reviews Book Reviews 487 thinker ’s manifesto challenging a new wave of American protectionist lite- rati.—Itibari M. Zulu, University of Cali- fornia-Los Angeles. Thompson, Susan O. American Book De- sign and William Morris. 2nd ed., with new foreword by Jean-Francois Vilain. New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Pr.; London: The British Library, 1996. 318p. $49.95 cloth (ISBN 1-884718-25- 6). $34.95 paper, (ISBN 1-884718-26-4, LC 96-31223). The new edition of Susan Otis Thompson’s American Book Design and William Morris has been supplemented with a foreword by Jean-François Vilain; otherwise, it is a reprint of the 1977 edi- tion. The book originated as Thompson’s 1972 doctoral dissertation for the School of Library Service, Columbia University, where she later taught until the school’s closing in 1992. In this book, Thompson attempts the first comprehensive sur- vey of American book designs and de- signers influenced by William Morris. By the final decades of the nineteenth century, Morris—the English poet, s o c i a l t h e o r i s t , a n d d e s i g n e r—had helped to turn widespread dismay over the negative effects of industrialization into an international Arts and Crafts movement. Thompson’s study focuses on U. S. response to Morris’s final ven- ture, the Kelmscott Press, from its first publications in 1891 to the early years of the twentieth century. In so doing, she provides a context for understand- ing the artifactual value of a wide range of commercial and private press publi- cations from this period. Much work on the history of printing in the United States and on William Morris’s influence has been published in the past two decades. Nevertheless, a century after Morris’s death, evalua- tion of the significance of his influence on American book design remains chal- lenging. To what degree was Morris’s style simply copied as the latest Euro- pean fashion? In what ways was the idiom of incunabular printing, as inter- preted by this inspired, if nostalgic, En- glishman, transformed to satisfy the growing sophistication of a much more recently formed nation? Thompson has brought us a long way toward answering such questions. To demonstrate the scope and speed of the Kelmscott Press’s impact in this coun- try, she has compiled a body of primary evidence in the form of turn-of-the-cen- tury “Morrisian” books and contempo- rary commentary upon their designs and designers. Her introductory chap- ters on the state of publishing in the late nineteenth century, and on the distin- guishing characteristics of various Clas- sical and Romantic book styles of the period, are helpful, though somewhat dated given the greater understanding of Victorian style that has developed in the decades since Thompson’s analy- sis was first published. More attention might have been given, for instance, to clarifying the relationship of the Kelmscott Press’s interpretation of Re- naissance and Gothic styles to larger revivalist trends. Morris himself began his career in a prominent Gothic Revival architectural firm, and closer analysis of this long-lived style, including an il- lustration or two, would have been par- ticularly useful. Gothic Revival style was thoroughly integrated with Kelmscott influence in the work of many Ameri- can typographers and book designers, most notably Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, himself a Gothic Revival ar- chitect. Morris’s pre-Kelmscott influence on Victorian book design also is deserving of consideration. For instance, as Th- ompson points out, Morris, in his Kelmscott days, decried the printing of special large-paper copies of literary works because this practice spoils the proportions of the margins. Ironically, Morris was responsible for initiating the practice he later abhorred. Large-pa- 488 College & Research Libraries September 1997 it should come at the end of the book and have no illustrations. Typefaces are a major feature of Thompson’s stylistic criteria, yet most people are n o t f l u e n t i n t h e m a n y f a c e s s h e names. A concise, illustrated discus- sion of the significant features of the various Arts and Crafts fonts early in the text would have gone a long way toward making the many later refer- ences to them meaningful. Thompson’s concluding chapter, titled simply “Chronology and Perspectives,” provides an overview of the year-by- year rise and then diminution of the di- rect influence of Kelmscott Press style in the United States, and a brief discussion of shifting critical acclaim. She concludes by arguing for the value of printing as inter- pretation and for the enduring value of the hand-printed book as a vehicle for personal expression. This position has found much support in the past two decades. Although one wishes for the benefit of the author ’s experience in the form of a fully revised version, American Book Design and William Morris remains valu- able as a resource for anyone inter- ested in understanding this important turning point in the development of U. S. printing and graphic design.—Jeanne- Marie Musto, Harvard University. per copies became a standard feature of his publications by the 1870s, long before he founded the Kelmscott Press and more than a decade before they were commonplace elsewhere. The main body of Thompson’s text, and its most useful feature, is a survey of the book designs and designers in the principal U. S. publishing centers of the period: Boston, Chicago, and New York. The centers are treated in the chronological order in which they were affected by Morris’s influence; a few de- signers and publishers are singled out for individual treatment. An impressive bibliography of design examples supplements the information given in the text. Significant gaps in her cover- age are noted by Vilain in his preface. Yet Vilain’s preface, if not entirely un- critical, does little to address the most frustrating aspect of Thompson’s study: the limited use to which this consider- able documentation has been put. Be- cause much of the text consists of the enumeration of examples interspersed with quotations, this material might have been better organized as a cata- log with a general introduction. The chapter on American versions of Kelmscott types which follows the survey is helpful, but it is not clear why << /ASCII85EncodePages false /AllowTransparency false /AutoPositionEPSFiles true /AutoRotatePages /All /Binding /Left /CalGrayProfile (Dot Gain 20%) /CalRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CalCMYKProfile (U.S. Web Coated \050SWOP\051 v2) /sRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CannotEmbedFontPolicy /Warning /CompatibilityLevel 1.3 /CompressObjects /Tags /CompressPages true /ConvertImagesToIndexed true /PassThroughJPEGImages true /CreateJobTicket false /DefaultRenderingIntent /Default /DetectBlends true /DetectCurves 0.0000 /ColorConversionStrategy /CMYK /DoThumbnails false /EmbedAllFonts true /EmbedOpenType false /ParseICCProfilesInComments true /EmbedJobOptions true /DSCReportingLevel 0 /EmitDSCWarnings false /EndPage -1 /ImageMemory 1048576 /LockDistillerParams false /MaxSubsetPct 1 /Optimize true /OPM 1 /ParseDSCComments true /ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo true /PreserveCopyPage true /PreserveDICMYKValues true /PreserveEPSInfo true /PreserveFlatness false /PreserveHalftoneInfo true /PreserveOPIComments false /PreserveOverprintSettings true /StartPage 1 /SubsetFonts false /TransferFunctionInfo /Apply /UCRandBGInfo /Preserve /UsePrologue false /ColorSettingsFile () /AlwaysEmbed [ true ] /NeverEmbed [ true ] /AntiAliasColorImages false /CropColorImages false /ColorImageMinResolution 151 /ColorImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleColorImages true /ColorImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /ColorImageResolution 300 /ColorImageDepth -1 /ColorImageMinDownsampleDepth 1 /ColorImageDownsampleThreshold 1.10000 /EncodeColorImages true /ColorImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterColorImages true /ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /ColorACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /ColorImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000ColorImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasGrayImages false /CropGrayImages false /GrayImageMinResolution 151 /GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.10000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /GrayImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000GrayImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasMonoImages false /CropMonoImages false /MonoImageMinResolution 600 /MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.16667 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict << /K -1 >> /AllowPSXObjects false /CheckCompliance [ /None ] /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile () /PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName () /PDFXTrapped /False /CreateJDFFile false /Description << /ENU (IPC Print Services, Inc. Please use these settings with InDesign CS4 \(6.x\). These settings should work well for every type of job; B/W, Color or Spot Color. Contact Pre-press Helpdesk at prepress_helpdesk@ipcprintservices.com if you have questions or need customized settings.) >> /Namespace [ (Adobe) (Common) (1.0) ] /OtherNamespaces [ << /AsReaderSpreads false /CropImagesToFrames true /ErrorControl /WarnAndContinue /FlattenerIgnoreSpreadOverrides false /IncludeGuidesGrids false /IncludeNonPrinting false /IncludeSlug false /Namespace [ (Adobe) (InDesign) (4.0) ] /OmitPlacedBitmaps false /OmitPlacedEPS false /OmitPlacedPDF false /SimulateOverprint /Legacy >> << /AddBleedMarks true /AddColorBars false /AddCropMarks true /AddPageInfo true /AddRegMarks false /BleedOffset [ 9 9 9 9 ] /ConvertColors /ConvertToCMYK /DestinationProfileName (U.S. Web Coated \(SWOP\) v2) /DestinationProfileSelector /DocumentCMYK /Downsample16BitImages true /FlattenerPreset << /ClipComplexRegions true /ConvertStrokesToOutlines true /ConvertTextToOutlines true /GradientResolution 300 /LineArtTextResolution 1200 /PresetName ([High Resolution]) /PresetSelector /HighResolution /RasterVectorBalance 1 >> /FormElements false /GenerateStructure false /IncludeBookmarks false /IncludeHyperlinks false /IncludeInteractive false /IncludeLayers false /IncludeProfiles true /MarksOffset 9 /MarksWeight 0.250000 /MultimediaHandling /UseObjectSettings /Namespace [ (Adobe) (CreativeSuite) (3.0) ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfileSelector /NA /PageMarksFile /RomanDefault /PreserveEditing true /UntaggedCMYKHandling /LeaveUntagged /UntaggedRGBHandling /UseDocumentProfile /UseDocumentBleed false >> << /AllowImageBreaks true /AllowTableBreaks true /ExpandPage false /HonorBaseURL true /HonorRolloverEffect false /IgnoreHTMLPageBreaks false /IncludeHeaderFooter false /MarginOffset [ 0 0 0 0 ] /MetadataAuthor () /MetadataKeywords () /MetadataSubject () /MetadataTitle () /MetricPageSize [ 0 0 ] /MetricUnit /inch /MobileCompatible 0 /Namespace [ (Adobe) (GoLive) (8.0) ] /OpenZoomToHTMLFontSize false /PageOrientation /Portrait /RemoveBackground false /ShrinkContent true /TreatColorsAs /MainMonitorColors /UseEmbeddedProfiles false /UseHTMLTitleAsMetadata true >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /HWResolution [2400 2400] /PageSize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice