TYPOGRAPHY 1 – 8 [all published]. London: The Shenval Press, Winter 1936 – Summer 1939. Edited by Robert Harling.

TYPOGRAPHY 1 – 8

Robert Harling [Editor] with James Shand and Ellic Howe

“When [Typography] first appeared in 1936, the journal broke new ground in its coverage of the European avant garde—including the first serious article on Jan Tschichold's work to be published in Britain. It was also very different from earlier, and primmer, typographic magazines in its zest for letters of all kinds, not just fine book printing. Issue one contained an article on Kardomah tea labels; issue two an analysis of tram ticket typography. Robert Harling’s early championing of typographic ephemera anticipated the burgeoning of 1960s Pop.”

Offered here is a complete eight-issue set of Robert Harling’s progressive journal TYPOGRAPHY, printed by James Shand’s Shenval Press from 1936 to 1939. Initially published in editions of 1,200 copies, the press run expanded to 2,500 copies by 1939. All issues are complete with all of the original inserts and tipped-in plates present and collated. The “revolutionary French Plastoic” bindings are somewhat brittle and chipped [as usual], but this set presents well in generally very good or better condition. Individual issues appear infrequently, and complete runs are quite uncommon.

Robert Harling [Editor] with James Shand and Ellic Howe: TYPOGRAPHY 1. London: The Shenval Press, Winter 1936 [published in an edition of 1,200 copies]. Slim quarto. Thick letterpressed wrappers. Plasti-coil binding. 46 pp. Multiple paper stocks. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Publishers plasti-coil (i.e. revolutionary French Plastoic) binding broken in two places with spine crown chipped. Wrappers lightly soiled, but a very good copy.

Robert Harling [Editor] with James Shand and Ellic Howe: TYPOGRAPHY 2. London: The Shenval Press, Spring 1937 [published in an edition of 1,200 copies]. Slim quarto. Thick letterpressed wrappers. Plasti-coil binding. 48 pp. Multiple paper stocks. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Wrappers lightly soiled, but a very good or better copy.

Robert Harling [Editor] with James Shand and Ellic Howe: TYPOGRAPHY 3. London: The Shenval Press, Summer 1937 [published in an edition of 2,000 copies]. Slim quarto. Thick letterpressed wrappers. Plasti-coil binding. 54 pp. Multiple paper stocks. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Publishers plasti-coil  binding broken in one place and heel chipped. Wrappers lightly soiled, but a very good copy.

Robert Harling [Editor] with James Shand and Ellic Howe: TYPOGRAPHY 4. London: The Shenval Press, Autumn 1937  [published in an edition of 2,000 copies]. Slim quarto. Thick letterpressed wrappers. Plasti-coil binding. 44 pp. Multiple paper stocks. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Publishers plasti-coil  binding broken in two places. Wrappers lightly edgeworn, but a very good copy.

Robert Harling [Editor] with James Shand and Ellic Howe: TYPOGRAPHY 5. London: The Shenval Press, Spring 1938 [published in an edition of 2,000 copies]. Slim quarto. Thick letterpressed wrappers. Plasti-coil binding. 62 pp. Multiple paper stocks. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Publishers plasti-coil binding chipped at crown and heel. Wrappers lightly worn and creased, but a very good copy.

Robert Harling [Editor] with James Shand and Ellic Howe: TYPOGRAPHY 6. London: The Shenval Press, Summer 1938 [published in an edition of 2,500 copies]. Slim quarto. Thick letterpressed wrappers. Plasti-coil binding. 60 pp. Multiple paper stocks. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Publishers plasti-coil binding broken in one places with chipped heel and crown. Wrappers lightly soiled and scratched, but a very good copy.

Robert Harling [Editor] with James Shand and Ellic Howe: TYPOGRAPHY 7. London: The Shenval Press, Winter 1938 [published in an edition of 2,500 copies]. Slim quarto. Thick letterpressed wrappers. Plasti-coil binding. 60 pp. Multiple paper stocks. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Publishers plasti-coil binding broken in one spot and chipped at heel. Wrappers lightly worn and creased, but a very good copy.

Robert Harling [Editor] with James Shand and Ellic Howe: TYPOGRAPHY 8. London: The Shenval Press, Summer 1939 [published in an edition of 2,500 copies]. Slim quarto. Thick letterpressed wrappers. Plasti-coil binding. 58 pp. Multiple paper stocks. Illustrated articles and advertisements. Wrappers lightly soiled, but a  very good or better copy.

