diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/63426-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/63426-0.txt | 2346 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 2346 deletions
diff --git a/old/63426-0.txt b/old/63426-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index e12cfe1..0000000 --- a/old/63426-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2346 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook, Will Bradley, His Chap Book, by Will Bradley, -Edited by Paul A. Bennett - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - - -Title: Will Bradley, His Chap Book - - -Author: Will Bradley - -Editor: Paul A. Bennett - -Release Date: October 11, 2020 [eBook #63426] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - - -***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILL BRADLEY, HIS CHAP BOOK*** - - -E-text prepared by Tim Lindell, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images digitized by the -Google Books Library Project (http://books.google.com) and generously made -available by HathiTrust Digital Library (https://www.hathitrust.org/) - - - -Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this - file which includes the original illustrations. - See 63426-h.htm or 63426-h.zip: - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63426/63426-h/63426-h.htm) - or - (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/63426/63426-h.zip) - - - Images of the original pages are available through - HathiTrust Digital Library. See - https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015014553716 - - -Transcriber’s note: - - Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - - - - -Typophile Chap Books: 30 - - - - -WILL BRADLEY -HIS CHAP BOOK - - -[Illustration] - - -AN ACCOUNT, IN THE WORDS OF THE -DEAN OF AMERICAN TYPOGRAPHERS, OF -HIS GRAPHIC ARTS ADVENTURES: AS BOY -PRINTER IN ISHPEMING; ART STUDENT -IN CHICAGO; DESIGNER, PRINTER AND -PUBLISHER AT THE WAYSIDE PRESS; THE -YEARS AS ART DIRECTOR IN PERIODICAL -PUBLISHING, AND THE INTERLUDES OF -STAGE, CINEMA AND AUTHORSHIP - - - - - - -New York: The Typophiles -1955 - -The special contents -of this edition are -copyright 1955 -by Paul A. Bennett -for the Typophiles - * * * -Printed in the -United States of America - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -AN INTRODUCTION - - -THIS IS A DIFFICULT TASK. _I agreed to write an introduction to_ Will -Bradley, His Chap Book _before I had seen the book’s text itself. Now -I have encountered here the gaiety, courage, vitality of this man -who romped like a breeze through American graphic arts for several -decades--and I feel that my part should be little more than the opening -of a door to this perennial springtime freshness._ - -_But still there is something to talk about that he, modest man, -hasn’t even mentioned. And that is the impact of his work on his time. -It should be talked about, because it is hard to realize today, in -our state of emancipation, what a closed and stuffy room Bradley -entered--and opened to the sun and air._ - -_Across the Atlantic, the Nineteenth Century was bursting its seams: -Morris failing to revive medievalism but startling his world with a -revival of fine craftsmanship; Beardsley, the Yellow Book and their_ -avant garde _galaxy startling their world in quite a different way; -Toulouse-Lautrec spreading modern art in the kiosks of Paris when only -a handful knew anything about Cezanne, Van Gogh, Seurat; barriers being -demolished everywhere._ - -_In America, these goings-on were known to a few connoisseurs amid a -vast indifference. It was Bradley in the Nineties who made the American -public stir in its sleep and at least crack an eye. In the next decade -he and the many who followed him were well advanced in the lively -morning of a day that isn’t over yet._ - -_There were derivative traces in Bradley’s early work--and whose -hasn’t?--but when he hit his stride it wasn’t Europe’s leadership he -followed. He discovered American colonial typography, bold and free, -and from that springboard he took off into a career of non-archaic, -non-repetitive, exuberant and exhilarating design. In its way it was -as American as the Declaration of Independence. In this field we have -never had any more indigenous art than Bradley’s._ - -_He was a native, corn-fed American in another way, too. It was a time -when Kelmscott House had set a pattern, and the only pious ambition -for a serious typographic designer was to produce meticulous limited -editions for equally limited collectors. Bradley may have had some -such idea in mind when he started the Wayside Press, but thank God -it didn’t work. There was a lusty, democratic ambition in that slight -body, and it thrilled him to speak to thousands, even millions, instead -of just scores. The turbulent current of American commercial and -industrial life appealed to him more than any exquisite backwater._ - -_So he spread his work over magazines, newspapers, the advertising -of such houses as the Strathmore Paper Company, his own lively -but not limited publications, even the movies. So he enormously -enriched our arts; and he smashed more false fronts and took more -liberties--successfully--than anyone has done before or since._ - -_Now his retirement has lasted almost as long as his active career. -His work has been absorbed into our culture so completely that many of -the young men cavorting brilliantly in his wake today are scarcely -aware of their debt to him--the pioneer and pacemaker. They should -be--he is aware of them: he closes here with chuckling praises of the -fine, free-handed job they are doing. There was always a giant’s spirit -in this powerful little man, and it’s as strong and generous now as -it ever was. My memory is long enough that I can say for all these -latecomers, “Thank you no end for everything, Will Bradley.”_ - - WALTER DORWIN TEAGUE - - _New York - May, 1954_ - - - - -Will Bradley, His Chap Book - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -THE BOY PRINTER OF ISHPEMING - - -It is graduation day in the little brown schoolhouse on Baltimore -Street in Lynn, Massachusetts, just outside Boston. Miss Parrot is the -teacher--a dear! You are six years old; next month you will be seven. -The blackboard is covered with chalk drawings: sailboats, steamboats, -ferryboats, trains of cars, houses, people and animals. You are the -artist. Your mamma, with other mammas, is sitting on the platform, -proud of her Willie--who is probably plenty proud of himself. - -Lynn is a shoe town. This is 1875. Most of the work is done by hand. -The employees are all natives--Universalists and Unitarians, probably. -Many women work at home, binding uppers and tongues of high, lace -shoes. You have a little express wagon. You carry finished work back to -the factories and return with a supply of unfinished. For each trip you -are paid five cents. With your savings you buy a printing press. It is -the kind you place on a table and slap with the palm of your hand. In -business offices it is used to stamp date lines. Your father is drawing -cartoons for a Lynn daily--perhaps the _Daily Item_. He brings you a -box of pi. When you succeed in finding a few letters of the same font -you file them to fit the type slot in the press. - -Your father is ill, an aftermath of the Civil War. You have moved to -the section called Swampscott. This is too far away for you to attend -the school to which your class has gone. Your mother goes out every -day to do dress-making. A playmate takes you to his school. But most -of the time you remain at home with your father. He tells you he -hasn’t long to live, says you have been a good boy and that when you -grow up you will want to be an artist and there will be no money for -your education. He gives you much fine advice which you never forget. -Then he sends you out to play. You go to Fisherman’s Beach and watch -the fishermen take lobsters out of the boiling pot. They give you the -little ones the law forbids selling. You crack them on a rock, and have -a feast. Sunday mornings, or occasionally on a Saturday night, you go -to the baker’s and get your warm pot of baked beans and buy a loaf of -brown-bread--always an event of delicious anticipation. Between meals, -when you are hungry, there is often a cold cod-fish cake to be found in -the pantry. - -Your mother and you are now alone in the world and you are on the -“Narrow Gauge” on your way to Boston. You are sucking a “picklelime,” -always found in glass jars at the candy counter of every railroad and -ferry waiting room. It will be made to last until you reach Boston and -are at the Park Street corner of the Common watching the Punch and Judy -show while your mother is shopping. At noon you sit in a booth and eat -clam chowder at a restaurant on Corn Hill. After the meal your mother -takes you to a wholesale house where she has a friend. Here you are -bought a suit of clothes. - -“But isn’t it too big, Mamma?” - -“Yes, dear; but children grow very fast and soon it will fit you--and -Mamma can’t afford to buy you a new suit every year.” - - -And now you are on your way to Northern Michigan, where your mother -has a sister whose husband is paymaster at the Lake Superior Iron -Mine. En route you stop at Providence where you are intrigued by the -teams of twenty or more horses that pull freight cars through the -downtown districts. You think it would be fine to be a teamster. At -Thompsonville, Connecticut, you go to school for a few weeks. On circus -day you are allowed to have a vacation. You ride a pony in the parade -and ask your mother if you can’t join the circus and ride in the -parades every day. - -It is your first day in the little mining town of Ishpeming. You are -standing in the middle of the road watching children going home from -school; the girls giggle, the boys laugh at the new boy in a too-big -suit. One little girl has cute pigtails. You like her. You are now -quite grown up, nearly ten. At a Sunday-school picnic you tell the -little girl you are someday going back to Boston and learn to be an -artist. You ask her to wait for you. She promises. With this important -problem settled you can now give all of your attention to the question -of how you are to get an art education. - -In the fall you go to school and somehow manage to pull through. Your -uncle and aunt go for a visit “back East.” Your mother keeps house for -your cousins. Every night when you go to bed you kneel down and ask -God to tell your uncle to bring you a printing press, the kind with -a lever, like the ones shown in the _Youth’s Companion_. Your uncle -brings you an Ingersoll dollar watch. - -It is your second year in school. You now have a step-father. He is a -fine man and you like him and he likes you--but of course you can’t -expect him to pay for your art education. You are having trouble with -arithmetic--something in division. Teacher says, “Take your books and -go home, Willie, and remain until you have the correct answer.” - -You don’t like arithmetic, anyway. - -“Mother,” you ask, “may I go to work and earn money so I can learn to -be an artist?” - -Your mother is troubled. Finally she says, “Perhaps it will be for the -best.” - - -You go to the office of the _Iron Agitator_, that later became _Iron -Ore_. George A. Newett is the owner and editor. This is the George A. -Newett and the newspaper that were later sued for libel by Theodore -Roosevelt. The trial took place in Marquette, Michigan, and Mr. -Roosevelt won a verdict of six cents. - -You are put to work washing-up a Gordon press. Then you receive your -first lesson in feeding. There is power, a small engine mounted on an -upright boiler, for the newspaper press. The two jobbers are kicked. -Having half an hour of leisure you learn the lay of a lower-case beside -the window--where you can proudly wave to the schoolchildren as they -are going home to their noon