#Book of American Types

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

American Type Founders (ATF), established in 1892 with the merger of 23 type foundries, was the predominant producer of metal type in America for the first 50 years of its existence, and remained influential in the industry almost until its closing in the early 1990s. In its heyday, this conglomeration of foundries produced about 85 percent of all type manufactured in the United States at the time. As a behemoth type manufacturer, it also had most of the nation's top type designers producing original typefaces for the foundry, including Will Bradley, Frederic Goudy, Oz Cooper, T.M. Cleland, and the prolific Morris Fuller Benton, who was also the head of the ATF design department.

This ATF type specimen book, Book of American Types, published in 1934 presents some of the "Standard Types" offered by ATF. As the Preface notes:

During the last decade there has been a period of experimental effort in typography the influence of which at times has carried us a long way from the traditional past. . . . No type specimen book can ever be complete in the strictest sense. As printing proceeds, new designs enter the early stages of preparation. Alphabets from leading artists and from our own pre-eminent staff of designers are being continually studied in the effort to anticipate style trends. . . . Change is inherent in progress and every effort will be made to have these separate specimens reflect the most recent trends while at all times maintaining the highest typographic standards.

This statement, along with the title and the name of the corporation, place an emphasis on the spirit of progressivism during the interwar period, as well as the exceptionalism of American initiative and design. But as the display of the Broadway Series of type (designed by Benton in the late 1920s) reminds us, "Herds Ignore Granted Delusions." Our copy of Book of American Types is another donation from the estate of our late friend Dennis Bayuzick.

View other books from the collection of Dennis Bayuzick.

View other type specimen books.

View more Typography Tuesday posts.

[nostalgia-tblr]

I feel like anyone who's about to embark on attempting to type out a character's accent phoentically (at least as well as one can with English) should probably stop for a moment before they get going and ask themselves, "How would I, myself, feel about a fic where the one character who sounds like me had their speech written out like this and every other character just got their dialogue left in standard spelling?" I feel like a lot of people would tone it down a bit, at least, if they'd done that thought experiment first.

(Anyone who answered "but I don't have an accent!" isn't allowed to write out anyone else's accent, ever. This rule may seem harsh but you need it. Really, you do. Because you've never had anyone treat your accent as abnormal or comical or wrong, so you really don't know what you're inflicting on others here.)

[hanzajesthanza]

my attempts to avoid thoughts of geralt's hanza continue to fail, as sapkowski talks about them in front of my face.

(from manuscript, on the subject of the hero and the quest):

On this expedition, the Hero (Simple or King) is accompanied by others who are stereotypical-canonical fantasy characters, in other words - clichés:

Wizard-Mentor (the aforementioned MERLIN, Obi-wan Kenobi, Gandalf, Allanon, Belgarath, Sephrenia or Moiraine, who supports the hero with advice and help); Faithful Servant (in the case of the King, literally, in the case of the Simple, rather a childhood friend, Sam Gamgee. He serves the plot to recite wise folk maxims and prove that the simple people are the most morally healthy; or to save the ass of his master/friend where magic and a sharp sword will not help, and common sense and a strong, faithful arm will suffice). Good Knight (charismatic LANCELOT, always loyal and ready to fight, sometimes with some dark secret in his life); Worse Knight (always with some dark secret in his life, ambitious like Boromir, in the clutches of Evil, secretly collaborates with Evil, regrets betrayal, undergoes catharsis, perishes); Trickster - Conniver (see LOKI in "Materia Magiczna"**), cheerful, but can cause trouble, which attracts like a magnet; Damsel in Distress, who is saved from danger on the way and included in the team. Usually a princess in disguise. For several volumes of the cycle she does not like the Hero, in the last she becomes his wife.

* Type A = Percival, a hero who does not have power and is searching it, and Type B = King Arthur, a hero who has lost his power and wants to regain it. in other words, Type A = Reynevan and Type B = Geralt :)

** another chapter of the book, "Materia magica, or the Little Magical Alphabetical Lexicon," it's a glossary of various myth and legend. in loki's entry, he recounts some myths of loki and equivalates him with other figures across various traditions: Odysseus, Pryderi, Bricriu, Mordred, Alyosha Popovich, Coyote, Anansi, Maui). then he lists a few fantasy/spec fic characters he categorizes as trickers: Cugel (Dying Earth), Kickaha (World of Tiers), Coyote (Coyote Blue), Peter Lake (Winter's Tale), Moonglum (Elric of Melniboné), Nifft and Haldar (Nifft the Lean), Random (Chronicles of Amber), Saruman (Lord of the Rings), Shimrod (Lyonesse), Silk (The Belgariad and The Malloreon), Gray Mouser (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser), Talen (The Elenium).

