#riverside press

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More Folktales

With Women’s History Month coming to a close, I offer you one final book that caught my eye first by the lovely gold accented cover, followed by the stories and illustrations inside. 

The Book of Saints & Friendly Beasts was written by American author Abbie Farwell Brown (1871-1927) and illustrated by Fanny Young Cory (1877-1972). It was first published in Boston and New York by Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. in 1900, printed at the Riverside Press and designed by the incomparable Bruce Rogers. The book contains twenty-two stories that focus on a different saint and animal in each tale as well as illustrations that coincide with a handful of the tales.

The Book of Saints & Friendly Beasts was actually Brown’s first published book and was intended for a younger audience. She was inspired to write the book after her trip to Chester Cathedral in England in 1899. The animals that coincide with the tales were inspired by the moral tenets of Christianity, which I found to be quite interesting. This book and its initial publication was what led to her career as a children’s book author.

Fanny Young Cory’s desire to draw began at a young age, where she drew on anything that she could. She made her first sale in 1898 to The Century Magazine, and once her career blossomed, she did covers and interior illustrations for various other magazines. Her most enduring effort, however, and one she considered to be her finest work, was a project she started as a means of relaxation and came to be known as The Fairy Alphabet.

View more posts from our Historical Curriculum Collection of children’s books.

View more Women’s History Month posts.

-- Elizabeth V., Special Collections Undergraduate Writing Intern

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hand of henry viii

intaglio (photogravure) facsimile of a letter* written by king henry viii, in a highly current bastard secretary hand [cf. hilary jenkinson, «Elizabethan Writings», The Library, vol iii, no. 1, 1922].

*plate between pp 60 & 61 in: george cavendish, The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey, houghton mifflin, boston, 1945; designed by bruce rogers, printed at the riverside press, cambridge.

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Science Saturday

Published by Boston firm James R. Osgood and Company in 1977, Biology, with Preludes on Current Events captures a series of lectures on the theme of biology by Rev. Joseph Cook. The plates, printed by the Heliotype Printing Co., originate from the work of microscopists Beale and Frey. The lectures were part of a series that grew out of Cook’s leadership of the Monday afternoon prayer meetings at Boston’s Tremont Temple. Starting in 1874, Cook’s presiding over the prayer meeting grew into a hugely popular local event, with many Bostonians using their lunch breaks to attend the weekly lectures. Many of the lectures focused on scientific breakthroughs and attempted to create common ground between modern science and Christian Orthodoxy.  

As indicated on the title page, publisher James R. Osgood and Company was an iteration of what was originally Ticknor and Fields (founded 1832), where Osgood started as a clerk and was eventually made partner. Ticknor and Fields was a Boston powerhouse, their stable of writers including Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Twain, and Beecher Stowe. After the death of the William Ticknor, coincidentally from pneumonia while accompanying Nathaniel Hawthorne on a trip to restore Hawthorne’s own failing health, Osgood’s name was added to the masthead. Fields retired at the end of 1871 and James R. Osgood and Company was born. The firm produced several volumes from the Boston Monday Lectures series, including our 1877 volume on Biology. 

James R. Osgood and Company dissolved the following year, and Osgood partnered with Henry Oscar Houghton, whose Riverside Press had had a long business relationship printing for Ticknor and Fields. Houghton, Osgood, and Company would prove to be short-lived, however, and Osgood left the firm after two years. The newly emerged Houghton Mifflin Company inherited the publishing catalog of Ticknor and Fields (along with substantial debts); the Boston Monday Lecture series was published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company from 1879 onward. 

Find more Science Saturday posts here.

-Olivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern

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Milestone Monday:

Joyeux Anniversaire M. Montaigne!

Today we honor the birth of French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, born on this day, the 28th of February in 1533. Not only was Montaigne one of the most significant figures of the French Renaissance, but he is also widely considered to have popularized the essay as a literary form, so you can thank (or curse) him for all those late nights facing down a deadline during your school years!

To celebrate this occasion, we present the Riverside Press edition of Essays of Michael, Lord of Montaigne, written by him in French and done into English by John Florio. This three-volume set was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company of Boston and New York, and printed by Riverside Press in Cambridge, Mass. The volumes were published over three years between 1902 and 1904, with each volume limited to 265 copies.

The book was designed by lauded typographer and book designer Bruce Rogers. Rogers designed books for Riverside Press from 1895-1911, initially working on trade publications and designing advertisements for the Atlantic Monthly. From 1900 onward, Rogers led Riverside’s Department of Special Bookmaking, where he oversaw the design for the presses fine press output. It was for this edition that Rogers designed and cut his first typeface, a Venetian styled type appropriately named Montaigne.

Each volume features a different portrait on the frontispiece. Volume one contains a wood engraving of Montaigne based on a portrait by French engraver Thomas de Leu. Volume two features a portrait of the translator, John Florio, while the third volume showcases Marie de Gournay, the original editor and publisher or Montaigne’s work. The title page of the first volume bears the motto of Riverside Press: “tout bien ou rien” – do it well or not at all, as well as Montaigne’s famous skeptical remark, “Que sais-je?” – what do I know?  

-Olivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern

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Publishers’ Binding Thursday

Today is another Publishers’ Binding Thursday and this lovely little book fits the bill quite nicely. This is Among Friends by Samuel McChord Cruthers. Published in Boston in November 1910 by Houghton Mifflin Co., the book was designed by Bruce Rogers and printed at the Riverside Press. The chapter headings are curious and quite funny, including The Anglo-American School of Polite Unlearning, The Hundred Worst Books, and The Merry Devil of Education. 