meal. You are now a working man--wages -three dollars a week. - -Country newspaper shops train and use local help for straight matter. -For job work, ads and presswork they depend upon itinerant job -printers, who seldom remain as long as six months in any one town. -When the _Iron Ore_ job printer leaves you are sorry. He has been a -kind and patient teacher. You are now twelve. Mr. Newett employs a new -devil and you set jobs, advertising display, make up the paper and are -responsible for all presswork. Your wages are increased to six dollars -a week. When the motor power fails, as it does frequently, you go out -on the street and employ off-shift miners to operate the press by means -of a crank attached to the flywheel. - -At this early date the print shop is above a saloon and in one corner -of a big barn of a room that had been a lodge hall. In winter it is -heated (?) with one stove. You go to work at seven and quit at six. The -outside temperature is below zero. You and your devil forage in the -snowdrifts of the alley back of the building and “borrow” packing boxes -to get kindling for the stove and boiler. - -The _Peninsula Record_, across the street, is a four-page tabloid. It -is printed one page at a time on a large Gordon. The owner and editor -is John D. West. He offers you eight dollars a week. You are not that -important to Mr. Newett--and the extra two dollars will enable you to -begin saving after paying board and buying your clothes. - -In a few months _Iron Ore_ moves into a new store-building. You -are now thirteen and Mr. Newett offers you ten dollars a week and -the acknowledged position of job printer. At fourteen this wage is -increased to twelve. At fifteen you are spoken of as foreman and are -receiving fifteen dollars a week--in ’85 a man’s wages. - - -This is the early Eighties. Small towns such as Ishpeming are “easy -pickings” for traveling fakers. Their advance is always heralded by the -exchanges. They clean up at the expense of local merchants. All editors -warn them to keep away. _Iron Ore_ print shop is on the ground floor. -The editor’s sanctum is at the front. His desk is at the big window. It -is nearly nine o’clock on a Friday night--“make-up” time. Mr. Newett -has written his last sheets of copy and is reading proof. At the corner -of Main and Division, diagonally across from the office, a faker is -selling soap. In one wrapper he pretends to place a five dollar bill--a -version of the “old army game.” He is standing in a market wagon and -has a companion who strums a guitar and sings. Attached to an upright -and above his head is a kerosene flare. Mr. Newett walks leisurely -to where there are several guns and fishing rods in a corner. He -is an inveterate sportsman in a land where game, deer and fish, is -plentiful. Selecting a rifle he walks to the door and casually puts a -bullet through the kerosene tank, then returns to his proof reading. -Thoroughly likable, this pioneer editor--a fine boss, a true friend! - -You and a compositor now have control of the town bill posting. When -there are no theater or patent medicine ads to put up you cover the -boards with blank newsprint and letter and picture advertisements for -the stores. - -You are sixteen, almost seventeen. A sheet of newsprint is tacked on -the printing-office wall and, using marking ink and a brush, you are -picturing and lettering a masquerade poster for the roller rink. - -“Who is this young artist?” - -The speaker is Frank Bromley, a well-known landscape painter from -Chicago. - -You tell him about your father and that you are going back to Boston to -study art. He suggests your stopping off in Chicago to see him. Says he -can perhaps help you. - -You are nearly seventeen and already you have saved more than fifty -dollars. By the early fall you have four twenty-dollar gold pieces -under your socks in the top till of your trunk. Wages are always paid -in gold and silver. You are now ready to start for Chicago. Two weeks -later you are on your way. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -FIRST SOJOURN IN CHICAGO - - -The artist has a studio near the McVickar Theater on Madison Street. -It is the typical atelier of the Victorian Eighties: oriental drapes, -screens and pottery. Jules Guerin, then an art student and later a -contributor to _Century_, _Harper’s_ and _Scribner’s_, is clearing up -and tidying for the day. - -Mr. Bromley takes you to Lyon & Healy. Yes, Mr. Lyon, or maybe it -was Mr. Healy, can start you as an apprentice. However, a young man -beginning a career should be most careful in making his selection. You -have been careful. You want to be an artist. But the business of Lyon & -Healy is musical instruments, not art. - -Next morning you are introduced to Mr. Rand, or Mr. McNally. A Mr. -Martin then sends you upstairs, a couple of flights, to Mr. Robinson -in the designing and engraving department. Beginners do not receive -any pay, but you are put to work at a long table facing a row of -windows and with yards and yards of unbleached cotton-cloth stretched -on a wire at your back. You are now learning to engrave tints on -wood-blocks--under the erroneous impression that designers and -illustrators engrave their own blocks. - -Mr. Bromley has found a room for you at the home of a friend, an art -dealer. It is at Vincennes Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street. You walk to -and from Rand McNally’s, located on Monroe Street, dreaming happily. - -One morning, after a few weeks of getting nowhere, for you are no -master of tint-cutting, it percolates through your skull that inasmuch -as wood-engravers never seem to be doing any designing probably -designers never do any engraving. - -A momentous discovery, this, for you have broken into your last -twenty-dollar gold piece--as a matter of fact there is just about -enough left to pay for taking your trunk to the depot and to buy a -second-class ticket back to that printing shop in Northern Michigan. - -“Sometime, if you care to come back,” states Mr. Robinson, in a letter -which must have been written immediately after your departure, “and if -you will remain half an hour later in the evening and sweep out, and -come in a half hour earlier in the morning and dust, Rand McNally will -pay you three dollars a week.” - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -SECOND SOJOURN IN CHICAGO - - -A few months later, when you have just turned into your eighteenth year -and have saved sixty dollars, three twenty-dollar gold pieces, it is -time to return to Chicago. You tell Mr. Newett. He wishes you well and -says that if you care to remain with _Iron Ore_ he will take you into -partnership when you are twenty. This is a big temptation. You admire -and like your boss. He is a grand person--your idol. Saying goodbye -involves a wrench. - -You are now back with R-M staying half an hour at night and getting to -work a half hour earlier in the morning and all is well with the world. - -At the time of your first visit to Chicago, line photo-engraving was -not even a whisper, and halftones were not even dreams. On your second -visit, pen drawings are beginning to receive direct reproduction. - - -Folding machines are unknown; and in a large loft, at long tables, -dozens upon dozens of girls are hand-folding railroad timetables. -This loft is on a level with the designing department. Between the -two there is a brick wall through which, about two feet up from the -floor, has been cut an opening in which there is a heavy, tin-covered -sliding door. When you take 14 × 22 metal plates down to the foundry -to be routed--by someone else, for you don’t like machines--you pass -through this loft, between the girl-adorned tables. You, in turn, are -adorned with the side-whiskers known as mutton-chops--trying to look -older than your years. Also, in accord with the custom of the times, -you wear tight-fitting pants. One day, in returning from the foundry -with a metal plate on your shoulder, you pull back the sliding door and -when you lift one leg to step through the opening the pants rip where -the cloth is tightest. On another occasion when again carrying a plate -on your shoulder your jacket pocket catches on a key at the end of a -paper-cutter shaft and the shoddy that had once proved so disastrous in -your pants now probably averts a serious accident. - -Web presses and automatic feeders are also absent. In the basement at -Rand McNally’s there is a battery of drum-cylinders printing James S. -Kirk “American Family Soap” wrappers. The stock is thin, red-glazed -paper, and the sheets a double 24 × 36, or perhaps even larger. You -marvel at the skill with which boys do the feeding; but even greater -is your wonder at the hand-jogging and cutting of these slippery and -flimsy sheets. - -Invitations are sent out for an inspection of the composing-room of -the _Chicago Herald_, now newly equipped throughout with Hamilton -labor-saving furniture. You attend. Compositors are sticking type for -the next edition. A little later the _Herald_ places on display its -first web press. This showing is in a ground-floor room, a step or -two down from the street, next door to the Chicago Opera House, where -Kiralphry’s _Black Crook_ is now playing and Eddie Foy is putting -audiences in “stitches.” The press is a single unit standing in a -shallow pit surrounded by a brass rail. - - -Comes now the winter. It is a Saturday. You are at the home of your -boss. He has invited you to spend the afternoon learning how to paint. -His easel is set up in the basement dining room. He is talking to you -about religion, gravely concerned at learning that you sometimes -attend the Universalist church. He believes you to be a heathen -and suggests that you become converted and join a fundamentalist -church--says that as long as you remain outside the fold and thus are -not a Christian he cannot be interested in helping you become an artist. - -The dear man! He wants so much to save your soul. Meanwhile, his good -wife is laying the table for their evening meal. Her smile is motherly. -Maybe she has guessed you were counting the plates. Pleasant odors come -from the kitchen. Our gracious host brings your coat, helps you put it -on, hands you your hat, opens the door and you step out into a Chicago -snowstorm. - -At this point the script calls for slow music and heart-rending -sobs--another Kate Claxton in the _Two Orphans_. Also for melodrama! -This is a beautiful snowstorm. The evening is mild and the flakes are -big. They sail lazily through the amber light of the street lamps, -feather the bare branches of trees that print a fantastic pattern -against the red-brick housefronts. The drifts must be at least an inch -deep. And tomorrow ... tomorrow, you will, as always happens on Sunday, -go to a restaurant on Clark Street where you will be served two pork -tenderloins, flanked by a mound of mashed potatoes topped with gravy, -and one other vegetable, and supplemented by bread and butter and a cup -of coffee--all for twenty cents. Joy bells ringing! - - -A couple of weeks later you are standing at a case in the printing -plant of Knight & Leonard. Mr. Leonard happens to be passing. He stops -and glances at your galley, type arrangement for a catalog cover. -He is interested and asks where you learned job composition. In one -graphically condensed paragraph, dramatically composed, for it has -been prepared in advance in anticipation of this much wished-for -opportunity, you tell the story of your life--and make a momentous -proposition. - -The next morning you are seated at a flat-top desk in the second-floor -office. You have your drawing material and are designing a new booklet -cover for the stationery department of A. C. McClurg. It is understood -that when orders for drawing fail you will fill in by setting type. - - -Now you are, at nineteen, a full-fledged designer and working at a -window opposite