavier Herbert. ... Publication of this gigantic novel, which will appear subsequently in both England and the United States, will be an achievement on a scale never before attempted in Australia.
Stephensen devoted considerable financial and personal resources to Herbert's manuscript during 1934 and commissioned several jacket designs. But by the end of the year, P.R. Stephensen and Company was in 'terminal financial difficulties', and Stephensen and Herbert were estranged. Although work on Capricornia was halted, Stephensen managed several other publications, including Randolph Hughes's C.J. Brennan: An Essay in Values and Vivian Crockett's Mezzomorto.
In late 1934, Stephensen made further attempts to resuscitate the company's finances and stave off creditors but to no avail. All book production was stopped, and when no alternative publisher could be found, two tons of printers type for Capricornia were melted down.
P.R. Stephensen and Co. went into voluntary liquidation in February 1935, just months before Endeavour Press was also wound up. Ultimately, Capricornia was published under the Publicist imprint in 1938, then acquired by Angus & Robertson.
Source: Craig Munro, Wild Man of Letters: The Story of P.R. Stephensen, MUP, Melbourne, 1984: pp. 135-149.
