MODERN ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL BOOKS The Private Presses.—William Morris brought back dignity to the printed book in a time of its abject abasement. Indeed, he brought it too much dignity. His books were designed not for the common usage of his day, but, as it were, for the private pomps of mediaeval princes. They were beautiful, but they were not true. Yet they have served a noble purpose, conceived and exe cuted as they were with the passionate faith of a protestant against the ugliness and tawdriness of the industrial 19th century. Morris sought to overthrow the machine. Hand-made paper, hand-cut punches for his types, hand composition, hand press work: these were the articles of faith in the war against the machine. The result was that there were from 1892 to 1910 a few books printed superbly, almost arrogantly, and a multitude of books monstrous in their ignorance and ugliness. There was nothing between. There was no contact between the two classes. The second and third decades of the loth century have seen this contact made. That is their contribution to the art of book printing. The machine has not been tamed—it was never wild; the machine has been saved. It has been saved from the corrupt use of its nature. Its nature is to make—to make beautifully. It may make ugly things beautifully, or beautiful things beautifully. But the hand of man cutting letters and printing them painfully on a primitive press upon hand-made paper may make ugliness beautifully just as the machine may. If it is forcing the issue to say that the hand is part of the human machine, it is strictly and relevantly the truth that every type, be it never so hand-designed, hand-cut, hand-cast and hand-set, is a mechanical unit, and that every tool used by Morris in the making of his type, and in his use of it, was essentially a simple form of machine. The whole purpose of printing is to make cheap mechanical reproductions of certain symbols conveying sound and sense. The process of writing and illuminating a ms. in the 12th century is as far re moved from the process of hand composition of type as it is from mechanical composition. The wheel, the lever, the wedge, the screw, the pulley—these and these only in less or greater compli cation make the handpress of Gutenberg and the greatest and latest rotary machine.
The significance of Morris's Kelmscott Press and the other private presses which it inspired (the Doves Press of Cobden Sanderson and Emery Walker, Hornby's Ashendene Press and Rickett's Vale Press are the most notable) was, therefore, essen tially not that they were "hand" presses, but that they were controlled by artists and designers of high competence and hon ourable enthusiasm. These artists and designers were expert amateurs. Their output was so small and expensive and "precious" as to justify the slightly derogatory sense which the word "ama teur" carries; and though it was also conceived lovingly enough to justify the literal sense of the word "precious," it is the fact that the first importance of the private presses lies not in their own productions, but in the effect of their work upon fully me chanical book production. The effect was not first or directly upon the large printing houses. They were very slow to learn. Between them and the lesson were the prejudice of the profes sional against the amateur, and, even more, many acres and thou sands of tons of preposterous type equipment. The first was overcome when it was realized that it was "good business" to be in the typographic movement ; the second was disposed of even more completely when type-setting machines replaced the hand compositor in book work—for vast quantities of type became useless, and fetched during the World War a high price as scrap metal.
Several important English publishing houses—William Heine mann, Jonathan Cape and Chatto and Windus, for example— pay very careful attention to the production of their books. They give to their printer precise instructions as to the size of the page, the "face" or character of type to be used, the closeness or open ness of setting, the proportions of type to margin, and their rela tive positions on the page, the lay-out of the title-page and so on. The results of this initial care and thoroughness are apt of course, to become quickly established as formulae ; but they are good formulae, and have assisted materially in the education of public taste in the matter of good book production. It is now a common thing to see the good (or bad) style and printing of a book with no "artistic" pretensions commented on in reviews. This is a distinctly new and encouraging departure for the average com mercial book.