Spalding’s. On playing days you watch Pop Anson and his -be-whiskered team enter a barge and depart for the ball park. - -One day a young man appears at K & L’s with proofs of halftone -engravings. He has been with the Mathews Northrup Press in Buffalo, -where he had learned the process. He is now starting an engraving plant -in Chicago. K & L print some specimen sheets on coated paper. These -are probably the first halftones ever engraved in Chicago, also the -first printing of halftones. K & L are Chicago’s leading commercial -printers, quality considered. Mr. Knight is a retired Board of Trade -operator. Mr. Leonard is the practical printer. He is also the father -of Lillian Russell. Once, when she is appearing in Chicago, Miss -Russell visits at the office. You are thrilled. - -A man, trained in Germany, grinds ink for K & L. He is located on the -floor above the office. You occasionally visit him. He gives you much -good advice. The _Inter Ocean_, located on the next corner, installs a -color press. The K & L ink expert helps get out the first edition. - -For two years or more you occupy that desk and never again see the -composing room. During this period, while receiving twenty-four dollars -a week, you marry that young lady of your ten-year-old romance. - -The J. M. W. Jeffery Co., show printers, is turning out some swell -posters designed by Will Crane. They are printed from wood-blocks -and are wonders. An artist by the name of Frank Getty is designing -labels in the Chicago sales-office of the Crump Label Company. They -are a glorious departure from the conventional truck of the label -lithographers. - -Joe Lyendecker is designing covers in color for paper-bound novels. -They are gorgeous. There are no art magazines or other publications -helpful to designers. You, like others, have a scrap-book made up of -booklet covers, cards and other forms of advertising. A designer by -the name of Bridwell is doing some thrilling work for Mathews Northrup -in Buffalo, a concern that is setting a stiff pace for other railroad -printers. Abbey, Parsons, Smedley, Frost and Pennell, and Charles -Graham in _Harper’s Weekly_, are models for all illustrators. - -You are now free-lancing and making designs for Mr. Kasten of the -McClurg stationery department. You have a studio in the new Caxton -building on Dearborn Street. You work all of one day and night and part -of the next day on some drawings for Mr. Kasten. He comes to get them -at four o’clock on the afternoon before Christmas. You tell him you -haven’t eaten since the previous night. - -He takes you and your drawings in a cab and stops at a saloon in the -McVickar Theater building and buys you an egg nog. “Drink this,” he -says. “It will put you on your feet until you reach home and can get -dinner.” It is only a glass of milk and egg--and looks harmless. You -get on the Madison Street horse-car, and take a seat up front. There is -straw on the floor to keep your feet warm. You promptly go to sleep. -The car bumps across some tracks and you wake long enough to know your -stop is only two blocks away. In getting off the car the straw tangles -your feet and you seem to be falling over everyone. The sidewalk is not -wide enough for you. This being a new section, the planks are a foot or -more above the ground. You walk in the road. - - -In these early Nineties no cash is needed to buy a printing outfit, -just an agreement to pay a monthly installment. You buy a Golding -press, a type-stand, a small stone and a few cases of Caslon and an -English text. You are probably itching to play a little with printing. -You do not find time to do more than lay the type. A letter comes from -your wife’s sister in South Dakota. It states that a neighbor’s son or -brother, or some near relative, is in Chicago, that he is interested -in art, and it asks will you look him up. He is a bookkeeper and -cashier in a ground-floor real-estate office at the corner of Clark and -Dearborn. His name is Fred Goudy. He wants to get into the printing -business, in a small way. You tell him of your small outfit and that he -can have it and the benefit of payments made if he will assume future -installments. He agrees. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -THE GAY NINETIES - - -Chicago a phoenix city risen from the ashes of its great fire; -downtown business buildings two, three and four stories high, more -of former than latter, few a little higher, elevators a rare luxury; -across the river many one-story stores and shops with signs in large -lettering, pioneer style, on their false fronts; streets paved with -granite blocks echo to the rumble of iron-tired wheels and the clank -of iron-shod hoofs; a continuous singing of steel car-cables on State -Street and Wabash Avenue; horse-drawn cross-town cars thickly carpeted -with straw in winter; outlying residential streets paved with cedar -blocks; avenues boasting asphalt. Bonneted women with wasp waists, leg -o’ mutton sleeves, bustles, their lifted, otherwise dust-collecting, -skirts revealing high-buttoned shoes and gaily-striped stockings; men -in brown derbies, short jackets, high-buttoned waist-coats, tight -trousers without cuffs and, when pressed, without pleats; shirts -with Piccadilly collars and double-ended cuffs of detachable variety -(story told of how a famous author’s hero, scion of an old house, -when traveling by train, saw a beautiful young lady, undoubtedly of -aristocratic birth, possibly royal, and wanting to meet her, love at -first sight, object matrimony, first retires, with true blue-blood -gentility, to wash-room and reverses cuffs. Romance, incident -ruthlessly deleted by publisher, proves a best seller). Black walnut -furniture upholstered in hair-cloth, pride of many a Victorian parlor, -is gradually being replaced by golden oak and ash; painters’ studios, -especially portrait variety, are hung with oriental rugs and littered -with oriental screens and pottery. High bicycles, the Columbia with -its little wheel behind and the Star with the little wheel in front, -soon to disappear, are still popular. Low wheels, called “safeties,” -are beginning to appear, occasionally ridden by women wearing bloomers. -Pneumatic tires unknown. - -Recognized now as a period of over-ornamentation and bad taste, the -Nineties were nevertheless years of leisurely contacts, kindly advice -and an appreciative pat on the back by an employer, and certainly a -friendly bohemianism seldom known in the rush and drive of today. - -Eugene Field has just returned from a vacation in Europe and in his -column, _Sharps and Flats_, Chicago is reading the first printing of -_Wynken, Blynken and Nod_. Way & Williams, publishers, have an office -on the floor below my studio. Irving Way, who would barter his last -shirt for a first edition, his last pair of shoes for a volume from the -Kelmscott Press of William Morris, is a frequent and always stimulating -visitor. - -“Will,” says Irving, “be over at McClurg’s some noon soon, in Millard’s -rare book department, the ‘Amen Corner.’ Field will be there, and -Francis Wilson, who is appearing at McVickar’s in _The Merry Monarch_, -and other collectors. Maybe there’ll be an opportunity for me to -introduce you--and Francis Wilson might ask you to do a poster.” - -I go to the Press Club occasionally with Nixon Waterman, the columnist -who was later to write his oft-quoted, “A rose to the living is more, -If graciously given before The slumbering spirit has fled, A rose to -the living is more Than sumptuous wreaths to the dead.” We sit at -table with Opie Read, the well-loved humorist; Ben King, who wrote the -delightful lament, “Nothing to eat but food, nowhere to go but out”; -Stanley Waterloo, who wrote _The Story of Ab_ and, with Luders, the -musical comedy, _Prince of Pilsen_, and other newspaper notables whose -names I have forgotten. - -Two panoramas, _Gettysburg_ and _Shiloh_, are bringing welcome wages to -landscape and figure painters who will soon migrate to St. Joe across -the lake and return in the fall with canvases to be hung at the Art -Institute’s annual show. - -Only one topic on every tongue--the coming World’s Fair. - - -Herbert Stone is at Harvard. He and his classmate, Ingalls Kimball, -quickened with enthusiasm and unable to await their graduation, have -formed the publishing company of Stone & Kimball. On paper bearing two -addresses, Harvard Square, Cambridge, and Caxton Building, Chicago, -Herbert commissions a cover, title-page, page decorations and a poster -for _When Hearts Are Trumps_, a book of verse by Tom Hall--my first -book assignment. This pleasing recognition from a publishing house -is followed by a meeting with Harriet Monroe and a Way & Williams -commission for a cover and decorations for the _Columbian Ode_. - - -Your studio is now in the Monadnock building. It is the year of the -World’s Fair. You have an exhibit that has entitled you to a pass. Jim -Corbett is in a show on the Midway. When he is not on the stage you -can see him parading on the sidewalks. Buffalo Bill is appearing in a -Wild West show. An edition of _Puck_ is being printed in one of the -exhibition buildings. - -You design a cover for a Chicago and Alton Railroad folder. The drawing -goes to Rand McNally for engraving and printing. Mr. Martin asks -you to come and see him. His salary offer is flattering. But, aside -from Bridwell’s designs at Mathews Northrup’s in Buffalo, railroad -printing is in a long-established rut, void of imagination. You prefer -free-lancing. Later Mr. Martin buys the K & L plant. Herbert Rogers, -the former bookkeeper, establishes his own plant and you hope he will -continue the K & L tradition. - -Mr. McQuilkin, editor of _The Inland Printer_, commissions a permanent -cover. When the design is finished I ask: - -“Why not do a series of covers--a change of design with each issue?” - -“Can’t afford them.” - -“How about my making an inducement in the way of a tempting price?” - -“I’ll take the suggestion to Shephard.” - -Suggestion approved by Henry O. Shephard, printer and publisher, and -the series is started--an innovation, the first occasion when a monthly -magazine changes its cover design with each issue. One cover, nymph in -pool, is later reproduced in London _Studio_. Another, a Christmas -cover, has panel of lettering that four American and one German foundry -immediately begin to cut as a type. Later the American Type Founders -Company, paying for permission, names the face “Bradley.” - -A poster craze is sweeping the country. Only _signed_ copies are -desired by collectors and to be shown in exhibitions. Designs by French -artists: Toulouse-Lautrec, Chéret, Grasset, etc., some German and a few -English, dominate displays. Edward Penfield’s _Harper’s Monthly_ and my -_Chap-Book_ designs are only American examples at first available. - -Will Davis, manager of the Columbia Theater, has just completed the -Haymarket, out on West Madison at Halstead. You design and illustrate -the opening-night souvenir booklet. This you do for Mr. Kasten, of -McClure’s. Thus you meet Mr. Davis. He introduces you to Dan Frohman -who commissions you to design a twenty-eight sheet stand for his -brother, Charles, who is about to open the new Empire Theater in New -York. So you design a poster for _The Masqueraders_, by Henry Arthur -Jones. This is probably the first _signed_ theatrical poster produced -by any American lithographer. Then Dan suggests that you visit New -York. You do, and meet Charles. Dan takes you to the Players for lunch. -There you see show-bills set in Caslon. They influence all of your -future work in the field of typography. - - -We now move to Geneva, Illinois, and I have my studio in a cottage -overlooking the beautiful Fox River. - -Holiday covers for _Harper’s Weekly_, _Harper’s Bazaar_, _Harper’s -Young People_, later named _Harper’s Roundtable_, page decorations for -_Vogue_, a series of full-page designs for Sunday editions of _Chicago -Tribune_, Herbert Stone’s _Chap-Book_ article and other favorable -publicity--plucking me long before I am ripe, cultivate a lively pair -of gypsy heels; and believing myself, perhaps excusably, equal to -managing a printing business, editing and publishing an art magazine, -designing covers and posters, I return to Boston, then settle in -Springfield, start the Wayside Press, and publish _Bradley: His Book_. