Laura Riding

Laura Riding was an American poet, critic, and printer. After her divorce, Riding moved from New York to England where she lived with fellow author Robert Graves and his wife artist Nancy Nicholson. Riding and Graves founded the Seizen Press in London in 1927 to publish their own works and those of their friends. Riding’s life was marked with shifting relationships and a mental health battle that resulted in her sustaining serious injuries. In 1929 Graves left his wife and he and Riding moved to Deja, Majorca. There, the pair expanded the Seizen Press into a proper publishing establishment and continued their work until the onset of the Spanish Civil war.

In Spain, Riding developed a collaborative relationship with New Zealand artist and film maker Len Lye. Riding published some of Lye’s writing and the pair worked together to prepare the script for an experimental film. Several of Riding’s poetic works from this period, including the copies of Though Gently and Laura and Francisca that are included in this exhibition, were published with illustrations by Lye on the covers. Riding’s work both as a printer and as a poet call into question the impact of gender roles, womanly love, and the pressures of expectation.