The most definite move in the direction of the full and con sidered use of modern printing equipment has, however, come from certain "semi-private" presses which specialize in the pro duction of "limited editions." The limited edition appeals to three publics : the book collector, who does not read a book so much as fondle it ; the speculator, who sees in it an article of commercial profit if the demand much exceeds the supply; and the people who "use books for reading" but still like to have them in a dress appropriate to their subject, and made of pleasant and enduring materials. These three classes in combination make a considerable public. The pre-machine limited edition was very narrowly limited ; perhaps 2 or 3 or, rarely, Soo copies might be struck off the hand-press. In 1923 the writer began the publica tion of fine editions in the making of which the machine was exploited for economy at every point where machine processes were as good as hand processes. The "limit" of the editions was raised to about i,soo copies, and prices much lower than had before been asked for "fine books" were thus made possible. It was quickly found that a very large public existed in England and America for books made on this plan, and many other under takings of somewhat similar style have contributed admirably made and moderately-priced books to the shelves of the book lover. Traditional style, in this the most significant development of current book production in England, has not been ignored, nor has it been slavishly imitated. There has been a sort of honour able understanding, for instance, that old illustrations and decora tions should wherever possible give way to new. Inventiveness in the variations on old typographical themes is recognized and rewarded by a public becoming more and more familiar (chiefly by means of the writings of Stanley Morison and D. B. Updike) with the history of printing and with examples of its most illus trious styles. Thus, things work at present in a virtuous circle. The semi-private presses, which combine the functions of typog rapher and publisher but not necessarily that of actual printer, have learned from the hand-press a true style which is adaptable to the more fully mechanical processes of an up-to-date printing house, paper mill and bindery. Their support makes economically possible the inventiveness (on the printing side) of the type setting machine companies, who in their turn are able to offer to the commercial printer excellent characters of types which other wise he could not possess. Thus contact is made with a great and "untypeconscious" public, which begins to take notice of the physical appearance of its books. From this uninstructed sense of comfort and propriety develops an interest in these books which are made expressly with an eye to beauty, either by well-controlled hand or by well-controlled machine methods.
Modern Typographic Style.—The books of the typographer publisher presses, most of them reprints, are in general dressed in a format and printed in a type and style created, developed or mitigated for the special requirements of each particular work. If one word can summarize the whole art of the book, it is suitability. The modern typographer, unlike the designer of the private press books, has all the equipment of all the printing houses at his disposal in his search after this highly elaborated quality of suitability. Many considerations—the "atmosphere" or the actual date of the text, the nature of the illustrations, with such factors as the desired size of page, or the extent of the con tents—will in conjunction suggest the typographer's choice. Of all the lessons which the private or precious presses taught, per haps the most significant was this: a well-made book is a unity. Subject, paper, type, pictures, binding—all these are to be judged not independently for a self-possessed merit, but each item in relation to the next, and all to the whole. True, Morris and Cobden-Sanderson, in building up a book as a unity, put too much stress upon physical processes. No illustration seemed to them appropriate, for instance, which was not itself printed as a letter-press—a typographical surface of which the raised parts take ink from the roller and impress the paper. But flat surfaces, like the lithographic stone, or intaglio surfaces, such as copper-plates, which require a different printing process, may very well afford entirely suitable results to the eye which is not blinded by pedantry. The great Daphnis et Chloe of the Imprimerie Nationale used Garamond's types and lithographic illustrations. And its success or failure is not to be judged by the considera tion that in the i6th century lithography had not been invented. There is no limit, except his own inventiveness, to the range of the modern typographer's designs. Such a press as the Doves, on the other hand, maintained a general uniformity of design throughout its publications, because it possessed only its one strongly characteristic type-face, which virtually imposed its own will on the typographer, being capable of but little variety in its disposition on the page.
Book Printing on the Continent.—On the Continent, Ger many shows the most interesting recent developments in printing. Just before and after the World War, a number of private presses stimulated the demand for good printing, and provided a train ing ground for typographic artists. The collapse of the mark spelt ruin to many of these private undertakings; but the typog raphers, thus released, have turned their attention (with greater benefit to the general reader) to the designing of books for the commercial publishers. The Morris revival in England had a great though over-appreciated effect upon German typography at the end of the i9th century. The German derivatives of Morris's types and Burne-Jones's illustrations are definitely un pleasant—a kind of mediaeval "art nouveau." The true inspira tion of the notable book work done by both private, semi-private and commercial presses in Germany is none the less English. Edward Johnston, the English calligrapher, sent German typog raphers and type-designers back to the written letter. Upon pen forms the new German typography is surely founded. Moreover, Rudolph Koch and others experimented with the making of "block books," and learned thereby a pictorial style of letter making.
The Insel Verlag of Leipzig, one of the many German firms familiar to English collectors of limited editions, has, like other similar firms, turned its attention to the production of unlimited editions at low prices, with marked success. The Propylaen Ver lag of Berlin, which has also made many fine limited editions, is issuing a pleasantly printed series of excellent modern editions and reprints at only 2S. each. Both of these concerns have main tained the function of typographer with those of printer and publisher.
The printing of novels by some of the leading German firms has been improved out of all recognition. In spite of the fact that the paper used has to be of inferior quality in order that the books can be produced at the prices current in Germany, the efforts made to secure a good impression by means of suitable inking have been so successful that the appearance of the novels published by such firms as Fischer, Ernst Rowholt of Berlin and Kiepenheuer of Potsdam, is highly agreeable. A striking thing about present-day book production in Germany is the use made of patterned papers to give distinction to the covers of cheap books. German typographers also make very excellent use of printers' "flowers" in the decoration of their book covers. Their expert handling of the collotype process of pictorial reproduction means that German books on the fine arts are incomparably better produced than similar books in England. They are also very much cheaper. Germany owes a great deal of her techni cal expertness in printing, as in other applied arts, to the excel lence of her technical schools and institutes, which are sup ported by the State and served by the best artists and technicians of the day. Switzerland shared in this excellence of instruction, and her standard of book production is also high, following in the main the trend of German development.
In France, the general level of printing is not nearly so high, though certain rather expensive volumes well printed on fine paper have recently appeared, and the standard of the ordinary paper-bound book has risen considerably in the case of the publi cations of certain houses, among which the Nouvelle Revue Francaise ranks high. The standard of illustration in France is much higher than that of printing; indeed, the value of the expen sive French book has hitherto lain almost exclusively in the excel lence of its illustrations, with the printing a secondary and unimportant affair. In particular, illustrations coloured by the pochoir or stencil process have been brought to a high state of per fection. The pre-War Gazette du Bon Ton deserves much credit for this development. The Couluma Press of Argenteuil is respon sible for much of the good printing to be found among French books of the day. It is now making a significant addition to its plant of a monotype composing machine. Its handling of monotype material is certain to prove most interesting. What should be a help to the wide dissemination of well-printed books is the custom of certain French publishers of re-publishing their limited editions subsequently in un-numbered editions on cheaper paper. In some instances, there are as many as six editions, ranging down wards according to the paper used and the number of the im pression to a final edition costing but a few francs. Unfortunately it often happens that the "imposition," i.e., the setting of the page of type in relation to the margin of the page, goes awry in these reprints, and that the press-work is very poorly done.
Belgian printing is strongly under the influence of France. Belgian books, like French ones, are bound only in paper, and consequently the finest examples of book production in both France and Belgium are, compared with English books of similar standard, very inexpensive. In Holland there are a number of private presses which have produced good work, but the general level of book production is low. The only strong influence in the direction of improved printing comes from the Enschede foundry, which is not only producing good types, but also printing them very effectively.
Sweden, which formerly followed the lead of Germany in printing matters, has of recent years broken away from this in fluence, and is developing along her own lines in this as in other branches of applied art. She now favours a much lighter style of printing than that common to Germany, and makes consider able use of "old-face" types rather than of the newer, heavier type faces popular in Germany. But her books maintain a simple sturdiness in their general style as well as in the details of orna mentation, and the "peasant art" motif is clearly discernible.
The contribution of Spain to fine contemporary printing is not large. The monastery of Montserrat is responsible for some strikingly good books. Apart from that, there is a school of competent book printers, whose interest seems to be chiefly in the Didot style in France since the late i8th century.
Italy is not happy in her printers. The average commercial book is very poor, although the Scuola del Libro at Milan is exerting a good influence on the printing trade, and the printing house of Bertieri and Vanzetti has done some good work. But the book as a work of art owes more to, and has more to expect from, the Milan publisher Mondadori, who has recently established his own press at Verona, and has associated with him there Herr Hans Madersteig, whose small editions set in the Bodoni types were unexcelled for their technical skill in all printing history. The State-sponsored editions of d'Annunzio's works have been entrusted to him.
Soviet Russia has contributed some very interesting examples of an aggressive and telling style in printing. The illustrations, in the form of strong and vigorous wood-cuts, are often strik ing, and the type and style of printing in conjunction with these wood-cuts is provocative and stimulating. The best of these Russian publications have been in the cheaper ranges of book production. No doubt the fact that so many adults in Russia are only now learning to read has had a considerable influence on the very direct and blunt and almost poster-like style of Russian printing.
Czechoslovakia shows a well-informed but definitely' conserva tive taste in printing. Method Kalab of Prague and the national printing office may be mentioned as sources of satisfactory books, employing mainly English monotype faces in their production.