The cover is green bookcloth with gold stamped flourishes and the title stamped in gold in the center. Inside, we found something charming—a calling card from a Miss Baird from Christmas 1910 with a note written on it. The note reads: “With love + all the best wishes of the season.” For some reason, Miss Baird’s name is crossed out on the card. 

View more posts about Bruce Rogers.

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-- Alice, Special Collections Department Manager 

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Valentine’s Day Advice

On this St. Valentine’s Day 2019, we thought perhaps a little advice was in order, so we turned to the British writer Arnold Haultain and his Hints for Lovers, published in 1909 by the Houghton Mifflin Company. Haultain published this work at the wise age of 52 and dedicated it to his only daughter Emma Mellicent Audrey who was only six years old at the time.

To add the luster of love to the publication, the book was superbly designed by the masterly Bruce Rogers and printed at Houghton Mifflin’s own Riverside Press in an edition of 540 copies.

The book starts off with a little warning. Embedded in the cartouche of lovers at the bottom of the title page is an abbreviated Latin motto, Amor Flos ut Tra’sie’t, which translates roughly as “Love’s flower may fade.” Of all the aphorisms presented here, perhaps our favorites are from "On Kisses and Kissings”: 

A kiss is a small thing, so is a spark . . . A smile is an open window, a kiss is an open door.

This copy is yet another gift from our dear friend Jerry Buff, to whom we send our most sincere Valentine’s greetings.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

View our other St. Valentine’s Day posts.

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Daniel Berkeley Updike: Birthday Anniversary

On February 24, 1860, Daniel Berkeley Updike was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He was an only child who supplemented his private school education by visiting libraries. Due to financial constraints, he was unable to attend college but instead went to work at Houghton, Mifflin & Company. He went from errand boy to having substantial responsibilities within the company over the course of twelve years. During this time, he absorbed the details of fine printing.

In 1893, after spending a couple of years at the Riverside Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Updike started his own printing business and in 1896 began to publish under the name Merrymount Press.

In the Fleuron No. 3 published in London 1924, there is a piece written by W. A. Dwiggins titled “D. B. Updike and the Merrymount Press.” In this essay Dwiggins talks about his first encounter with Updike at a dinner of the Society of Printers of Boston in 1905.

“He made his enterprise after a pattern of his own. He came into the game unhampered by any great knowledge of how it should be played.”

Updike had, it seems, from the start an inherent knowledge of what good printing and typography were. He would not compromise the work he did. No matter if it was a book, pamphlet, or a label he sought to “do common work well.”

“To be either artist or man of business is not particularly difficult. To be both at one time is complicated. Updike is both.”

The output from Merrymount Press was substantial; however Updike kept the business small. 

“It has been kept small with the purpose that all of it should be directly under the eye of one person.”

The period of the early 20th century saw changes occurring in the world of print. Updike sometimes had to steer clients away from the “artistic atrocity” of flourishes and scrolls toward more simple designs. One can recognize good typography and good press work without knowing about the process or the art. The work of Merrymount Press exemplifies this aesthetic. It just looks right.

Dwiggins sums up Daniel Berkeley Updike like this

“A connoisseur of life, a good judge of men, a wit, a retailer of anecdotes, a social creature. An accomplished performer in that lost art, conversation; but timid withal, when forced to speak formally before an audience. A man of no school, graduate of no major academy; but a finished scholar, with an adequate technique of research and criticism… Citizen of that vivid world of scholars and gentlemen that we call the Renaissance; citizen not quite so easily, perhaps, of this world of machines and wrecked idealisms; quite willing citizen of all the country that stretches between. Citizen of the world, in any event.”

Updike’s work on the history of print and typography continue to be studied. We celebrate the man and his work today with images from his collaboration with Dwiggins The Poetical Works of John Milton: With a Life of the Author and Illustrations published by R. H. Hinkley Company in Boston in 1908. It was printed by D. B. Updike and designed by W. A. Dwiggins. The image of the portrait is from The Work of the Merrymount Press and its Founder, Daniel Berkeley Updike (1860-1941) an Exhibition Prepared by Gregg Anderson published by the Huntington Library in 1942.

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Typography Tuesday

This week we present the Bruce Rogers’s masterful design for The Song of Roland printed in French bâtarde Gothic and civilité types in an edition of 220 copies on American handmade paper by the Riverside Press for Houghton Mifflin Company in 1906. The text was hand printed in black, red, blue, and golden brown with an opening initial printed in gold. The hand-colored woodcut illustrations are from drawings done by Rogers from the Charlemagne window in the Cathedral of Chartres depicting the life of Roland.

The Riverside Press, where Bruce Rogers oversaw the Department of Special Bookmaking, was the printing establishment of Houghton, Mifflin publishing company. George Mifflin was so proud of this production of Roland (and rightly so) that he sent a copy to president Theodore Roosevelt, who shared Mifflin’s enthusiasm saying that he was proud that this was an American production and believed it rivaled the most beautiful printings of the age of incunabula. Rogers himself was impressed, and included it in a list of his top 30 productions of the more than 400 books he designed.

Our copy is not yet cataloged, and is once again one of those brilliant discoveries from the massive Jerry Buff donation.

View our other Typography Tuesday posts.