Among British typographic journals of the pre-war period, the eight issues of Typography (1936-39) stand out and retain their interest today thanks to an informality of presentation and modernity of subject matter that give them more in common with publications of the 1950s and later than with such bookish and book-like contemporaries as Signature or the earlier The Fleuron. Edited by Robert Harling, an advertising agency art director, and published by James Shand’s Shenval Press, London, the quarterly journal brought together articles on newspaper typography, train timetables, political graphics, patent medicine advertising and type in children’s comics, as well as the more predictable Victoriana such as ecclesiastical typography and street ballads. In issue 3—one of the finest—Jan Tschichold wrote about “Type Mixtures,” through Modernism remained just one interest among many rather than a passionate and exclusive commitment. The journal’s undogmatic eclecticism and breadth of content was reflected in a design format which, for the first six issues, varied from article to article, while its 11 x 9 inch pages were held together by a plastic comb binding that gave it the feel of a manual or exercise book. After the war Harling and Shand began a new journal, Alphabet and Image. In retrospect, the no doubt economically unavoidable switch to a smaller page size and a single text column highlights what was so fresh and distinctive about the earlier title. [Eye no. 13, 1994]

TYPOGRAPHY 1 [Winter 1936, 46 pp. ] Contents:

• Voices and Vices by Francis Menell, illustration by E. McKnight Kauffer
• Reason and Typography by Rene Hague,  with four tipped-in plates set and printed by Eric Gill and Rene Hague at their press at Pigotts, Buckinghamshire.
• Prologue and Epilogue to Updike by Ellic Howe
• The Alphabet and the Printing Press by James Shand
• Somebody Discovers the Case by Robert Harling, with art bindings by E. McKnight Kauffer and Herbert Bayer
• Book Review by Bernard Glemser
• News Into Type by S. L. Righyni,  with  newspaper insets.
• Modern Commercial Typography by Philip James
• Kardomah Tea Labelsby Bernard Griffin, with 4 tipped-in Kardomah Tea Labels!
• Typographical Inset, Specimens and Reviews, including a fold-out  Monotype sample of Kayo designed by Eric Gill.

TYPOGRAPHY 2 [Spring 1937, 48 pp.] Contents:

• Shell Guide to Typography by John Betjeman,  with 2-tipped in samples
• Typefounding and Typsetting by Ellic Howe
• Features for Two Millions by John Rayner, with bound-in newspaper apges
• The Honour of Your Company . . . by Anthony Bellarticle, on the design of invitations to art exhibits with tipped-in examples for shows by Edvard Munch, Francisco Bores, Pablo Picasso, and Man Ray.
• Slug   by James Shand, with 4 tipped-in examples
• Tram Ticket Typography by J. C. Allsop, with bound-in sheets of tram tickets.
• The Work of Feliks Topolski by Molly Fordham
• Typographical Inset, Specimens and Reviews

TYPOGRAPHY 3 [Summer 1937, 54 pp.] Contents:

• Type Mixtures by Jan Tschichold. Original article by the most influential typographer of the 20th century, in which Tschichold gives a brief history of type-mixing and suggests some modern mixtures with specimens.  According to Rick Poynor, Herbert Spencer often spoke of the importance of Harling and Shand's Typography -- Jan Tschichold's article on TypeMixtures in the third issue had a decisive influence on his eventual direction (Poynor: Typographica. NYC: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. page 15.)
• Ands & Ampersands by Frederick W. Goudy. Inquiry into the history, form and use. Illustrated with over 60 characters, drawn by the author and engraved and cast  in type by his son, Fred T. Goudy. Goudy says this is 'the most important contribution to the history of this typographical character which has yet appeared."
• From Bewick to the Half-Tone Process-- Illustration Processes in the 19th century by Ellic Howe.
• Left-Wing Layout – Propoganda produced by the politically left in England   by Howard Wadman   From the books produced by Gollancz to the posters designed by the Labour Party. Workers of the World Unite!
• The Work of Ashley Havinden English Advertising Designer with an American and European Repuations  by Herbert Read. Illustrated with tipped-in color printing samples in color and a newsprint supplement.
• Monotype Corporation: Quod Est Demonstrandum: The Typographical Problems of the School Geometry Book by Peggy Lane
• The Front Page Newspaper Design by Allen Hutt, with (2) newspaper insets showing the headings of (2) papers.
• Bookshelf. Includes a short review of Herbert Bayer's 1937 London Gallery Show.
• Type Reviews (Examples from Deberny et Peignot, Intertype, Klingspor)
• Correspondence and Notes and vintage Type Ads.