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -SPRINGFIELD: THE WAYSIDE PRESS - - -Typography, with nothing to its credit following Colonial times, had -reached a low ebb during the Victorian period; and by the mid-Nineties -typefounders were casting and advertising only novelty faces void of -basic design--apparently giving printers what they wanted; while, -adding emphasis to bad taste in type faces, compositors were never -content to use one series throughout any given piece of display but -appeared to be finding joy in mixing as many as possible. - -During the Colonial period printers were restricted to Caslon in roman -and italic, and an Old English Text. What gave me my love for Caslon -and the Old English Text called Caslon Black I do not know. It may have -happened in the Ishpeming print shop where I worked as a boy, or it -may have come as a result of some incident or series of incidents that -occurred later and are not now remembered. At any rate, for many years -I knew nothing about the history of types or the derivation of type -design and probably thought of “Caslon” as merely a trade designation -of the typefounder, and my early preference for the face may have been -merely that of a compositor who found joy in its use--_as I always -have_. - -One day in 1895, while busy with the establishment of the Wayside Press -in Springfield, Massachusetts, I was inspired by some quickening of -interest to make a special trip to Boston and visit the Public Library. -There I was graciously permitted access to the Barton collection of -books printed in New England during the Colonial period; and, thrilled -beyond words, I thus gained some knowledge of Caslon’s noble ancestry. -The books were uncatalogued and stacked in fireproof rooms which were -called the “Barton Safes.” I was allowed to carry volumes to a nearby -gallery above the reference room, where, at conveniently arranged -lecterns along an iron balustrade, I examined them at my leisure and -was given the outstanding typographic experience of my life. - -Such gorgeous title-pages! I gloated over dozens of them, making -pencil memoranda of type arrangements and pencil sketches of wood-cut -head and tail pieces and initials. Using Caslon roman with italic in -a merry intermingling of caps and lower case, occasionally enlivened -with a word or a line in Caslon Black, and sometimes embellished with -a crude wood-cut decoration depicting a bunch or basket of flowers, -and never afraid to use types of large size, the compositors of these -masterly title-pages have given us refreshing examples of a typography -that literally sparkles with spontaneity and joyousness. Apparently -created stick-in-hand at the case, and unbiased by hampering trends and -rules, here are honest, direct, attention-compelling examples of type -arrangements reflecting the care-free approach of compositors merrily -expressing personalities void of the self-consciousness and inhibitions -that always tighten up and mar any mere striving for effect. - -This Colonial typography, void of beauty-destroying mechanical -precision, is the most direct, honest, vigorous and imaginative America -has ever known--a sane and inspiring model that was to me a liberal -education and undoubtedly the finest influence that could come to me at -this time--1895. - - -I now become a member of the newly formed Arts and Crafts Society of -Boston, possibly a charter member, and contribute two or three cases -and a few frames of Wayside Press printing to the society’s first -exhibition in Copley Hall. This showing wins flattering approval -from reviewers--laughter from printers who comment: “Bradley must -be crazy if he thinks buyers of printing are going to fall for that -old-fashioned Caslon type.” - -At this time the Caslon mats, imported from England, are in possession -of one or two branches of the American Type Founders, probably those -in New York and Boston, possibly the Dickenson Foundry in Boston. -Less than a year after my original receipt of body sizes of Caslon -in shelf-faded and fly-specked packages, these foundries cannot keep -pace with orders and it is found necessary to take the casting off the -slow “steamers” and transfer mats to the main plant in Communipaw, New -Jersey, where they can be adapted to fast automatic type-casters. Here -additional sizes are cut and a new series, Lining Caslon, is in the -works--and, with novelty faces no longer in demand, foundries outside -the combine, not possessing mats, are hurrying cutting. - - -“_When the tide is at the lowest, ’tis but nearest to the turn._” - -That quotation certainly applies to the year 1895 that had started -with so little to its credit in the annals of commercial printing and -in which we were now witnessing an encouraging æsthetic awakening -in the kindred field of publishing. Choice little volumes printed -on deckle-edge papers were coming from those young book-making -enthusiasts--Stone and Kimball in Chicago and Copeland and Day in -Boston--and were attracting wide attention and winning well-earned -acclaim. Also there were the Kelmscott Press hand-printed books of -William Morris, especially his _Chaucer_, set in type of his own -design and gorgeously illustrated by Burne-Jones; the Vale Press books, -designed by Charles Ricketts and for which he also designed the type; -the exotic illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley in John Lane’s _Yellow -Book_, all coming to us from London. Then there was the excitement -occasioned by our own “poster craze,” with its accompanying exhibitions -giving advertisers and the general public an opportunity to see the gay -designs of Chéret and the astounding creations of Lautrec. All these -were indicative of a thought-quickening trend due to have a stimulative -influence in the then fallow field of commercial printing. - - -The Wayside Press which I opened in this year of transition was so -named for a very real reason. I had worked in Ishpeming and Chicago so -as to earn money to take me back to Boston where I hoped to study and -become an artist, the profession of my father. I had always thought of -printing as being along the wayside to the achieving of my ambition. -And I chose a dandelion leaf as my device because the dandelion is a -wayside growth. - -On the main business street in Springfield there was a new office -building called the Phoenix. In two offices on the top floor of the -Phoenix Building I had my studio. Back of the office building there -was a new loft building on the top floor of which I was establishing -my Wayside Press, a corridor connecting it with the top floor of the -Phoenix Building and thus making it easily accessible from my studio. -It was an ideal location, and with windows on two sides and at the -south end insuring an abundance of sunshine, fresh air and light, the -workshop was a cheerful spot and one destined to woo me (probably far -too often) from my studio and my only definitely established source of -income, my designing. - -My first Wayside Press printing, before the publication of my magazine, -was a Strathmore deckle-edge sample book. Heretofore all Connecticut -Valley paper-mill samples, regardless of color, texture or quality of -paper, had carried in black ink, usually in the upper corner of each -sheet, information as to size and weight. No attempt had been made to -stimulate sales by showing the printer how different papers might be -used. But one day just after the Press opened, I had a visitor who -changed all that. - -I had a bed-ticking apron that had been made for me by my wife, -copying the apron I had worn when at the ages of fifteen to seventeen -I had served as job printer and foreman of that little print shop -in Ishpeming, where I used to proudly stand, type-stick-in-hand, in -the street doorway to enjoy a brief chat with my wife-to-be, then a -school-teacher and my sweetheart, as she was on her way to school. -Wearing that apron, and at the stone, is how and where Mr. Moses of -the Mittineague Paper Company, first of the Strathmore Paper Company -units, found me on the occasion of our first meeting. - -In my mind’s eye I can see Mr. Moses now as he entered from the -corridor. He was wearing a navy blue serge suit that emphasized his -slight build and made him appear younger than I had expected. I was -then twenty-seven and undoubtedly thought of myself as quite grown -up, and I marveled that a man seemingly so young should possess the -business knowledge necessary to have put him at the head of an even -then well-known mill. The contrast of that natty blue-serge with my -striped bed-ticking apron should have made me self-conscious. Perhaps -it did; but, filled with the youthful enthusiasm and glorious hopes of -a dreamer, I probably had thoughts for nothing but my new print shop -and publishing. Seeing me unpacking type, my visitor may have thought -my time could have been employed more profitably at my drawing-board, -as of course it could--though in my then frame of mind it could not -have been employed more enjoyably. Displaying samples of his new line, -Mr. Moses asked if I would lay out and print a showing for distribution -to commercial printers and advertisers. - -I explained that the Wayside Press was being established for the -printing of _Bradley: His Book_, an art and literary magazine, and for -a few booklets and brochures--publications to which I planned to give -my personal attention throughout all details of production, and that I -had not contemplated undertaking any outside work. - -However, after a moment’s brief consideration, I became so intrigued -with the printing possibilities of these new Strathmore papers, their -pleasing colors and tints, together with their being such a perfect, a -literally made-to-order, vehicle for Caslon roman and Caslon Black, -that I enthusiastically agreed to undertake the commission--a decision -for which I shall always feel thankful. - -The favorable publicity won by the use of these “old-fashioned” types -on Strathmore papers, convinces me that to attain distinction a -print shop must possess personality and individuality. At any rate, -my continued use of Strathmore papers with appropriate typography -and designs aroused such widespread interest among merchants and -advertisers and brought so many orders for printing that it soon -produced the need for more space. My plant was then moved to a top -loft in a new wing that had been added to the Strathmore mill at -Mittineague, across the river from Springfield. - -Caslon types on Strathmore papers having proved so popular, business -was humming. A “Victor” bicycle catalog for the Overman Wheel Company, -involving a long run in two colors on Strathmore book and cover -papers, and an historically-illustrated catalog for the new “Colonial” -flatware pattern of the Towle Silversmiths of Newburyport, for which -Strathmore’s deckle edge papers and Caslon types were strikingly -appropriate, together with the increased circulation of _Bradley: His -Book_, now a much larger format than the original issues, necessitated -the addition of another cylinder press, the largest “Century” then -being made by the Campbell Press Company; and also the employment of an -additional pressman and two additional feeders, and keeping the presses -running nights as well as days, often necessitating my remaining at -the plant throughout the full twenty-four hours--quite a change from -the humble beginnings of the Wayside Press when one “Universal” and -two “Gordon” job presses were believed sufficient for the magazine and -booklet printing then planned. - -In this growth of the commercial printing involving lay-outs and -supervision, together with trying to edit and publish an art magazine, -I had waded far beyond my depth. When I was starting my Wayside Press -in Springfield a business man had advised: “Learn to creep before you -try to walk, and learn to walk before you try to run.” I had tried to -run before even learning to creep. Mr. Moses gave me what I am now -sure was much good business advice--but, alas, I was temperamentally -unfitted to listen and learn and, knowing nothing about finances, was -eventually overwhelmed and broke under the strain and had to go away -for a complete rest. With no one trained to carry on in my absence -it was necessary to cease publication of _Bradley: His Book_ and in -order to insure delivery on time of the catalogs and other commercial -printing, forms were lifted from the presses and transferred to the -University Press at Cambridge; and the Wayside Press as a unit, -including name and goodwill and my own services, soon followed--a -hurried and ill-conceived arrangement that eventually proved so -mutually unsatisfactory that I faded out of the picture. - -This was a heart-breaking decision for me, and one that but for the -wisdom of my wife and her rare understanding and nursing could have -resulted in a long and serious illness. No printing and publishing -business ever started with finer promise and more youthful enthusiasm -than did the Wayside Press and the publication of _Bradley: His Book_, -that are now just memories. - - -Among other magazine covers designed during this period there is -one for a Christmas number of _Century_. It brings a request for a -back-cover design. Both designs are in wood-cut style and require four -printings--black and three flat colors. The DeVinne Press, familiar -only with process colors, hesitates to do the printing. That issue -carries a Will Bradley credit. When John Lane imports sheets of the -_Studio_, edits an American supplement and publishes an American -edition, I design the covers. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -INTERLUDE IN NEW YORK - - -And now we are in the Gay Nineties, the mid Gay Nineties, when a -hair-cloth sofa adorns every parlor and over-decoration is running -riot; when our intelligentsia are reading Anthony Hope’s _Prisoner of -Zenda_, Stanley Weyman’s _Gentlemen of France_ and George McCutcheon’s -_Graustark_; when William Morris is printing _Chaucer_, with -illustrations by Burne-Jones, and Aubrey Beardsley is providing an -ample excuse for the _Yellow Book_; when LeGallienne’s _Golden Girl_ is -brought over here by John Lane and established in a bookshop on lower -Fifth Avenue, and Bliss Carman is singing his songs of rare beauty; -when the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the nearby Algonquin are flourishing -Madison Square hostelries; when Stern’s and McCreery are across the -street from Putnam’s and Eden Musee, and the modern skyscraper is only -an architect’s vague dream. - -Into this glad era a young man steps off a Twenty-third Street -horse-car. This young man, now an ambitious designer, printer, editor -and publisher, is yourself. - - -At the age of twenty-seven you are sporting the encouraging beginnings -of a mustache, still too thin to permit of twirling at the tips. There -is also the brave suggestion of a Vandyke. These embellishments are -brown, as is also true of abundant and wavy hair of artistic and poetic -length. Your waistcoat is buttoned high, and your soft, white collar is -adorned with a five-inch-wide black cravat tied in a flowing bowknot. -Your short jacket and tight-fitting pants quite possibly need pressing. -A black derby and well-polished shoes complete your distinguished -appearance. Many scrubbings have failed to remove all traces of -printing ink from beneath and at the base of your finger nails. - -You are on your way to Scribner’s. A few moments later we find you -seated in a leather-upholstered chair in the editorial department of -this famous publishing house. You are waiting patiently and hopefully -while an editor is penning a note of introduction to Richard Harding -Davis, the popular writer of romantic fiction. - -Now, the note safely bestowed in your breast pocket, the envelope -showing above a liberal display of silk handkerchief and thus plainly -in view of passing pedestrians who would doubtless be filled with envy -did they but know its contents, you are crossing Madison Square Park on -your way to one of the Twenties, where Mr. Davis has his lodging. You -reach the house, walk up the steps and rap. - -“Is Mr. Davis at home? Why ... why you are Mr. Davis. I ... I -didn’t recognize you at first. Seeing you portrayed in Mr. Gibson’s -illustrations to some of your romances--” - -“And now seeing me in this bathrobe you naturally were a bit confused?” - -“Yes, I was.” - -“I’m not at all surprised.” - -“Here, Mr. Davis, is a letter, I mean a note introducing me to you.” - -“How about coming inside while I read the note?” - -“That’s ... that’s what I was hoping you’d say, Mr. Davis.” - - -And now our favorite romantic author is seated with one leg thrown over -the corner of a table. “Of course. Of course,” he exclaims, cordially, -“I know your posters and your cover designs. And now you are starting a -magazine and you would like one of my stories for your first number?” - -“Yes, Mr. Davis. That is what I should like.” - -“Of course I’ll write a story for you. I shall be happy to write a -story; and I have one in mind that I think will be just the kind you -will like for your new magazine.” - -“Well, Mr. Davis, that’s something that’s just about as wonderful as -anything that could possibly happen to anybody. Only ... only--” - -“Only you are not really started and your magazine hasn’t begun to earn -money, and so you are wondering--” - -“Yes, Mr. Davis--” - -“Well, lad,” and now Mr. Davis has his arm about your shoulders. “Well, -lad, just go home to your Wayside Press print-shop in Springfield and -don’t do any worrying about payment. Sometime when you are rich and -feel like sending me something,--why, any amount you happen to send -will be quite all right with me--and good luck go with you.” - -(At this point it should be stated that when a small check goes to Mr. -Davis, with an apology for it being just the first installment and that -another check will go a month later, the return mail brings a pleasant -letter of thanks and an acknowledgment of payment in full.) - -And now, as you are recrossing Madison Square Park, your head so high -in the clouds that not even the tips of your toes are touching the -earth, all the birds in the neighborhood, including the sparrows, have -gathered and are singing glad anthems of joy; and all the trees that -an hour ago were just in green leaf are now billowed with beautiful -flowers. - -Well, that is that, and of course you are now sitting pretty. But -presently we see you on a Fifth Avenue bus, returning from Fifty-ninth -Street where, in a sumptuous Victorian apartment overlooking Central -Park you have asked William Dean Howells for a story--and on this -incident we will charitably draw the curtain. - - -Meanwhile _Bradley: His Book_ met with kind reception--advance orders -for the second number being: Brentano’s New York, six hundred copies, -Old Corner Bookstore, Boston, four hundred, etc.; the first issue being -out of print except for the supply being held for new subscribers. -Pratt, Sixth Avenue, New York, sent check to pay for one hundred -subscriptions. - -There being no joy in doing today what one did yesterday, or what -another did yesterday; and creative design in which there is no joy -or laughter being of little worth, a new lay-out and change of stock -were provided for each issue of _Bradley: His Book_; the fifth number -started a change of format. - -But as a business tycoon Will Bradley was a lamentable failure despite -this auspicious start--a story I have already told. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -NEW FIELDS - - -At the turn of the century, after saying a sad farewell to fond hopes -and feeling older at thirty-two than is now true at eighty-two, I -finally gave up trying to be a publisher and printer. While covers -for _Collier’s_ were bridging an awkward gap Edward Bok appeared on -the scene and commissioned the laying-out of an editorial prospectus -for the _Ladies’ Home Journal_, the printing to be done at the Curtis -plant. For this I used a special casting of an old face not then on the -market, Mr. Phinney of the Boston branch of ATF telling me it was to be -called Wayside. When the prospectus was finished Mr. Bok invited me -to his home just outside Philadelphia and there it was arranged that I -design eight full pages for the _Journal_--eight full pages of house -interiors. These were followed by a series of house designs. Finding it -difficult to keep to merely four walls I added dozens of suggestions -for individual pieces of furniture--this being the “Mission” period -when such designing required no knowledge of periods, only imagination. -Then Mr. Bok suggested that I move to Rose Valley, start a shop to make -furniture and other forms of handicraft in line with designs shown in -my _Journal_ drawings; and assume art editorship of _House Beautiful_, -which he was considering buying. But having failed in one business -venture, there was little excuse to embark on another. - -The roman and italic face, used later for _Peter Poodle, Toy Maker -to the King_, was now designed for American Type Founders; and while -building a home in Concord, adjoining Hawthorne’s “Wayside,” and -working every day in the open, regaining lost health, the story, -_Castle Perilous_, was written--also outdoors. These activities were -followed by a request from Mr. Nelson, president of American Type -Founders, that I undertake a campaign of type display and publicity -for the Foundry, with a promise to cut any decorative or type designs -that I might supply, also to purchase as many Miehle presses as might -be required for the printing--an invitation to which I replied with an -enthusiastic “Yes!” [In this way Bradley’s famous set of _Chap Books_ -was inaugurated--Ed.] - -During this type-display and foundry-publicity period _Castle -Perilous_, as a three-part serial, with illustrations made afternoons -following mornings spent with American Type Founders at Communipaw, was -published in _Collier’s_; and in 1907 I became that publication’s art -editor. Sometime during the intervening years--I can’t remember where -or when--time was found for designing several _Collier’s_ covers. - -From 1910 to 1915, again with my own studios, I took care of the -art editorship of a group of magazines: _Good Housekeeping_, -_Century_, _Metropolitan_ and others, also an assignment from the -Batten Advertising Agency and, as recreation, wrote eleven _Tales of -Noodleburg_ for _St. Nicholas_. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -THE MAGAZINE WORLD--AN INTERPOLATION - - -For easier understanding by you whose magazine memories do not go back -to the turn of the century it should be told that we were then carrying -a Gibson Girl hangover from the Gay Nineties and were but a few years -removed from a time when there were only three standard monthlies: -_Harper’s_, _Scribner’s_, and _Century_; and seven illustrated -weeklies: _Harper’s_, _Frank Leslie’s_, _Harper’s Bazaar_, _Police -Gazette_, _Puck_, _Judge_ and the old _Life_,--magazines and weeklies -that were seldom given display other than in hotels and railroad -depots, where they were shown in competition with the then-popular -paper-covered novels. - -In the mid-Eighties all monthlies, weeklies, books and booklets were -hand-fed, folded, collated and bound; halftones were in an experimental -stage; advertising agencies, if any existed, were not noticeable in -Chicago, and advertising of a national character used only quarter-page -cover space. But something in the air already quickened imagination, -and the Nineties gave us more magazines and better display. - -In 1907, magazines were shedding swaddling clothes and getting into -rompers; the _Saturday Evening Post_ had cast off its pseudo-Benjamin -Franklin dress and adopted a live editorial policy that was winning -readers and advertising; Edward Bok had ventured a Harrison Fisher -head on a _Ladies’ Home Journal_ cover and won a fifty-thousand gain -in newsstand sales, and Robert Collier had built a subscription-book -premium into a national weekly. