The Printed Book in America

Scolar Press, London, first edition, 1977. Cloth, large 8vo, 28 cm,. xvi, 250 pp, 70 plates. From the blurb: "During the summer of 1638 the Reverend Jose Glover set off across the Atlantic for New England with a printing press, a supply of type and a stock of paper, with the intention of setting up a press in the infant colony to serve church and state. Although Glover died during the voyage, Stephen Daye, a barely literate locksmith who had accompanied him, and Daye's son took over the establishment of the press in the grounds of Harvard College. The first item printed in America was an 'Oath of Allegiance to the King', and the first book, the 'Bay Psalm Book', was completed in 1640. The Printed Book in America traces the history of American printing from these unsteady beginnings to the present day, paying particular attention to major figures such as Benjamin Franklin and Isaiah Thomas in the earlier period and Daniel Berkeley Updike, Bruce Rogers and Frederic W. Goudy in the present century. This monumental survey is the first book to compress into a single volume a comprehensive account of the development, variety and quality of American typography. It pays particular attention to private and special presses which, building upon the heritage of the past, have carried forward the traditions and enriched the aesthetic achievements of American printing and bookmaking."Contents : The Colonial Period : Stephen and Matthew Daye, Samuel Green , Marmaduke Johnson , William Bradford , Benjamin Franklin , Ephrata Press , Christopher Sower , James Parker , John Green , William Parks , Jonas Green , William Goddard , Colonial Women , Binny and Ronaldson , Isaiah Thomas , Mathew Carey ; The Nineteenth Century and into The Twentieth Century: The House of Harper , Joel Munsell , Theodore Low De Vinne , An Historical Retrospective , Boston, to the 's, Thomas Bird Mosher , Stone & Kimball , Copeland & Day , Way & Williams , Elbert Hubbard , The Elston Press , Walter Gilliss ; The Renaissance In American Printing: Daniel Berkeley Updike Bruce Rogers , Frederic W. Goudy , Will Bradley , Carl Purington Rollins , Thomas Maitland Cleland , William Addison Dwiggins , Rudolph Ruzicka , John Henry Nash , William Edwin Rudge , Dard Hunter ; The Twentieth Century: Elmer Adler , Victor Hammer , Edwin and Robert Grabhorn , New England , New York and the East , The Midwest , California ; The Plates ; Bibliography ; Index. Very Good in Very Good dustwrapper.