#barrymoser

[harvard-art-museums-prints]

Portrait of Ben Shahn, Barry Moser, 1973, Harvard Art Museums: Prints

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Stephen Lee Taller Ben Shahn Archive, Gift of Dolores S. Taller Size: 38.1 x 20.32 cm (15 x 8 in.)

https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/192267

[seasidecollectibles]

What You Know First Written by Patricia MacLachlan Illustrated by Barry Moser PUBLISHER: Joanna Cotler Books, 1995. ATTRIBUTES: Hardcover with Dust Jacket FIRST EDITION. FIRST PRINTING. Dimensions: 0.5 x 9.1 x 8.9 inches. 32 pages. ISBN: 0060244135 CONDITION: Fine / Fine. As New. Written by the author of SARAH, PLAIN AND TALL, winner of the Newbery Medal. As a family prepares to move away from their farm, the daughter reflects on all the things she loves there so that when her baby brother is older she can tell him what it was like. Gorgeous black and white wood engravings by National Book Award-winning artist, Barry Moser. Author & illustrator have been friends & neighbors for many years & chose photos from both their family albums for the beautiful engravings. $10 + 🚢 ☘️Claim by commenting "ME" or "MINE". Visit #claimitMINE for more of our shop items and our purchase & shop policy info. #PatriciaMacLachlan #BarryMoser #WhatYouKnowFirst #FarmLife #NewHome Country Moving Household | Fiction Country Life Fiction Farm Moving Household Children s Juvenile General Lifestyles Social Situations #NEWBERYMEDALIST | #booksales #bookworm #booklover #firsteditionbooks #seasidec_books | Collecting | Collectable | Gift ware Books | ref: grp_DEC_bk_know https://www.instagram.com/p/B2sTgbSApsv/?igshid=wv0sqz7xd2nr

[pittrarebooks]

Last semester we hosted Professor Jessica FitzPatrick’s class, Narrative and Technology. The class visited three times throughout the course of the semester, working with a variety of materials, including: early manuscripts and printed material that document the history of the book and printing, fine and private press books, pop-up books, artists’ books from @frickfineartslibrary, and science fiction and comic fanzines. Students were assigned blog posts to document their observations and discoveries. Throughout the week we will be posting some of the student’s hard work. 

Design Drives the Content

The University of Pittsburgh’s Special Collections is filled with unique works that come in all sorts of different sizes, designs, and formats. These various physical forms and designs of narrative mediums affect the content and contribute to the reading experience of the story. There are several things to examine when it comes to a book’s form: the physical book’s attributes (its shape, how big or small it is, etc.), the layout and design of the pages, and the typography of the text. “What has been communicated (message) has been less important than the particular medium through which people communicate. The technology that the message is communicated changes us” (McLuhan). McLuhan argues that throughout history, oral stories used the ear as the dominant sense source, but since the advent of printing, as most items are in Special Collections, there is an added emphasis on the visual (McLuhan). In this post, we’re going to examine and compare several texts from Special Collections that emphasize these visual qualities.

Figure 1: The Slant Book by Peter Newell is shaped as its content.

A book’s physical attributes can say a lot about the story contained within the medium. For example, The Slant Book by Peter Newell has the shape of a slant (figure 1), literally taking on the shape of a downward-sloped hill that the baby carriage falls down in the story. In this case, the book’s shape contributes to the illustrations and greatly helps tell the story, or the message, the author is communicating. Another good example of physical attributes affecting content is the Pennyroyal Press editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (figures 2 and 3). These were collected editions (that is, only 350 of each were printed!) They are extremely large with a lot of margin space. The size of these editions brings the story to life and immerse the reader in illustrations, notes, and of course, the main text.     

Figure 2: Barry Moser’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Pennyroyal Press Edition, 1982 No. 130 of 350 copies.

Figure 3: Barry Moser’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum Pennyroyal Press 1985 No. 343 of 350 signed editions

The beautiful editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are also good examples of design and layout of pages affecting the reading experience. Figures 2 and 3 both show the artistic design of these pages. One thing that struck me was the amount of “wasted” space around the text (figure 3 especially). Scott McCloud discusses briefly about the use of whitespace in Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, and while these aren’t comics, the principle is true that “elements omitted from a work of art are as much a part of that work as those included,” and “this has meant a greater focus on figure/ground relationships and ‘negative space.’” (McCloud 82). The negative space adds to the beauty of these works and could even give the reader a sense of there is more to the story than just what is written.

Figure 4: Barry Moser’s Illustrated Edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Centipede Press, 2011. Notice the progression of the font’s readability changing between pages 89 and 100.

The typography that the publisher uses can also influence a reader’s experience. In Barry Moser’s illustrated edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the text in the pages of the book are “jittery” and represent the character/narrator’s instability during that point of the plot (figure 4). Similarly, The Slant Book also uses a slanted/italic font to further the slant/hill theme throughout the story (figure 1 above). A lot of texts in Special Collection also utilize special typography with a historiated initial at the beginning of a paragraph containing a picture, for example in Opera, Ducolicou augloga prima (figure 5). The historiated initial emphasizes a particular scene and, in general, helps the reader visualize what is happening in the narrative. Even Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz use a stylized first letter of the chapter without a picture, but still use a different type (which I believe is part of their impeccable, immersive design.)

Figure 5: Opera, Ducolicou augloga prima, 1502. This is an example of a historiated letter with the first letter of the paragraph containing a visual representation of the text.

It is abundantly clear that the form and medium of a text influences the content of the story itself. It would be naive to suggest that a story can be translated to different mediums easily and accurately without losing part of the message because of how much impact the form can have on the narrative. The design and display of the message is what really drives the message home, and this is particularly noticeable in the rare works found in Special Collections.

Written by Jordan Grogan, undergraduate student, University of Pittsburgh                                      

[local-boob]

frontispiece for Nancy Willard's (1989) "The Ballad of Biddy Early," illustrated by Barry Moser #nancywillard #barrymoser #picturebooks #blackcats #illustration (at Second Story Books & Antiques - Dupont Circle)

[annielermont]

Barry Moser forever

[lasttraintosatansville]

Barry Moser is a god.

http://www.moser-pennyroyal.com/moser-pennyroyal/Blank.html