Edited by J. Dover Wilson, this edition includes the Hamlet stories from Belleforest and Saxo Grammaticus. The typographical arrangement was done by Count Harry Kessler. Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) designed and cut on wood the illustrations, Eric Gill cut the title, and the type was designed by Edward Johnston.

Craig, a significant figure in 20th century theatre, produced simple figures cut in relief from wood veneer to work out his ideas using a small model theatre. He eventually tried inking these for prints, and thus the "black figure" used in this book was developed. The black on black printing was achieved by a double impression, the first one blind, followed by an inked block printed on the flattened paper before it regained its texture. Only one page was printed with color: Ophelia in front of a large window printed in blue.

Designed and illustrated by Eric Gill, this copy is no. 1302 of 1500 numbered copies. In 1935, Paul Stoddard wrote that this book was, "perhaps the most actually dramatic version extant in modern typography. Mr. Gill set the text in his own Joanna, adding wood-block initials and illustrations of a strikingly spare and sinewy kind. This is not mere decoration: it is the sympathetic probing into the play and at the same time a sensitive adjustment of the gravure's line to the weight of the type."