The renaissance of fine book-making, due in England to the un bounded enthusiasm and ability of William Morris and continued in a more restrained style by his disciples, Cobden-Sanderson of the Doves press and others, has had a marked influence on book design and printing in America. The leaders in this revival of the art of the book in the United States were D. B. Updike and Bruce Rogers. But an excellent foundation was laid for them in the closing years of the 19th century and the early part of the loth by two outstanding printers of a preceding generation : Theodore L. De Vinne and Walter Gilliss.
De Vinne and Gilliss.—The work of De Vinne (1828-1914) fell mostly within the 19th century but continued into the loth and set a fine example of high standards in the art of printing for the emulation of the younger generation. De Vinne was one of the founders of the Grolier club, the most distinguished among American book clubs, and he planned and printed the majority of its early publications. The De Vinne press not only printed limited editions of fine books for wealthy amateurs, but also established high standards on work which involved, for that period, large scale production; such for instance as the Century Dictionary, the Century Magazine, and St. Nicholas. De Vinne strove constantly to benefit the printing craft, artistically, socially and economically. He was an ardent student of the history of typography and was the author of a number of books on this subject and on the prac tice of printing. In book printing his composition was well planned and carefully executed, and the quality of his press-work was unexceptionable. He produced many fine books, the simplest of which are the best, at a time when the printing art in the United States had fallen to deplorable levels. Though not a great artist when compared with some who were to follow him in the next generation, he must be credited with a great accomplishment in the period in which he worked.
Walter Gilliss (1855-1925) was the other distinguished book printer of De Vinne's generation who did much fine work during the first quarter of the loth century. During most of this period he did not himself manufacture his printing but he planned it in every detail of typography, paper, printing and binding, and super vised its production with meticulous care. His judgment in visual izing the typography of a book before it was set in type was un erring, a rare faculty among book designers. His original lay-outs, marked with the most minute instructions, were seldom departed from. Most of his work was classical in its simplicity ; when he indulged in ornament he appeared to be under i8th century French influence. He was secretary of the Grolier club from its earliest days, and through this and other like connections enjoyed the warm friendship of the leading amateurs of fine books, for many of whom he produced privately printed volumes of great charm—notably the series of dainty volumes for the discrim inating bibliophile, William Loring Andrews. He planned much of the printing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has set new standards in institutional printing. His most important book was undoubtedly the Iconography of Manhattan Island executed for I. N. Phelps Stokes. At one time in his career, he was con cerned also with printing of larger volume, producing Life and Vogue during the infancy of those periodicals. In the field of type faces, Gilliss was very partial to Elzevir and Caslon and he played a not inconsequential role in the revival of the latter face.
The Merrymount Press.—Daniel Berkeley Updike (b. 186o) entered the printing business in 1893 with a very definite ideal; the practice of printing as an art. Yet he aimed to make the enter prise a success financially as well, and has proved that these two ends are not, in every case, mutually exclusive. The first equip ment consisted of a composing room only, but later presses were added so that the standards of press-work—too often faulty in well-designed books—might be worthy of the typography. He named his plant the Merrymount press. The first book of im portance to be executed was the Altar Book, printed in 1896 in the "Merrymount" type, a new face designed for Updike by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, the distinguished American archi tect. The illustrations were by Robert Anning Bell and the borders were designed by Goodhue. A glance at the pages from this book (Plate V. fig. 1) will show to what extent Updike was at this time under the influence of William Morris. The type was black, the borders heavy and the tone of the illustrations in keeping. A pioneer in introducing the Morris style—then a novelty in book making—in the United States, Updike did not practice it long. Following—and also to a large extent leading—the taste in book design, his printing soon became much lighter in tone. Herbert Horne designed for him a lighter type face, the Montallegro, the punches for which were cut by the celebrated English punch-cutter, Edward P. Prince. It was used first in 1905 in Condivi's Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti and later in the various volumes of the Humanists' Library. Types, in addition to Caslon, which Updike has used most extensively, and with great success, are Montjoye and Oxford, a typefoundry face of earlier years which he has had cast for his own use; also in recent years he has made a limited use of several of the newer types of European origin : Poliphilus, Naudin and Champleve. Hitherto all his composition has been done in foundry-cast type, set by hand, often by women com positors.