TYPOGRAPHY 4 [Autumn 1937, 44 pp.] Contents:

• The Optical Scale in Typefounding by Harry Carter
• The Dust Wrapper by Misha Black,  includes four tipped-in dust jackets, including one by Barnet Freedman and the jacket for J. L. Martin, Ben Nicholson, and Naum Gabo's: Circle. International Survey Of Constructive Art.
• The Work of Edmond Kapp by Gordon Bromley
• The Paper-Valentine by Roland Knaster includes many wonderful vintage samples.
• Bookshelf includes a review of Circle. International Survey Of Constructive Art
• Handwriting Reform by Alfred Fairbank
• American Visit by James Shand
• Type Reviews and Specimens

TYPOGRAPHY 5 [Spring 1938, 62 pp. ] Contents:

• The Work of Denis Tegetmeier by Eric Gill
• The Morning Post [Review] by S. L. Righyni
• Timetable Typography by Christian Barman
• The Bauer Typefoundry by Konrad Bauer
• Updike's Printing Types [Review] by Harry Carter
• A Paul Nash Portfolio [Review] by John Gloag
• The English Print [Review] by Howard Wadman
• Patent Medicine Advertising by Denis Butlin
• Modern Newspaper Make-Up   by John E. Allen
• Type Reviews and Specimens

TYPOGRAPHY 6 [Summer 1938, 60 pp] Contents:

• The Typography Of The Provincial Press by S. L. Righyni
• An Autobiographical Fragmentby Irme Reiner
• CalligraphyBook Review
• Notes On Some Seventeenth Century English Types by A. F. Johnson
• Ecclesiastical Typography by John Betjeman
• From Cover To Cover a film script
• Type Supplement:  Reviews and Specimens
• Bookshelf:  Reviews

TYPOGRAPHY 7 [Winter 1938, 60 pp] Contents:

• The Dictatorship Of The Lay-Out Man by Holbrook Jackson
• Visual Expressionby Ashley Havinden; includes an uncommon full-page color reproduction of an E. McKnight Kauffer Exhibition Poster.
• Early Children's ABCsby Roland Knaster
• Five Books About Books by James Shand
• Twentieth-Century Sans Serifs by Denis Megaw
• Nineteenth-Century Types book review of Nicolas Gray's book
• The Typography Of The Cheap Reprint Series by John Carter
• Book Review Wickham Steed's THE PRESS
• Type Supplement: Specimens
• Notes, comments and acknowledgements

TYPOGRAPHY 8 [ Summer 1939, 58 pp.] Contents:

• Lament For A Bluebook Bureaucracy by R. S. Hutchings
• Victorian Street Balladsby Noel Carrington
• The Typography Of Childrens Comicsby Denis Peck
• Topographical Typography by Robert Harling
• Rex Whistelr's Book Decorations by Edith Olivier
• Bookshelf review of Moholy-Nagy's 1938 edition of The New Vision, where the reviewer not only compares Moholy to Walt Disney, but has some choice words about the typography of the New Bauhaus Books.
• Type Supplement: Reviews and Specimens
• Notes and acknowledgements

Here is the Publisher's Manifesto for TYPOGRAPHY: " The Sponsors of TYPOGRAPHY believe that fine book production is not the only means of typographical expression or excitement. We Believe, in fact, that a bill-head can be as aesthetically pleasing as a Bible, that a newspaper can be as typographically arresting as a Nonesuch." Sounds good to me.

From Fifty Typefaces That Changed the World: Design Museum Fifty by John Walters, describing Playbill (1938): “This is a thick, condensed typeface with thick slab serifs, based on the kind of jobbing font that can be seen on Victorian theatre and circus posters. Robert Harling (1910 – 2008), its designer, is one of those extraordinary people who have several careers—in advertising and design, newspapers and magazines, and as a sailor, a spy and a novelist—but he was also a considerable self-mythologizer. He edited the magazines Typography, published by James Shand’s Shenval Press, and Alphabet and Image.

“Harling’s enthusiasm as a collector of ephemera spilled into his type designs: Playbill uses the forms of theatrical poster wood types—the so-called antiques—that were popularly used to promote Victorian music-hall events. However, they were also strongly associated with the Wild West—the types used for ‘Wanted’ posters—and Playbill still has an active life in the movie industry, where their exaggerated slab serifs produce what poster collector and academic Paul Rennie calls ‘a distinctive optical dazzle and visual punch.’

