Papaveria Press was founded in 2001 in the arts district of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Erzebet Barthold, a self-taught bookbinder with a history in fine art and an unshakable love of fairy tales. Publications include Scheherezade's Bequest, the fiction arm of Cabinet des Fées, which is inactive although the website remains available as an archive of fairy lore and fairy fiction, and Unsettling Wonder.

Papaveria has been privileged to publish the works of such luminaries as Catherynne M. Valente, Sonya Taaffe, Hal Duncan, Amal El-Mohtar, Theodora Goss, C.S.E. Cooney, Jane Yolen, and many more. Our initial publications were all handbound, limited and miniature editions of poems and short stories.

The current aim of the press is to create the Fairylore Series, reprinting classics such as Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland (Wilde), Fairy Legends and Traditions of The South of Ireland (Crocker), The Fairy Mythology (Keightley), and more. These timeless titles have been reprinted many times; Papaveria does this not to compete with those other publications, but to add its own aesthetic to this particular body of work, since it is these texts which have informed and guided Papaveria throughout all of its many manifestations, and kept it company while it lay dormant. New forewords and introductions will be sourced from scholars, authors, and independent researchers, and cover art will reflect our deep love of fairy lore. Additionally, new material may be sourced from time to time.

Papaveria Press is the sister press to Hadean Press Limited, without which none of this would be possible. Both are managed by Erzebet, who is the editor, designer, binder, and caretaker of the books produced. Papaveria Press is now based in the heart of Brontë Country in the West Yorkshire Pennines.