AN AMERICAN “BOOKBUILDER”:
AN EXAMINATION OF LOYD HABERLY AND THE
TRANSATLANTIC ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT
Presented to the Faculty of the
Honors Tutorial College
Ohio University
In partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the degree of the
Bachelor of the Arts
By Cassandra Machenheimer
Athens, Ohio
26 April 2019 i
Table of Contents
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………….iii
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………...…iv
List of Illustrations……………………………………………………………………………….v
Introduction: The Transatlantic Arts and Crafts Movement…………………………………1
The British Arts and Crafts Movement……………………………………………………………2
The American Arts and Crafts Movement………………………………………………………...6
The Arts and Crafts Influence in a Modernist and Post-Modernist World………………………..8
An American “Bookbuilder”…………………………………………………………………….11
Chapter 1: Loyd Haberly and the Seven Acres Press………………………………………...15
Miss Agatha Walker, Mrs. Lucie Durnford, and Seven Acres…………………………………..20
Meeting Emery Walker…………………………………………………………………………..22
Books of Seven Acres Press……………………………………………………………………..24
Poems (1930)…………………………………………………………………………………….24
The Copper Colored Cupid (1931)………………………………………………………………29
The Antiquary (1933)……………………………………………………………………………31
Chapter 2: Gregynog Press and Stoney Down Press………………………………………....36 ii
The Davies Sisters………………………………………………………………………………..36
Loyd Haberly and the Gregynog Press…………………………………………………………..41
Anne Boleyn and Other Poems (1934)…………………………………………………………..45
Stoney Down Press (Return to Seven Acres)……………………………………………………48
The Crowning Year and Other Poems (1937)…………………………………………………...49
Chapter 3: Loyd Haberly and the American Arts and Crafts Movement………………….53
Loyd Haberly, American Scholar………………………………………………………………..58
American Books…………………………………………………………………………………59
The City of the Sainted King, and Other Poems (1941)…………………………………………62
Again, and Other Poems (1953)………………………………………………………………….65
Conclusion…………………………………………...………………………………………….69
Glossary…………………………………………………………………………………………76
Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………..79
iii
Abstract
My project examines the work of Loyd Haberly (1896-1981), a self-styled “bookbuilder” who hand printed and illustrated over 30 books in the UK and US in the first half of the 20th century.
This thesis examines Haberly’s works in order to trace the influence of Britain’s Arts and Crafts movement on this American artist. By extension, it studies the impact in the US of both the Arts and Crafts aesthetic and the hand-press revival and considers their relevance to artistic movements that followed.
iv
Acknowledgments
Dr. Nicole Reynolds, Ohio University
Dr. Joseph McLaughlin, Ohio University
Dr. Miriam Intrator, Ohio University
Ms. Eleanor Friedl, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Mr. Brian Shetler, Drew University
Cary Frith, Honors Tutorial College, Ohio University
Kathy White, Honors Tutorial College, Ohio University
Margie Huber, Honors Tutorial College, Ohio University
v
List of Illustrations
Figure 1 – William Morris, Strawberry Thief, 1883, printed textile. (Identification from Linda
Parry, William Morris Textiles, New York, Viking Press, 1983).
Figure 2 – Edward Burne-Jones, The Beguiling of Merlin, 1872-7, oil on canvas, 186 x 111cm.
Figure 3 – A look at the “Chaucer Type.” Geoffrey Chaucer and Edward Coley Burne-
Jones, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. A Facsimile of the William Morris Kelmscott Chaucer, with the Original 87 Illus. by Edward Burne-Jones, Together with an Introd. by John T.
Winterich and a Glossary for the Modern Reader. World Pub. Co., 1958. Courtesy of Ohio
University Archives, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections.
Figure 4 – A page from a facsimile of the Kelmscott Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer and Edward
Coley Burne-Jones. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. A Facsimile of the William Morris
Kelmscott Chaucer, with the Original 87 Illus. by Edward Burne-Jones, Together with an Introd. by John T. Winterich and a Glossary for the Modern Reader. World Pub. Co., 1958. Courtesy of
Ohio University Archives, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections.
Figure 5 – A “block for colophon of the Chaucer,” sent to Haberly by Emery Walker. Loyd
Haberly. Florham History Materials: Archival Box. Loyd Haberly and Others, 1917-1976.
Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries.
Figure 6 – The front cover of Poems. Loyd Haberly. Poems. Seven Acres Press, 1930. Courtesy of Ohio University Archives, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections.
Figure 7 – The back cover of Poems. Loyd Haberly. Poems. Seven Acres Press, 1930. Courtesy of Ohio University Archives, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections. vi
Figure 8 – A page from Poems. Loyd Haberly. Poems. Seven Acres Press, 1930. Courtesy of
Ohio University Archives, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections.
Figure 9 – A copy of Poems. Loyd Haberly. Poems. Seven Acres Press, 1930. Courtesy of Drew
University Libraries.
Figure 10 – A picture of Virginia Haberly’s stamp. Loyd Haberly. Poems. Seven Acres Press,
1930. Courtesy of Drew University Libraries.
Figure 11 – A page from a copy of The Copper Colored Cupid. Loyd Haberly. The Copper
Coloured Cupid, or, The Cutting of the Cake. Seven Acres Press, 1931. Courtesy of Ohio
University Archives, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections.
Figure 12 – A copy of The Copper Coloured Cupid. Loyd Haberly. The Copper Coloured
Cupid, or, The Cutting of the Cake. Seven Acres Press, 1931. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson
University Libraries.
Figure 13 – A woodcut illustration in a copy of The Antiquary. Loyd Haberly. The Antiquary: A
Poem Written in Waterperry Church and Decorated With Designs From the Glass of Its Ancient
Windows. Seven Acres Press, 1933. Courtesy of Ohio University Archives, Mahn Center for
Archives and Special Collections.
Figure 14 – A copy of The Antiquary. Loyd Haberly. The Antiquary: A Poem Written in
Waterperry Church and Decorated With Designs From the Glass of Its Ancient Windows. Seven
Acres Press, 1933. Courtesy of Ohio University Archives, Mahn Center for Archives and Special
Collections. vii
Figure 15 – A copy of The Antiquary. Loyd Haberly. The Antiquary: A Poem Written in
Waterperry Church and Decorated With Designs From the Glass of Its Ancient Windows. Seven
Acres Press, 1933. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries.
Figure 16 – A copy of Anne Boleyn and Other Poems. Loyd Haberly. Anne Boleyn and Other
Poems. Gregynog Press, 1934. Courtesy of Ohio University Archives, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections.
Figure 17 – An image of the G.G. monogram designed by Haberly in Anne Boleyn and Other
Poems. Loyd Haberly. Anne Boleyn and Other Poems. Gregynog Press, 1934. Courtesy of Ohio
University Archives, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections.
Figure 18 – A copy of The Crowning Year and Other Poems. Loyd Haberly. The Crowning Year and Other Poems. Stoney Down Press, 1937. Courtesy of Ohio University Archives, Mahn
Center for Archives and Special Collections.
Figure 19 – A page of The Crowning Year and Other Poems. Loyd Haberly. The Crowning Year and Other Poems. Stoney Down Press, 1937. Courtesy of Ohio University Archives, Mahn
Center for Archives and Special Collections.
Figure 20 – The title page of The Crowning Year and Other Poems. Loyd Haberly. The
Crowning Year and Other Poems. Stoney Down Press, 1937. Courtesy of Ohio University
Archives, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections.
Figure 21 – The inscription in The Crowning Year and Other Poems. Loyd Haberly. The
Crowning Year and Other Poems. Stoney Down Press, 1937. Courtesy of Ohio University
Archives, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections. viii
Figure 22 – John Ruskin, Roycroft edition of This Then is Sesame & Lilies, East Aurora, New
York, 1897. Original quarter white cloth and gilt-lettered tan paper boards. Illumined by Fannie
Stiles.
Figure 23 – Elbert Hubbard, Get Our or Get in Line, East Aurora, New York, 1902. Title Page by Dard Hunter.
Figure 24 – A photograph of Loyd Haberly’s Stansbury Press in the lobby of the Monninger
Center at Fairleigh Dickinson’s Florham Campus. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University
Libraries.
Figure 25 – The title page of The City of the Sainted King. Loyd Haberly. The City of the
Sainted King. The Haberly Press, 1941. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries.
Figure 26 – The dedication page from The City of the Sainted King. Loyd Haberly. The City of the Sainted King. The Haberly Press, 1941. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University
Libraries.
Figure 27 – The cover of The City of the Sainted King. Loyd Haberly. The City of the Sainted
King. The Haberly Press, 1941. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries.
Figure 28 – The cover of The City of the Sainted King. Loyd Haberly. The City of the Sainted
King. The Haberly Press, 1941. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries.
Figure 29 – The title page of Again, and Other Poems. Loyd Haberly. Again and Other Poems.
Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1953. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries.
Figure 30 – Page 2 of Again, and Other Poems. Loyd Haberly. Again and Other Poems.
Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1953. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries. ix
Figure 31 – A close up of ornamentation from Again, and Other Poems. Loyd Haberly. Again and Other Poems. Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1953. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson
University Libraries.
1
Introduction: The Transatlantic Arts and Crafts Movement
Loyd Haberly’s (1896-1981) works exemplify the legacy of the British Arts and Crafts
Movement in America. Much of his artistic growth occurred while he was in England and immersed in the groups still practicing Arts and Crafts, and he brought his knowledge back to
America, importing British style even as he settled into his own aesthetic. Haberly’s books are an important example of the transatlantic reach of the Arts and Crafts Movement. As an American printing in the tradition of British Arts and Crafts, Haberly provides a unique perspective on the
American adaptation of the British movement. Comparing Haberly’s books to the books of other
American printers working at this time proves that the desire for hand-crafted objects did not completely abate, despite the rise in movements such as Modernism that spurned the nostalgia of the medieval arts. This study of Haberly’s books offers a better understanding of the appeal of returning to the era of handcrafted arts in an age changed by war.
Loyd Haberly was a man of many talents, and with the help of others, he was able to put these talents to use. His works are evidence of his hard work and display a unique style that is unmistakable. He was a man who had “serendipity and a determination to do his own thing”
(Satterfield 24), and Dorothy Harrop describes him as “a happy man who found the world a beautiful place” (Satterfield 24). His outlook on life most likely contributed to his interest in the hand-crafted arts, despite the changing artistic landscape in both Europe and America. He viewed the world as a beautiful place, and so he wanted to produce what he believed to be beautiful books, regardless of what was becoming popular at that time. His personal qualities allowed him to produce books that are not just pieces of literature, but pieces of art in every aspect. 2
His books are not only a personal achievement in both art and literature, but also a collaborative effort that relied on the craft and backing of other artists and the approval of renowned literary figures. Haberly began his printing career in Britain in the mid 1920s; he worked at the Seven Acres Press from 1926 to 1933. Although the majority of his books printed at the Seven Acres Press were produced by his own hand, he relied on the financial backing of
Mrs. Lucie Durnford and the friendship and assistance of the sculptor Agatha Walker to turn his visions into realities. As he created more and more books, he began to gain traction in literary circles, gaining the notice of writers such as Robert Bridges and George Bernard Shaw (Haberly
47). His connections in the printing world landed him the position at Gregynog Press, where he worked from 1934 to 1937. At Gregynog he continued to collaborate with other artists and printers, and was given the opportunity to create his own type, Paradiso (Haberly 98). On his return to America in 1939, Haberly gave lectures on bookbuilding and tilemaking at Harvard
(Haberly 125). For nearly three decades Haberly taught at universities across the US, ending his career teaching at Farleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey in 1948. Throughout this time, he continued to write and print books, even though Arts and Crafts was not the most popular art movement.
The introduction of this thesis provides historical context. Loyd Haberly was working during a time when Modernism was the main influence on art and philosophy. In order to fully understand the multitude of influences that impacted the work of American printers post-World
War II, there needs to be a basic understanding of the art movements that occurred from the mid- nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. The introduction will review Arts and Crafts,
Art Nouveau, Modernism, and Post-Modernism, in a transatlantic context.
The British Arts and Crafts Movement 3
The Arts and Crafts Movement originated in England and soon spread to become an international phenomenon. Although the name “Arts and Crafts” was not associated with the movement until 1887, when the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was founded, the seeds for the movement were already planted around the mid-nineteenth century (Kaplan 11). The movement began as a response to the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Industrialization increased the capacity for production in Britain and many people were positively affected by the change.
However, this new age did cultivate some critics, despite much of the populace embracing the innovations. In the chapter “The Nature of Gothic Architecture” from his history of Venetian architecture called The Stones of Venice (1851-1853), art critic John Ruskin provides his own stance on the role of industry in Britain:
Men may be beaten, chained, tormented, yoked like cattle, slaughtered like summer flies,
and yet remain in one sense, and the best sense, free. But to smother their souls within
them, to blight and hew into rotting pollards the suckling branches of their human
intelligence, to make the flesh and skin which, after the worm’s work on it, is to see God,
into leathern thongs to yoke machinery with,—this it is to be slavemasters indeed; and
there might be more freedom in England… than there is while the animation of her
multitudes is sent like fuel to feed the factory smoke, and the strength of them is given
daily to be wasted into the fineness of a web, or racked into the exactness of a line.
(Ruskin 8-9)
In this passage, Ruskin criticizes the position of the working class in the industrial society. He states that they are taken advantage of and are only seen to have value in terms of production, and this prevents them from being able to do anything creatively. William Morris agreed with
Ruskin and echoed his sentiment through his socialist values. In an interview Morris gave to the 4
Daily News on January 8, 1885, he states: “The working classes must understand that they are not appendages of capital. When the change comes it will embrace the whole of society, and there will be no discontented class left to form the elements of a fresh revolution” (Pinkney 32).
Morris combined these beliefs with his love of design in the Arts and Crafts Movement.
