Frederic Warde
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Frederic Warde (July 29, 1894 – July 31, 1939) was a book designer, editor, and
typography Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...
designer. One of the great book designers of the twentieth century, Will Ransom described him as "a curious blend of romantic idealism and meticulous practicality." In describing his own work, Warde stated, "The innermost soul of any literary creation can never be seen in all its clarity and truth until one views it through the medium of the printed page, in which there must be absolutely nothing to divide the attention, interrupt the thought, or to offend one's sense of form."


Biography

He was born Arthur Frederick Ward on July 29, 1894, in Wells, Minnesota, and changed his name to Frederic Warde in 1926. In 1915 he enlisted in the United States Army, and attended the Army School of Military Aeronautics at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
during 1917-1918. He was a
flying cadet Flying may refer to: * Flight, the process of flying * Aviation, the creation and operation of aircraft Music Albums * '' Flying (Cody Fry album)'', 2017 * ''Flying'' (Grammatrain album), 1997 * ''Flying'' (Jonathan Fagerlund album), 2008 * ...
. On demobilisation in 1919 he worked as a book editor for
Macmillan & Co Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...
, before undergoing training on the
Monotype Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The ...
machine, after which he worked for the printers
William Edwin Rudge William Edwin Rudge is the name of a grandfather, father and son, all of whom worked in the printing business. It's also the name of their business. The first William Edwin Rudge (1835–1910) operated a small commercial print shop in New York City ...
from 1920 to 1922 under Bruce Rogers. From 1922 to 1924 Warde was Printer for Princeton University. He had met Beatrice Becker in 1919, and they married in 1924 and left for Europe to study typography. Once in England, they met Charles Hobson of the Cloister Press in Manchester, and through him
Stanley Morison Stanley Arthur Morison (6 May 1889 – 11 October 1967) was a British typographer, printing executive and historian of printing. Largely self-educated, he promoted higher standards in printing and an awareness of the best printing and typefaces ...
, who offered Warde work designing and writing for ''The Fleuron'' and the ''Monotype Recorder''. The marriage to Beatrice did not last, however, the couple separated in 1926, and soon divorced, though the break-up was an amicable one. Afterwards Warde lived in France and Italy, where he became involved in Giovanni Mardersteig’s Officina Bodoni. Warde designed a revival of the chancery cursive letter forms of Renaissance calligrapher Ludovico degli Arrighi. This italic, titled Arrighi, was later used as a companion to Bruce Rogers' roman typeface
Centaur A centaur ( ; ; ), occasionally hippocentaur, also called Ixionidae (), is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version o ...
. In 1926 Mardersteig printed ''The Calligraphic Manual of Ludovico Arrighi - complete Facsimile'', with an introduction by Stanley Morison, which Warde issued in Paris while working for the Pleiad Press. Warde returned to America permanently, and he worked again for William Edwin Rudge from 1927 to 1932. He also designed for private presses such as Crosby Gaige, the Watch Hill Press, Bowling Green Press, the Limited Editions Club and Heritage Press. From 1932 onwards, Warde published "The Dolphin, a Journal of the Making of Books, issued in book form by the Limited Editions Club of New York City. After the drastic contraction of fine-bookmaking with the onset of the depression, Warde turned to commercial work, first with the Morrill Press, then as a partner in McFarlane, Warde, McCarlane, finally becoming production manager for the American office of the
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
from 1937.Ransom, page 31 Warde died in Manhattan, New York on July 31, 1939.


Typefaces

Though thought of as an italic, Warde’s one and only typeface, Arrighi, is actually a chancery, or
script typeface Script typefaces are based on the varied and often fluid stroke created by handwriting. They are generally used for display or trade printing, rather than for extended body text in the Latin alphabet. Some Greek alphabet typefaces, especially ...
, which imitates the handwriting of the fifteenth century. Warde made three distinct cuttings of the face: *Arrighi (1926) with punches made by Charles Malin and used by Officina Bodoni. There were no capitals in this font, nor were there serifs on the ascenders. *Vicenza a re-cutting with serifs on the ascenders and also used by Officina Bodoni. *Arrighi (1929) was commissioned by Bruce Rogers to be an italic compliment to his
Centaur A centaur ( ; ; ), occasionally hippocentaur, also called Ixionidae (), is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version o ...
. This font had capital letters and was later issued for commercial use by
Lanston Monotype Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., founded as Lanston Monotype Machine Company in 1887 in Philadelphia by Tolbert Lanston, is an American (historically Anglo-American) company that specializes in digital typesetting and typeface design for use with ...
. It is worth noting that this is not the first usage of a chancery type to accompany a Humanist Old Style type face, as ''Blado'' had been used to accompany ''
Bembo Bembo is a serif typeface created by the British branch of the Monotype Imaging, Monotype Corporation in 1928–1929 and most commonly used for body text. It is a member of the "Serif#Old-style, old-style" of serif fonts, with its regular or ro ...
'' in 1929.


Publications

*"Bruce Rogers, Designer of Books," New York City, 1926 *"Printers Ornaments on the Monotype,"
Monotype Corporation Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., founded as Lanston Monotype Machine Company in 1887 in Philadelphia by Tolbert Lanston, is an American (historically Anglo-American) company that specializes in digital typesetting and typeface design for use wit ...
, Philadelphia, 1928.


References


External links

*The
Grolier Club The Grolier Club is a private club and society of bibliophiles in New York City. Founded in January 1884, it is the oldest existing bibliophilic club in North America. The club is named after Jean Grolier de Servières, Viscount d'Aguisy, T ...
in New York has an archive of Warde's paper

*Simon Loxley, 'Whatahell! - The Letters of Frederic Warde to William Kittredge', in ''Parenthesis''; 16 (2009 February), pages 21-24 *A checklist of books designed by Frederic Warde may be found in Print Magazine, Print, Volume 2, Number 1, pages 37–39.
Frederic Warde Papers
a
the Newberry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warde, Frederic 1894 births 1939 deaths American typographers and type designers People from Wells, Minnesota Military personnel from Minnesota United States Army officer trainees