John Buckland Wright (1897-1954) was an eminent 20th century book illustrator, printmaker and engraver known for producing engraved works for numerous private presses. Born in New Zealand where he spent most of his childhood, he and his mother later moved to England in 1908. Though he briefly studied history in college and considered becoming an architect, he ultimately became a self-taught wood engraver. In the mid-1920s, John Buckland Wright moved to Brussels to experience its vibrant artist community, joining groups such as the Gravure Originale Belge and the Xylographes Belges. While at Brussels, he met the Scottish-Canadian musician Mary Bell Anderson whom he later married. After 1929, he went to Paris and spent the next decade working at the avant-garde printmaking shop Atelier 17 with its founder Stanley William Hayter, becoming its director in 1936. During this time, he collaborated with a number of illustrious artists including Matisse, Chagall, Picasso, Miró, and Dali. Returning to London in 1939 with the outbreak of WWII, he continued to be active in the printmaking and engraving scene during the war. In his later years, he started to teach printmaking at the Camberwell School of Art and the Slade School of Art up until his unexpected death in 1954.

He illustrated 16 books for the Golden Cockerel Press and became close friends with its then owner Christopher Sandford. The most notable of his works from this period included illustrations for Pervigilium Veneris: The Vigil of Venus (1939) and John Keats' poem Endymion (1947). Most of his engravings dealt with themes of environmental beauty and the sensuality of the nude female body, particularly as epitomized in Greek mythos. His preoccupation with producing works of grace and tranquility was arguably a cathartic one that can be traced to his experiences in the Scottish Ambulance Service where he witnessed scenes of devastation while stationed at Verdun during WWI. In 1953, Buckland Wright published Etching and Engraving: Techniques and the Modern Trend which remains a seminal work in the field. Holdings of his engravings can be found in the British Museum, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Tate Gallery.