my thoughts:

pretty obvious assignments here, for the most part.

regis is the Wizard-Mentor, but, as he soon loses his mystique, his intellectual, philosophizing manner becomes mundane and irritating than providing magical provenance. he advises incessantly, answering questions before they're asked, giving guidance when no one asked. he only appears to be omniscient, and the others may think he's so smart because he's hundreds of years older than them, but is really just a guy, a middle aged man with a troubled youth which he learned from. his advice is not magically guided and for this reason is fallable, mortal, human. maybe the cliché is also played with in that he's a vampire, not a wizard, sorcerer, or priest, "‘I see.’ The poet sighed. ‘Is Regis a sorcerer?’ ‘No. No, not a sorcerer.’" ... as vampires are typically evil and regis is decidedly a force of good. (on this topic, @wampirzielarz once compared-contrasted gandalf and regis and it was super interesting :))

dandelion is a combination of the Faithful Servant and the Trickster. he's geralt's best friend, and doesn't fight alongside him with sword but his presence is necessary to our hero for moral support, that all makes the first part an obvious assignment... and... sapkowski lists a wide variety of tricksters of various moral alignments, but amongst them are some heroes and some best friends of heroes (and anti-heroes). and asides from being geralt's closest friend, dandelion is, after all, a rascal, who uses words and good looks to get what he wants from people. "a cynic, a lecher, a womanizer and a liar." (also, because i think szarlej also fits this double-definition as well, i won't hesitate to give them to dandelion, as they serve pretty similar functions alongside their respective heroes).

milva is the Good Knight, "always loyal and ready to fight" describes her perfectly, and her 'dark secret' was her pregnancy and plans for abortion. (though, the attribution of lancelot... well, maybe this is why some keen eyes saw a potential in yenva). anyhow, the playfulness with the cliché comes from the fact that she's a woman, which is supposed to be surprising that the hero's strongest ally is a woman. i think the "charismatic" attribute is also supposed to be played with here, as milva is simple and not too well-spoken, only so in her cursing. in other words, she's a peasant woman, and not a born-and-bred nobleman. also, for her gender, she is a play on another trope sapkowski mentions a couple of pages later, but i can't go into it now because it's too funny.

cahir is the Worse Knight, though perhaps in reverse, for all of his associations with Evil was in the past and shed like sports colors when he changed teams. he has no betrayal, "I will never betray you, witcher," all of his ‘betrayal’ was before he was even allied with the hero. but of course, for these sins, he "undergoes catharsis, perishes".

the Damsel in Distress is evidentially angouleme, being "saved from danger on the way and included in the team." the rebuking of the cliché, of course, is that geralt is "genuinely angry, genuinely confused, genuinely embarrassed" when she offers her "gratitude" to him. also, that she is no princess in disguise, just an ordinary girl, though she is confused for the princess they're after (who also happens to be another play on the damsel in distress cliché). and again, like milva, i think angouleme is related to another specifically female character cliché sapkowski calls out; but i'll save it for another post.

[logophilist1982]

F. Scott Fitzgerald

[teanderthalrex]

Horror Movie Book Recommendations

Friday the 13th - Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle

Nightmare on Elm Street - Dream Date by Sinclair Smith

Halloween - Escape from Happydale by Jack Quaid

Hereditary - A Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Little Shop of Horrors - Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke

Scream - My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

The Blair Witch Project - House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

An American Werewolf in London - Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison

Dawn of the Dead - The Z Word by Lindsay King-Miller

Poltergeist - The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons

The Thing - The Troop by Nick Cutter

The Exorcist - My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

Evil Dead - The Hobbomock by Ryan C. Thomas

Alien - Contagion by Erin Bowen

The Shining - The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Gremlins - Clickers by J. F. Gonzalez & Mark WIlliams

[oifaaa]

When I was younger I used to get so pissed off by high-school aus specifically bc no matter where the original story takes place the au would always be set in an American high-school and American High schools confuse the hell out of me

[hoe4kai]

My book so far (its so bad DONT JUDGE OKUR?)