The field of printing in which Updike stands alone is the making of beautiful books by the capable and tasteful use of type alone, without embellishment of any sort, gaining all desired effects of display or emphasis by the use of italic, small capitals, letter spac ing, a well-chosen initial here and there, a right relation of sizes, sound spacing between elements on the page and correctly pro portioned margins. All this is done in any one book with the use of one simple face of type in a full range of sizes. The fine artistry he attains by the simplest of means is represented, for example, in a number of college catalogues and reports of institutions, notably in the catalogue of the John Carter Brown library. Up dike, however, does not disdain the use of type ornament or other embellishment in proper places, but it is always an incident in the plan of a book rather than the dominating feature of the design. The standards of workmanship at the Merrymount press are exigent, so that well-designed books shall not suffer from blemishes of execution. Updike indulges no fetish regarding hand work where the results he wishes to achieve can be obtained by more effective means. Thus his presswork is done on power driven cylinder presses of modern type.
In the judgment of many discerning critics, Updike is the best American printer of the current generation. His primacy is due, according to these critics, to the fact that he does not exaggerate in the effort to make beautiful books; he is not restlessly seeking some new device to make a book different from other books for no reason better than a desire for difference. He works on a positive rather than a negative principle, that each book shall be perfectly fit in design to its purpose and subject. If this rule leads him into new fields, he does not hesitate to enter them ; should it lead along the paths of tradition he will follow obediently. According to the Merrymount Press's own statement, "an economy of means and a sort of disciplined sobriety mark its product ; and this comes about, probably, through aiming at suitability—a quality which involves discarding whatever does not organically belong to the particular work in hand." Updike has rendered a great service to typography in his two-volume work, Printing Types (1922), which was awarded the gold medal of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. This book gives a review of the historical development of type design, with a running critique of the aesthetic merits or demerits of the better faces of each period. He is also the author of a series of essays on the work of the printer, In the Day's Work (1924), which state many of the principles on which he works. He likewise edited for the Grolier club a reprint of Mores' A Dis sertation Upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies (1924) Bruce Rogers.—Bruce Rogers is the most celebrated of the fine printers in America, and his books are now the vogue among col lectors, a situation which has led to a sharp appreciation in the market value of the best which he has designed. He has the ad vantage of being himself an artist of ability and has thus been able to design some of the type faces and almost all the decora tions which have gone into the making of his books. Rogers is a traditionalist at heart but he is also endowed with a sprightly in ventiveness which has leavened the style of all his work. His first interest in book production was concerned with illustration. He drew for undergraduate publications at Purdue university and after his graduation in 1890 he worked on the art staff of the Indianapolis News. Soon after he became acquainted with Joseph M. Bowles who had established an American organ of the "Arts and Crafts" movement called Modern Art. Bowles showed Rogers some of the Kelmscott press books which had just begun to ap pear. They were a revelation to the young artist and, his interest began to widen from illustration alone to embrace the art of the book as an integral whole. In 1895 he designed a few decorations for Thomas B. Mosher, the idealistic publisher of Portland, Me., these being used in an edition of A. E.'s Homeward Songs by the Way, in the colophon of which the name Bruce Rogers appears for the first time. In search of financial support Bowles moved Modern Art to Boston, and Rogers soon followed to that city—an excellent field for the budding talent of a young book designer. In 190o Rogers cemented closer a relation already established with the Riverside press of Cambridge, Mass., a special depart ment for the production of fine books in limited editions being set up at that plant under his supervision. From this department issued a succession of charming volumes which promptly won favour with bibliophiles and collectors, many of whom entered subscriptions for all books which might be issued. Time has justified their confidence.
The most attractive feature of the Riverside books was their variety. With the celebrated English presses, to have seen three of their books was to have seen all. With Rogers's work each volume was different, in typography, in decoration (where decora tion was used), in format, in binding. And the style of each vol ume was related, as only a master of book-making could relate it, to the subject of the text it embodied in printed form. Among the more important books produced at Cambridge were the folio Montaigne (1902-04), Franklin and his Press at Passy (1914), executed for the Grolier club, and a translation of Auguste Ber nard's Geo f roy Tory (1909), for which latter volume Rogers re drew with an exquisite touch the crudely printed but exceedingly beautiful borders engraved on wood by Tory, with the result that they were printed as the great French master would have wished them to appear. (See Plate V., fig. 6.) The relation between Bruce Rogers and the Riverside press terminated in 1912 and the designer went abroad for a year. On his return he fell in with Carl Purington Rollins who was operating a small printing office in an old mill, the Dyke mill, at Montague, Mass. Here Rogers printed his perhaps most celebrated book, a slim volume—little more than a leaflet—bound in boards, The Centaur by Maurice de Guerin, translated by George B. Ives, a page of which is here reproduced (Plate V., fig. 5). This was set in the Centaur type, a very skilful recreation of the great Roman type of Nicolas Jenson, the design and decoration of the book being modelled after the style of Robert Estienne, the French printer of the early 16th century. Only 135 copies were printed, most of these being presented by the designer to his friends. The auction price of this leaflet has gone above $300.
