A prolific editor and printer of small literary magazines for more than sixty years, Hal Stone was one of the rare survivals of the old school of master craftsmen compositor-printers who could accomplish everything connected with the production of a beautiful book from type-setting to colour work. In her 1991 article 'Early Twentieth-Century Australian Periodicals: A Preliminary Survey' Lurline Stuart mentions his early years as an amateur publisher, writing:
[Stone] began his career as printer, editor and publisher in the late nineteenth century with the Australian Kangaroo, produced in Melbourne in 1892 with the Golden Hands Corresponding Club as its first proprietors, followed in or about 1894 by the Amateur Journalists Association. The title was then changed to Victorian Kangaroo. By 1902, it was Ye Kangarooo, sub-titled 'a magazine of quaintness,' and issued by 'The Waysiders,' a group who had declared that they had banded together for the purposes of worshipping nature, loving the beautiful and breathing God's pure air (p.75).
During the years 1903 and 1904 Stone travelled overseas, with the US leg of his journey being undertaken as representative of the Australian Amateur Press Association (AAPA), and during which time he was referred to as the Association's ex-President. While returning home via England, France, Columo and Egypy in July and August that year he put together an issue of
At Sea: A Nautical Magazinelette, which was possibly the first publication in the world to be produced entirely at sea. Sometime after arriving back in Australia, and certainly by 1905, Stone moved to Sydney where he acted as both Secretary for the AAPA, and as the proprietor of Stone's Printing Works. That same year he and other members of the Sydney-based Waysiders set up the Presse of Ye Wayside Goose in order to publish the AAPA's magazine
Ye Wayside Goose. The press also published
Camp
3-of-Us: Ye Chap Booke of Ye Prynter Men of Ye Lyterarye Tribe Knowne
as Ye Mia-mias, Wherein is Set Forth All Ye Happenings at Ye Happy
Hunting Grounds of Stanwell Park. Co-authored by Stone (as 'Ye Chief') and
Martin C. Brennan ('Ye Medicine Man') with illustrations by
Sam G. Goddard, the book recounted the
story of a camping holiday at Stanwell Park, New South Wales.
After
Ye Wayside Goose folded in 1906 and the Waysiders effectively
disbanded, Stone took over the group's publishing operations under the name The Wayside Press. Through this business he turned out scores of works for
Australian authors. He produced, for example, over twenty editions of
Omar Khayyam's
Rubaiyat, with the first Australian edition
(Melbourne 1906), in which the unsigned foreword was by 'Furnley
Maurice.' He also later established Koolinda Press and Yarul Press.
During the 1910s and 1920s he produced an issue of
The Red Ant: An Australian Magazine (1912), the occasional journal,
The Wayfellow
(June 1915 to June 1921), and
The Silver Wattle (April 1925 to March 1926).
Stone was married to author, printer and publisher Kate Partridge (aka
Sydney Partrige)
who founded Partrige Press, Norwood (Adelaide) in 1910, and had a role
in Wayside Press. As Sydney Partrige she is known to have been
contributing articles to
Ye Kangaroo as early as 1902, and in 1906 she and Stone co-edited the final ten issues of
Ye Wayside Goose. Their son
Leon Stone was also a printer.
