TYPOGRAPHY 8
Robert Harling (Editor)

Robert Harling (Editor) with James Shand and Ellic Howe: TYPOGRAPHY 8. London: The Shenval Press, 1939. Original Quarterly Summer 1939 issue. Published in an edition of 2,500 copies. A fine magazine with original publishers plasti-coil (ie. revolutionary French Plastoic) ) binding: this volume only shows trivial defects upon close inspection. A truly rare publication, seldom offered.

9 x 11 softcover book with plasti-coil binding and 58 pages of avant-garde typographic design from England, circa 1938. The good folks at Bloomsbury's Shenval Press were fighting to bring the international revolution in New Typography to England's sheltered shores in the 1930s. An excellent keepsake and snapshot from the trenches in the battle between Art and Trade in the typsetting industry.

This edition of TYPOGRAPHY includes maximum-quality letterpress printing on a variety of paper stocks. A phenomenal production that comes with my highest recommendation.

Here is the Publisher's Manifesto for TYPOGRAPHY: " The Sponsors of TYPOGRAPHY believe that fine book production is notthe onlymeans of typographical expression or excitement. We Believe, in fact, that a bill-head can be as aesthetically pleasing as a Bible, that a newspaper can be as typographically arresting as a Nonesuch." Sounds good to me.

Contents:

  • LAMENT FOR A BLUEBOOK BUREAUCRACY by R. S. Hutchings
  • VICTORIAN STREET BALLADSby Noel Carrington
  • THE TYPOGRAPHY OF CHILDRENS COMICSby Denis peck
  • TOPOGRAPHICAL TYPOGRAPHY by Robert Harling
  • REX WHISTELR'S BOOK DECORATIONS by Edith Olivier
  • BOOKSHELFreview of Moholy-Nagy's 1938 edition of The New Vision, where the reviewer not only compares Moholy to Walt Disney, but has some choice words about the typography of the New Bauhaus Books.
  • TYPE SUPPLEMENTReviews and Specimens
  • Notes and acknowledgements

According to Rick Poynor, Herbert Spencer often spoke of the importance of Harling and Shand's Typography -- Jan Tschichold's article on TypeMixtures in the third issue had a decisive influence on his eventual direction (Poynor: Typographica. NYC: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. page 15.)

out of stock