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Dard Hunter Makes World's First "One-Man" Books
Through Ralph M. Pearson and Bertha Jaques, the Chicago Society
of Etchers learned of Hunter's exciting efforts to revive
fifteenth century book crafts, and in March 1915 he was contracted
to print the Society's end-of-the-year keepsake, a monograph
by William Aspenwall Bradley titled, The Etching of Figures.
Hunter was thrilled to put into practice his ideas about the
"book harmonious" which had just been published
in his first scholarly article, "The Lost Art of Making
Books" in The Miscellany 2, no. 1 (March 1915): 3-6.
He immediately ordered a pair of antique laid moulds from
England, 16.5 x 23.5 inches, even though the Great War was
waging in Europe. While waiting for their arrival, he finished
cutting the punches and justified the matrices. Running out
of time, Hunter decided not to complete the entire font and
did not cut punches for the uppercase Q X and Z. Instead he
scoured his type specimen books for a typeface which would
match his. Ivanhoe, 18-point, made by the Keystone Type Foundry
was selected. With gravers Hunter altered just enough pieces
of type needed to complete the book. To print it Hunter bought
a R. Hoe Washington press. Operated by hand, this press was
never satisfactory to Hunter, and eventually he gave it to
Pearson.
Due to problems other than the war, the new moulds did not
arrive until October. With barely three months left to complete
the project, Hunter requested and received a three-month extension.
When printing was finally completed, Hunter sent the books
to his ex-Roycroft friends, Sterling Lord and Peter Franck,
The Oakwood Binders, for binding.
Finally in March 1916 the books were sent to Jaques who immediately
commissioned Hunter to print a second book, due at the end
of that year. This was authored by Frank Weitenkampf and titled,
The Etching of Contemporary Life. Using the same techniques
employed for the Bradley's book, Hunter had no trouble meeting
the deadline.
For the 1917 keepsake Hunter was again contracted to print
a small folio commemorating the work of J.C. Vondrous. These
three publications are still considered the first to be done
by the labor of one man with the exception of the binding.
By 1917 Hunter realized that his papermaking, type founding,
and printing operations were beyond the experimental stages.
If he was to print more books, he would have to enlarge the
facilities and hire workers. Other events prevented this from
happening, however. America entered the war in April 1917,
and his first son, Dard Jr., was born a month later. Mill
House was sold in 1918. Hunter enlisted in the army, but just
before he was to leave, peace was declared. The Spanish flu
epidemic prevented the Hunters from returning to Chillicothe,
and in February 1919 their second son, Cornell Choate, was
born in their Newburgh, NY apartment.
page 5 > Dard Hunter's Mountain House
Press
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