Trovillion Private Press

In the summer of 1904, Hal W. Trovillion, visited Herrin, Illinois and left the city with an option to buy the Herrin News. It was not long after establishing himself as editor of the News that he began his private press. The first publication of what was to become the Trovillion Private Press was R.L. Stevenson: Words of Hope from a Hopeful Man, published in 1908 and limited to 104 copies. In 1935, the name Trovillion Private Press was established with the publication of The Sundial in Our Garden. Hal Trovillion retired from the newspaper business in 1941. He and his wife, Violet then turned their full energies to book publishing and the Trovillion Private Press became a semi-commercial venture. This same year, they began publishing At the Sign of the Silver Horse, a newsletter devoted to the subject of printing. The Trovillions were active in Republican Party politics. They published a political monthly, the Egyptian Republican, from 1927 to 1940. Mr. Trovillion also served on the Illinois Commerce Commission and the Illinois Public Employees Pension Laws Commission, and was a candidate for Secretary of State in the Republican primary election of 1928. The last two books issued by Trovillion Private Press were the companion volumes Faces and Places Remembered (1956) and Sharing My Notebook (1960). Both were written by Hal Trovillion and are comprised of brief autobiographical sketches of his travels, gardening interests, and publishing adventures. The last copy of At the Sign of the Silver Horse appeared in 1962. Hal Trovillion died in September 1966 after an extended illness. Violet Trovillion subsequently retired to Cape Coral, Florida, where she died June 30, 1979.