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -THE MAGAZINE WORLD--COLLIER’S AND OTHERS - - -On a Saturday afternoon in 1907, believing myself alone, for the -offices and plant had closed at twelve, I was standing at a drafting -table making up the Thanksgiving issue of _Collier’s_ when Mr. Collier -entered. He became intrigued with proofs of decorative units being -combined for initial-letter and page borders, as had earlier been done -with similar material in designing a cover, and asked for some to take -home and play with on the morrow. Robert Collier was that kind of a -boss--a joy! - -Of the Thanksgiving issue Royal Cortissoz wrote: “This week’s number -has has just turned up and I cannot refrain from sending you my -congratulations. The cover is bully; it’s good decoration, it’s -appropriate, it’s everything that is first rate. The decorations all -through are charming. More power to your elbow. It does my heart good -to see _Collier’s_ turning up in such splendid shape.” There were other -favorable comments--but no noticeable jump in newsstand sales. - - -My joining Collier’s staff has been under circumstances quite -exceptional, even for that somewhat pioneer period in which the -streamlined editorial and publishing efficiency of today was only a -vague dream. I had been asked to give the weekly a new typographic -lay-out. When this was ready Mr. Collier suggested that I take the -art editorship. He said I would be given his office in the editorial -department and he would occupy one in the book department, where he -could devote more time to that branch of the business, an arrangement -he knew would please his father. I was to carry the title of art editor -but in reality would be responsible for make-up and other details that -had been demanding too much of his own time. - - -At the age of twelve I had begun to learn that type display is -primarily for the purpose of selling something. In 1889, as a -free-lance artist in Chicago, I had discovered that to sell something -was also the prime purpose of designs for book and magazine covers -and for posters. Later I was to realize that salesmanship possessed -the same importance in editorial headings and blurbs. These -never-to-be-forgotten lessons, taught by experience and emphasized by -the sales results of the publicity campaign I had lately conducted for -the American Typefounders Company, would classify that Thanksgiving -number as a newsstand disappointment. However, it pleased Robert -Collier who, even to hold a guaranteed circulation--when a loss would -mean rebates to advertisers--would not permit the use of stories by -such popular writers as Robert Chambers and Zane Gray nor the popular -illustrations of such artists as Howard Chandler Christy! - - -My tenure at _Collier’s_ gave me a new experience. There I always -worked under conditions inviting and stimulating imagination, and there -I probably unknowingly shattered many a precious editorial precedent. - -_Collier’s_ had one of the early color presses akin to those used on -newspapers. We decided to use this to print illustrations for a monthly -“Household Number” carrying extra stories. The editorial back-list -showed no fiction suitable for color; the awarding of one thousand -dollars a month for the best story, judgment based upon literary -merit, had resulted in the purchase of nothing but literary fog. Mr. -Collier told Charles Belmont Davis, fiction editor, to order what was -necessary. Charley asked me who could write the type of story needed. I -said, “Gouverneur Morris.” Mr. Morris, then in California, sent a list -of titles accompanied by the request: “Ask Will Bradley to take his -pick.” We chose _The Wife’s Coffin_, a pirate tale. During an editorial -dinner at his home Robert Collier read a letter from his father, then -out of the city, in which P. F. (his father) wrote: “If you continue -printing issues like this last our subscription-book salesmen report -the weekly will sell itself.” Robert said: “Mr. Bradley can make this -kind of a number because he knows the people from whom the salesmen -obtain subscriptions. I don’t, and any similar undertaking by me would -be false and a failure.” - -During this period of art editorship, and following the lay-out of a -booklet, _Seven Steps and a Landing_, for Condé Nast, advertising -manager of _Collier’s_, a color-spread for Cluett-Peabody, lay-outs -for the subscription-book department, and pieces of printing for Mr. -Collier’s social activities (also a request from Medill McCormick that -I go to Chicago and supply a new typographic make-up for the _Tribune_; -a suggestion from Mr. Chichester, president of the Century Company, -that if I were ever free he would like to talk with me about taking -the art editorship of _Century_; and from Mr. Schweindler, printer of -_Cosmopolitan_ and other magazines, an expression of the hope that I -could be obtained for laying-out a new publication), Robert Collier -proposed the building of a pent-house studio on the roof near his -father’s office where, relieved of much detail, I could give additional -thought to all branches of the business. This promised too little -excitement, and instead I rented a studio-office on the forty-fifth -floor of the then nearly-finished Metropolitan Tower. At this time -Condé Nast had just purchased _Vogue_, then a small publication showing -few changes from when I had contributed to it in the early Nineties. - -In this new environment I handled the art editorship and make-up of -_Metropolitan_, _Century_, _Success_, _Pearson’s_ and the new _National -Weekly_, which was given a format like that of present-day weeklies and -a make-up that included rules. Caslon was used for all headings except -for _Pearson’s_ which, using a specially-drawn character, were lettered -by hand. - -Among some discarded _Metropolitan_ covers I found one by -Stanislaus--the head of a girl wearing a white-and-red-striped toboggan -cap against a pea-green background. By substituting the toboggan-cap -red for the pea-green background, with the artist’s approval, we -obtained a poster effect that dominated the newsstands and achieved an -immediate sellout. - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -ENTER MR. HEARST - - -In the Nineties I had been asked to provide a lay-out for the Sunday -magazine section of Mr. Hearst’s New York paper. I could not do this -properly except at my Wayside Press. This the typographic union would -not permit, but in the years that followed, I enjoyed an intermittent -part-time association with Mr. Hearst--working on magazines, papers and -motion pictures. - -One of these assignments was _Good Housekeeping_. This magazine had -been published by the Phelps Company, and had achieved a circulation of -250,000 copies. Additional sales would tax the plant and necessitate -more equipment and the magazine was sold to William Randolph Hearst. I -was asked to design a new lay-out and to take over the art editorship -during its formative period. For the new venture Mr. Hearst ordered -a Winston Churchill serial--_Inside the Cup_ if my memory is not at -fault. Mr. Tower, the editor brought from Springfield, said this would -mean taking out departments and a loss of half the circulation--but -the departments came out, the serial went in, Mr. Tower resigned, Mr. -Bigelow became editor, and circulation mounted into the millions! - -In 1915 Mr. Hearst asked me if I could arrange to give him all of -my time and art-supervise production of the motion picture serial, -_Patria_, starring Irene Castle. I agreed. - -In 1920, after writing, staging and directing _Moongold_, a Pierrot -fantasy photographed against black velvet, using properties but no -pictorial backgrounds--an independent production launched with a -special showing at the Criterion Theater in Times Square, I returned to -Mr. Hearst in an art and typographic assignment including magazines, -newspapers, motion pictures and a trip to Europe where commissions -were placed with Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham and Frank Brangwyn. -Somewhere along the trail _Spoils_, a drama in verse, and _Launcelot -and the Ladies_, a novel, were written--the former printed in _Hearst’s -International_ and the latter destined to carry a Harper & Brothers -imprint--but not to become a best seller. - -Another Hearst project in the early Twenties was a new format and -the creation of a typographic lay-out for _Hearst’s International_. -For the lay-out, the headings of which would have to be different -from those provided earlier for _Cosmopolitan_, I designed a set of -initial letters, later catalogued by the foundry and called “Vanity.” -Knowing that Mr. Hearst would want to use portrait heads for covers -and that they would all have to be made by a single artist whose style -did not permit of confusion with the Harrison Fisher heads used on -_Cosmopolitan_, I approached Benda with the suggestion that if he would -use one color scheme for both head and background he could probably get -the contract. On seeing the first Benda cover Mr. Hearst asked how it -happened that this was the only Benda head he ever liked! He was told, -and authorized a contract. - -These _Hearst International_ changes led to my being asked to give -thought to strengthening _Cosmopolitan_ headings in 1923. The request -came on a Monday morning. The issue then in hand closed at Cuneo’s in -Chicago on the following Friday. Mr. Hearst never urged hurry, but -early results were appreciated. Obtaining a current dummy with page -proofs, I headed for the ATF composing room at Communipaw, N. J. About -half-past four I had personally set, without justification, every -heading in the issue--using Caslon in roman and italic in the manner it -had been assembled by uninhibited compositors of the Colonial period. -That night, at home, I trimmed and mounted proofs in a new dummy. -The mixing of roman and italic in radically different sizes and with -consideration for desired emphasis, with possibly a 96- or 120-point -roman cap starting a 48- or 60-point italic word, resulted just as I -had visualized while the type was being set in fragmentary form. No -changes were necessary, and every minute of the afternoon had been -good fun. Tuesday I left for Chicago; Wednesday was spent at Cuneo’s -where, using this reprint copy, all headings were set, made-up with -text pages, and proved; Thursday the new lay-outs were enthusiastically -approved in New York; Friday, at Cuneo’s, _Cosmopolitan’s_ managing -editor closed the forms according to schedule. It had been a grand -lark--and within a few weeks that free style of typography began to -appear in national advertising. - -One morning a request came from Mr. Hearst to use color at every -editorial opening in _Hearst’s International_--a startling innovation -at a time when illustrators were accustomed to drawing or painting -only for reproduction in black and white or for an occasional insert -in process colors. Closing day on the current dummy was only two weeks -away. With the aid of editorial substitutions it was thought we could -make the date. Taking a dummy showing possible signature distribution -of colors, I made the round of studios