In The Stones of Venice, Ruskin also championed the process of making, even with a potential for error, because the best work came from the successes and failures of man. He believed in combining the designer and the craftsman because hand labor is “an essential human right that preserved dignity and inventiveness in society” (Bowman 17). These ideas were also greatly admired by Morris, and affected his work and the work of other Arts and Crafts artists.
Although this differing viewpoint did not deter the steady increase of industrialization, “the revival and preservation of rural handicrafts represented another way to realize an Arts and
Crafts ideal while providing employment for impoverished people” (Kaplan 17).
This revival was not just influenced by the desire for social reform, mainly as an antidote to capitalism, but also by the medieval revival occurring across Europe and reflected in Britain by the likes of Ruskin as well as an art group known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. They painted in a style from before the painter Raphael; that is, in a style influenced by medieval artistic elements that pre-date Renaissance humanism, such as imitation of nature, rich detail, brilliant color, and complex composition. Their artwork provided an antidote to the style that was championed in Britain by the Royal Academy at this time (Alexander 134). Many of their early paintings were of medieval subjects as a way to combine naturalism with European Christian art, but there were difficulties in combining these two subjects. However, this art contributed to the increasing interest in medievalism across Europe and many people became interested in purchasing art that featured this aesthetic. By the time William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones 5 were instigating the second wave of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the impact of medievalism on English life was universally acknowledged, making it even easier for Morris and Burne-Jones to skyrocket into popularity.
Although both Morris and Burne-Jones are known as men of many talents, their lasting legacy comes from the work they did in the decorative arts. In terms of decorative motifs, Morris leaned more toward the naturalism of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, in which he repeated designs of plants and birds.
Figure 1. Strawberry Thief printed textile designed by William Morris. (Identification from Linda Parry, William Morris Textiles, New York, Viking Press, 1983). Burne-Jones, on the other hand, was more interested in the female form, and in representing mythological figures and motifs, created his own unique style. Although he strayed from naturalism, “the trajectory of his career seems in retrospect to illustrate how the raw vigour of the
PRB turned into the passive, aesthetic, symbolic and almost abstract kinds of mood-painting which emerged in the 1870s” (Alexander 169). This is displayed in well-known works such as
The Beguiling of Merlin. 6
Figure 2. Edward Burne-Jones (1833 – 1898), The Beguiling of Merlin, 1872-7, oil on canvas, 186 x 111cm.
The differing styles used by Morris and Burne-Jones became widespread around England due to
Morris’ business, Morris and Co., and affected the decorative arts, furniture, houses, and printing. For Morris, medievalism and Ruskin were prominent influences, and the early work produced at his company reflects this. He hired Edward Burne-Jones, the Pre-Raphaelite painter
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and the architect who built his home, Philip Webb. Despite being an avid socialist, Morris had to bend to the whims of capitalism in order to stay in business, which goes against the teachings of Ruskin and the ideals of the young Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Unfortunately, “social reform was something that Morris could express in words but not in paint” (Alexander 169). Although his firm promoted pre-industrial techniques, they had to charge a premium for these products.
The American Arts and Crafts Movement 7
The American Arts and Crafts Movement followed the same philosophy of the British
Arts and Crafts Movement introduced by John Ruskin. However, the success of the American
Arts and Crafts Movement can be attributed to the adaptation of Arts and Crafts ideas to
American capitalism as opposed to a strict following of socialist values (Bowman 33). America’s main contribution to this artistic movement was that of “democratic design” (Kaplan 247). The
Arts and Crafts Movement as a whole is typically viewed as being anti-industrial, especially due to its medieval influence, but in reality industry was often used in conjunction with the Arts and
Crafts aesthetic. This was best utilized in America. According to Anthea Callen, “The Arts and
Crafts movement had its origins in a middle-class ‘crisis of conscience; its motivations were social and moral, and its aesthetic values derived from the conviction that society produces the art and architecture it deserves’” (Callen 2). The American Arts and Crafts manufacturers created a market of goods that promoted the Arts and Crafts designs to the middle class, who sought to position themselves as arbiters of taste and modernity, and whose expanding interest in crafts and design in turn allowed the movement to thrive.
The foundation of the American Arts and Crafts Movement did not just come from
Morris, but also from other influential architect-designers working in the United States, such as
Charles Robert Ashbee (1863–1942) and Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (1857–1941)
(Obniski). Arts and Crafts journals and magazines, such as Gustav Stickely (1857–1941) and
Irene Sargent’s (1852-1932) The Craftsman (1901-1916), were important in disseminating Arts and Crafts ideas to interested parties all across the country (Zipf 125). People from different cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds were included in the movement, as seen at Jane
Addams’ (1860-1935) Hull House (1889-2012), in which the Chicago Arts and Crafts Society was founded. Similar to Morris, Jane Addams understood that “industry develops similarly and 8 peacefully year by year among the workers of each nation, heedless of differences in language, religion, and political experiences” (Addams 138), and is “quickly fatal to the offspring”
(Addams 184), or the workers within Modern Industry. She encouraged the immigrants in her care at Hull House to find an outlet from the trappings of industrialization.
Even though America is known for balancing industrialization with the handcrafted arts, there was still contention between prolific American Arts and Crafts artists about practice and design. For instance, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who was pro-“machine,” detested other artists such Gustav Stickley and Elbert Hubbard, even though all three were drawing from the same well of influence in Morris and Ruskin (Collins 34). American Arts and Crafts became regionalized due to the diversity among the individuals participating in the movement and the locations in which they practiced (Obinski). However, as the art world moved from a medievalist mindset to a modernist one, American artists continued to straddle different means of producing art and different art movements.
The Arts and Crafts Influence in a Modernist and Post-Modernist World
The Arts and Crafts Movement is important due to its direct influence on subsequent movements after its popularity waned at the turn of the twentieth century. Although Arts and
Crafts continued to remain popular in Britain, certain fundamental aspects of the initial movement transformed to create a new and popular art style in America, Art Nouveau. Boiled down to its essentials, Art Nouveau can be viewed as the Arts and Crafts Movement without the slant of social reform. It emphasizes the decorative aspect of Arts and Crafts, particularly “the horror vacui of Morris’s textiles and wallpapers and the restless curves of [Arthur]
Mackmurdo’s work” (Collins 38). It is characterized by serpentine lines, asymmetry, expensive 9 materials, and craftsmanship, and influenced architecture, painting, sculpture, and graphic arts
(Collins 38). The continued appreciation of the Arts and Crafts aesthetic through the Art
Nouveau style lasted until the advent of World War I. However, its demise can be traced before the Great War brought it to a complete end. Due to its emphasis on luxury and expense, many artists found the style too costly to maintain. The increase in favor for industrial design also spelled an end for Art Nouveau (Collins 62).
One event marked the transition from the art movements of the turn of the century to
Modernism. On February 17, 1913, The International Exhibition of Modern Art, or more famously known as The Armory Show, opened at the 69th Regiment on Manhattan’s Lexington
Avenue at 26th Street. It was put on by a group of artists that called themselves the Association of
American Painters and Sculptors. Although most of the show was comprised of American art works, they were outshined by the sheer grandeur of the European works. The American public was completely baffled by works such as Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase. The show also boasted a number of Picasso and Matisse paintings, even though overall it lacked many Futurist and Cubist works. It was the shock of the American public, which spread beyond the mere 300,000 who saw the show in person, that marked this exhibition as revolutionary.
They felt threatened by the supposed meanings of the paintings due to the fact that they confused
“radical art with radical political and social behavior” (Hunter and Jacobus 251). Despite this, the show was viewed as a success due to the amount of coverage it garnered, and it completely transformed the American art scene.
Following the end of World War I and in the wake of the Armory Show, the design world was ready for change. Many minds were moving towards a more Modern industrial design, and
Holland and Germany were the first to make that step. The 1925 Paris Exhibition shined a 10 spotlight on these new works, and it is here that a new style following the end of Art Nouveau sprung up called Art Deco. Art Deco is both a continuation of and reaction against Art Nouveau
(Collins 69). Art Deco continued the use of expensive materials, and still relied on drawing and craftsmanship to form these materials into Cubist forms. In England, Art Deco and Modern design coexisted, along with Arts and Crafts furniture (Collins 70). America also wanted these two differing art styles to exist at the same time. However, much of America’s design contributions during this time period were modern, and the art world decided to pick a side. In
1934, artist Raymond Loewy’s “machine-style office” was displayed at the Metropolitan
Museum, while the Museum of Modern Art featured the famous ‘Machine Art’ exhibition
(Collins 75).
Despite the increasing interest in industrial design, the Arts and Crafts tradition lived on independently in Britain for quite some, and its influences crossed over into other art movements, as exemplified by Art Deco. Even though it was not being actively practiced in
America, exhibitions like the Exhibition of Modern British Crafts served as a way to show continual appreciation for the groundbreaking art movement. From 1942 to 1945, this exhibition toured North America after opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the behest of the
British Council for His Majesty the King. Its purpose was to reinforce “the idea of a cultural heritage shared by Britain and the United States” and was “also understood as a manifesto for modern craft” (Hart). The exhibition displayed 29 different types of crafts, including calligraphy and bookbinding, embroideries, and silversmithing. In the catalogue produced by The British
Council for the Metropolitan Museum of Art opening, several exhibitors displayed provided context in essays. This included work on books and printing by Stanley Morison, an essay on textiles by Sir Thomas Barlow, and an essay on silversmithing by G.R. Hughes. 11
After World War II, the art world entered a sort of stasis. Unlike during the last post-war era, no major artists entered the scene to create entirely new, sweeping movements, such as the
Armory Show. Artists mainly adapted the avant-garde art styles of the 1920s and 1930s without introducing groundbreaking new concepts. The most tension that occurred was between the desire for individualization and the need for “corporate design anonymity” (Hunter and Jacobus
341). Consumers embraced uniformity and mass production, brought on by the Machine Art of the 1930s and the renewed patriotism following a post-war boom. In this context, Loyd
Haberly’s works spoke to the crowd more interested in personal style that opposed this new era of consumerism.
Loyd Haberly returned to America from his stint in England and Wales around the end of the 1930s, a few years before the beginning of World War II, and remained active through the
1950s. The Arts and Crafts Movement and its principles still found some ground in Britain, whereas America was fully ensconced in the changing design styles of the day. Despite this, the
Arts and Crafts influence was still felt in America amongst the changing art and design scene, as the Exhibition of Modern British Crafts suggests, and this is where Haberly fits in.
An American “Bookbuilder”
This thesis will contribute to the little existing scholarship on Loyd Haberly. The majority of the personal information obtained on Loyd Haberly comes from his own autobiography in which he reflects on his endeavors during his time in England and Wales, and even then he does not give details on his purpose in creating his printed works. In some respects, the Arts and
Crafts Movement was politically motivated. Since Loyd Haberly does not disclose his own views on any potential political and/or social motivations for his work in the printed arts, he cannot be 12 linked to the Arts and Crafts Movement in that way. However, the Arts and Crafts Movement is also rooted in the arts and design. By the “end” of the movement in the 1920s, it was more known as being an art movement than as an attempt at social reformation. Since Loyd Haberly began his work immediately after the conclusion of the movement, it can be said that his work is aligned with the Arts and Crafts as an artistic movement, which is the context in which his books will be viewed in this thesis.
A question I explore in my thesis is: what do the works of Loyd Haberly indicate about the legacy of the British Arts and Crafts Movement in America? The Arts and Crafts Movement was not an isolated event, but rather a transatlantic movement that both defined and was defined by the rapid changes in Western civilization at the turn of the twentieth century. The Arts and
Crafts Movement began as a response to the advent of the Industrial Revolution, but eventually it was surpassed in popularity by other rising art movements post-World War I. However, the Arts and Crafts Movement did not disappear entirely. On the contrary, it continued to thrive among specific art communities and artists. Loyd Haberly is just one example of an American artist producing works in the tradition of the British Arts and Crafts. Although there is scholarship on the books he produced during his time in England and Wales (such as his autobiography mentioned earlier), there is less known about the books he produced when he returned to
America. World War II commenced just a few years after his return, and it’s noteworthy that, in these trying times, there was an interest in the US in hand-rafted items, including books, as demonstrated by the exhibition dedicated to the British Arts and Crafts that opened at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1942 (Hart). By examining the books Haberly created during this time and the way in which he and artists like him were received by the public, this thesis sheds light on the lasting impact of this artistic movement. 13
This thesis examines Loyd Haberly’s works produced throughout different eras of his career. It examines Haberly’s process in creating his books in order to examine the ways in which the Arts and Crafts Movement influenced his creative process, which also determines the ways in which his books fit as a form of art in this artistic movement. I view the books through a book-historical lens in order to track Haberly’s growth as an artist, and to note any changes due to his location in England, Wales, or America. I also study Haberly’s books in comparison with the works of other artists that both came before him in England and worked in conjunction with him in America in order to draw conclusions about the legacy of the British Arts and Crafts
Movement in America.
Following the introduction, the chapters are structured chronologically, following
Haberly as he worked at different presses, his own or otherwise. The first chapter focuses on some of Haberly’s first books that he produced at his own press, Seven Acres Press. It examines
Haberly’s first forays in the fine press book world and the ways in which he emulated the Arts and Crafts Movement. The second chapter continues to follow Haberly on his “bookbuilding” journey at the Gregynog Press, owned by the sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies. It examines the books printed at Gregynog Press in order to note the differences and similarities between his books printed at his own press with only his own interests to guide him and his books that were printed with the help of others and with the interests of others being taken into consideration. The third chapter focuses on Haberly after his return to America from England and Wales. It examines the work of American Arts and Crafts printers working before Haberly, thus affecting the American art world before Haberly arrived, and Haberly’s style in conjunction with the art influenced by Modernism. The conclusion will discuss how Haberly’s style changed throughout his career, starting from his early books which were more influenced by the Arts and 14
Crafts Movement in England, and ending with his books that were produced in America, in which he consistently printed books of a similar style, indicating that he found an aesthetic of his own. This thesis discusses how Haberly’s books, particularly the ones produced in America, are indicative of the continuing interest in Arts and Crafts generally and in its fine press books particularly. By examining this movement amidst a cultural shift, I am able to draw conclusions about the ways in which art is always fluid and changing in response to history and societal demands, and about how one unique American “bookbuilder” demonstrated this through the art of the Arts and Crafts book.
