Background
Walker was born in London. His father was a coach builder. A year later his father"s failing sight meant that he had to leave school.
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Emery Walker
Edit ProfileEducation
Studied at Saint Mark"s College, Chelsea. With Walter Crane and others helped to found the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, 1888. Is still a member of the Committee.
Lectured on Printing during the first show of the Society in New Gallery.
Helped William Morris in establishing the Kelmscott Press at Hammersmith, 1890. In conjunction with T. J.
Career
Walker took an active role in many organisations that were at the heart of the Arts and Crafts movement, including the Art Workers Guild, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. He obtained a very old book when he was twelve that gave him a love of books They lived near to each other.
Walker"s expertise and his collection of 16th-century typefaces inspired Morris to create the Kelmscott Press.
After Morris" death, Walker set up his own printing enterprise, the Doves Press, with bookbinder T. J. Cobden Sanderson which in turn inspired the private presses of the 20th century. The capital for the enterprise which was £1,600 was supplied by Anne Cobden-Sanderson.
The font that they created was intended to be shared. Despite the agreement Cobden-Sanderson did not deliver a copy of the font and instead arranged for every copy of the design to be dropped into the Thames.
In 1910, Walker photographed the Rice portrait of Jane Austen, subsequently published in the 1913 edition of Jane Austen: her life and letters, a family record by William Austen-Leigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh.
In 1922 Anne Cobden-Sanderson"s husband died. After his death she paid a large sum to settle the dispute with Walker. "Emery Walker, Esq. Process engraver and Printer.
Past Master of the Art Workers" Guild.
Late President of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. A Trustee of the Wallace Collection and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries" received a knighthood in 1930.
The house is now a museum run by the Emery Walker Trust.
Politics
In the late 1870s Walker befriended William Morris, with whom he shared both Socialist beliefs and a keen interest in printing.
Membership
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
