Author: IDA

Soon after he became president of The Typophiles in 1971, inveterate traveler Bob Leslie initiated group outings. Destinations that could be accomplished in a day rapidly evolved into fully organized overseas tours. To celebrate the 45th anniversary of The Typophiles in 1974, 45 members and their significant others, plus a few European colleagues, made a “Printers’ Pilgrimage to Israel.” They included Fritz and Toni Eichenberg, Alice Koeth, Berthold Wolpe, Hermann Zapf, Raymond Gid, Cathy Tyler Brody, Alexander Lawson ( director of the school of printing at RIT), Helen Barrow (former production manager at Simon and Schuster), Charles Vaxer (director of printing at Esquire magazine), Edna Beilinson of Peter Pauper Press and book designers Marilyn Marcus (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), Bertha Krantz (Random House) and Herbert Rosenthal.

Leslie enlisted the aid of Israel Soifer and Gideon Stern (Director of the Printing Information Center of the Israel Export Institute) to help plan a whirlwind sixteen days exploring historical and technical aspects of printing in Israel. The Typophiles met Israeli colleagues Moshe Spitzer, Elly Gross, Henri Friedlaender, Miriam Karoly and Jack Jaget and enjoyed receptions given by Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kolleck and Haifa Mayor Josef Almogi. The group visited Keter, Ltd. (producers of the Encyclopedia Judaica), the Government Printing Plant and the printing plant of the Jerusalem Post; and the Franciscan Press, the Hebron Press and the Peli Printing Works. They went to the Museum of Printing in Safed and the Islamic Museum in Jerusalem. They saw the Alphabet Museum in Haifa and met Gisa Frankel, an authority on Jewish paper cuts, at the Ethnological Museum and Folklore Archives in the city. Friedlaender organized a special exhibit, “The Image of the Hebrew Letter in Israel,” in honor of The Typophiles’ visit. The Jewish National and University Library at Hebrew University arranged a special display of Hebrew bibliophilic books for them. They visited the Schocken Library, the artists’ colony at Ein Hod and Jerusalem’s Burston Graphic Arts Center. Tourist spots were not neglected. In the end, the group managed to see the upper and lower Galilee, the Golan Heights, Caesarea, Acre, Safed, the Dead Sea, Masada and the Judean Desert.

From drafts of a talk, given by Ismar David, at the March 6, 1974 Typophiles luncheon at Rosioff’s Restaurant on West 43rd Street in Manhattan.

Dear friends,I am grateful for the honor. I want to use this opportunity to elaborate some more on one of my latest works, The Psalms. The Hebrew typeface and the specific kind of drawings are the two aspects that have involved me a great deal. The Hebrew developed in a time when only a few Hebrew typefaces were available.

When I could not resist the temptation to venture into Hebrew type design, it was clear to me that these new designs would have to move much closer toward their Middle Eastern ancestors and away from those styles that had developed in Europe.

The impact and impression that new surroundings, the Judean landscape, the eastern way of life and a new social environment had made precluded any other conception. But, of course, all technical aspects had to be considered within the framework of western achievements in typographical design. I intended to go one step further than in the conception of a type family and add a sans serif to text face and oblique and I developed these three variations on three weights. Each letter of theses nine variation would fit on the same matrix and line up in print on the same base line. This is always a problem that goes with designs intended for line casting machines. In those days no one in Palestine thought of anything else. I had to come to grips also with proportions of letters and devised a division of the alphabet into three groups, just one group narrow letters, then the group of medium width that included all letters with only one vertical element with the and [a] very few others and the third wide group including most letters with two full vertical elements or more. This system brought a much higher degree of evenness in structure and texture than is usual in Hebrew typography, which too often suffers from spottiness.

The new forms, which I developed, I tried out in newspaper ads, as display matter and on sign boards, of which I designed many during this period. I gained confidence as I observed the acceptance that was given to these new forms. After about 15 years since my start I finally prepared final drawings for Intertype. Unfortunately the three sans serif designs were not included in Intertype plans. Since then the accepted deigns for the text face and its oblique companion have gained wide acceptance. While in the beginning, their use was limited to commercial matters, more and more books are now set in these faces and it does not any longer seem strange to see a book like The Psalms set in my Hebrew.

That much about type. Now about my drawings.

