The Luck of Roaring Camp
Boston, MA: Privately Printed, 1931. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Hardcover. Format is approximately 5.25 inches by 7.75 inches. Black spine and red boards (with minor wearing/scuff). Gold and black title label on front cover. vi, 21, [3] pages. RARE. This is the product of a project designed and executed at the Typographic Laboratory Boston, Massachusetts by Charles W. Johnson. "As Baskerville's types stimulated interest in good book printing in his day, so the excellent reproduction cut for machine composition will help to lead the modern printer to a better realization of the possibility for improvement today. this book is set in eleven point Linotype Baskerville, cut under the direction of George W. Jones, the eminent English printer. The former is somewhat different from Baskerville's books in order to harmonize with the subject and to illustrate what can be done with modern facilities--C. W. J. Boston, Massachusetts September 1931. Composition was by Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massachusetts. Presswork by the Taylor Press. Binding by Robert Burlen & Son, Boston. [Robert Burlen started the company around 1880 in Boston went out of business in the 1970's. The paper is Crown & Sceptre, a handmade laid paper imported from England by the Japan Paper Company. Luck of Roaring Camp was first published in the August 1868 issue of the Overland Monthly and helped push Harte to international prominence. Roaring Camp was a community that arose during the California Gold Rush of 1849. George William Jones (1860-1942) was a British printer and type designer of the late nineteenth and twentieth century. Jones was born in Upton-upon-Severn in Worcestershire and developed a considerable reputation as a fine printer, printing among other work elegant stationery. He operated a press at "The Sign of The Dolphin next to Dr Johnson's House in Gough Square", London and designed the custom typeface "Venezia", one of many fine printing types of the period based on the work of fifteenth-century engraver Nicolas Jenson. At his home in Monkbarns, Northwood, Middlesex, he built up a notable library, which he printed a catalogue of for the use of visitors; it was sold at auction in 1936. In 1921, he was hired by the British branch of the Mergenthaler Linotype Company to develop new and more elegant typefaces that would enhance their reputation; at the time hot metal typesetting machines were not fully accepted by fine printers who generally used hand-set foundry type. His projects included Granjon and Estienne, two families based on the typefaces of the French renaissance, a Baskerville revival, and Georgian. Later Linotype employee Walter Tracy praised these designs, noting his partnership with Linotype draughtsman Harry Smith, who drew production drawings for the typefaces at Linotype's Altrincham factory, as a major partner in their success. The original Baskerville type (with some replaced letters) was revived in 1917 by Bruce Rogers, for the Harvard University Press, and also released by G. Peignot et Fils in Paris (France). Modern revivals have added features, such as italics with extra or no swashes and bold weights, that were not present in Baskerville's original work. Baskerville is used widely in documents issued by the University of Birmingham (UK) and Castleton University (Vermont, USA). A modified version of Baskerville is also prominently used in the Canadian government's corporate identity program—namely, in the 'Canada' wordmark. Another modified version of Baskerville is used by Northeastern University (USA), and the ABRSM. Linotype's Baskerville was cut in 1923 by George W. Jones, though it was subsequently re-cut in 1936. A bold version was cut by Chauncey H. Griffith in 1939. It may sometimes be called Baskerville LT. The Mergenthaler Linotype Company is a corporation founded in the United States in 1886 to market the Linotype machine, a system to cast metal type in lines (linecaster) invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler. It became the world's leading manufacturer of book and newspaper typesetting equipment; outside North America, its only serious challenger for book typesetting was the Anglo-American Monotype Corporation. Condition: Good / No DJ present.
Keywords: Charles Johnson, George W. Jones, George William Jones, Printer, Baskerville, Typography, Charles W. Johnson, Presswork, Composition, Binding, Handmade Paper, Japan Paper, Crown & Sceptre, Robert Burlen
[Book #84804]
Price: $500.00