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Toward An APHA Checklist

I am developing a checklist for this website of printing history publications written or edited by APHA members (current, lapsed and deceased), APHA Award Laureates, Lieberman Lecturers, and Mark Samuels Lasner Fellows.  

I envision this to be another resource for membership and the public. I invite all APHA members, especially longtime members, to help develop this data by suggesting important books that they believe should be listed. Please visit the checklist to see what has been compiled so far.

Comments

  1. Alastair Johnston, ex-member. Alphabets to Order: The Literature of Typefounders’ Specimens; William Loy, 19th century American Designers & Engravers of Type (with Steven O. Saxe); Transitional Faces: The lives and work of Richard Austin, type-cutter, and Richard Turner Austin, wood-engraver

  2. Paul Moxon, Website Editor 31 March, 2017 at 4:35 pm

    Thank you, Alastair. I thought I might lure you. To keep the list representative, I’ll just add one. So hard to choose. Alphabets?

    By the way, get a friend to “lend” you a copy of Printing History 21. It’s got a new editor. And it’s quite good. You might just want to rejoin.

  3. Howard I. Gralla 27 April, 2017 at 10:49 am

    May I offer the following additions and a correction. Sue Allen, The Book Cover Art of Sarah Wyman Whitman, Society of Printers, Boston, 2012; Joseph Blumenthal, Art of the Printed Book, 1455-1955, Morgan Library, New York, & David R. Godine, Boston, 1973; Joseph Blumenthal, Typographic Years, Frederic C. Beil, New York, 1982; Joseph Blumenthal, Bruce Rogers, A Life in Letters, W. Thomas Taylor, Austin, 1989; Alexander S. Lawson, A Printer’s Almanac (The Heritage of the Printer, Volume II), North American Publishing Company, Philadelphia, 1966. The entry “Leslie, Robert D.” should be corrected to read “Leslie, Robert L.” as his middle name was Lincoln. Thanks for your start on developing this as an important resource.

  4. Howard I. Gralla 27 April, 2017 at 11:21 am

    Another addition for your checklist: Alexander S. Lawson, Printing Types, An Introduction, Beacon Press, Boston, 1971. Also published in a revised and expanded edition, with additions by Dwight Agner, Beacon Press, Boston, 1990.

  5. Paul Moxon, Website Editor 27 April, 2017 at 12:16 pm

    Thank you, Howard, for these suggestions and the correction. I appreciate your close reading.

    As noted in the introductory paragraph to the checklist, it is intended to be representative and not comprehensive. When choosing a single title among several by a prolific author, the default choice has been to list the one reviewed in Printing History. I will substitute the preferred title as requested by an author and consider those suggested by informed individuals.

  6. Stephen O. Saxe APHA Founding board member, 1974; Lieberman Lecturer, 1991.

    A Specimen Book of Nineteenth-Century Printing Types, Borders, Ornaments, and Cuts in the Collection of Bowne & Co., Stationers. New York: South Street Seaport Museum, 1985

    American Iron Hand Presses. Council Bluffs, Iowa: The Yellow Barn Press, 1991. Reprinted 1992, Oak Knoll Press, New Castle, DE.

    [Editor] Old-Time Advertising Cuts and Typography: 184 Plates from the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry Catalog (1832). New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1999

    [Editor] Richard-Gabriel Rummonds, Nineteenth-Century Printing Practices and the Iron Handpress. New York & London: Oak Knoll Press and The British Library, 2004

    [Editor, with Alastair M. Johnston] William E. Loy,Nineteenth-Century American Designers and Engravers of Type. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2009

  7. Paul Moxon, Website Editor 27 April, 2017 at 3:02 pm

    Thank you, Steve. I had already chosen your American Iron Hand Presses as the most representative of your titles.

    A couple of private emails have questioned my decision to list just one title per author. I replied that I’m not wed to this idea. I initially wanted to highlight the fact that many APHA members have contributed to the body of printing history knowledge, but not belabor it with too many titles. Maybe I’m being too restrictive.

  8. I think to be useful, the checklist should include all an author’s books that relate to printing and printing history. I can’t see the usefulness of arbitrarily picking a single book from an author’s work.

  9. Paul—

    I suggest that you decide whether the checklist is a “resource for membership and the public” or a survey of fields in which members et al. of APHA have published in book form. I think that either is valid. I think of a “resource” as comprehensive, listing fully the work (in this case published in book form) of each person. I think of a survey as an indication of fields of scholarship (or publication, for which listing one publication the most representative of an author’s work would serve.

    If I understand correctly your statement above (“I initially wanted to highlight the fact that many APHA members have contributed to the body of printing history knowledge”), you seem to favor a survey of scholarship (or publication). If so, I suggest, so you can make that point, that you group the works according to fields of research or scholarship, rather than, as now, in one alphabetical list of surnames.

    If in some sense the checklist is meant to be an advertisement of the excellencies of members et al. of APHA, you could annotate the names of authors with their connection to the association, e.g., “member since _____” or “Lieberman Lecturer ____”.

    One last suggestion. I think that linking to reviews is an excellent idea, but better link to the text of the review itself rather than to a list of contents.

    Thanks for undertaking this project.

  10. Paul Moxon, Website Editor 27 April, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    Donald, I welcome your pointing out the distinctions and your suggestions. Apparently, I did have a survey and advertisement in mind, but I can now see that calling it a resource is an exaggeration.

    Digitizing the reviews in Printing History would be a good-sized project—and perhaps less important than digitizing the articles. That’s a board decision. But first, I need to complete the scanning of back issues of the Newsletter. Website editor is a part-time gig.

  11. Just a few examples from Peter Rutledge Koch.
    [co-editor and author with David Jury] Book Art Object 2. The Codex Foundation and Stanford University Libraries 2013
    [editor] On Printing. William Everson. Book Club of California
    [editor and author] The Art of the Book in California: Five Contemporary Presses. Stanford University Libraries 2011

  12. Paul Moxon, Website Editor 30 April, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    Thanks, Peter. The Art of the Book in California fits the bill.

  13. Paul, I would add
    Maurice Annenberg, 1979 APHA Award recipient:

    TYPE FOUNDRIES OF AMERICA AND THEIR CATALOGS.
    Annenberg, Maurice.
    With additions and an introduction by Stephen O. Saxe and an index by Elizabeth K. Lieberman.

    New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 1994.
    -Steve

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