While I admire western art I am drawn toward the Oriental concept that uses symbols but never tries to imitate nature or to create illusions of realities. But these symbols are rendered so that they not only stand for objects, but convey qualities of it as well as a mood and atmosphere. There is a great difference between the simplistic symbol like the red cross which you can only recognize for what it is after you have learned its meaning and the brush delineation of a blossom on a Chinese screen that can convey so much beyond the form which it symbolizes. In my work, lines do not any longer define shapes, but become symbols like letterforms, being straight or curved and modulated. They are grouped to form patterns to suggest and stimulate, but never to define. A lot is left to the viewer. Specifically for drawing s that are accompanying religious texts , it seems to me important that the views is not irritated by the style of attire of figures, the fashion of beards or hair styles, but is allowed to let his imagination wander.

Of course, I also like to use color. But here, too, I will not use color in a realistic fashion. Color can create texture and background. It can create tension. And if used successfully, it will complement or support my lines and strengthen their impact. So I use lines and color, but mainly lines, not in the framework of isms, like realism, expressionism or impressionism, but to serve my own needs to communicate my ideas [and] my feelings, but in the service of the book.

The Typophiles, probably founded around 1932 and still active, an association that fosters the appreciation of fine typography and bookmaking with luncheons, lectures and publications.

One upon a time, when New York City was the center of the book industry, a group of men in the various related printing trades formed an informal monthly lunch club. They met at restaurants in Manhattan to chew the fat and share examples of their work. Luminaries like Fredric Goudy and Bruce Rogers attended. In these early days they took to joyously and somewhat spontaneously producing collections of their own printed matter with whimsical titles like Spinach from Many Gardens (for Goudy’s seventieth birthday), Barnacles from Many Bottoms, scraped and gathered together for BR…, and Diggings from Many Ampersandhogs.

In 1940, the Typophiles initiated a subscription fee for regular publications, which they called chap books, as well as pamphlet commentaries, the latter amounting to a kind of newsletter. They remained, however, a volunteer and non-profit organization. In 1955, when Ismar David provided the lettering for the cover of Chap Book Commentary 26, the Typophiles were still a male-only organization—women could join beginning in 1970—and still characteristically quirky. Something of the nature of the group, or more properly of its guiding light and founding member, Paul Bennett, can be seen in his guidance On Getting the Chap Books.

There’s no mystery about becoming a Typophile subscriber and getting the Chap Books, we repeat. This may require a bit of waiting, but that’s because our volunteer set-up places a natural limitation on what we can handle. The turnover among subscribers is small. There are several deaths each year, unfortunately. And occasionally economic difficulties mean dropping out.

Our subscription procedure is simple: We accept only subscribers who want our books and will be patient in waiting for them; who seldom write about details, and who send renewal funds promptly upon notice. This since there’s little time for correspondence or the chore of record-keeping.
Applicants must send on a minimum of $20. in advance. They move from the waiting list as subscription vacancies occur. Funds are allocated in these directions: Membership fee, $4. Annual dues,$4. And forthcoming books at the rate of $2 each.

Potential subscribers, in short, must have faith in our judgment and in what we do—there’s no time for notes, follow-ups or the customary business procedures.

Institutional subscriptions, for reasons outlined previously require a minimum deposit of $26, so inquiries may be halved. Remember, please, we have no time to acknowledge orders, sign vouchers, or do special billing.

If you have a candidate who can bear with these peculiarities, and who wants in, act accordingly.
For The Typophiles,
Paul A. Bennett

In 1955, too, The Typophiles gave out 200 copies of Daniel 3, a small book which World Publishing had given out for the holidays the year before. Ismar David had supplied the pattern on its slipcase, as well as lettering and illustrations.

After Bennett died suddenly in 1966, The Typophiles were forced to make their organization a bit more organized, formally incorporating as a non-profit, educational organization in the State of New York, adopting rules and electing officers. They elected Eugene M. Ettenberg as their first president in 1968. Robert Leslie, who succeeded him the following year, put his enthusiastic stamp on The Typophiles in many ways, including arranging typographic-themed junkets for the group, including trips to Europe and Israel. Abe Lerner followed Leslie as president.

Over the years, many guests and members have spoken at the luncheons, among them, Ismar David on March 6, 1974. David traveled to Israel with The Typophiles on their “Printers’ Pilgrimage to Israel” in 1974 and for Leslie’s 100th birthday celebration in 1985.