to find artists agreeable to the -use of one extra color. - -After ten days’ work I arrived at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, -where Mr. Hearst was holding conferences. I had an appointment for noon -of the next day. Spending the intervening time at Cuneo’s, I finished -the dummy and appeared for my appointment, asking at the hotel that -Mr. Hearst’s secretary be informed. The clerk shook his head; orders -had been given that no phone calls were to be put through to that -floor. The manager was called, I pointed to my brief-case lying on the -counter, and said that Mr. Hearst was waiting for its contents. The -manager took a chance, made the call, and I was told to go right up. - -The conference was in a large room with window seats overlooking the -lake. We sat on one of these seats while the dummy was viewed--page -by page--twice. Mr. Hearst was pleased and asked if he might keep the -dummy so he could enjoy it at his leisure. I told him the closing date -would not permit this. He understood, and saying so in an appreciative -manner suggesting a pat on the back, he sent me off to catch the -afternoon limited so I could reach New York in the morning. There I -was shown a wire evidently written and sent as soon as I had left. It -was to Ray Long, editor-in-chief, saying: “Shall be pleased if future -numbers are as attractive as the dummy I have just seen.” That is the -“Chief”--always stimulating and appreciative! - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -TOWARDS A NEW STYLE - - -After retiring from the Hearst organization I was recalled and asked -to go to Chicago and see if something could not be done to improve the -printing of illustrations. A trip to Chicago was not necessary, there -being an obvious change long overdue in the New York art departments, -and not in the Cuneo printing plant. This fact was reported to Mr. -Hathaway, who had relayed the request from Mr. Hearst in California; -but Chicago was in the cards and I went. Upon my return a written -report, the substance of which had received Mr. Cuneo’s approval, -was given to Mr. Long. In lay language, briefly expressed, it said: -“Illustrators should be cautioned about an over-use of fussy and -valueless detail and asked to restrict their compositions to only so -much of the figure or figures, backgrounds and accessories as are -required for dramatic story-telling and effective picture-making; -requested to forego a full palette when subjects are to be presented -in only one or two colors, and to simplify renderings and avoid so -many broken tones. Full-page and spread reproductions will then not -only solve your press-room worries but create a new and finer type of -magazine.” - -Mr. Long read the report--thoughtfully, I believe--talked with his art -editors, and finally decided the suggestions were too radical. But -had Mr. Hearst been in New York, and had the report gone to him, his -_Cosmopolitan_ and _Good Housekeeping_ would have led the field in -adopting principles of illustration that are now universal. - -When asked to provide a new lay-out for _McClure’s_ magazine, then -a recent purchase by Mr. Hearst, I reveled in an opportunity to -apply the suggestions presented in the report. Making photographic -enlargements of available illustrations and eliminating all -non-essentials I used full pages and spreads and prepared the dummy -with a new note in typographic headings. Ray Long looked at it and -gasped. “Will,” he said, “a magazine like that would outshine and -humble _Cosmo_.” Mr. Hearst was still in California. Too bad! I had -made suggestions of worth and Mr. Hearst, running true to form, would -have weighed their values--not for a revived _McClure’s_, perhaps, but -for his other magazines. - - * * * * * - -And now there is little more to tell, unless you want to listen to the -way I enthuse about our present-day illustrators, their delightfully -imaginative composition and masterly use of color. They are grand -campaigners! God love them and the editorial lads who give them -opportunity and encouragement. They are making an old man mighty -happy--yes, making him envy their fun while he is relegated to sheer -laziness in the siesta sun of California. - -Before final retirement I managed to lay out a new _Delineator_, a new -Sunday magazine for the _Herald Tribune_ (about 1925), and a lay-out -suggested by early New England news-sheets for the _Yale Daily_, and -... well, I guess that’s about all. No! Listen. In these last three -lay-outs I continued to use my beloved Caslon! - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - -TODAY IN 1954 - - -Do conditions today give the ambitious young designer and printer the -same opportunities I enjoyed back in the late Victorian period? Not the -same, of course, but even greater. - -While it is true that the Nineties were literally made to order for -a boy who had acquired only such training as was to be had in the -sparsely equipped print-ship of a weekly newspaper in a pioneer -iron-mining town, today is made to order for the ambitious young -designer and printer who is availing himself of the training to be had -by even the small-town beginner. - -Back in my boyhood days a study of such examples of design and printing -as now reach even the most remote out-posts of the printing industry, -would have taught me more than I learned during a year in the art -department, so-called, of the publishing house of Rand McNally in -Chicago. - -The inspiration to be derived from the text and advertising pages -of our standard magazines, together with the creative art of school -children and the art magazines, quite unknown at the turn of the -century, supplies a liberal education teaching the beginner how to -appreciate and use the printing and designing advantages of today. - -What are these advantages, and why do they open a door to exceptional -opportunities not known in the Nineties? First, and perhaps of greatest -importance, is the typographic consciousness now prevalent, especially -in the advertising and business world, where it is universally -recognized that effective typography and design increase sales. - -Another advantage is to be found in the significant mechanical advances -of the last few years, the significance of the growing importance -of offset printing, presenting so many opportunities yet to be -grasped by the designer. And, an infant industry now, but one of vast -possibilities, is commercial silk-screen printing. - -But upon my return to New York after many years in California I think -my greatest thrill came when I witnessed the mechanical setting of type -by photography. Always I have liked the feel of putting type into the -stick, and I liked to see the composition growing on the galley. In all -my years of working with type I have never made a preparatory lay-out, -except when the composition had to be done by another, which happened -only on magazine headings after a style had been determined in advance. - -But this is an age of lay-outs, and in this new photographic process -with the use of photographic enlargements, there are possibilities -for display composition of any required size, and great variety, -presenting intriguing possibilities for the creative designer and -typographer. - -All such steadily growing advances present opportunities which were -nonexistent back in my own youthful days. Together with the superior -training enjoyed by the youth of today, they have changed conditions -into a new world fraught with wonderful opportunities far beyond any I -knew in the Nineties. - - w b - - Short Hills, New Jersey - May, 1954 - - - - -A CHRONOLOGY - - -This brief biography of the man called Dean of American Designers -by _The Saturday Evening Post_ and Dean of American Art Editors by -_Publishers’ Weekly_, is amplified from its earlier compilation and -printing as a Typophile keepsake in 1948. It was first distributed at a -birthday luncheon held in New York, for Mr. Bradley’s eightieth. - - 1868 Born in Boston, July 10, son of a cartoonist - on a Lynn daily newspaper. - - 1874 First finger in the “pi”--on being presented - a box of characters brought - home by his father for a small printing - press Will bought with his own savings - as a delivery boy. - - 1877 Moves to Ishpeming, a mining town in - northern Michigan. - - 1880 A job (with a salary of $3 a week) as a - printer’s devil, with the _Iron Agitator_ - (later _Iron Ore_). - - 1885 Foreman with _Iron Ore_ at a man’s - wages, $15 a week. - - 1886 To Chicago--and an art department - apprenticeship with Rand McNally--sweeping, - dusting, running errands, - grinding tempera ... at $3 a week. - - 1887 With Knight & Leonard, Chicago’s - leading fine printers, as a full-fledged - designer at a salary of $21, and then - $24 a week. - - 1889 Free-lancing in Chicago; studio in the - Caxton Building. - - 1890 To Geneva, Ill., and first recognition - through covers for _Harper’s Weekly_; - posters for Stone & Kimball’s _Chap - Book_; cover designs for the _Inland - Printer_ (perhaps the first magazine - covers ever to be changed monthly). - - 1890 The creation of a widely copied type - face named “Bradley” by ATF. - - 1893 An exhibition at the Chicago World’s - Fair. - - 1895 To Springfield, Mass., the launching of - his Wayside Press, “At the Sign of the - Dandelion,” and plans for publication - of _Bradley: His Book_ ... his love for - Caslon and the beginning of a new Caslon - era as a result. - - 1895 The initial Bradley-designed paper - sample book for Strathmore. - - 1896 Exhibits at Boston Arts and Crafts; - Colonial typography attracts national - attention. - - 1897 Caslon types on Strathmore Deckle - Edge Papers prove successful; Bradley’s - plant is expanded and moved to a loft - in the Strathmore mill at Mittineague. - - 1898 Merges business with University Press, - Boston. Opens design and art service in - New York; specialty, bicycle catalogs. - - 1900 Mr. Bok, editor of _Ladies’ Home Journal_, - commissions a series of eight full - pages of house interiors for the _Journal_. - A roman and italic face, used later for - _Peter Poodle, Toy Maker to the King_, - is designed for American Type Founders. - While recovering from illness, - _Castle Perilous_ is written, later serialized - in _Collier’s_ with Bradley illustrations. - - 1902 _Collier’s Weekly_ appears with Bradley - cover (July 4). - - 1903 Heads campaign of type display and - publicity for American Type Founders. - - 1904 Writing and designing _Chap Books_ for - American Type Founders; setting typographic - style for decades. - - 1906 Writes and illustrates _Peter Poodle, - Toymaker to the King_ for Dodd Mead. - - 1907 Art Editor of _Collier’s_. Introduces new - technique in coordinating make-up, art - direction and typography. Holiday - number becomes collectors’ item. - - 1910-15 Simultaneous art editorship of _Good - Housekeeping_, _Metropolitan_, _Success_, - _Pearson’s_, _National Post_. Revises typographic - make-up of _Christian Science - Monitor_ ... beginning of a series of - stories later published as _Wonderbox - Stories_. - - 1915-17 Art supervision of motion picture - serials for William Randolph Hearst, - including _Patria_, starring Irene Castle. - - 1918-20 Writing and directing motion pictures - independently. Production of - _Moongold_, a Pierrot pantomime shot - against black velvet, using properties - but no sets, shown at the Criterion - Theater in Times Square, New York. - - 1920 Back to Mr. Hearst as art and typography - supervisor for Hearst magazines, - newspapers, motion pictures, and the - introduction, in _Cosmopolitan_, of many - typographic innovations. - - 1923 Writes _Spoils_, a play in free verse for - _Hearst’s International_. - - 1926 Restyles _Delineator_ and Sunday magazine - section of New York _Herald Tribune_ - (not _This Week_). - - 1927 Harper & Bros. publish _Launcelot and - the Ladies_. - - 1930 Final, but far from inactive, retirement. - - 1931 Serves on AIGA “Fifty Books of the - Year” jury; delivers address at exhibition - opening, New York Public Library. - - 1950 Rounce and Coffin Club of Los Angeles - award, October 28, for “Distinguished - Contributions to Fine Printing,” at preview - of Huntington Library exhibition, - “Will Bradley: His Work.” - - 1953 New type ornaments (used at chapter-openings - in the present book) designed - for American Type Founders. - - 1954 Completion of a new paper specimen in - Strathmore’s Distinguished Designers - Series, almost sixty years after his first - sample book for Strathmore. Introduced - at University Club luncheon in - New York, March 25. - - 1954 Award of gold medal by the American - Institute of Graphic Arts at Annual - meeting, May 19. - -“I have never known any guide other than what to me happened to look -right.”