{"id":2858,"date":"2021-06-15T17:05:02","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T17:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/?p=2858"},"modified":"2021-06-15T19:57:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T19:57:40","slug":"about-charles-skaggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/about-charles-skaggs\/","title":{"rendered":"About Charles Skaggs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles E. Skaggs, 1917\u20132017, calligrapher, book designer art director, teacher.<\/em><\/p>\n

Charles Skaggs began<\/span> pursuing a professional graphics career as a 16-year-old, sweeping floors and washing brushes for a Louisville commercial artist Bob Richey. He knew even then that he wanted to develop his lettering skills and to leave Kentucky. He worked in advertising and package design in Cincinnati and Chicago before heading east in 1945 to New York to break into publishing. By the end of the decade, he was a full-time book and jacket designer for many of the prominent publishers of the day. The AIGA<\/a> selected several of Skaggs\u2019 books for inclusion in its Fifty Books of the Year between 1948 and 1955.1<\/a><\/sup>Marlowe, Kimberly B., From Alphabets to Books: A Biography of Charles Skaggs<\/em><\/a><\/span> Skaggs \u201cplanned the typography,\u201d as the colophon states, of Les Pens\u00e9es<\/em> (Limited Editions Club, 1971).<\/p>\n

At the urging of George Salter<\/a>, Skaggs started teaching (calligraphy and the history of the alphabet) at Cooper Union<\/a> in 1952.2<\/a><\/sup>Ibid.<\/span> Salter recommended Ismar David to Cooper in 1954 and in July, David reached out to Skaggs.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Copy<\/a>
Copy of a letter from Ismar David to Charles Skaggs, 1954. Ismar David papers, box 1, folder 4, Cary Graphic Arts Collection, RIT.<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"Note<\/a>
Front of a note from Charles Skaggs to Ismar David, 1954. Ismar David papers, box 1, folder 4, Cary Graphic Arts Collection, RIT.<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Note

<\/p>\n

Inside of a note from Charles Skaggs to Ismar David, 1954. Ismar David papers, box 1, folder 4, Cary Graphic Arts Collection, RIT.<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

July 26, 1954
\nDear Ismar David<\/p>\n

Welcome to the Cooper staff from one who is himself a rather recent (et insignificant) addition.<\/p>\n

I get into N.Y. about once a week usually and will be glad to see you and go over what I tried to get across in my year\u2019s teaching. In between current work & getting a new home built, I hope to reorganize my notes and ideas into a more fixed & useable state for the coming year. However there\u2019s no reason we couldn\u2019t talk \u2013 tho I may not have much that\u2019s either legible or intelligible to leave with you. Phil Grushkin was of great help to me in this regard just a year ago.<\/p>\n

My N.Y. trips are rather unpredictable \u2014 but I think I\u2019ll be in on this Thursday \u2013July 29, if you\u2019re free * I can make it maybe we could lunch \u2014 or a least get together in the afternoon. Unless I hear from you to the contrary \u2014 I\u2019ll probably call you on Thursday \u2014 but don\u2019t let this interfere with any plans you may have.*<\/p>\n

Looking forward to seeing you \u2014 Charles Skaggs<\/p>\n

*as I can always try on a later trip.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charles E. Skaggs, 1917\u20132017, calligrapher, book designer art director, teacher. Charles Skaggs began pursuing a professional graphics career as a 16-year-old, sweeping floors and washing brushes for a Louisville commercial artist Bob Richey. He knew even then that he wanted to develop his lettering skills and to leave Kentucky. He worked in advertising and package […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2858"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2873,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions\/2873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ismardavidarchive.org\/indexofnames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}