# Horace Hart
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{{short description|English printer and biographer (1840–1916)}}
{{about||the English footballer|Horace Hart (footballer)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox writer|birth_date=1840|birth_place=[Suffolk](/source/Suffolk), England|death_date=9 October 1916|death_place=[Youlbury Lake](/source/Youlbury_House)|occupation=printer and biographer|notable_works=''[Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers](/source/Hart's_Rules)''}}
'''Horace Henry Hart''' (1840 – 9 October 1916) was an English printer and biographer. He was the author of ''[Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers](/source/Hart's_Rules)'', first issued in 1893.
==Early life and early career==
Hart was born in [Suffolk](/source/Suffolk) in 1840; his father was a shoemaker. He was sent to the printers Woodfall & Kinder in London at the age of fourteen, and was apprenticed to the compositor's trade two years later. He became the manager of Woodfall & Kinder by the age of twenty-six, but left to take over management of the London branch of the [Edinburgh](/source/Edinburgh)-based [Ballantyne Press](/source/Ballantyne_Press).
He left Ballantyne Press in 1880, when he was appointed manager of the head office and main works of [William Clowes & Sons](/source/William_Clowes_%26_Sons), which was then the biggest printing house in Britain. He left, however, after only three years at Clowes, when vacancy for Controller of the [Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press) (OUP) was advertised.
==Oxford University Press==
Hart served as Printer to the [University of Oxford](/source/Oxford_University) and Controller of the University Press between 1883 and 1915. During that time, he convinced the Press to begin using wood-pulp paper, and also introduced collotype and printing by [lithography](/source/lithography). In 1896, he wrote a monograph on ''Charles, Earl Stanhope and the Oxford University Press''. In 1900, he wrote ''Notes on a Century of Typography at the University Press Oxford 1693–1794''.
In 1893 he issued the first version of what became known as [Hart's Rules](/source/Hart's_Rules) as a single broadsheet page for in-house use. Although first issued internally at the Oxford University Press in 1893, these rules had their origins in 1864, when Hart was a member of the London Association of Correctors of the Press, working for Woodfall & Kinder. With a small group of fellow members from the same printing house, he drew up a list of "rules", which was constantly updated and revised during his career at three other printing houses.
==Health issues and death==
The last twenty years of Hart's life were plagued by bouts of [depression](/source/clinical_depression) and [insomnia](/source/insomnia). He suffered his first [nervous breakdown](/source/nervous_breakdown) in 1887, followed by another in 1888. A final, severe breakdown led to his retirement from the OUP in 1915 at the age of seventy-five. The following year, he drowned himself in [Youlbury Lake](/source/Youlbury_House) near Oxford, a secluded lake in the grounds of a neighbour's garden.[{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43064742/mr_horace_hart/ |title=Mr. Horace Hart |work=[The Times](/source/The_Times) |page=27 |date=1916-10-10 |access-date=2020-01-26 |via=Newspapers.com}}] His gloves were folded neatly on the bank.[{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JmmHFLkF6AcC&pg=PA121 |title=The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary |first=Simon |last=Winchester |author-link=Simon Winchester |publisher=[Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press) |isbn=9780192805768 |page=121 |year=2004 |access-date=2020-01-26 |via=Newspapers.com}}]
==Works==
* ''[[Hart's Rules|[Hart's] Rules for Compositors and Readers [at the University Press, Oxford]]]'' (1896)
** First edition (privately printed edition, for use solely at the press): 1896
** Fifteenth edition (first authorized edition for sale to the public): 1904
** Thirty-ninth edition (final edition in the traditional format): 1983
*"Charles Earl Stanhope and the Oxford University Press" in Collectanea III (1896)
**First standalone edition: 1966
* ''Notes of a Century of Typography at the University Preß, Oxford: 1693-1794. With Annotations & Appendixes.'' (1900)
** First edition: 1900
** Facsimile reprint with supplementary material: 1970
==See also==
* [Vivian Ridler](/source/Vivian_Ridler)
==References==
{{Reflist}}
* ''The Oxford Manual of Style'' (OUP, 2002) Introduction
==External links==
*{{cite web|url=http://www.ritter.org.uk/H&C/H_edns/Hart_bio.html |title=Biography & Accomplishments: Horace Hart |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716080656/http://www.ritter.org.uk/H%26C/H_edns/Hart_bio.html |archivedate=2011-07-16 |url-status=usurped }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Horace}}
Category:1840 births
Category:1916 suicides
Category:1916 deaths
Category:English biographers
Category:English printers
Category:Businesspeople from Suffolk
Category:Suicides by drowning in England
Category:Writers of style guides
Category:19th-century English businesspeople
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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Horace Hart](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Hart) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Hart?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.