last 1 isnt done yet so lets ignore that....also im acc good at drawing just real shit at colouring in which dosent make sense..but yea

🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

its giving felt cute might delete later BC NAH Y'ALL SEE THIS POST WHILE YOU CAN BC NO WAY IS THIS BEING ON MY ACC ITS GONNA POSSESS IT😢

[anza-redstar]

Speaking of Raffles, if anyone* would like to be cursed with a basic understanding of cricket, may I recommend this blog post: Cricket for Americans - a primer

*You will need a basic understanding of baseball, but when I say basic, I mean “played kickball as a child”, “able to identify which one is the pitcher and which one is the first baseman”, “can tell when a home run just happened”. My own baseball knowledge is so sketchy I was trying to remember how many innings there are in a game and could only get to “pretty sure it’s either seven or nine”, and yet I read the linked post and now I can more or less follow what’s going on in fictional cricket scenes. You may or may not want this - not gonna lie, it’s removed some of the mystique - but the option is open.

[nururu]

I realized my disconnect when it comes to talking about one piece, and why I always say I like talking to dudebros more even if they're the worst... Is, I like to analyze literature. I like to analyze the source material and the canonic information. Shipping and stuff is for fun but I see it separately. The intersect bc canon inspires fanon but fanon CANNOT change canon.. I don't mix the two things especially not when I'm doing analysis... So I'll say things that are factual and ppl who are stuck in their headcanons or personal biases will think I'm saying something bad. What I'm saying isn't good or bad. It's not judgmental of the character I'm talking about. Nor is it a bias bc I like them/dislike them. I'm analyzing odas writing and his intentions as an author and what he's trying to say and portray. Most ppl online are too caught up in headcanons and personal bias while having no media comprehension and they think that I'm attacking their made up fanon stuff..... Noooo..... You're over there playing pretend and I'm over here doing analysis. We are not doing remotely near the same activity. They don't always need to intersect. Anyways it's hard to have genuine analytical conversations with ppl fully indulged in fandom and fanon. The only group of ppl who doesn't do that are dudebros but also... They get hung up on other stuff that doesn't matter too. Idkkkkkkkkk.

[wangmiao]

Zhang Luyi for GQ (2023/09/15)

[uwmspeccoll]

It's Fine Press Friday!

This week we present another book from the estate of the late Dennis Bayuzick: Powerdog, a children’s story based on a public television documentary explaining the importance of horses for the Dakota-Nakota-Lakota people. The book was written and printed by Polly B. Johnson at her Press of the Unseen Unicorn in San Antonio, Texas, in an edition of 50 copies.

The book explains the mythical origin of horses according to the aforementioned Native American people. Their word for horse translates into “something like 'power-dog'” according to the author. The story tells of the people who were forced to kill their dog companions to eat due to a lack of food in the harsh winter, and how a boy begged the Great Holy Spirit to prevent his dog from becoming food. When he awoke, his dog was transformed into a horse that helped him herd buffalo back to his home and end the practice of eating dogs.

The edition was printed on Masa paper using the Verona type with reduction linocut illustrations. The cover is made of Larroque Mouchette paper with flecks of paper pulp.

View other books from the collection of Dennis Bayuzick.

View more Fine Press Friday Posts.

– Sarah S., Special Collections Graduate Intern

[moondal514]

Y’all ever read a book that disturbs you so much it fucks with your writing?

[hanzajesthanza]

you guys… we did it!!!

just wanted to thank you everyone for being a part of this blog… “big things to come soon”

[goliadkine]

Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel, the Joan of Arc series, I-VI, 1906-1910, (Washington DC National Gallery of Art, usa.)

[yellow-yarrow]

I have a friend whose taste in books is very different from mine (she reads ya romance novels, I read like, skandinavian contemporary novels and philosophy) and it's very nice of her to gift me books( she gave me a copy of a book she accidentally ordered twice as an early Christmas present) but how am I supposed to actually read this 400 page romance about japanese men, that has "boys love" written on the cover, and was written by a hungarian woman & it has sentences like "thank you nee-chan!* *Nee chan means sister in Japanese". It starts with a sex scene that gets interrupted. I feel like I'm reading fanfiction(the bad kind) (not because of the sex) (because of the writing style)

On the other hand I'm surprised by how fast I'm reading this. The writing style is simple and very predictable. I almost forgot what it feels like to read something where I don't have to think

[dbphantom]

maybe i should have gone into practical effects instead of computer science...