#Loyd Haberly

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Wood Engraving Wednesday

LOYD HABERLY

American wood engraver, type designer, and letterpress printer Loyd Haberly (1896-1981), while educated in the U.S., learned the craft of fine press printing in England after receiving a Rhodes Scholarship to read law at Oxford. He founded his Seven Acres Press there and did a short stint as controller of the Gregynog Press in the early 1930s. He continued to work and print in England until the late 1930s, studying and excavating medieval English paving tiles and picking up a law degree at Oxford. He returned to the U.S. to pursue an academic career, eventually becoming Dean of Liberal Arts at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He continued his fine press activities in America from 1940 to 1976.

One the last books he produced while in England was this work based on his research on paving tiles, Medieval English Pavingtiles, printed in an edition of 425 copies with his original wood engravings at the Shakespeare Head Press and published for the press by Basil Blackwell in 1937.

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We are smitten by the talents of Loyd Haberly. Born in Iowa, but raised near Silverton, Oregon, and went to college at Reed (in Portland) and at Harvard, Haberly became a world-class fine press printer (at his own Seven Acres Press and at Gregynog in Wales), a great bookbinder, and a pretty good poet. We have a large collection of materials on and by Haberly, including this beautiful book from 1942, for which we also have an original typescript...

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Hand printing by Loyd Haberly. More at Dreamers Rise.

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Typography Tuesday

In 1934, nine years after establishing his own Seven Acres Press in England, American letterpress printer, poet, and educator Loyd Haberly (1896-1981) became the controller for the great Welsh fine-press publisher Gregynog Press. He remained there until 1937 when he returned to America to teach at the college level and continue his own fine press work.

In 1936, his last year at Gregynog, Haberly wood-engraved six floriated initials, purportedly designed by the notable British calligrapher Graily Hewitt, for a Gregynog edition of Xenophon’s Cyrupaedia: The Institution and Life of Cyrus, the First of that Name, King of Persians, the first time Philemon Holland’s English translation had been reprinted since 1632.The initials for the edition were hand-colored in red and green, as seen in the sample page above taken from a Bonhams advertisement for a copy of the book.

In 1984, the revived Gwasg Gregynog reprinted all six engravings in this small commemorative keepsake entitled Floriated Initials, with a brief text in Monotype Baskerville on handmade paper from Wookey Hole Mill. Our copy is another gift from our friend Jerry Buff.

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Wood Engraving Wednesday

Loyd Haberly (1896 –1981) was an American fine-press printer, wood engraver, and educator. After graduating from Reed College in Oregon and Harvard University, Haberly traveled to England on a Rhodes Scholarship to study law. While there he became absorbed by the Arts and Crafts movement, particularly the book work of William Morris, and established his own private press, Seven Acres Press, at Long Crendon in Buckinghamshire, producing 15 books there from 1926 to 1935.    

Soon after his first publication in 1926, Haberly met the principle progenitor and kingmaker of the early fine-press movement, Emery Walker, who became Haberly’s mentor, particularly when it came to design and typographic usage. In gratitude, Haberly wrote, hand printed, and bound this publication, Daneway: A Fairy Play, for Walker in 1929, illustrated with Haberly’s own wood engravings and red, green, and gold-foil printing at his Seven Acres Press in an edition of 60 copies. Our copy is signed and dated by Haberly, June 16, 1930, and is from the collection of Grolier Club member Robert Elwell with his bookplate designed by English wood engraver Reynolds Stone.

After 1933, Haberly spent a couple of years as director of Gregynog Press in Wales before retuning to the United States where he became an academic and continued his own fine-press printing into the late 1950s.

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It’s Fine Press Friday!

This week we present The Boy and the Bird: an Oregon Idyll written and decorated by the American poet and letterpress printer Loyd Haberly, printed at his Seven Acres Press, in Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire in 1932 in an edition of 155 copies. The book is illustrated with hand-colored woodcuts by Loyd Haberly, who also bound the book with a beautifully-tooled front cover featuring bees and gold floral motifs.  

Loyd Haberly was born in 1896 in Ellsworth, Iowa. He studied at Reed College and got a master’s degree from Harvard. He later attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. While studying in England, he became interested in the Arts and Crafts movement and began taking classes in book arts at Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. Mrs. Arthur Durnford and Agatha Walker, who were fans of William Morris, invited Haberly to set up a printing press at their home, where Haberly began printing under his Seven Acres Press imprint. In 1933, Loyd Haberly was named controller of the Gregynog Press in Wales. His time with the press was brief, but he did produce five books and helped design the Paradisco typeface. In 1937, Haberly moved back to the United States and spent the rest of his career as a professor and later dean of Fairleigh Dickinson University, and printed another thirteen books from 1940 to 1976. Loyd Haberly died in 1981.

This book is another beautiful gift from our friend, Jerry Buff.

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–Sarah, Special Collections Graduate Intern

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We love fine bindings, like this beauty from the special collections, an extraordinary 20th century tooled unsigned binding, with a Moorish star design by Oregon-born Loyd Haberly, on a Gregynog Press book, The Star of Seville: a drama in three acts and in verse (1935)...

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An unpublished, hand-written poem--"Christmas Tree"--by an Oregon-raised poet/printer/bookbinder, Loyd Haberly; an inscription in a recent acquisition written and published by Haberly in 1941, The City of the Sainted King....