Harry "Ward" Ritchie (

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

June 15, 1905

Laguna Beach, California Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for its mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservation efforts, and a ...

January 24, 1996) was an American printer, book designer, book collector and writer of around 100 books. He was part of the "Golden Age" of fine printing that took place during the 1920s and 1930s in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

. Ritchie was also part of the Artists of the Arroyo Seco community. Ritchie grew up in South Pasadena and attended the Marengo Avenue School,

South Pasadena High School South Pasadena High School (SPHS or "South Pas") is the one public high school serving grades 9-12 in the city of South Pasadena, California. With the South Pasadena Middle School and three elementary schools (Arroyo Vista, Marengo, and Monterey ...

, and graduated in 1928 from Occidental College in Northeast Los Angeles. After a brief stint in law school at USC, Ritchie turned his attention to printing, his true passion. He enrolled at Frank Wiggins Trade School (now Los Angeles Trade-Technical College). In 1930, Ritchie apprenticed in Paris with the renowned printer François-Louis Schmied. Returning to South Pasadena, Ritchie co-founded, along with fellow printer Grant Dahlstrom and bookseller Jacob "Jake" Zeitlin, the Rounce & Coffin Club. This club was created as a less formal alternative to the

Zamorano Club The Zamorano Club is a bibliographic and manuscript collecting society in Los Angeles, California. It is the oldest organization of its type in Southern California. It was founded on January 25, 1928. It was named after Agustín V. Zamorano who bro ...

, where other bibliophiles gathered in Los Angeles, and to which he was later welcomed in 1934. The following year, he established the Ward Ritchie Press, through which he published thousands of books, over 750 designed by himself; his output included works by poets

Robinson Jeffers John Robinson Jeffers (January 10, 1887 – January 20, 1962) was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. Much of Jeffers's poetry was written in narrative and epic form. However, he is also known for his short ...

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...

, Archibald MacLeish, Carlyle MacIntyre, librarian

Lawrence Clark Powell Lawrence Clark Powell (September 3, 1906–March 14, 2001) was a librarian, literary critic, bibliographer and author of more than 100 books. Powell "made a significant contribution to the literature of the library profession, but he also writ ...

, novelist Alexandre Dumas, and many others. In 1983, Ritchie became romantically involved with film actress

Gloria Stuart Gloria Frances Stuart (born Gloria Stewart; July 4, 1910 September 26, 2010) was an American actress, visual artist, and activist. She was known for her roles in Pre-Code films, and garnered renewed fame late in life for her portrayal of Rose ...

, who was inspired by him to design her own hand-printed books under the

imprimatur An ''imprimatur'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''impr.'', from Latin, "let it be printed") is a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement. The imprimatur rule in the R ...

Imprenta Glorias. Ritchie maintained a close relationship with Stuart until his death. Ritchie died of pancreatic cancer in

on January 24, 1996.

References

1905 births 1996 deaths American printers American book publishers (people) Writers from Los Angeles 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-stub