After a period of work as adviser to the university press in Cambridge, England, Rogers returned to America and became con sulting designer of books for William Edwin Rudge who moved to Mt. Vernon, N.Y., a printing plant which had already, in New York City, earned a reputation for printing far above the average. He also became adviser to the Harvard university press. Since his association with Rudge, Rogers' work has shown a new verve. He became enamoured of type ornament—i.e., decorative units cast like single types—and he has used this material in many whimsical and astounding ways. The finest example of its use may be seen in the borders, printed in rose, framing the pages of Pierrot of the Minute, by Ernest Dowson, produced in 1923 as one item in the printers' series of the Grolier club. Specimen pages of this book are here shown (Plate V. fig. 7 d.) . This volume must always be considered among Rogers' finest achievements in crea tive design. He has also carried the use of type ornament to even more fanciful extremes in several notable pieces of advertisement.
Other Eastern Typographers.—Carl Purington Rollins, who operated at Montague, Mass., the press at the Dyke mill already referred to, has been for a number of years typographic adviser to the Yale University Press. In this capacity he has put the impress of beauty upon many trade publications issued at moderate prices. He also operates in his home a private press, performing all the processes of manufacture with his own hands. As a book designer Rollins ranks with the best. His period typography is authentic and ably conceived, and all his work gives evidence of a sure and discriminating taste.
The Village press, whose address has been successively Oak Park, Ill., Hingham, Mass., Forest Hills, L.I., and Marlborough on-Hudson, N.Y., is a personal enterprise of Frederic W. Goudy and his wife. Village, Kennerley, Forum, Italian old style, and many other fine type faces have been designed by Goudy. The issues of his press, always extremely limited in number, are set in the types he designs, and the decoration used is also a product of Goudy's brush or pen. The pieces are usually small, no large book having issued from the Village press, but they all give evidence of the unquestioned artistry in matters typographic of the master of the press. Being published through no regular channel, their fugitive character makes them the despair of amateurs seeking to acquire a reasonably complete collection.
Elmer Adler is one of the latest entrants into the guild of fine book-making, working in New York under the name of the Pynson Printers. His press is operated as a business enterprise which makes no concessions to commercialism in the quality of its work. Well grounded in the classic traditions of typography, Adler has been willing to use new types and follow new modes, if they are sound ones, with the result that much of his work is refreshingly original in style without being freakish. As to type faces he has relied principally on Garamond and Bodoni Book, but has also used effectively some of the more modern types, particularly those designed by the German artist, Lucian Bernhard. He has rendered another service to good book-making in having designed, for Alfred A. Knopf, numerous books of general circulation which have exceeded his own manufacturing facilities, and laid out, also for Knopf, the typography of the American Mercury.
Frederic Warde, who was doing interesting work as typographic adviser to the Princeton university press, left that institution for extensive travel in Europe, in order to become familiar with Continental book arts and to do work of an experimental character on his own account. While abroad he revived, in collaboration with Stanley Morison, one of the most interesting of the 16th century Italian cursive types, Arrighi, the punches for which were cut by hand. Warde has now returned to America and can be depended upon for some distinguished work in the field of book design.
San Francisco Printers.—From New York and New England it is a long jump to the next centre of fine book printing, San Francisco. The initiative here must be credited to John Henry Nash, a typographer of distinction with personal attributes which have enabled him to make a business success of fine printing, which must of ten be a hobby, subsidized in one way or another. His way was made the easier by the patronage of a distinguished American collector and he has received other important commissions for the execution of fine books. Nash is an enthusiast for close spacing and his typography is well planned and set. His press-work, which is done outside under his close supervision, is excellent. In style Nash's printing is more flamboyant than that of the other fine printers ; he makes generous use of colour, rules and decora tion. The possible criticism is that he sometimes strains a little after effect. But he has, on the other hand, the very distinct merit of having established an individual style. He has printed numer ous books for the California book club in addition to those com missioned by private collectors, and has also published several handsome volumes on his own account.
