Elements of Lettering
Newport, Rhode Island: John Stevens, 1940. Limited edition. Quarto (10 inches tall), original brick cloth, cream endpapers, gilt spine and front board, top edge gilt. Slight toning to spine, stain and offsetting from bookplate removed from blank flyleaf. About Fine. Item #1824
"A BEAUTIFUL THING IS MADE UP OF ADMIRABLE PARTS, ADMIRABLY ARRANGED"
Limited Edition of Elements of Lettering—a Philosophy of Art by John Howard Benson and Arthur Graham Carey—one of only 100 copies printed by Daniel Berkeley Updike at the Merrymount Press in May 1940. "Dedicated to Esther Fisher Benson and Elizabeth Foster Carey / Our Patient Wives," with a limitation page signed & numbered in ink by the authors. A handsome copy of an elegant book.
The authors were based at the venerable John Stevens Shop, a stone masonry in Newport, Rhode Island. Founded in 1705, and understood to be one of the oldest businesses in America, John Stevens was purchased by John Howard Benson, a designer specializing in caligraphy and letter carving, in 1927. Benson and his partner Arthur Graham Carey were connected to the Catholic Worker movement through Ade Bethune, "destined become Ade's dear friends and mentors" after meeting in 1935. Ade described Carey's animating philosophy of art, based on "Aristotle's four causes applied to the right making of things...norms of of judgment to explain why things that are made right, turn out to beautiful" (Judith Stoughton). Bethune began working on her commissions in their shop and together they published her own book, Work, under the John Stevens imprint in 1938.
Combining artistic theory with practical instruction, Elements of Lettering consisted of three parts. Book One. The Theoretical Elements (Letters as Things to be Understood), Book Two. The Practical Elements (Image, Technique, Function), Book Three. The Historical Elements (Or, Letters as Things to be Learned From). The text concludes with an Afterword. "Letters exist to serve men...If we make them to be our servants, they might as well be good ones." Supplemented with a brief Bibliography with a parting note of advice: "These works will be valuable for the student, but he should neglect no opportunity to study original manuscripts, carved inscriptions and early writing books, as well. And, above all, pen and chisel in hand, he should practice." Judith Stoughton. Proud Donkey of Schaerbeek: Ade Bethune, Catholic Worker Artist.
Price: $300.00