Books and Printing; a Treasury for Typophiles — A Closer Reading

A Treasury of Typographic Voices

The table of contents, though not fully excerpted, indicates a range of contributors including T.M. Cleland, W.A. Dwiggins, and Lawrence C. Wroth. The editor's acknowledgments credit the Typophiles of New York and individual authors from their Chap Books series. This suggests the volume is a curated selection, not a unified treatise. Readers should expect varied perspectives on type design, bookbinding, and the economics of fine printing, rather than a single narrative. The inclusion of pieces like Dwiggins' "Investigation Into the Physical Properties of Books" hints at a blend of technical analysis and personal reflection.

The Nonesuch Press: A Case Study in Craft

The most substantial excerpt details the Nonesuch Press's operations under Francis Meynell. He notes the firm's survival during the Great Depression by maintaining honest pricing and quality materials, avoiding the inflated prices of competitors. The anecdote about George Moore's revisions—where proofs were read aloud daily, each time a new text—illustrates the tension between artistic perfection and commercial reality. Meynell's own admission of setting 37 different title-page variants for one book underscores the obsessive attention to detail that defines fine press work. This section offers a rare insider view of the compromises and passions behind limited editions.

Physical Properties and Practical Details

The excerpts include transcriber's notes about typographic features like the long s (ſ) and ligatures ([ct], [ffi]), indicating the original text's historical typography. The note that certain font families (Times New Roman, Gill Sans, Garamond) were used in the HTML version, but not all devices may render them, points to the challenges of digital reproduction. Readers of this edition should be aware that the visual experience of the original—with its varied typefaces and layouts—is partially lost. The editor's decision to preserve hyphenation variants and ancient punctuation suggests a commitment to textual fidelity, even when it complicates modern reading.

Collaboration Across Continents

Meynell acknowledges the importance of American sales and the 1927 alliance with Random House. He describes the collaboration as "satisfactory from a technical or a personal point of view," hinting at the transatlantic networks that sustained fine printing. The excerpt also mentions the role of collectors and the impact of the Depression on the secondary market, where hoarded copies flooded in and prices deflated. This economic dimension—how luxury book production navigated boom and bust—adds a layer of realism to the romantic image of the private press. Readers interested in the business of bookmaking will find these details revealing.

This anthology rewards readers who approach it as a series of discrete, expert testimonies rather than a continuous argument. The excerpts suggest that the most vivid insights come from the contributors' firsthand experiences—Meynell's office anecdotes, Dwiggins' physical investigations, and the transcriber's typographic notes. To get the most from this collection, read each essay on its own terms, attending to the specific material conditions and personalities that shaped the printed page. The book is less a survey than a cabinet of curiosities, best explored in short, focused sessions.

Reading Bennett’s treasury, I kept thinking how the craft of pages mirrors the quiet patience in Warner’s essays—each sentence set like a metal type, unhurried. His world feels hand-inked, not mass-produced. That same tenderness for the made object lingers in The Complete Essays of Charles Dudley Warner — Inside the Classic, as if both books shared a pressman’s steady hand.