Robert Harling: Brilliant typographer and editor whose imagination helped transform domestic taste in Britain by Fiona MacCarthy. Published Tuesday July 1, 2008: “Robert Harling, who has died aged 98, was a key figure in mid-20th century graphic design. As a typographer and editor, he bridged the gap between the gentlemanly artist-craftsmen of the prewar printing world and the new breed of professional postwar graphic designers. A multi-talented and raffish character who resisted being typecast, he also wrote successful novels, one of which—The Paper Palace (1951) — has been become a Fleet Street classic, based on his own days in journalism. He was an inspirational editor of House & Garden in the great days of glossy magazines.

“Born in Highbury, north London, Robert was brought up by an aunt after the early deaths of his parents, and went to school in Brighton and London. He then studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, showing precocious talent. He first worked as a designer for the Daily Mail and was simultaneously an adviser on typography for London Transport and for the Sheffield based foundry Stephenson Blake & Co, designing their literature and three popular display typefaces, Playbill (1938), Chisel and Tea Chest (both 1939).

“While still in his 20s, Robert co-founded and became editor of Typography, a journal of contemporary lettering and print, published by his friend and ally James Shand at the Shenval Press. When it first appeared in 1936, the journal broke new ground in its coverage of the European avant garde - including the first serious article on Jan Tschichold's work to be published in Britain. It was also very different from earlier, and primmer, typographic magazines in its zest for letters of all kinds, not just fine book printing. Issue one contained an article on Kardomah tea labels; issue two an analysis of tram ticket typography. Robert's early championing of typographic ephemera anticipated the burgeoning of 1960s Pop.

“Eric Gill was a notable contributor to Typography. In an article ostensibly about the work of Denis Tegetmeier, his son-in-law, Gill launched into a typical diatribe on the role of the artist in society: "The artist is first of all a workman; a servant. He does not exist simply to tickle his own fancy." Robert was entranced by Gill's esoteric lifestyle, becoming a regular visitor at Pigotts, Gill's Catholic craft community and printing press near High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire. His own illuminating study of The Letter Forms and Type Designs of Eric Gill appeared in 1976.

“Before the second world war, Robert taught at the Reimann School of Design in London, where one of his pupils was the young émigré Alex Kroll, later to join him as art director on House & Garden. A keen weekend sailor, Robert took part in the wartime evacuation of British forces at Dunkirk in May 1940, which he described in his book Amateur Sailor, published in 1944 under the pen name Nicholas Drew. The poet John Masefield praised the book as the best eyewitness account of Dunkirk ever written. Robert then joined the Royal Navy, first serving on mid-Atlantic convoy duty. Again, he gave a marvellous account of this experience in his atmospheric memoir The Steep Atlantick Stream (1946).

“After the war, with a new onrush of energy, Robert returned to the typographic world. He and Shand now set up the specialist publishing firm Art and Tecnics. Robert was the editor of its journal Alphabet and Image, eight issues of which appeared between 1946 and 1948. The magazine was lavishly illustrated with colour plates, and with the many inserts and folding plates so loved by Robert. There were memorable articles by Edward Bawden on England, Percy Muir on the Kate Greenaway centenary and John Lewis on the book illustrations of Lynton Lamb.

“In 1948 Image split off to become an independent quarterly, concentrating on the visual arts. Again, there were eight volumes, ending in summer 1952. Under Robert's brilliant, eclectic editorship, the journal published work by such important postwar artists as John Minton, John Piper, Leonard Rosomon, Blair Hughes-Stanton and Edward Ardizzone, and introduced to a British audience the drawings of the American Ben Shahn.

“Both these journals reflected Robert's own instinct for quality, his breadth of interests and provocatively quirky views. He was surprised and amused by the speed with which they became collectors' pieces. When students started writing dissertations on Image, he guffawed to see the pall of academic respectability fall on publications he had put together in a spirit of pure pleasure. I have never known a man with less pomposity.

“At the same time as publishing his typographic journals, Robert was working as art director of Everett's advertising agency. Through Ian Fleming he became architectural correspondent and then typographic adviser to the Sunday Times, an appointment that continued until the 1980s. His happiest years there were under the dynamic editorship of Harold Evans. The two thrived on late Saturday crises when the breaking of an unexpected news story meant the total redesign of the front page . . . .

“Robert Harling, typographer and editor, born March 27 1910; died July 1 2008

The good folks at Bloomsbury's Shenval Press were fighting to bring the international revolution in New Typography to England's sheltered shores in the 1930s. An excellent keepsake and snapshot from the trenches in the battle between Art and Trade in the typsetting industry.