15
Chapter 1: Loyd Haberly and the Seven Acres Press
The Arts and Crafts Movement was a cross section of the social reform ideals of scholars such as John Ruskin and the art and design of artists such as William Morris. Its initial purpose during its inception in the 1870s was to retaliate “against the excesses of industrial capitalism”
(Faulkner v) caused by the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Consumers turned from hand-crafted towards mass produced materials, affecting goods and services, but also, perhaps most significantly, workers. According to John Ruskin, the Industrial Revolution turned “workers from human beings into mere tools” (Faulkner v), and this prompted William Morris to start his own business that emphasized the quality of the goods as opposed to the quantity. He based many of the goods on his own designs, which focused on linear patterns and motifs reminiscent of the medieval aesthetic. Books were among the items Morris wanted to redeem from cheap mass production. The emphasis on creating well-designed, hand-made goods was the basis of the
Arts and Crafts Movement, which soon swept throughout Europe and began to heavily influence art and design at the turn of the twentieth century.
As one of the leading founders of the Arts and Crafts Movement and a noted influence on
Loyd Haberly (Haberly 9), William Morris’s history is an important one to follow. During his active years, Morris tried his hand at many different art mediums, but he did not become actively involved in the printing endeavors of the Arts and Crafts Movement until much later in his career. He had been interested in the book arts since his days at Oxford, where he was fascinated with the illuminated manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, but it was not until he heard Emery
Walker speak on “Letter Press Printing” at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition in 1888 that Morris 16 decided to try his hand at creation (Pinkney 17). From there he began his plans for the Kelmscott
Press, which became fully operational in 1891.
Emery Walker is another major player of the Arts and Crafts Movement and another hero of Haberly’s (Haberly 34), but his history is less well-known in comparison with his contemporaries, despite the crucial role he played in the lives of several Arts and Crafts artists.
His forte was printing, which was one area of Arts and Crafts that Morris had yet to successfully tackle. When Morris asked Walker to join him as a partner for the Kelmscott Press, Walker had to decline due to his poor finances, but he still shared responsibility and contributed to its success
(Potter 402-403).
When the Press first came into being, Morris and Walker drafted a set of guidelines that became a foundational set of principles for printing fine press books. These guidelines covered what to do in terms of “the paper, the form of the type, the relative spacing of the letters, the words, and the lines; and lastly the position of the printed matter on the page” (Morris 1). They recommended that the paper be handmade and wholly of linen, and that it is “laid” paper (made with a paper mold that has obvious wires) without the wires being too prominent in the finished product (Morris 1). On the topic of the type, Walker’s printing background made him an invaluable source of information. Both concluded that the type needed to be “pure in form; severe, without needless excrescences; solid, without the thickening and thinning of the line…;
& not compressed laterally” (Morris 2). Morris and Walker turned to Roman and Gothic models to create their own types that fit their criteria. In terms of the spacing, Morris believed that there should be no undue white spaces between letters; the lateral spaces should be no more than necessary and should be as equal as possible; and, the whites between lines should not be excessive. He does not recommend leading, which is the practice of using thin strips of metal to 17 create space between lines (Morris 3). Finally, in terms of the position of printed matter on the page, Morris believed that there needed to be a narrow inner margin, the top wider than the inner margin, the fore-edge wider than the top, and the bottom of the page widest of all. According to
Morris, this placement of the printed matter is based on many medieval printed works (Morris 3).
The main purpose of all of these guidelines is to ensure that not only is the book easily readable, but that it is also aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Morris used these principles in the creation of the Kelmscott Chaucer, and his work overall at Kelmscott was influential in the world of private presses and fine press books.
Together Morris and Walker designed the Golden type, named due to its use in The
Golden Legend printed at Kelmscott. Golden type was modeled after Roman and Gothic types, including the type produced by the famous typographer Nicolas Jenson. Morris continued to design and create types which were more Gothic stylistically and were based on famous types created by German typographers (Potter 403). Some of the well-known types he created were the
Troy great primer and the Chaucer type, which was like Troy in Pica.
The Kelmscott Chaucer is one of the most famous fine press books ever produced and it was made during the peak of William Morris and Emery Walker’s collaboration. It was so popular during its time that several printers attempted to produce copy-cat copies, but none could fully measure up to the Kelmscott Chaucer. In her article “An Appreciation of Sir Emery
Walker,” Greta Lagro Potter provides a detailed description of the Chaucer that demonstrates the amount of work and collaboration that went in to producing it:
The task of making the Chaucer required five years in project and over three years in the
actual making. The handmade paper with a perch watermark was made in co-operation 18
with Joseph Batchelor. The ink was made by Jaenecke, the celebrated inkmaker of
Hanover, Germany; the red was of pure vermilion. The type punches were made by hand,
but the casting was done by machine. There were even black letters closely spaced, words
and lines all correctly imposed on the pages. Morris himself drew the ornamental initial
letters, and Sir Edward Burne-Jones, a friend of Morris since Oxford days, furnished
ninety illustrations which were engraved in wood by W. H. Hooper. There were also a
full page woodcut title, fourteen large borders eighteen frames for pictures, and twenty-
six large initial letters. (Potter 403-404)
Figure 3. Left image: A look at the “Chaucer Type” from a facsimile of the Kelmscott Chaucer from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University.
Figure 4. Right image: A page from a facsimile of the Kelmscott Chaucer from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University. The Kelmscott Chaucer serves as the epitome of fine press printing in the Arts and Crafts style, and its influence on books produced by printers working at the same time and after its inception is palpable and easily traced. 19
Another printer connected to both William Morris and Emery Walker was T.J. Cobden-
Sanderson, the founder of both the Doves Press and the Doves Bindery. Cobden-Sanderson was initially a bookbinder, and decided to try printing later on in his career. He was colleagues with
Emery Walker, and was the one to convince Walker to give his lecture on “Printing” that inspired Morris. Cobden-Sanderson was also interested by Morris’ involvement in Arts and
Crafts practices, even before Morris tackled printing. A year after the Kelmscott Press opened,
Cobden-Sanderson developed his own set of criteria in response to Morris, which he wrote in a paper titled “The Book Beautiful: Calligraphy, Typography, Illustration” that he read at the Art
Workers Guild. Cobden-Sanderson’s opinion on book printing differed from Morris’ in the fact that he preferred to look toward new ideas, whereas Morris preferred to model his books after
Gothic and medieval texts from 500 years before (Tidcombe 4). The three main criticisms of
Kelmscott Press books in Cobden-Sanderson’s paper “The Book Beautiful” were that the inner margins were too small; the type was too heavy due to the Gothic influence; and, he disliked the lines and words broken for decorative margins and initial letters (Tidcombe 5). In sum, Cobden-
Sanderson accepted much from Morris, but fine-tuned many of his ideas. The principles established by Morris, Walker, and Cobden-Sanderson inspired many other fine presses and private presses, including the Golden Cockerel Press, the Nonesuch Press, and the Gregynog
Press, the last of which Haberly headed in the 1930s.
Loyd Haberly began “bookbuilding” his own fine press books during his time in England and Wales, which was just a pocket of the artistic work created during or in part by the Arts and
Crafts Movement in both England and America at a time when the Arts and Crafts Movement was drawing to a close. However, the precedent set by printers such as Morris, Walker, and
Cobden-Sanderson allowed his work to flourish, and served as models for his own press, Seven 20
Acres Press. The books produced by Haberly at Seven Acres Press show the beginning stages of
Haberly’s creative process and provide opportunity to examine the ways in which the Arts and
Crafts Movement influenced him.
Miss Agatha Walker, Mrs. Lucie Durnford, and Seven Acres
In October 1923, the young Rhodes Scholar arrived at the home called Seven Acres, which resides on the outskirts of Long Crendon in Buckinghamshire. Loyd Haberly was accompanied by Violet Gielgud, an arts patron he met through a different acquaintance upon first arriving in England, who was the daughter of Sir Kimberley Harris of South Africa and the aunt of the actor John Gielgud (Jordan 16). She was a lover of concerts and the opera, which is most likely how she became acquainted with Seven Acres’ inhabitants, Agatha Walker and Lucie
Durnford (Haberly 9). Gielgud described the women as “two incomparables whom she had mightily admired in London before they foolishly hied off and hid their multiple talents in what she had heard was a fieldstone cottage in a Seven Acre Buckinghamshire stonefield fenced with hedges and haystacks” (Haberly 10). Due to Walker’s success as a figurine sculptor, Walker and
Durnford were able in June 1923 to purchase Seven Acres, a newly built home in the Arts and
Crafts style (Jordan 15). Haberly was more kind than Violet Gielgud in his description of the home, which he stated was “a handsomely designed and newly-built mini-mansion of local stone below and of oak timbering and limewashed plasterwork above, with wide-eaved thatch topping that” (Haberly 11). As its design intended, the home became a haven for the artists who were believed in the tenets of Arts and Crafts and faithfully practiced its style.
Throughout Haberly’s time working in England and Wales, he interacted and collaborated with a number of different artists, both well-known and obscure. However, of the 21 female artists he worked with, Agatha Walker and Lucie Durnford were the most important not just for their own individual talents, but due to their presence in his life. Lucie Durnford “was an embroiderer, water-colorist and conversationalist supreme” (Haberly 10). Agatha Walker “was a portrait artist, book illustrator, and about the best living sculptress in miniature” (Haberly 10).
Walker’s figurines were mainly recreations of characters in theatre productions. Walker,
Durnford, and Haberly worked and lived together closely during what could be considered the apex of their artistic lives, particularly in the cases of Walker and Haberly. Even if they did not always directly influence his creative works with their artistic talents, the Arts and Crafts mindset and environment cultivated by both women made an impact on Haberly’s work.
The creative exchange between Haberly and these two women is just one example of the ways in which women are remembered in the Arts and Crafts Movement in England and
America, which is mainly through collaboration and association with male artists. Despite having created their own content, the women who are well-known contributors to this movement are more known due to their association with its prominent men, rather than for their own artistic achievements. In the case of print arts during the movement, few women artisans are mentioned.
Although this could partially be due to the fact that print arts grew popular at the tail end of the
Arts and Crafts Movement, the lack of knowledge of women in this field is telling.
After becoming more acquainted, the two women invited Haberly to stay and build his own “printer-bindery” (Haberly 11) on the premises of Seven Acres. Thus began a friendship that made much of the art produced by the three possible. Both Durnford and Walker were avid followers of William Morris, who Haberly cites as a hero (Haberly 9). This mutual appreciation of Morris by all three artists influenced their works and friendship. Agatha Walker and Loyd
Haberly were also linked through their mutual friendship with Emery Walker and his daughter, 22
Dorothy. Emery Walker was a more obscure figure in the initial Arts and Crafts Movement, but as we’ve seen his work “provided the backbone of the work of the pioneer artists in the renaissance” (Potter 413). Haberly mentions visiting Emery Walker at his London workshops often for advice (Haberly 34-35). The influences of these prominent Arts and Crafts figures was important to Loyd Haberly and his craft, but Agatha Walker and Lucie Durnford were just as influential for him, and they were key in making his endeavors in England possible.
Meeting Emery Walker
Due to his second book printed at Seven Acres, Cymberina: An Unnatural History,
Haberly caught the attention of Emery Walker, “who took the time to coach the young American on the finer points of printing and convinced him of the beauty of Caslon types” (Satterfield 18).
Morris agreed with Walker about the use of the Caslon type, which he believed was “clear and neat, and fairly well designed” (Morris and Walker, 120). The Caslon type was a Roman type designed by William Caslon in 1722 and is still in common use (Potter 401). Roman types were admired by Walker and Morris, and were used as inspiration for the types they created.
Haberly’s use of the Caslon type in his work due to this subsequent recommendation is noteworthy. In this instance, Haberly’s choice in terms of book design came from a direct influence of the British Arts and Crafts reflected in his Seven Acres Press books and in later books when he uses the type he designed himself, Paradiso. 23
Figure 5. A “block for colophon of the Chaucer,” sent to Haberly by Emery Walker. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries.
Walker’s instructions to Haberly also included book recommendations, which were chosen by Walker “for their content as well as their format” (Haberly 36). He told Haberly to use his brass “Emery Walker” lettering tools (Haberly 35). Haberly used these tools when he was creating the book Daneway; A Fairy Play. The book was dedicated to Emery Walker in red, green, and gold leaf lettering. Several of Walker’s contemporaries are known to have ordered copies of the book (Haberly 36). The book was named after one of Walker’s homes, Daneway
Hall, although Haberly was known to visit Walker at either his London workshops or his home at
Hammersmith Terrace (Haberly 34-35). He also maintained a brief correspondence with Walker, through which Walker sent Haberly interesting relics from the Kelmscott Press. By creating this rapport with one of the trailblazers of Arts and Crafts printing, Haberly deepens his connection with the British Arts and Crafts style and its influence on his work. 24
Books of Seven Acres Press
Haberly produced a total of sixteen books at the Seven Acres Press (Satterfield 18). The first work Haberly published was a pamphlet titled Verses on Mans Mortalitie with another of the Hope of His Resurrection (1925), which he made using a powerful old iron hand press he got from an Oxford laundry in compensation for a lost sheets claim, and a new Verona type he bought from the Sheffield foundry of Stephenson and Blake (Haberly 23). Other works printed by Loyd Haberly through the Seven Acres press included: Cymberina: An Unnatural History in
Woodcuts and Verse (1926), with which he was so unsatisfied he burned the unsold copies
(Haberly 30); John Apostate; An Idyl of the Quays (1928), printed in red and black ink using tools left by the tutor of the Durnford sisters (Haberly 30); Alia Cantalena de Sancta Maria
(1926) by John Awdlay from the Bodleian Library, which he printed on handmade paper with drawings by Agatha Walker (Haberly 30); a leather-bound edition of Daneway; A Fairy Play
(1929), dedicated to Emery Walker (Haberly 36); and, The Keeper of the Doves (1933), a story
Haberly wrote based on Notley Abbey, which was released in red Niger binding with the Abbey seal in gold on the cover (Haberly 71). Haberly only printed a certain number of copies of each book, and not all of the books were designed the same. I will focus on three of the books Haberly printed at Seven Acres Press to analyze the ways in which they were influenced by Arts and
Crafts principles.
Poems (1930) 25
Figure 6. Left image: The front cover of Poems from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University.
Figure 7. Right image: The back cover of Poems from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University.
Poems was the first collection of Haberly’s lyrics. The first copy he produced was bound in “gold-tooled and blind-stamped Niger leather laid over stout boards” (Haberly 40). He dedicated this book to Robert Bridges, the Poet Laureate and “masterful maker both of the rare lovesong and of the learned Alexandrine line” (Haberly 41). According to Haberly, “In physical impressiveness and bearing he was… the very model of the majestically dramatic and druidical poet-priest who outlives age and advances into a silver-time of bearded serene sureness and vigorous, unabated mind” (Haberly 41). Haberly was able to give a white-pigskin-bound dedication copy of this work to Bridges at the latter’s eighty-fifth birthday party (Haberly 41).
The white-pigskin binding material was notably used in two copies of the Kelmscott Chaucer, which was designed by Morris and executed by Douglas Cockerell at the Doves Bindery (Potter 26
404). Haberly’s use of this type of binding for a significant copy of his book Poems not only reveals his knowledge of the binding practices of T.J. Cobden-Sanderson, but also links him to one of the most famous fine press books created during the time of the Arts and Crafts
Movement.
Bridges considered Haberly’s poems “Elizabethan,” and recommended the author show them to Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, the author of the anthology Oxford Book of English Verse
(Haberly 41). After having received glowing praise for his work from both men, Haberly attracted the attention of Humphrey Milford, who at the time was the publisher of the Oxford
University Press. Haberly was then “going public” with his poetry, and the Oxford University
Press printed Poems in red buckram binding with a silhouette of Haberly (made by Agatha
Walker) on the “tawny Kraft dust-cover” (Haberly 43). This book was an important introduction of Haberly as a writer and as an artist of the British Arts and Crafts Movement.
27
Figure 8. A page from Poems from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University.
Haberly follows Morris’ guidelines when it comes to the inclusion of decorative initial letters. Some of them are enlarged and printed in red or green ink to add color to the page.
Poems does not include any other ornamentation outside of the dedication page, which features the dedication “TO ROBERT BRIDGES” printed in red ink and enclosed in a wreath printed in green ink. His margins are also similar to Morris’ recommendations, except that the top of the page is wider than the outer margin. The extreme margin between the bottom of the poem and the bottom of the page signals both a stylistic indebtedness and deviation on Haberly’s part.
Although Morris recommended that the largest margin should be at the bottom, most of his margins are not as extreme as the ones in Poems. His use of the Caslon type is more in line with
T.J. Cobden-Sanderson’s preference, as Cobden-Sanderson disliked Morris’ use of more Gothic types.
28
Figure 9. A copy of Poems from the Loyd Haberly Collection. Courtesy of Drew University.
The paper was most likely hand cut due to the fact that it has a slight deckled edge. The top and front edges are gilt. It is laid paper with widely spaced chain lines running vertically. The watermark appears around the center of the page, and it is of a tree branch with acorns. Its origin is unknown. Due to the fact that the watermark is in the center of the page and the vertical chain lines, the book is most likely a folio. There are 210 pages of content, with four pages preceding the body of the text and 14 pages following it (these 14 pages include an index). The pages measure at 18.9 cm x 14.29 cm. The colophon indicates that 120 copies of Poems were printed.
The copy at Ohio University is copy number 99. It is bound in black leather, stamped in gold on the cover with references to Shakespeare and Spenser, and is hand sewn. The copy housed at
Drew University in New Jersey is copy number 102, and it differs from the Ohio University copy in binding alone. It is bound in white leather with blind stamping, and was a gift from Loyd
Haberly to his wife Virginia, who indicates her ownership with her own stamp pasted in the first few pages of the book.
29
Figure 10. A picture of Virginia Haberly’s stamp. Courtesy of Drew University.
The Copper Colored Cupid (1931)
Haberly took the advice of the famous playwright George Bernard Shaw and began writing his next book, The Copper Colored Cupid, a verse story with wood-cut illustrations
(Haberly 48). This book was meant to be the second book in a series Haberly titled Oregon’s
Orpheus. He based his Orpheus off a “hobo” who unknowingly sold Haberly the violin of
Antonius Stradivarius, a famous Italian violin maker, for only a dollar (Haberly 49). Haberly originally intended for there to be twelve books of poems, and that eventually all twelve books would be bound together to make a complete tale. However, he could not “try after try, turn this tale into convincing verse,” and The Colored Cupid was subtitled The Second Book of Oregon’s
Orpheus: Twelve Poems Made To Match As Many Months despite the fact that the series remains incomplete (Haberly 50).
Since The Colored Cupid is only a collection of twelve poems meant to be a part of a larger series, Haberly did not bind the book with any expensive materials, just with blue paper boards. However, the book is filled with woodcut illustrations relevant to the poems. In this way,
Haberly is practicing one of the suggestions for creating beautiful books from Morris and
Walker. The most important point for printers to remember when including ornament or pictures is that they should “form part of the page, should be a part of the whole scheme of the book”
(Morris and Walker 132). Although Haberly typically tends to favor placing his images on their own separate page (as opposed to including it on the page along with the text), his woodcuts in
The Colored Cupid are related to the themes of the poems and tie in seamlessly with the book as a whole. This also includes smaller illustrations in the outer margins, a practice that Morris encouraged and Cobden-Sanderson criticized. Most of these illustrations were printed in black 30 ink, but there is the use of red and green ink on the dedication pages and in the red hearts that appear in every margin. Similar to Poems, Haberly uses the same form of Caslon type and enlarges the initial letters that are printed in red or green ink.
Figure 11. A page from a copy of The Copper Colored Cupid from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University. Also similar to Poems, the paper has a deckled edge and so is most likely hand cut. It is laid paper with vertical chain lines. They are not as widely spaced as chain lines on the paper used for Poems. There is also no visible watermark, so the paper could have come from a different place than the paper used in Poems (and other books printed at Seven Acres Press).
Without a watermark, it is less obvious if the book is in the folio or octavo format, but based on
Haberly’s other works, it is most likely a folio. There are 31 pages of content, preceded by 7 pages and followed by 1 page. The pages measure at 23.5 cm x 16.8 cm. The book is dedicated 31 to the newlyweds Glenn and Margaret Quiett. According to the colophon, the book was written, illustrated with woodcuts, printed, and bound by Loyd Haberly. Also, of 155 copies printed, the book housed at Ohio University is copy number 17. The copy housed at Fairleigh Dickinson
University is the same as the one at Ohio University except for the binding. This book is hand bound in red leather with accents of blue and gold tooling. It is copy number 70 of 155.
Figure 12. A copy of The Copper Coloured Cupid. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries.
The Antiquary (1933) 32
Figure 13. A woodcut illustration in a copy of The Antiquary from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University.
The Antiquary is a collection of water-colored woodcuts of stained-glass designs in the windows of Waterperry Church. The church resided between Long Crendon and Oxford
(Haberly 54-55). The book was dedicated to A.L. Irvine, a friend of Haberly’s who often visited him at Seven Acres and who was also a follower of William Morris. Both men also had a love for medieval stained-glass windows (Haberly 54). While working on the sketches for the woodcuts of the stained-glass designs in the church, Haberly became fascinated with the pavingtiles in Waterperry Church. This was the impetus for another project Haberly completed that focused on reproducing sketches from different churches in England, especially from Notley 33
Abbey. These reproductions culminated into a book titled Mediaeval English Pavingtiles printed in 1937 (Haberly 79).
Figure 14. A copy of The Antiquary from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University.
This book was bound in either gold and blind-stamped brown leather or blue or black gold-tooled Niger (Haberly 71). This book as well as Mediaeval English Pavingtiles is different in terms of how it compares with other Arts and Crafts books. The images in the book are not mean to complement the text on the page, but rather stand on their own in the book. However, the Arts and Crafts influence is just as prevalent in the content of the books as it is in the design, if not more so than in other Haberly books. Haberly’s fascination with the designs of medieval church pavingtiles and stained-glass windows is directly related to the sorts of designs produced 34 during the Arts and Crafts Movement. The art of the medieval period was used as a template by
William Morris for many of his designs, including ornamentation in his books. Haberly takes it one step further in his books and elevates the designs as content, not just as ornamentation related to written text. There are three pages of hand colored illustrations in The Antiquary.
There are also several colored crests that appear on different pages throughout the book. Haberly also uses red and green ink to add color to his Caslon type.
Figure 15. A copy of The Antiquary. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries.
The paper has a deckled edge and is most likely hand cut. The paper was made at the same place as the paper in Poems due to the widely spaced chain lines on the laid paper and the watermark of the tree branch with acorns in the center of the page. However, the book is in quarto format as opposed to folio format, indicated by the fact that the chain lines are horizontal.
There are 19 pages total of content, not including the three pages of illustrated woodcuts. The paper measures at 28.7 cm x 18.6 cm. The colophon states that 100 copies were printed, and the 35 copy at Ohio University it number 11. This copy was inscribed to poet Edmund Blunden by the author. On the front endpaper, “E.B. from L.H. /25 Dec. 1933” is written in pencil. The copy at
Fairleigh Dickinson University is copy number 9 of 100 copies, and aside from its binding, it is printed in the same format as the copy at Ohio University. It is bound in red leather with light blue accents and gold tooling.
Haberly’s initial forays into printing were heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts
Movement at the turn of the twentieth century, reinforced by his close proximity to followers of
Morris and Morris’ own friend and contemporary, Emery Walker. In the 1930s, he took his knowledge and passion for hand press printing to the established fine press, the Gregynog Press in Wales.
36
Chapter 2: Gregynog Press and Stoney Down Press
Following William Morris’ example, several fine presses emerged in the United
Kingdom in the early decades of the twentieth century and continued the tradition of Arts and
Crafts printing. Although Kelmscott Press was not the first fine press to emerge at the time, the achievement of the Kelmscott Chaucer inspired many other presses to create their own magnum opus. Many of these lasted until the First World War, and this was due to the fact that they were willing to adapt to the demands of the time. One such press is the Gregynog Press in Wales, of which Loyd Haberly eventually became Controller of in the late 1930s before he returned to
America. Other contemporary presses in Britain include the Golden Cockerel Press, and the
Nonesuch Press; in America, important examples include the Roycroft Press and Dard Hunter’s
Mountain House Press.
Most of Haberly’s books were printed at his own “printery-bindery,” but he did gain some experience running Gregynog Press. At the time of his appointment, the press had already been running for around ten years. While Controller, Haberly was given the opportunity to work with other people interested in the printing business, and to produce works by authors that interested him. He eventually returned to running his own press on the new property of Mrs.
Lucie Durnford and Agatha Walker called Stoney Down Plantations. This allowed him to continue working on his own independent endeavors before he went back to America at the advent of World War II. His many experiences working in the press industry in England and
Wales were important for continuing his work as a scholar in the United States.
The Davies Sisters 37
Gwendoline and Margaret Davies were the owners of the Gregynog Press. They inherited their fortune from their grandfather, David Davies, as well as from their father, who made his money as a contractor. Their brother David served in Parliament and was the first Lord Davies
(Harrop 2). The sisters were raised by their Canadian mother in Wales, so they weren’t Welsh in temperament or outlook and didn’t know the Welsh language. Gwendoline Davies, who was the more artistically inclined of the two sisters, played the violin. Margaret Davies painted, and briefly went to the Slade School of Art in London. Both sisters had an interest in art, which led to them becoming art collectors (Shen 217). With the help of their artist friend Hugh Blaker (whose sister Jane had been the Davies sisters’ governess), they amassed the largest collection of British
Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, which included art by Corot, Manet, Monet,
Daumier, Millet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Renoir, and Rodin. Their work as art collectors added to their fame because “by lending from their collection to a seminal exhibition of art in Bath, to exhibitions in London and to the Tate Gallery, the sisters also influenced the expansion of interest in modern art in Britain” (Gere and Vaizey 143). They also collected late 19th century
French painting and sculpture, which was bequeathed to the National Museum of Wales in
Cardiff.
There were several owners of the Gregynog House before the Davies sisters, including lords. The motivation for it being sold is unknown (the house might have been bid to be dismantled and sold and was instead saved by the Davies sisters, but this is unclear) (Harrop 7).
Upon purchasing Gregynog Hall in July 1920, the Davies’ received sums and advice from outside literary and technical experts through their intermediary, Dr. Thomas Jones, who was affectionately called “T.J.” They continued to turn to T.J. for aid throughout their time at
Gregynog Hall and as owners of Gregynog Press. Alterations to the house were done by Sidney 38
Kyffin Greenslade and later by Sir Edwin Hall (Harrop 8). Although the sisters were not entirely certain about how they were going to execute their plans, they knew that “Gregynog Hall was intended as a headquarters for their charitable work, a conference centre, and an Arts and Crafts community” (Shen 217). Their first step in doing this was to hire a Controller to teach crafts.
Robert Ashwin Maynard was suggested for the position by the Davies’ friend Blaker. After his service in the war, the Davies sisters had Maynard trained in London, and he enjoyed printing and engraving the best (Harrop 10). The sisters’ interest in printing was first piqued in 1921 when they heard that the Shakespeare Head Press in Stratford-upon-Avon was in financial jeopardy. Unfortunately, the conditions for purchasing the Press insisted that it remain in
Stratford, which was too far away from Gregynog, so they had to abandon the endeavor. Instead, they put more of their efforts into turning Gregynog into a conference center. They ran into trouble with the refurbishments of the house necessary to match their vision, so they had to abandon some of their craft ideas. In spite of this, by 1923 the Davies sisters established bookbinding, stained glass, and furniture- making workshops at Gregynog Hall (Shen 223). The sisters essentially ran an ongoing salon during the interwar years, and “much of the house was public, or semi-public, and used extensively for cultural activities and social welfare programmes” (Shen 225). They had famous guests such as Bernard Shaw, Vaughan Williams, and Stanley Baldwin, and the site became a retreat for many creatives (Shen 219).
The sisters’ interest in printing remained, and in 1922 they were able to begin this endeavor. After Sir Edwin Hall resigned his position as estate manager, T.W. Hughes took over and added a printing and composing room to Gregynog Hall. Maynard began on July 6, 1922, and had an artist’s studio added. These alterations firmly cemented the idea of a printing press being added (Harrop 12). On December 27, 1922, Maynard printed 120 copies of a Christmas 39 greeting card, the first thing ever produced at Gregynog Press (Harrop 14). The press became
Maynard’s main focus at Gregynog Hall until his departure, and it expanded with the hiring of
Maynard’s assistant and bookbinder, John Mason, and John Hugh Jones as general assistant. A few months after their hiring in 1923, they printed 2000 copies in pamphlet form of an account of the origin of the annual Good-Will Message of the Children of Wales. (Harrop 16). The
Gregynog Press was officially established in 1923 (Shen 223).
Neither of the Davies sisters had any knowledge of typography or printing, so they hired other people to run the press directly, and all aspects of the making of the books were carried out under one roof. The books produced at Gregynog were unique for the fact that a great proportion of the books were illustrated. Despite not speaking their native tongue, the Davies sisters had several books printed in the Welsh language (Harrop xiii). The first book ever printed at
Gregynog Press was The Poems of George Herbert in 1923, and it included a wood engraved
G.G. monogram, which stands for the name of the Press in Welsh, Gwasg Gregynog. It was printed with an Albion hand press, although Maynard also had a Victoria platen press installed, since he was not interested in maintaining the tradition of hand printing maintained by other private presses (Harrop 16). By the beginning of 1924, the Gregynog staff expanded to include
Horace Walter Bray as the wood engraver and Idris Jones as the general assistant. Jones later became the Monotype caster operator and printing assistant until 1939 (Harrop 20). Also in
1924, the sisters moved into Gregynog Hall, which they had not previously occupied. It becamw both a conference center and a home (Harrop 21).
Gwendoline Davies and “T.J.” communicated often in order to determine the aims of the
Gregynog Press, similar to the ways William Morris and T.J. Cobden-Sanderson communicated 40 in regards to their own presses. In a letter to T.J., Gwendoline Davies lays out her proposal for the Press’s objectives:
1. The primary objective in our minds at the present is to unlock the treasure house of
Welsh literature, romance and legend, and make it accessible to the English-speaking
public. 2. To present it in as perfect a form as we possibly can as regards the English
translation and artistic treatment (so) that it must inevitably attract attention and win
for the little country the tardy recognition of cultural nations which I feel certain has
only been withheld because so few can understand the Welsh language. 3. Further, to
collect and reproduce the best work that Welshmen have contributed to the vast store
of English literature. (Harrop 22)
Due to her lack of specific knowledge on the art of printing, Gwendoline Davies focused on the cultural impact of Gregynog Press more so than the particulars of how the press should run in day-to-day operations. Despite taking the lead from Arts and Crafts influencers like Morris,
Cobden-Sanderson, and Emery Walker, the Davies sisters were already making executive decisions that set them apart from presses that preceded them. One way in which they differ is that many of the works published at Gregynog linked to the Welsh identity and language. The sisters also ran the press differently from others by using a Press Board to make many of the final decisions of the press and deviating from hand press printing. This established them as a fine press that adapts to the demands of the decade.
Bookbinder John Mason left Gregynog in July of 1925 to work at the Shakespeare Head
Press due to disagreements with the Davies sisters (Harrop 26). They hired Sydney Cockerell as temporary stand-in until they brought in George Fisher, who stayed for twenty years (Harrop 28). 41
In 1926, the Gregynog Press Board (of which the Davies sisters and T.J. were members) created a prospectus for the press. It consisted of a one-page description of the press, a two-page announcement of the first three books and five specimen pages, and a new Press device designed by the press’s Controller, Maynard. At this time, tensions between Maynard and T.W. Hughes, the estate manager, begin to escalate, and this spelled the end for Maynard, who eventually resigned in 1930, along with engraver Horace Bray (Harrop 29). The press staff continued to grow with the addition of Dora Herbert Jones as secretary, Richard Owen Jones as compositor, and Herbert John Hodgson as pressman (Harrop 36). At this time, the work done at Gregynog
Press had begun to acquire acclaim, and they had their first public showing at the First Edition
Club exhibition. Within the next few years, the press began to produce more books than it ever had before, but at the cost of overworking the staff. After years of building resentment, Maynard and Bray took their leave, and T.J. hired Blair and Gertrude Hughes-Stantons and William
McCance and Agnes Miller, two artist couples. They left in September of 1933, despite having a highly successful year. This is the state of the press when Haberly joined the team as a replacement for Hughes-Stanton and McCance. It was busy and successful, but there were many differences in opinion between the artists working at Gregynog and the owners of the Press.
After their departure, the Press never again had a Controller or artist who both worked and lived at Gregynog (Harrop 124).
Loyd Haberly and the Gregynog Press
When Hughes-Stanton and McCance announced their resignations, the Davies found that they needed a Controller to replace them in order to keep up with the demands of Gregynog
Press. John Johnson, a printer at Oxford University Press, recommended Haberly to them: “If ever a man had the right spirit, Haberly has it… and is that blend of dreamer and practical man 42 which it is so difficult to find in life” (Harrop 119). At this time, Loyd Haberly was still running his own operation in Long Crendon, the Seven Acres Press. Haberly originally refused the job, but eventually agreed to spend one week of every month working for the press for a salary of 200 pounds per annum (Harrop 119). Although he designed the 1933 Christmas greeting card, he did not officially take up his post until January of 1934. At the Press Board meeting in November of
1933, Haberly revealed that he wanted to publish an edition of Robert Bridges’ Eros and Psyche, and that he had already received the approval from Mrs. Bridges. He favored Bruce Rodgers’
Centaur type for this printing, but he was also interested in designing his own type for both poetry and prose (Harrop 126). In the end, he used Foligno type (also known as Neumeister type and Paradiso type) for Eros and Psyche at the approval of the Press Board, as well as illustrations from Sir Edward Burne-Jones’ drawings for Morris’ Cupid and Psyche, the majority of which were never published. This endeavor proved to be a much larger project than anticipated, and Haberly requested an additional fee for the redrawing of these illustrations for woodcuts (Harrop 130-131). Still, Haberly was excited to work on this book, which he articulated in correspondence with Gwendoline Davies: “My life work is before me and I must close and be at it. What an opportunity you and your sister have given me: I can only say thank you for employing it” (Harrop 130).
Haberly was not often physically present at the press as Controller due to his work on a personal project, Mediaeval English Pavingtiles (Haberly 89). He revealed to T.J. in a letter his reasoning for this: “It is now clear that I have as much as I can do in selecting and designing and overseeing without meddling in the mechanical work of the Press, which, so far as I have seen it, is excellent. If daily reports and proofs are sent to me, I can exercise all the necessary oversight without delay” (Harrop 131). Haberly was quite independent when it came to his work, and this 43 was still the case even when he became the Controller of an established press with a full staff and a Board to oversee its progress. The Board in question was interested in hiring literary advisors to help choose future publications to print, with Lascelles Abercrombie, Edmund Blunden,
Edward Garnett, and Dr. Joan Evans (a personal friend recommended at Haberly’s suggestion) as potential candidates. However, none were ever chosen (Harrop 131). The next items printed under Haberly’s leadership were the World Wireless Message of the Youth of Wales and programmes for the annual music and poetry festival hosted at Gregynog Hall (Harrop 132). In
July 1934, Haberly completed negotiations with Graily Hewitt to design a set of initials for the volume of Glyn Davies’ translations, titled Songs of Rye and Heather, as well as contracted him to redraw and supply missing characters for the Neumeister type to be used for Eros and Psyche
(Harrop 133). He also hired Dorothy Hawkesley to help with the redrawing of Burne-Jones’ designs (Harrop 134). In mid-September, the press published Don Quixote: An Introductory
Essay in Psychology by Salvador de Madariaga (Harrop 134).
After the negotiations with the type creator Graily Hewitt, the press and its Board ran into trouble with the printing of Songs of Rye and Heather. Glyn Davies claimed that the Gregynog
Press infringed on his rights as translator by not heeding to his specifications, and in response he sent an irate letter to the Board. This led to the book being pulled and all work previously done to be destroyed (Harrop 136). Since they still needed to print one more book for the year, Haberly sent his own verses to be printed. For most of the year, he had been absent from the press, but he finally came back in November 1934 in order to supervise the final stages of production of Anne
Boleyn and Other Poems. Haberly sent a complaint to T.J. about the staff and secretary, believing that the destruction of the Glyn Davies’ translation was the cause for the printing of his own work at Gregynog Press (Harrop 136). Due to the fact that he was against this endeavor, 44
Anne Boleyn and Other Poems was not set out for review at Haberly’s request: “I have always considered my verse to be my own private concern and naturally wish no more publicity than is necessary” (Harrop 137).
In January of 1935, the official Gregynog type, initially named Gwendoline type, was completed (Harrop 138). After this, Haberly next worked on Sir John Fortescue’s The Story of the Red-deer to be illustrated by Dorothy Burroughes. Around the same time, the Gregynog
Press gained more exposure through an exhibition of their books at Columbia University during the summer of 1935 (Harrop 138). The Press printed several other works after the exhibition, including another World Wireless Message of the Youth of Wales, two copies of Walford Davies’
Jubilee Anthem, the 1935 programme for Gregynog’s annual music festival, and The Star of
Seville, attributed to Lope de Vega, in May of 1935 (Harrop 139-141). While the press was hard at work on these publications, the new music type that was created by Haberly and Hewitt was almost ready for use. Haberly initially wanted to use it for a book of Welsh folksongs, but it never came to fruition (Harrop 141).
In September, Haberly tendered his resignation, which was to take effect in December
(Harrop 143). After its printing in October, Eros and Psyche received bad reviews of the type designed by Haberly and Hewitt. Gregynog Press only used the type once more for that year’s
Christmas card before the Davies sisters bestowed it to Haberly as a parting gift. He went on to use it for The Crowning Year in Dorset and other publications in America (Harrop 144). The last books printed at Gregynog Press under Haberly’s direction were Cyrupaedia: The Institution and
Life of Cyrus by Xenophon in September of 1936 and The Story of the Red-deer by Sir John
Fortescue in November of 1936 (Harrop 147-148). Although the Davies sisters and Haberly did not part on bad terms, the association was not meant to last. According to scholar Dorothy 45
Harrop in A History of the Gregynog Press, “Clearly the association could never have been wholly satisfactory, and one sees, in retrospect, that Haberly’s pragmatic approach was totally unsuited to the task he had been set. His wayward whimsicality was not a thing to be grasped and pinioned: he required freedom to experiment and to grow” (Harrop 150). As evidenced by the printing work done by Haberly before his time at Gregynog, he worked best independently with the occasional input and assistance from others, such as Agatha Walker at Seven Acres Press. He was most interested in experimenting on his own terms without the pressure and deadlines that come with a professional private press.
Anne Boleyn and Other Poems (1934)
Figure 16. A copy of Anne Boleyn and Other Poems from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University. 46
One of the books printed at Gregynog Press under Haberly’s leadership was some of his own work, Anne Boleyn and Other Poems. According to Haberly, after a mistake in printing the work of a Welsh poet led to all of the work being thrown out, the Press found that it needed something to replace it for the Christmas buyers, since Gregynog Press books were “old reliables for luxuries” (Haberly 94). This account differs in other sources. According to the scholar
Dorothy Harrop in her account of the Gregynog Press, A History of the Gregynog Press, Songs of
Rye and Heather was not published due to a dispute between the author Glyn Davies and the
Press Board (Harrop 136). In any case, a new book needed to be printed in place of Davies’ book. Initially Haberly was against printing his own work at Gregynog, but he put forth his own verses in order to meet the Press’s deadline. The red and green initials and the title-page device were done by Graily Hewitt, the “master calligrapher” Haberly worked with to create their
Paradiso type, first used in Eros and Psyche printed at Gregynog (Haberly 94). Haberly engraved “Anne Boleyn’s crowned and sceptered eagle” that was stamped in gold on the brown
Niger binding (Haberly 94). Outside of this work, most of the books printed at Gregynog Press during Haberly’s time were by other authors.
Despite the fact that it was not directly printed by Haberly himself, Anne Boleyn has many similarities to the books printed by Haberly at Seven Acres Press. Even though Graily
Hewitt was the one to use the red and green ink for the initial letters, Haberly did the same for his Seven Acres Press books. The book is set in Bembo type. Even though the paper used at
Gregynog comes from a different maker than the paper used at Seven Acres, the chain lines and texture of the paper are similar. The brown morocco binding is also indicative of Haberly’s later style when he returns to America. 47
Figure 17. An image of the G.G. monogram designed by Haberly in Anne Boleyn and Other Poems from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University. The paper is laid paper with widely spaced vertical chain lines. There is a watermark in the center of the page of an anvil on top of a tree stump with a hammer about to come down on the anvil. It is printed on Kelmscott hand-made paper. The book is in folio format. The deckled edge indicates that the paper was most likely hand cut. The top edges are gilt. There are 77 pages of content, with two preceding it and one following it. The book is bound in brown morocco with a crest of Anne Boleyn stamped in gilt on cover. In terms of ornamentation, the Gregynog crest is on the title page in green ink. The letters “G.G” are printed in red ink and enclosed in a wreath printed in green ink on the final page under the colophon, which states that 300 copies of this book were printed. The copy at Ohio University is copy number 233, and the copy at
Fairleigh Dickinson is copy number 96. Both books look identically made and they measure at
21.3 cm x 16.8 cm. Anne Boleyn and Other Poems is dedicated to Emery Walker. 48
Stoney Down Press (Return to Seven Acres)
At the time of Loyd Haberly’s appointment to Gregynog Press, Mrs. Lucie Durnford was recovering from an automobile accident and required a move to the south, closer to the sea
(Haberly 89). Durnford and Agatha Walker ended up in Dorset, England, and began to build a new house named Stoney Down Plantations. Due to Durnford and Walker’s move to Stoney
Down and his continual absences from Gregynog, Haberly decided part ways with the Davies sisters in 1937 and rejoin his former benefactresses and friends at their new home. In order to assist with the bricklaying process, Haberly took up an apprenticeship with Mr. George Blaney, the head of an “ancient brickyard,” and also discovered useful information about tile making for his book Mediaeval English Pavingtiles, which was published in 1937 (Haberly 103-104). Once the house and Haberly’s new “printery-bindery” was built, the Davies sisters gave him the
Paradiso type that he designed along with Hewitt (Haberly 115). He used this type for the works produced at Stoney Down Press. Despite being in a new location, the operations at Stoney Down did not differ much from those previously at Seven Acres. The return to a self-run “printery- bindery” was beneficial to Haberly, since he flourished in work conditions that allowed him to follow his passions and work on his own independent projects.
Once he settled in Dorset, Haberly worked on bookbuilding in the morning and writing verses in the evening for the book of verses titled Echo. These verses were printed at Seven
Acres Press, but were to be bound at Stoney Down Press. Unfortunately, only four to five sheets of verses had made it in the move to Dorset and the rest needed to be rewritten and printed
(Haberly 115). Many of these verses in Echo are nature-themed due to the woodland landscape in Dorset, as were the poems in the only book produced at Stoney Down, The Crowning Year and Other Poems (1937). Crowning Year appeared at a time when the landscape in England was 49 changing in preparation for World War II. Haberly described the mood of the day in this way:
“But ominous – in the prophetic hindsight of now – were the nocturnal iron clankings past and through Stoney Down Plantations of the treads of lethal-looking armored tanks and of tractors trailed by long guns muzzled against the rusting mischief of dank midnight dews” (Haberly 120).
The onset of the war led to the title-poem of his only Dorset book.
The Crowning Year and Other Poems (1937)
Figure 18. A copy of The Crowning Year and Other Poems from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University. The book is made with laid paper, indicated by the widely spaced chain lines. Haberly returned to the paper he used at the Seven Acres Press, which has a watermark of a branch with acorns in the center of the page. The chain lines and watermark indicate that the book is in folio format. The paper is most likely hand cut due to the deckled edge, but the top edge is gilt. 50
According to the colophon of The Crowning Year and Other Poems, the type used for this book is Paradiso, which is “designed by the printer (Haberly) and Graily Hewitt from that used at
Foligno by Numeister, Gutenberg’s errant apprentice, for the first printing of Dante’s poem.”
Haberly continued to use black, red, and green ink throughout the book, although his initial letters are not as enlarged as the initial letters in his Seven Acres Press books. The books at
Ohio University and at Fairleigh Dickinson University are bound in green, brown, and tan designed cloth board over a brown leather spine stamped in gold. Haberly describes different binding he used for this book in his autobiography. Some copies of The Crowning Year were bound in “whiter-than-white pigskin” and were “gold-stamped with my design combining the butterfly symbol of Psyche with the wild Welsh daffodil” (Haberly 121).
51
Figure 19. A page of The Crowning Year and Other Poems from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University. There is very little ornamentation in the book, other than two woodcut illustrations done by Haberly. The first is of Stoney Down house on the title page in black ink.
Figure 20. The title page of The Crowning Year and Other Poems from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University. The second is of a woman in a grove of trees on the last page. The book housed at Ohio
University comes from the Edmund Blunden Collection in Special Collections. This particular copy was a gift from Loyd Haberly to Edmund Blunden, as indicated by the note inscribed in ink on the front endpaper: “with HAB’s love,/ Christmas 1937.” There are 59 pages of the book, and it measures at 19.05 cm x 15.6 cm. One hundred and fifty copies of The Crowning Year and
Other Poems were printed, and according to the note in pencil on the back endpaper, the copy at
Ohio University is number 51. The copy at Fairleigh Dickinson University is number 111. 52
Figure 21. The inscription in The Crowning Year and Other Poems from the Mahn Center in Alden Library at Ohio University.
53
Chapter 3: Loyd Haberly and the American Arts and Crafts Movement
In the year 1939, Loyd Haberly left England after spending many years learning the craft of printing and immersing himself in the hand press revival movement. While Haberly spent his most productive years in the artistic epicenter of the Arts and Crafts Movement, many American artists were continuing the tradition in the U.S. Some of the most well-known American Arts and
Crafts printers were Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters, and Dard Hunter. Their dedication to
Morris’ artistic vision and experimentation within the craft of bookmaking resonated with
Haberly, who continued similar work on a smaller scale. Haberly returned to the United States decades after the Arts and Crafts Movement had reached its peak in the country, but its lingering influence was felt throughout subsequent movements and through the longing for the past felt by
Americans during World War II. Unlike some of his earlier American contemporaries, Haberly’s continual experimentation with his own style and his adoption of more modern looks shows his willingness and ability to adapt to the changing artistic landscape, continuing the Arts and Crafts legacy and displaying its relevancy.
Like Haberly, the founder of the Roycroft Arts and Crafts community, Elbert Hubbard, spent some time in England and was introduced to the Arts and Crafts Movement through
William Morris. Hubbard visited the then operational Kelmscott Press in May of 1894 and was inspired by the work and philosophy of the Arts and Crafts Movement (Quinan 7). Upon returning to America, Hubbard and his collaborator Harry Taber founded the Roycroft Press in
New York in order to publish their periodical The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest, which was meant as an alternative to magazines such as Harper’s Magazine and Atlantic Monthly (Vilain
24). It was followed by the equally popular monthly publication called Little Journeys. These publications were the first step in the construction of the Roycroft Arts and Crafts community 54
(Quinan 7). They were heavily based on the ideas of William Morris, both politically and artistically. Before Hubbard founded the community, he was working for a soap manufacturing business, the Larkin Company, but he left at his peak in order to pursue his writing, not dissimilar to Morris rejecting industrialization in the nineteenth century (Quinan 7). Artistically,
Hubbard wanted to “translate the great vision [of Morris] into terms of the vernacular and [bring]
Beauty, in a relative degree but certainly, into the ken of literally thousands who never would have understood the message in any other form” (Vilain 24). Hubbard viewed his books as the best way to spread Morris’s artistic values to the general public.
By 1907, the Roycroft community had expanded to include an entire neighborhood for resident and visiting artists (Quinan 9-10). The artists they initially catered to were skilled in the art of printing and binding, but as the community expanded to include furniture making and metal work, so did the types of artists who came. The Roycrofters, as they termed themselves, began to expand their influence into other art mediums as well, such as pottery, furniture, metal, and glass (Quinan 13). The Roycroft community thrived under Hubbard’s leadership until his untimely death on the Lusitania in 1915 (Quinan 1). The quality of the books produced by the
Roycroft Press declined in quality under the management of Hubbard’s son, Elbert Hubbard II.
However, Hubbard II did keep the Press running until the year 1938, which is a year before
Haberly returned to America.
Even though the influence of the Roycrofters had declined by the time of Haberly’s return before World War II, the Roycroft community is still remembered as being the epitome of the Arts and Crafts Movement in America. Despite beginning as printers, they are largely remembered for their furniture and metalwork. According to Jean-Francois Vilain in “The 55
Roycroft Printing Shop: Books, Magazines and Ephemera,” there are several reasons why the
Roycroft books aren’t popular among present-day Arts and Crafts collectors:
…books, which are meant to be opened to be appreciated, do not have for today’s Arts
and Crafts enthusiasts the immediate visual appeal of other objects of the period, and they
cannot be as easily displayed as ceramics or metalwork. Many collectors also fear that a
knowledge of esoteric printing terms is necessary to understand or appreciate a well-
made book. (Vilain 23).
During the time of their production, however, Hubbard managed to generate business with his books. Through the use of advertising and marketing tactics, Hubbard elevated the Roycroft books to a sign of status. Books came in a variety of bindings and the use of hand-decorated initials and illumination elevated the beauty of the books, as well as distracted from some of the printing flaws in many copies. The books also came in a range of prices based on the quantity and quality of the book, which expanded the pool of customers (Vilain 25). However, these tactics, as well as the rising popularity of Roycroft furniture and metals, elevated the company’s commercial ambitions, and in this way the community drifted slightly away from the political ideologies of the Arts and Crafts Movement. 56
Figure 22. Roycroft edition of This Then is Sesame & Lilies, by John Ruskin, East Aurora, New York, 1897. Original quarter white cloth and gilt-lettered tan paper boards. Illumined by Fannie Stiles. One of the most well-known Roycroft designers was Dard Hunter. Like Haberly and
Hubbard, he used his talents in design and printing in order to see through his own creative vision. Hunter was influenced by the British Arts and Crafts Movement, as well as the Glasgow
School and the Vienna Secession Movement. He combined these influences “into a distinctive style that has become emblematic of the American Arts and Crafts movement” (Vilain 31).
Hunter first found success as a Roycrofter in 1904, and he worked on designing stained glass windows for the Roycroft Inn and the title pages of books printed at the Roycroft Press (“The
Life of Dard Hunter” 1). After he married in 1908, he lived in London and worked in art studios.
During this time, he took the opportunity, like many young book artists, to visit the Kelscott
House, as well as the Doves Press, which was still operational at the time. Like Hubbard and
Haberly, Hunter made the pilgrimage to England to see where the British Arts and Crafts printing began. All three were able to see Kelmscott Press firsthand, solidifying their ties to
Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. After his time in London, Hunter continued to work 57 for the Roycrofters, but he became “disilluisioned with the commercialism of the Roycrofters” and he decided to strike out on his own entirely (“The Life of Dard Hunter” 1). He wanted to have his own press, but according to Hunter, “I wanted my work to be individual and personal, without reliance upon outside help from the typefounder or papermaker” (Hunter 57). Haberly is similar in this fashion. Although Hunter also worked in a professional printing setting, he much preferred working on his own individual projects, which included creating his own type that he modeled after early typefaces that he felt “possessed a freedom of stroke unknown today” (“The
Life of Dard Hunter” 2). He eventually used this type in his own book, just as Haberly used the
Paradiso type in many of his self-published works.
Figure 23. Get Our or Get in Line, by Elbert Hubbard, East Aurora, New York, 1902. Title Page by Dard Hunter.
Hunter continued to visit England while he ran his own printing press and paper mill. His first paper mill was based in New York apart from the Roycrofters, and he began to hone his skills as a papermaker. In 1919, the Hunters moved to Chillicothe, Ohio and purchased the 58
Mountain House. He established the Mountain House Press in the left wing of the house (“The
Life of Dard Hunter” 2). He produced his own type and two successful books on papermaking,
Old Papermaking in 1923 and The Literature of Papermaking in 1925 (Hunter 71). In 1927, he established the only commercial handmade-paper mill in the Western Hemisphere near
Wilmington, Delaware (Hunter 100). Hunter continued to produce books about papermaking practices in other countries, including China, Japan, and Korea (Hunter 129). In the year Haberly returned to America (1939), Hunter was running the Dard Hunter Paper Museum of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Hunter 211), which eventually relocated to the Mountain
House in Chillicothe. Similar to Haberly, Hunter expanded his passion for book making into scholarship. Haberly was lecturing at Harvard Summer School in 1939, which means that these two artists worked in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the same time. There is no evidence that these two men knew each other, but it is quite possible that Haberly was aware of Hunter’s work and his nearby museum.
Even though the Roycrofters are most remembered for their forays into other areas of the
Arts and Crafts Movement, it is due to the craftsmanship of Roycroft printers such as Dard
Hunter that printing earned a place in the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Hunter had a
“masterful sense of book design and his full use” (Vilain 31) and brought “vigor and originality”
(Vilain 32) to the Roycroft Press. It was Hunter’s individualism and creativity that served him well as an independent book maker, and his books may well have influenced Loyd Haberly’s.
Hunter’s career is illustrative in that it parallels Haberly’s and suggests that Haberly was in synch with the American attitude toward book arts, which like all forms of American Arts and
Crafts was distinct by region, creating more room for individuality.
Loyd Haberly, American Scholar 59
Loyd Haberly departed from Stoney Down in Dorset in 1939 before the onset of World
War II. He went to the Harvard University Summer School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in order to give a lecture on “monasticism and… the tools and methods of early bookbuilding, pavingtile-making and the creation and design of such colorful glass windows” (Haberly 125). It was in his Widener Library office that he printed his first book in America, The City of the
Sainted King (1939), which he comprised of poems he wrote while still in Dorset. The book was printed on “an ancient press in a University storage” (Haberly 10). He remained at Harvard until he moved to St. Louis in 1940.
Through an Oxford acquaintance, Haberly was given the opportunity to use the top floor of a mansion in St. Louis in order to continue his printing. He bought a “big Washington hand- press” (Haberly 11) in order to complete his second edition of The City of the Sainted King, which was published in 1941. He worked at several colleges and universities, including Veterans
College at Fort Devens and Washington University in St. Louis. He eventually found himself at
Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1949, and he chaired the English department on the former
Rutherford campus. He soon became Dean on the Rutherford campus and created the liberal arts program. He also helped the university purchase the Wroxton Abbey near Banbury, England in
1963. It became the Wroxton College, a branch of Fairleigh Dickinson University used as a graduate center for English studies. Haberly continued to print books using the Stansbury press he bought in the 1940s at the sale of the personal effects of Thomas Bird Mosher, a printer from
Portland, Maine affiliated with poet Robert Bridges, who had been a close friend of Haberly’s
(Haberly 11). Haberly worked at Fairleigh Dickinson until he moved to Vero Beach, Florida, which is where he lived until he died in 1981 (Satterfield 24).
American Books 60
Over the course of thirty years after returning to America, Haberly printed a total of thirteen books. All of these books were written by Haberly, who is speculated to have written his books “primarily to provide himself fodder for his love of printing” (Satterfield 21). All but four of these books were printed with a hand press. By this time, according to Jay Satterfield in his article “Loyd Haberly: Poet and Printer,” Haberly’s American books followed a certain style:
His American books are all strikingly similar. Nearly all are bound in full morocco, often
with morocco inlays that tend toward the gaudy. He used gold stamping extensively
throughout his printing career and had a flair for garishly colored morocco. His bindings
are large and ornate, making his volumes, which were unusually only twenty to thirty
leaves in length, of a more impressive stature than one would expect. Haberly uses his
Paradiso type for most of his American books. (Satterfield 22)
Haberly experimented more with different bindings when he was in England, particularly with different colored pigskin and morocco. His use of gold stamping and his favoring of “large, ornate bindings” carried over with him to America, where he mainly used morocco for binding.
His decision to use morocco over other materials is evidence of his settling into a certain style that would indicate a “Haberly” book.
The first book Haberly printed in America was a copy of The City of the Sainted King, and Other Poems while he was briefly at the Widener Library at Harvard in 1939. After moving to St. Louis, Missouri, Haberly printed four books using a power press at Mound City Press: another version of The City of the Sainted King in 1941, of which he printed 1,250 copies; The
Fourth of July: or an Oregon Orator in 1942, of which he printed 350 copies; Almost a Minister in 1942, of which he printed 375 copies; and, Artemis a Forest Tale in 1942, of which 240 copies 61 were printed. All four were printed on pure rag paper. Haberly also worked at Washington
University while he was still in St. Louis. Here he printed four more books on a hand press:
Midgetina in 1943, of which he printed 48 copies; Neecha in 1943, of which he printed 48 copies; a second edition of Neecha in 1944, which differs in length from the 1943 edition; and,
Silent Fame in 1944, of which he printed 45 copies. Finally, Haberly spent the longest time at
Fairleigh Dickinson University, where he eventually became dean. He printed four more books here on his Stansbury Press, which is now located in the Monninger Center on Fairleigh
Dickinson University’s Florham Campus. He printed Again, and Other Poems in 1953; Sun
Chant, and Other Poems in 1956; Maskerade in 1957; and Appreciations and Commemorations in 1966.
I will focus on two different books in this chapter: The City of the Sainted King, printed in 1941 in St. Louis, and Again, and Other Poems, printed in 1953 at Fairleigh Dickinson
University in New Jersey. They both come from different decades in the period of his American career in which he was most active. Each book is representative of Haberly’s unique stylistic choices and displays the ways in which Haberly both settles into a certain style and continues to experiment in his work. Some of these style choices can also be traced to his earlier books made in England and Wales, but his newer stylistic choices show the ways in which begins to incorporate more a more modern look into his work. 62
Figure 24. A photograph of Loyd Haberly’s Stansbury Press in the lobby of the Monninger Center at Fairleigh Dickinson’s Florham Campus. The City of the Sainted King, and Other Poems (1941)
Figure 25. The title page of The City of the Sainted King, 1941. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries. 63
While Haberly was working in St. Louis, Missouri, he continued to create books, all penned by his own hand. Four different books were printed at St. Louis using a power press at
Mount City Press (Satterfield 21). One book was one that he printed already while he was lecturing on medieval art at the Widener Library at Harvard University, The City of the Sainted
King, and Other Poems (1939). It was the first book he printed when he returned to America, as explained in the book itself: “Many of these poems were written and first printed in this house and Dorset deer-forest that were my home during the last few years of peace.” (The woodcut of
Stoney Down Plantation follows this statement. See Figure 20.) Of the 1,250 copies printed in
1941, four of them are kept at the Monninger Center at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s
Florham Campus. One of the copies is a personal copy of Virginia Haberly, Loyd Haberly’s wife, and it includes hand-painted woodcuts. Otherwise, the woodcuts in the other copies are not colored. One of these woodcuts includes a silhouette of Haberly’s profile on the dedication page.
64
Figure 26. The dedication page from The City of the Sainted King. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries. Unlike Haberly’s other American books, this book was not printed in Paradiso type, but rather a type more reflective of Roman types. Haberly did not use the colored inks he favored.
Haberly continued to use the woodcut designed by Agatha Walker that depicts his profile, and included his initials and the year the woodcut was designed. Similar to the woodcut he designed for the Gregynog Press (which depicts two capital Gs), Haberly used this woodcut as a way to indicate that this book is a Haberly original. The only woodcut that is hand-painted in this edition is the crest that appears on the title page (Figure 25). The colors used in this woodcut (light blue, yellow, and red) have been used by Haberly before, such as in the woodcuts in The Antiquary.
The lines of the woodcut image are also smooth and simple, also similar to the work he did in his
Seven Acres Press books. The real difference is in the execution of the coloring. This hand- painted woodcut engraving is much neater and more vibrant than the woodcuts that predate it.
The light blue is especially vibrant here. Although Haberly has not entirely departed from his earlier style, he is showing improvement in his craft.
Two of the copies of The City of the Sainted King at the Monninger Center are hand bound. One is hand bound in brown and light blue morocco with gold stamping, and the other is hand bound in a simple black morocco with gold stamping. The books measure 23 cm in length.
Haberly’s decision not to use pigskin, Paradiso type, or colored ink reflects a style change compared to his British books. The lack of color in the type and the lack of woodcut illustrations throughout the text indicate an experimentation with a cleaner, simpler look of the text on the page. The type chosen also adds to this look since the letters are printed closer together than in Paradiso type. The use of pigskin is reminiscent of older books from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries in Europe. Morocco is more modern compared to pigskin, 65 since it was not used in Europe until the late seventeenth century and into the eighteenth century.
Haberly’s transition from an older style of binding to a newer one parallels the changes in industry in America. As America relied more heavily on machines, art began to reflect these changes and become more modern. Printing books that look cleaner, simpler, and more streamlined make them more relatable to a modern audience, and this very well could be the case with this edition of The City of the Sainted King.
Figures 27 and 28. The covers of two separate copies of The City of the Sainted King. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries. Again, and Other Poems (1953) 66
Figure 29. The title page of Again, and Other Poems. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries. Haberly printed Again, and Other Poems in 1953 while he was at Fairleigh Dickinson
University. According to the colophon, "Fifty copies of these poems have been printed on a hand-press in the old stone Castle of Fairleigh Dickinson College." As was stated by Satterfield,
Haberly printed the book in his own Paradiso type. He also continued to use hand-painted woodcuts, although the colors are more vibrant and skillfully painted than the illustrations that in appear in previous books, such as The Antiquary (1933). The colors seem to stem from the primary color palette and include fewer pastels. This book is especially stunning due to the smaller painted woodcuts at the top of every page. They depict a wide range of images, from churches composed of geometric shapes to forest scenes with people and animals. Haberly also goes back to using the red ink that he favors in almost all of his printed works. 67
Figure 30. Left image: Page 2 of Again, and Other Poems. Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries.
Figure 31. Right image: A close up of ornamentation from Again, and Other Poems, Courtesy of Fairleigh Dickinson University Libraries. The copy of this book housed at Fairleigh Dickinson University is hand bound in brown and dark blue morocco and decorated with gold stamping. The copy housed at Drew University is hand bound in black, red, and green morocco with gold stamping. Both copies fit the description of Haberly’s American books as provided by Satterfield. They measure at 22 cm.
Haberly’s continued use of morocco reflects the more modern take of his American books. The woodcut illustrations are also very different from the woodcuts he designed in the past. Not only are the colors more vibrant, but the shapes of the figures are sharper and more geometric. Haberly is moving further away from the medieval influences related to the British
Arts and Crafts Movement and is embracing the Modernist art popular in America at that time.
Many of the woodcuts emphasize line, form, and color over anything ostentatious. The images of 68 the buildings in the woodcut on the title page, for example, are composed of bold, black lines to create the shape. The only other shapes to create the building are the rectangles and circles within the lines to indicate windows and doors. They are a solid lavender color, drifting away from any sort of realism. This woodcut can be compared to the woodcut from Haberly’s book
The Copper Colored Cupid (1931) (See Figure 11). This woodcut is much more detailed and depicts shapes that seem more fluid. It is not colored, a choice Haberly often made in his earlier books. This woodcut is more reminiscent of Morris’ wallpaper, which was usually comprised of fluid, natural shapes in horror vacui. The woodcuts in Again, and Other Poems (1953) are simple, geometric, and contained. They could almost be considered industrial, which is far removed from the nature elements in Morris’ work.
However, Haberly’s use of colored inks and his Paradiso type show that he is not completely abandoning his work in England. Haberly’s work seems to have become a hybrid of his old style with the modern. Although Haberly’s style is not completely definitive, even at the end of his career, it is in line with his penchant for experimentation and passion for discovering new ways to present his art.
69
Conclusion: Loyd Haberly and the Transatlantic Arts and Crafts Movement
Loyd Haberly’s style changed throughout his career. His early books, which he printed while going to school in England and Wales, were more obviously influenced by the Arts and
Crafts Movement in England. The books that he produced in America were more consistent in style, especially in terms of the binding, indicating that he found an aesthetic of his own. Many of these books were made with brightly colored morocco, inlaid with gold stamping. However,
Haberly’s continual experimentation with types and woodcut illustrations displays his sense of passion and individualism that were present throughout his entire career as a printer and bookbinder. Haberly’s books, particularly the ones produced in America, are indicative of the continuing fine press books movement in the tradition of the Arts and Crafts Movement in a time when hand-crafted art was not the leading style. By examining this movement amidst a cultural shift, conclusions can be drawn about the mindset of artists in America during this turbulent time, and the ways in which art is always fluid and changing in response to history.
Haberly’s first books produced at Seven Acres Press display the ways in which he emulated the Arts and Crafts Movement. It is important to note that during this time (1925-
1931), Haberly lived not too far from the printer Emery Walker, a key figure in the printing sector of the Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe, and he visited Walker at his work in order to ask for advice about printing (Haberly 34). Due to this, the Arts and Crafts influence are most evident in these early works as Haberly attempts to gain his own footing and become comfortable creating his own books.
Three different examples of Haberly’s books printed at Seven Acres Press demonstrate the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The first book is Poems, printed in 1930. 70
Haberly uses many techniques of prolific British Arts and Crafts artists in this work. This includes the use of white-pigskin binding, similar to the Kelmscott Chaucer; the use of large decorative initials and spacing of the margins, which emulated William Morris’ guidelines on book-making; and, the use of Caslon type, which was recommended by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson in his work “The Book Beautiful.” Haberly continued to use Caslon type for the two other books printed at Seven Acres Press, The Copper Colored Cupid (1931) and The Antiquary (1933). Both of these books use ornamentation throughout, but for very different purposes. The Copper
Colored Cupid follows another part of Morris’ guidelines, which suggests that ornamentation be a part of the page and fit in with the theme of the book as a whole. The ornamentation in
Haberly’s book nicely compliments the narrative and breaks up the text on certain pages. The ornamentation even appears in the margins, a practice Morris also admired. The ornamentation in The Antiquary differs from Morris’ guidelines due to the fact that the images stand alone on their own pages. Despite this creative choice, The Antiquary still reflects the Arts and Crafts influence due to the use of medieval imagery. Haberly borrowed many crucial Arts and Crafts methods during his early years of making books. Not only was he surrounded by followers of
Morris during his time in England, but the books produced by craftsmen such as William Morris,
Emery Walker, and T.J. Cobden-Sanderson are still considered to be some of the best fine press books ever made, so it is no surprise that they would have such a major influence on the books produced by a young artist such as Haberly.
Through the end of the 1930s, Haberly continued his bookbuilding journey in England at two other presses. After he produced numerous books at his own press, Haberly sold Seven
Acres Press to his friend John Johnson and took the head position at the Gregynog Press in
Wales. He was recommended to the owners of the press, Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, by 71
Johnson due to his work at Seven Acres Press, and the sisters were impressed with his creativity.
However, the arrangement did not last due to the fact that Haberly had many interests pulling him away from running an already established private press. He eventually gave up his position to run his own press again, this time called Stoney Down Press, where he printed two more books. Despite the fact that the arrangement at Gregynog Press did not work out, Haberly continued to expand his knowledge of printing by producing his own type, which was gifted to him by the Davies sisters upon his departure. Books printed at Gregynog necessarily reflect the interests and influences of its owners, so there are similarities and differences between the books
Haberly printed at Seven Acres and Stoney Down compared to the books he printed at
Gregynog.
Two books that are printed during this time are Anne Boleyn and Other Poems, printed in
1934, and The Crowning Year and Other Poems, printed in 1937. The former was a book printed by the Gregynog Press, and the latter was printed by Haberly at his second “printery-bindery,” the Stoney Down Press. Anne Boleyn was published a year after The Antiquary, which was one of the last books Haberly printed at Seven Acres Press. The Gregynog Press book was the only book by Haberly that was printed at the press, and this could be why there are similarities to
Haberly’s style present in his Seven Acres Press books. Graily Hewitt is responsible for the use of red and green ink for the intial letters, but this is a stylistic choice Haberly made and continues to make for his books. The brown morocco binding used for this book foreshadows Haberly’s use of this material for his American books. In comparison, Haberly both experiments and reverts to old methods in terms of the binding for The Crowning Year and Other Poems. Some copies use white-pigskin binding, which he used for books such as Poems at Seven Acres Press.