--w. b. - - - - -AN AFTERWORD - - -Few names in the annals of American typography gleam as brightly as -Will Bradley’s. Even fewer have made so varied a graphic contribution -as this gentle man, now eighty-six and revered as dean of American -typographers. - -In May, 1954, he was awarded the coveted gold medal of the American -Institute of Graphic Arts. The citation, necessarily brief around the -rim, recalled one phase of his accomplishments: “To Will Bradley for a -half-century of typographic achievement.” - -A more revealing summary would be found in the commendation of the -Rounce and Coffin Club award, presented at the Huntington Library -in October, 1950. The Club held its special meeting to honor Mr. -Bradley (then living in nearby Pasadena), and preview the Huntington -retrospective Bradley exhibition, which included examples of his book -design and illustration; articles and stories written; cover and -poster design; type and type ornament for American Type Founders; and -printing. Some seventy items were displayed, ranging from the Ishpeming -(Michigan) _Iron Ore_ masthead, designed in 1886, to a Christmas -greeting drawn in 1948. - -The award, for distinguished contributions to fine printing, read: -“_Because_ he has for seventy years been a source of creative -inspiration in all the varied arts to which he has put his mind and -hand; _Because_ he found American printing at the end of the last -century in a dreary condition, held up to it the examples of the early -colonial printers, revived the simplicity and dignity of Pickering and -caused to flourish again the use of Caslon and the other old style -types; _Because_ he created a wealth of new ornamentation and by his -own demonstration introduced many original uses of ink, paper and -bookbinding; _Because_ he redesigned the American magazine and gave to -it the charm of a new outer garment with each appearance; _Because_ -he cast the illumination of his talents upon the art of the poster, -the children’s book, and even the motion picture; _Because_ his great -direct aid and even greater inspiration have been acknowledged by many -American typographers, including such leaders as Frederic W. Goudy, W. -A. Dwiggins, Oswald Cooper and T. M. Cleland; _And finally_ because he -has not ceased to be for the printers of our day, as for those of two -previous generations, an inexhaustible fountain of kindly encouragement -and new discoveries.” - -Despite their glow, these words spell a clear appraisal of this man’s -talents and graphic spirit. Ahead of his times, Mr. Bradley proved -a pace-setting pioneer whose work was so fresh that its vitality -is as measurable in the specimens of Strathmore and ATF, as in the -Hearst periodical pages. Particularly when compared with that of his -contemporaries, as Walter Dorwin Teague points out in his perceptive -introduction. - -Mr. Bradley was born in Boston in 1868. His father, a newspaper -cartoonist, died when he was eight. Four years later his mother moved -to Ishpeming, a small iron-mining town in northern Michigan. Here, he -became a printer’s devil on the local newspaper. - -The brief chronology of events in his legendary career (pp. 92-96) -reveals pertinent details of the early years as art department -apprentice with Rand McNally, Chicago map-makers, and as free-lance -artist. He soon won recognition for his cover designs and drawings for -_Harper’s Weekly_ and _The Inland Printer_, and posters for Stone and -Kimball’s _Chap Book_. - -In 1895 he returned to New England to set up his Wayside Press in -Springfield, Mass. He was twenty-seven then, had just designed his -first sample book for Strathmore, and developed publishing plans for -_Bradley: His Book_. Volume one, number one was dated May, 1896; -the subscription price, one dollar the year. The cover was a poster -treatment of a tree on a grassy hilltop; the frontispiece was by -Edward Penfield, himself the subject of a lead article. Center spread -pages, decidedly in the Kelmscott manner, were devoted to a poem by -Harriet Monroe, with a floriated border surrounding the text in caps. -The body type was the ATF version of the Morris Golden face. - -_Bradley: His Book_ was planned as an art and literary magazine, and -also “a technical journal for those engaged in the art of printing.” -Seven issues comprised its life span; the first four varied slightly -from the initial 5¼ × 10½ inch size; the last three (of volume -two) were 8 × 11 inches. A note indicated that “advertisements are -newly prepared for each number without extra cost.” Products promoted -included writing and printing papers, type, ink, periodicals, a -“talking” machine, auto tires, baking and washing powder, and soap. A -further note evidenced concern for design and typography, mentioning -that “advertisements may be appropriately illustrated by any artist, -provided the character of design and execution are suitable for pages -of this magazine. Text on electrotypes will be reset in type from -_Bradley: His Book_ fonts.” - -From this point on, the Bradley career moved into high gear. In 1900 he -was commissioned by the _Ladies’ Home Journal_ to design eight full -pages of house interiors; he also designed a roman and italic type. - -Three years later, at thirty-five, he headed a typographic and -publicity campaign for ATF (1903), and wrote and designed their famous -_Chap Books_. In 1907 he was art editor of _Collier’s_; and from -1910 to 1915 the simultaneous art editor for _Good Housekeeping_, -_Metropolitan_, _Success_, _Pearson’s_ and _National Post_. Then in -his early forties, he dipped into the field of the motion picture as -art supervisor of serials for William Randolph Hearst. In 1918 he was -writing and directing motion pictures independently. Two years later -he rejoined the Hearst organization as art and typographic supervisor -for their newspapers, magazines and motion pictures. In 1930, age -sixty-two, he retired to southern California. - - * * * * * - -Of the Bradley renaissance a quarter-century later, a single design -accomplishment seems significant: The 1954 Portfolio in the Strathmore -distinguished designer series, begun in California in 1951, completed -early in 1954 and introduced at a luncheon sponsored jointly by the -Typophiles and Strathmore, held at the New York University Club. The -date was just a few months short of sixty years from that significant -day when the first paper-use specimen was issued by Strathmore in -Mittineague. - -Among the speakers paying tribute were Edwin H. Carpenter of the -Huntington Library; Thomas Maitland Cleland, designer and artist; A. -Hyatt Mayor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Frederic G. Melcher, -dean of American publishers; Carl Purington Rollins, printer emeritus -to Yale University; Walter Dorwin Teague, industrial designer, F. -Nelson Bridgham, Strathmore president, and the undersigned reporter, -who served as toastmaster. - - * * * * * - -The first-hand account of the fabulous years recorded in this book has -been assembled from separate papers written by Mr. Bradley at different -times since 1949. No attempt has been made to unify the varying tenses, -or modify the sometimes first-person sometimes second-person style of -the author in these different memoirs. An attempt _has_ been made to -connect these papers into one continuing narrative. To this end, some -editing of over-lapping material and cutting of repetitious passages -seemed essential. - -The sources: A booklet titled _Memories: 1875-1895_, printed for the -Typophiles and other friends by Grant Dahlstrom in Pasadena, 1949; -another titled _Picture of a Period, or Memories of the Gay Nineties_, -printed for the Rounce and Coffin Club of Los Angeles (also by -Dahlstrom) in 1950; the Huntington Library hand list, _Will Bradley: -His Work_, 1951 (again printed by Dahlstrom). The fourth source item is -“Will Bradley’s Magazine Memories,” from the _Journal_ of the American -Institute of Graphic Arts (Vol. III, No. 1, 1950). - -Like most Typophile projects, this has been in process for many months. -Though obviously a cooperative effort, much of the muscle and mind -needed to shape and form it has been contributed by Peter Beilenson. He -not only attended to the design and printing at his Peter Pauper Press, -but also helped materially in its editing. - -The alluring prospect of additional illustrations for these pages was -reluctantly passed by. Our physical limitations and resources proved -inadequate to reflect the qualities, and the scope and variety of Mr. -Bradley’s work. Examples of his colorful designing and illustrating may -be seen in the comprehensive collections at the Metropolitan Museum of -Art, New York, and the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. A -brief selection is shown in _The Penrose Annual_, 1955. - -Despite his years, Mr. Bradley generously offered to develop the -typographic plan of this book, and rewrite the entire text to further -illumine certain passages. He also suggested he make new drawings to -replace those on chapter pages, which were drawn in 1949 to enhance the -solid text pages of the _Memories_ booklet (The type ornaments on these -pages were drawn in 1953 for ATF.) This considerable task seemed an -unnecessary burden, particularly since Mr. Bradley had reflected with -characteristic charm and candor the recollections of his great years. -Like every artist and craftsman of stature, he remains his own severest -critic. - -Numerous other friends have helped with this book: Among them, Arthur -W. Rushmore and Edmund B. Thompson in its early planning; Robert B. -Clark, Jr., and his colleagues at Strathmore; Nicholas A. Meyer, David -Silvé, Stevens L. Watts and Robert H. Wessmann--each has been quick -to answer every call, as has Will Bradley. For myself, it has been a -memorable and rewarding book-making experience to work with these good -friends, as it is a privilege to record here the indebtedness of The -Typophiles for their invaluable and generous assistance. - - PAUL A. BENNETT - - - - -Typophile Chap Books: 30 - -[Illustration: THE TYPOPHILES NEW YORK ] - - -This thirtieth Chap Book in the Typophile series has been designed by -Peter Beilenson, and printed on Strathmore Courier at his Peter Pauper -Press, Mount Vernon, New York. The type face is Waverley; the binding -is by the J. F. Tapley Company, New York. - -This edition comprises four hundred copies for Typophile subscribers -and contributors and 250 copies for general sale. - - - - - * * * * * * - - - - -Transcriber’s note: - -Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - -Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. - -The cover image for this eBook was created by the transcriber -using the original cover and is entered into the public domain. - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILL BRADLEY, HIS CHAP BOOK*** - - -******* This file should be named 63426-0.txt or 63426-0.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/3/4/2/63426 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - |