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Formfitting the Format
by Jacob L. Warner
Sheldon Wesson’s article, “Structure and Stricture,” Campane 107, comes at a time when I have been mulling over the substance and format of NAPA conventions, and comes on top of a couple of comments that have been worrying me for some time.
It is easy to criticize the NAPA format and a little harder to justify and defend it. There is something odd and strange about our conventions. I remember being interviewed by the local paper at the 1974 San Diego convention and the reporter completely stumped me when she started asking questions about what we did at conventions. I couldn’t tell her that we came from all over the country at great personal expense to talk about a few amendments to the constitution or to attend an auction of printing stuff that nobody much wants. I admitted that we sometimes had speakers who discussed printing or writing but obviously that was not the focus since the speakers generally had little to say that most of us didn’t already know or couldn’t find out from books. When she asked about outside speakers, I admitted that we sometimes had them, but it was unlikely that there was any technical knowledge that someone didn’t know more about than some outsider. I was really stuck.
I knew why I was there – I was there because I couldn’t bear not to be – but that didn’t sound very sensible either. I couldn’t think of anything to tell her.
Finally, Vic Moitoret came to the rescue. He said, “It’s a family reunion, that’s what it is.” The reporter accepted that and so did I, but it did make clear to me that our conventions are very peculiar affairs, and that they may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
At a recent convention I asked a first-time attender how he liked the convention, and he said that it was OK except that he didn’t think we ought to spend an hour wrangling about a few dollars as we had on the floor that afternoon. He had a point. Obviously there is an amount too small to merit discussion when each of us is paying many dollars an hour just to be there, but the trouble is that if one permits anyone who wishes to speak, it is not easy to prevent or curb discussions of amounts which may seem too small to merit it. And besides, there is probably not much agreement on what is too small. At the Knoxville convention one member spoke of $1000 of NAPA money as if it were a pittance, and Wesson, in his article, chides the association for not wanting to risk an increase in mailing costs of about $4000 per annum.
Once when I asked a member why he had not ever attended a convention, he said, “Oh, it’s all just politics. I wouldn’t enjoy that.” I was left rather speechless because that notion was so foreign to the way I felt about conventions. Where did he get this idea? Perhaps from the minutes. Condensed and summarized, often they make it sound as if arguing and maneuvering were the main ingredients of a meeting when, in fact, goodwill, friendship and humor were the real atmosphere.
A member who happens to be just the type that I think is of great value to our organization wrote me that he had left the Knoxville convention early because he could not bear the meetings. He had earlier told me that he has enough of that type of meetings to attend professionally and does not want to spend his own time on it. In his letter he pointed out that the American Amateur Press Association does not conduct business at its conventions and he said, “The conventions of the AAPA are a joy to attend.”
I would like to attend an AAPA convention, but I have not, so I cannot comment on his statement. Leah and I did attend the Amalgamated Printers Association wayzgoose last summer and enjoyed it very much. The APA also conducts no business at its meeting. As in the AAPA it is all done by mail. We have no way of knowing whether the wayzgoose we attended was the norm, but we were struck by the thought had we been members of the APA and strangers to the group no one would have known we were there. There were no introductions on the floor, no roll call, no attempts to integrate new members, if any were present, into the group. If we had come not knowing anyone, I had the feeling we would have left in the same condition. On the other hand, the meetings were interesting – they dealt with printing techniques and the speakers were competent, interesting and informative.
While I was in the process of writing this piece, Leah received a letter that a new member has sent to President Joseph Curran and to other officers. The writer, on the basis of reading the minutes in the September National Amateur, says that it is clear that there are people in NAPA who think they own it and who are concerned with wielding authority. He says that “rarely, if ever, have I been witness to so ill-tempered, unbridled and mean an ad hominem assault as was recorded in the minutes… I neither know nor do I care about the merits of the dispute. But I do question why such shameless personal sniping should occur at such a gathering.” (Could this be the same convention that I attended?)
Strangely, the author of this letter who is so concerned about others being criticized does not hesitate to criticize quite a few people in his letter. Is he saying our criticism should be by mail but not spoken? This writer also mentions that he has attended an AAPA convention and found it much more to his liking. He says, “I can’t think of anything that would have been more out of place at the AAPA meeting than Robert’s Rules.” More than anything said yet, this letter convinces me that there is an unbridgeable gulf between the extremes of the NAPA and the AAPA. That there is a lot of common ground between the two organizations is evident by the large dual membership.