Other copies use green, brown, and tan designed cloth board over a brown leather spine stamped 72 in gold. This also foreshadows the vibrantly colored morocco Haberly often uses for his
American books. He again uses red and green ink for his initials, which seems to be a signature of his. This book is also one of the first to use the Paradiso type designed by Haberly and Graily
Hewitt. He continues to use this type for the majority of his books henceforth. The books he produced during this more hectic period of his life indicate his willingness to experiment with different materials and styles, but also the emergence of his own distinct style, which he carries over with him when he returns to America before the advent of World War II.
After his return to America from England and Wales, Haberly published his autobiography, which details his time printing books in England and Wales. However, he does not discuss his life after he returned to America (although he does give a detailed account of his entire life in unpublished manuscripts housed at Fairleigh Dickinson Libraries). During this time, he lectured at different universities, and eventually became the dean at Fairleigh Dickinson
University. He also printed thirteen books during this time, all written by him and the majority of which he produced on a hand press (Satterfield 22). Although the books Haberly printed in
America all have a similar style (Satterfield 22), they also indicate how Haberly fits into the Arts and Crafts Movement in America post-World War II. This includes the examination of other fine press printers during this time, such as Dard Hunter in Ohio and the Roycroft Press in New York.
The City of the Sainted King, printed in 1941 (originally printed in 1939), and Again, and
Other Poems, printed in 1953, show how Haberly begins to settle into a favored style of book printing and decoration. In his 1941 copy of The City of the Sainted King, Haberly seems to be breaking free of his own style by not using red and green ink or Paradiso type. He does begin to experiment more with the morocco binding. Some copies used brown and light blue morocco with gold stamping, and others used black morocco with gold stamping. The light blue morocco 73 displays Haberly’s forays into colored binding. This is not Haberly’s first use of gold stamping, but he uses it almost consistently in his American books. Haberly continues to use both colored morocco and gold stamping in 1953 for copies of his book Again, and Other Poems. Some copies are simple brown morocco with dark blue accents, offset by gold stamping in an interlocking circle pattern. Other copies were bound in black morocco with red and green accents and accompanied by even more intricate gold stamping. Haberly settles into his style in this book by again using red and green ink for initial letters and Paradiso type. He also calls back on his earlier books from Seven Acres Press through the use of hand-colored ornamentation throughout the book. Although Arts and Crafts influences are still evident in his American books, by the time Haberly settles back in to America, his books begin to display repeated design choices that can be associated with a style distinct to Haberly.
Although Loyd Haberly is only one artist, he is representative of the ways in which artists incorporate artistic influences from past movements. In terms of the Arts and Crafts Movement,
Haberly was exposed to both the American and British incarnations. Due to his time in England and Wales and his connections with founders of the British Arts and Crafts Movement, his early books seem to more closely reflect a British influence. Haberly was growing up in America at the time of the Roycrofters’ pinnacle of success, but his most productive artistic years were during his time abroad. When he returned to America at the advent of World War II, Arts and
Crafts had less of a hold on the artistic landscape, and this in turn affected his art.
By tracing Haberly’s trajectory as an artist and analyzing the stylistic choices and construction of his books, the influences of different art styles and movements can be seen in his work. The Arts and Crafts influence is more obvious and easier to identify in his works. This is partially to do with the medium itself. Even though book making and printing was one of the last 74 projects taken on by Morris during the British Arts and Crafts Movement, the revival of this medium reached a peak during this movement and reflects a return to pre-Industrial values. Even though Arts and Crafts was not the leading movement in England during the time Haberly was working there, it still had enough of an influence in certain artistic and literary circles that
Haberly was able to gain some recognition as an independent book maker.
In America, this was not entirely the case. Around the time of the Armory Show in 1913, art and writing had begun to shift away from Arts and Crafts values and began to embrace a post-
Industrial style. Art began to reflect a more modern look, one that embraced mass production and machinery, and this style remained an important influence all the way to Post-Modernism in the
1960s. Despite the fact that Arts and Crafts was less popular in America during this time than it was in England, it was not completely eradicated from the artistic narrative. For instance,
Americans were interested enough in looking back at the art of the Arts and Crafts Movement that the Metropolitan Museum of Art showcased the Exhibition of Modern British Crafts during
World War II. In regards to Haberly’s preferred medium, books themselves did not lose popularity, but a preference for expensive handcrafted books had lost some of its appeal. This was the landscape Haberly came home to after his stint in the U.K.
Since Haberly is foremost a scholar, his work as a “bookbuilder” was done out of his own interest and passion and not for a profit. Even when he was hired as the controller of the
Gregynog Press, he was still involved at the Trinity College. This does not change when he returns to America. In fact, he spends less time as a printer and more time as a scholar, professor, and eventually a dean in America. For this reason, Haberly’s changes as an artist are more subtle.
The modern influence in his American books are not as easy to notice compared with the influences of the Arts and Crafts Movement in all of his works. They appear mostly in his 75 woodcut designs and bindings, especially in terms of the use of shapes and vibrant colors.
However, these minor changes exemplify not just Haberly’s willingness to adapt aspects of his style to reflect multiple influences, but it also can be viewed as an example of the ways in which art movements from different periods and different parts of the world continue to influence each other. Even though there are distinct art movements that can be traced through history, the art itself is organic and directly relates to the movements that precede it.
In Haberly’s hands, the Arts and Crafts style is adaptable. In a modern and machine age, it is an idiom that is still relevant because it is able to reference contemporary industry and technology even as it embraces a work ethic that aims to slow down machine era “progress.”
The book as a form works in a similar way: Haberly is making the case for the continued relevance of an old technology, in the wake of newer technologies such as radio, TV, and in today’s age, the internet. Loyd Haberly combined the British and American Arts and Crafts
Movements with several modern elements to create a style all his own during a time when handcrafted books were not the leading art style or medium.
76
Glossary
Glossary terms are bolded throughout the thesis. They only appear in the glossary once but are bolded every time they are used in the thesis.
Bembo type – A form of the “old-style” serif typeface with a Roman type base to be used as a form of legible book typeface.
Buckram binding – A type of binding made out of stiff cotton, linen, or horse hair cloth that has a loose, often muslin, weave.
Caslon type – Serif typefaces originally designed by William Caslon between 1720 and 1726.
Chaucer type – A typeface designed by William Morris in 1896. It is Troy typeface in pica used specifically for the Kelmscott Chaucer.
Centaur type – A serif typeface designed by Bruce Rogers, based on the types designed by
Nicolas Jenson around 1470.
Cubism – An art movement pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque between 1907 and
1914 in which objects are taken apart and assembled in new forms so that they can be visualized from multiple viewpoints.
Futurism – An early twentieth century Italian art movement that emphasized speed, technology, youth, violence, and industrialism in its art.
Gothic (Blackletter or Textualis) type – A common form of typeface that originated in
Western Europe in 1150 and was used by Johannes Gutenberg for the Gutenberg Bible in 1455.
The font consists of tall, narrow letters with sharp, straight, and angular lines. 77
Gregynog/Gwendoline type – A type designed by Graily Hewitt on behalf of Gwendoline and
Margaret Davies in 1935.
Horror vacui – The filling of the entire surface of a space or an artwork with detail in visual art.
Initial letters – The large first letter of a paragraph that is typically set in a decorative way.
Kraft dust-cover – The detachable outer cover of a book made out of Kraft paper.
“Machine Art” – Consists of utilitarian, machine-made objects displayed to showcase the beauty of industrial objects. It emerged in the 1930s.
Morocco leather – A type of binding made out of soft, pliable goatskin that has a distinguishable grain. It is often seen in bright colors due to its ability to effectively absorb dye.
Niger leather – A type of leather made of pigskin used for binding that originates in West
Africa. It is flexible and rugged, and has a grain achieved through hand rubbing.
Paradiso/Foligno/Neumeister type – A typeface designed by Graily Hewitt and Loyd Haberly.
The typeface goes by many names due to the fact that it was “designed by the printer (Haberly) and Graily Hewitt from that used at Foligno by Numeister, Gutenberg’s errant apprentice, for the first printing of Dante’s poem.”
Pavingtiles – A glazed decorated tile mainly used for floors. Loyd Haberly combined the terms
“paving” and “tiles” when referring to them in his publication Mediaeval English Pavingtiles
(1937).
Pica – A unit of type size and line length equal to 12 points. 78
Roman type – A common typeface that was originally modeled from a European scribal manuscript style from the fifteenth century.
Troy type – A typeface designed by William Morris in 18 point size and line length. It was originally used for the Historyes of Troye published by the Kelmscott Press in 1892.
79
Works Cited
1. Addams, Jane, and Victoria Brown. Twenty Years at Hull-House: with Related
Documents. Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999.
2. Alexander, Michael. Medievalism: the Middle Ages in Modern England. Yale University
Press, 2007.
3. Bowman, Leslie Greene. American Arts & Crafts: Virtue in Design; a Catalogue of the
Palevsky/Evans Collection and Related Works at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1990.
4. Callen, Anthea. Women Artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, 1870 – 1914. Pantheon
Books, 1979.
5. Collins, Michael. Towards Post-Modernism: Design since 1851. Published for the
Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications, 1987.
6. Gere, Charlotte and Marina Vaizey. “Miss Gwendoline and Miss Margaret.” Great
Women Collectors. Philip Wilson, 1999, pp. 141-145.
7. Haberly, Loyd. An American Bookbuilder in England and Wales: Reminiscences of the
Seven Acres and Gregynog Presses. Bertram Rota, 1979.
8. Haberly, Loyd. Loyd Haberly, Poet and Printer. Pickering Press, 1972.
9. Harrop, Dorothy. A History of the Gregynog Press. Private Libraries Association, 1980.
10. Hart, Imogen. “UC Berkeley History of Art Department.” RSS, UC Regents, 2015,
arthistory.berkeley.edu/events/event/2754032-imogen-hart-transatlantic-arts-and-crafts.
11. Hunter, Dard. My Life with Paper; an Autobiography. Knopf, 1958.
12. Hunter, Sam, and John Jacobus. Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. Abrams,
1985. 80
13. Jordan, Christopher. “Intertwining Lives: In Search of Agatha Walker, Sculptor and
Pottery Figure Artist.” The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 - the Present 35,
No. 35, no. Ominum Gatherum, 1 Jan. 2011, pp. 8-33.
14. Kaplan, Wendy. The Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe and America: Design for the
Modern World. Thames & Hudson, 2004.
15. Morris, William, et al. A Note by William Morris on His Aims in Founding the Kelmscott
Press: Together with a Short Description of the Press by S.C. Cockerell, & an Annotated
List of the Books Printed Thereat. Grolier Club, 1996, pp. 1-4.
16. Morris, William and Peter Faulkner. Arts and Crafts Essays by Members of the Arts and
Crafts Exhibition Society. Thoemmes, 1996.
17. Morris, William and Tony Pinkney. We Met Morris: Interviews with William Morris,
1885-96. Spire Books, 2005.
18. Morris, William and Emery Walker. “Printing.” Arts and Crafts Essays by Members of
the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, Thoemmes Press, 1996, pp. 111-133.
19. Obniski, Monica. “The Arts and Crafts Movement in America.” Metmuseum.org, 2008,
www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/acam/hd_acam.htm.
20. Potter, Greta Lagro. “An Appreciation of Sir Emery Walker.” The Library Quarterly, vol.
8, no. 3, 1938, pp. 400-414, doi:10.1086/614281.
21. Quinan, Jack. “Elbert Hubbard's Roycroft.” Head, Heart, and Hand: Elbert Hubbard and
the Roycrofters, by Elbert Hubbard et al., University of Rochester Press, 1994, pp. 1-19.
22. Ruskin, John. On The Nature of Gothic Architecture: And Herein of the True Functions
of the Workman in Art, Smith, Elder & Co., 1854. 81
23. Satterfield, Jay. “Loyd Haberly: Poet and Printer.” Books at Iowa, vol. 58, 1993, pp. 17-
32, https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/scua/bai/satter2.htm.
24. Shen, Lindsay. “Philanthropic Furnishing: Gregynog Hall, Powys.” Furniture History,
vol. 31, 1 Jan. 1995, pp. 217-235.
25. Tidcombe, Marianne. The Doves Bindery. British Library, 1991.
26. Tidcombe, Marianne. The Doves Press. The British Library, 2002.
27. Vilain, Jean-Francois. “The Roycroft Printing Shop: Books, Magazines and Ephemera.”
Head, Heart, and Hand: Elbert Hubbard and the Roycrofters, by Elbert Hubbard et al.,
University of Rochester Press, 1994, pp. 1-19.
28. Zipf, Catherine W. Professional Pursuits: Women and the American Arts and Crafts
Movement. University of Tennessee Press, 2007.
29. “The Life of Dard Hunter.” About Dard Hunter, www.dardhunter.com/About.htm.
30. “The Life of Dard Hunter.” About Dard Hunter Continued,
www.dardhunter.com/About2.htm.
Works by Haberly
1. Haberly, Loyd. Again and Other Poems. Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1953.
2. Haberly, Loyd. Anne Boleyn and Other Poems. Gregynog Press, 1934.
3. Haberly, Loyd. The Antiquary: A Poem Written in Waterperry Church and Decorated
With Designs From the Glass of Its Ancient Windows. Seven Acres Press, 1933.
4. Haberly, Loyd. The City of the Sainted King and Other Poems. Harvard University, 1941.
5. Haberly, Loyd. The Copper Coloured Cupid, or, The Cutting of the Cake. Seven Acres
Press, 1931.
6. Haberly, Loyd. The Crowning Year and Other Poems. Stoney Down Press, 1937. 82
7. Haberly, Loyd. Poems. Seven Acres Press, 1930.