Edwin Grabhorn, in association with his brother Robert, has established an enviable reputation within a very few years for doing as fine printing as is done anywhere to-day. He plans his work with exquisite taste in a truly original style. The Grabhorns do all branches of their work in their own small office; hand composition, presswork, illumination and binding. They print their hand-made paper wet, which is becoming a lost art, and attain a uniformity of colour and perfection of impression almost beyond criticism. Both are still young men and much brilliant work may confidently be expected of them.
Taylor and Taylor, also in San Francisco, have done much creditable book printing, and two young men, the Johnson brothers, who work under the name of the Windsor press, show signs of real virtuosity as book typographers.
Recent Contributors.—At the Laboratory press at Pitts burgh, Porter Garnett has not only done some fine printing him self—notably his privately printed volume That Endeth Never, a page of which is shown in Plate VI. fig. 4—but has also made a substantial contribution to the cause of fine printing in America, by training talented students in its principles and artistry. Among the other men who have done or are doing fine work in the book printing field during the 20th century are Spencer Kellogg, Jr., at the Aries press, Eden, N.Y.; Clark Conwell at the Elston press, New Rochelle, N.Y.; William A. Kittredge at the Lakeside press, Chicago; Will Ransom at Chicago; A. B. McCallister at Los Angeles; and Douglas C. McMurtrie at Greenwich, Conn.
Two commercial publishing enterprises deserve consideration in any review of fine book printing in America. The first of these, the Roycroft press at East Aurora, N.Y., founded by Elbert Hub bard, was directly inspired by the work of the Kelmscott press. Its earliest work, done in the spirit of idealism, was good, but as commercial success became the paramount consideration its standards were lowered. In Portland, Me., Thomas B. Mosher, a publisher with a love for less known items of good literature and excellent taste as to format, produced many lovely volumes which became widely known.
Modern Facilities.—The modern fine printer interested in doing work of the highest quality is fairly well provided with facilities. Modern press equipment, either of the platen or cylinder variety, when properly operated, will deliver impression as perfect as can be obtained on a hand press and with a much greater uni formity in ink distribution. Almost all the finely printed books being produced to-day are printed on power presses. As to type supply, the foundry offerings have improved greatly during the 20th century; the companies making type composing and casting machinery have shown an interest in fine types which they lacked in earlier years, European sources have been tapped for supplies of good types, and a number of the designers have had special faces cut for their own use. As regards paper, a few American mills have been making better and better grades of stock for book print ing, though it has been necessary to import the large amounts of hand-made paper which have been required. The quality of ink is reasonably satisfactory though there is still room, in this field, for much improvement. Fine binding is to be had in several centres, the good work being done for the most part by English artisans who have settled in America, but there are also a number of women binders who have taken up this craft in the amateur spirit and have produced highly creditable work.
The cause of fine book-making has received great impetus from the "fifty books" exhibition held annually under the auspices of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. It was difficult to find 5o good books, produced during the current year, worthy of inclusion in the first exhibition in 1923, but with the growth in prestige of this annual show, publishers have displayed a keen rivalry to have their books included among the 5o honoured by the choice of the jury. The exhibition has thus undoubtedly exercised a beneficial influence on the artistry of American book-making, an influence which seems destined to continue. (See TYPOGRAPHY; BOOKBINDING; BOOK-PLATES ; PRINTING.) BIBLIOGRAPHY--W. A. Dwiggins, D. B. Updike and the Merrymount Bibliography--W. A. Dwiggins, D. B. Updike and the Merrymount Press (1924) ; F. Warde, Bruce Rogers, Designer of Books (1925) ; D. C. McMurtrie, Ruth Grannis, and others, Walter Gilliss, (1925) ; W. Gilliss, Recollections of the Gilliss Press (1926) ; The Merrymount Press, Its Aims, Work and Equipment (1927) ; G. P. Winship, The Merrymount Press (1928) ; W. Ransom, Private Presses and the Books they have given us (1928) . (D. C. McM.)