Just because I have an aversion to anyone who starts a discussion with the words, “I neither know nor do I care about the merits of…” does not mean I cannot learn something from him and I did. His statement about Robert’s Rules made one thing very clear. First off, Robert’s Rules are not a devilish device by which power-hungry people control a meeting – the whole purpose of the Rules is to insure orderly, democratic participation in a meeting. If there’s no business conducted, there’s no reason to use Robert’s Rules. If there is business to be done, they are absolutely necessary. What his statement clarified for me is that the difference in the approach of the conventions is actually solely determined by whether a business meeting is held or not.
If a business meeting is held there is no way that some “shameless” person like me can be prevented from criticizing whomever he wishes to criticize. There is no way a power-mad Harold Segal can be restrained from haranguing the crowd, nor that ultra-liberal Vic Moitoret can be prevented from complaining about the strictures of the constitution. And how else could the shy and reticent Sheldon Wesson be persuaded to give us the benefit of his wisdom? Discussions will not always be to the point because there’s no way the chairman can make people stick to the subject. If someone thinks $10 is an important sum of money there’s no preventing him from discussing it. Robert’s Rules insures that everyone can have his say no matter what anyone thinks about it.
I like the format of the NAPA convention. I can see that a casual visitor would not be entranced by listening to a discussion of the organization’s problems or by a string of officers’ reports. But it provides a very easy and comfortable method for new members to meld gradually into the group. The structure of the business sessions provides a framework wherein new members can begin to understand the organization and know what the officers are attempting to do, and above all, learn who their fellow members are and what their thoughts are. In addition, a new member, or an old member, finds that all he has to do is speak up and his ideas and suggestions will be received, discussed and evaluated right on the floor. There is no easier, more direct way or more efficient method for a member to have his say on the problems, procedures or structure of the NAPA than right on the convention floor.
Business can be done by mail; problems can, and should be discussed in journals, but nothing can really substitute for the discussion on the floor of a convention because often a consensus of opinion about a problem is reached which could never happen by mail. No matter how discursive and unfocused the floor discussions may seem to be, business is fairly efficiently conducted, and the business is usually conducted in an attitude of friendliness and concern for the opinions and rights of others however strong the disagreements may be.
I believe that the organization conforms reasonably well to what the majority of its members want it to be. We are under no obligation to conform to what new members think we should be. Our obligation, which we do not seem to meet very well, is to tell prospective members what our organization is like.
Perhaps the simple truth is there is no one approach that would please everyone. If NAPA and AAPA were just alike there would be little sense in having two organizations. It is obvious that they have similar goals, and the dual memberships prove that there is plenty of common ground. If the extremes differ that simply gives extreme people a choice, and there is just no reason why both organizations should not prosper.
“It was a good convention,” I said to Bill and Tillie Haywood as we were sitting in the hotel lobby on 4 July, the day after the convention ended. “They’re all good,” said Bill. “Did you ever hear of a bad convention?” – Jake Warner, The Boxwooder 122, September, 1979
At the pre-convention evening gathering when we were sitting in a large, irregular circle in the meeting room, I thought what a rare and wonderful experience it was to be again in such a group whose warm regard and pleasure at being together again is so openly obvious. I don’t think I could hope to find it anywhere else, and it is exactly why it is so easy to become addicted to NAPA conventions. – Jake Warner, The Boxwooder 169, August 1983
Peregrinations: A Tour de Force
by Guy Botterill
Since attending the American Typecasting Fellowship Conference at Oxford in 1982 and spending three days in London and two in Paris, I became fascinated with Europe. I wanted to see other cities, so this past summer I took the trip of my life and had a marvelous time, although it makes me sick to think of all the money I squandered. While in certain places I visited five type foundries. I had previously made a list of addresses, phone numbers and particular typefaces I wanted to buy.
In Barcelona, I called Wolfgang Hartmann, whom I had met in Oxford, to arrange a meeting at his foundry the next day. A short subway ride and a little trip in a taxi took me to Fundicion Tipografica Neufville, Calle Puigmarti 22. A busy little Spanish marketplace was right across the street. Inside I was welcomed by Maria, Hartmann’s secretary, and the plant manager, Enrique Fernandez, who took me on a guided tour of the foundry, now reputed to be the busiest in Europe. Neufville is equipped with Foucher (French) and Küstermann (German) casters, two of the finest machines ever built. I was shown exquisite fonts on galleys, the matrice room and the unique machine used to shave the feet of European type down to American height. They can cast fonts on either didot or pica body.
Neufville also manufactures large sizes of poster type in a special formula of extra hard plastic with faces such as Beton, Futura, Souvenir and Venus, but at rather expensive cost. All metal type mats are from the defunct Bauer foundry in Frankfurt. Herr Hartmann moved the operation to Spain some years ago for economic reasons. Designs available include Adagio, Horizon, Legenda, Stradivarius, Trafton Script, Weiss and many others. My lone acquisition was a half-size font of 16-didot Maxime, a daring bold script designed by Peter Schneidler. It was mailed back to me by surface parcel post because my one suitcase was heavy enough.
While in Munich, it was only a 35-minute train ride to Ingolstadt. German rail is electric, fast, smooth and normally right on schedule. At the station in Ingolstadt, I managed a taxi to the Johannes Wagner Foundry at Theodor-Heuss-Strasse 49. The day before I had called the manager, Manfred Drose, to make sure the place was open. His assistant handled my purchase. It is a typical type foundry, although I didn’t have time to see much of it. They also can cast type from mats of the defunct Ludwig-Wagner foundry, formerly in Leipzig. Specimen sheets show such faces as Arabella, Delphin, Impuls, Opal, Post-Antiqua, Reporter, Schadow and Solemnis. I bought fonts of 10-didot Post Mediaeval Light and sort lines for 14-didot Hiero Rhode roman and italic; also sorts for 10-didot Romana Normal. German fonts are short on cap Y, and lowercase c and y, due to the nature of the language. I was given a 20% discount on this bill and even driven back to the station by the friendly assistant who spoke fluent English.
During my stay in Frankfurt, I went by train to nearby Mühlheim, a ride of about an hour. After being told to walk a short distance from the station, in the wrong direction, I had to make further inquiries and eventually got a taxi to the Ludwig and Mayer Foundry at Borsigstrasse 15. Mr. Reinhold, the manager, showed me specimen catalogues and brochures to help me with a purchase, but he was the only person in charge that day and didn’t have time to show me the foundry operation. I obtained fonts of 4 on 6 and 6 Largo Bold, paying in Deutsch marks, with instructions to mail by parcel post. Once again I was given a discount and driven back to the rail station.
In Frankfurt I visited the Stempel Foundry at Hedderichstrasse 106-114. This is the most famous type foundry in Europe. American Type Founders is the authorized dealer in America for Stempel designs. I was welcomed by Gertraude Benoehr, sales agent, whom I had also met at the Oxford conference. She presented me with a rare, beautiful Klingspor Foundry specimen book from the Stempel library archives. If a certain type is not presently in stock, you can get a special casting at an extremely high cost, the minimum being about 50 pounds. Again, I didn’t get to see the casting machines or the matrix department. It took some time to get my order finalized, but I managed to purchase, in German marks, fonts of 8 and 10-didot Claudius with sorts, and 8, 10 and 20-didot Wilhelm-Klingspor Schrift, both faces designed by the brilliant Rudolf Koch. Stempel also owns matrices from the defunct Weber Foundry, formerly in Stuttgart. Stempel fonts available include Helvetica, Melior, Optima, Trump Mediaeval and Palatino.
The following day I took another train from the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (central station) to the small town of Mainz, where the world-famous Gutenberg Museum is located. It is impressive, indeed, with the workshop and printing office in the basement; exhibits and lecture hall on the entrance floor; and 15th-19th century books, old printing machines, type specimens and the treasure room with a Gutenberg Bible on two upper floors. A lovely film about Gutenberg is shown in various languages at certain times.
My hotel was right by the harbor in Copenhagen. One day I took the hydrofoil boat across the Eastern Sea to Malmo, Sweden, a fast ride of 30 minutes. The train station was two blocks away and a short trip took me to the little city of Lund. Just a four-block walk and I faced Klostergarten 10, the building housing the Berling Type Foundry. I was met by Peter Schuchtle who guided me through the operation. Berling utilizes all Küstermann casting machines and Swedish fonts can be shaved down to American height. He told me that they had to dump 30 tons of type due to lack of sales and that many casters were sold to scrap metal dealers. I was also told that Roger Excoffon, the designer of the unique Mistral typeface, had passed away in July. I acquired fonts of 4 on 6, 6 and 12-didot Carolus, an attractive face drawn by Karl Erik Forsberg. It was paid for in Swedish krona, to be shipped surface mail.
Most foundries seemed to be barely staying alive. I saw few casters in operation; however, certain employees were on vacation. In recent years some places have succumbed – Deberny & Piegnot and Olive in France; and Nebiolo in Italy. Ludwig-Wagner, Berthold and Klingspor were victims of mergers. European type is expensive, but half-size fonts may be available. If you are going to buy, now is the time.
Campane has been published since 1941 in the interest of the National Amateur Press Association and the fascination of hobby printing by Harold Segal, Philadelphia, Pa. 19115. Set in Baskerville 353 type and 425 copies printed on 60-lb. offset stock on a 7×11 circa 1890 treadle Pearl press.