Merrymount Press
Merrymount Press was a printing press in Boston, Massachusetts, founded by Daniel Berkeley Updike in 1893. He was committed to creating books of superior quality and believed that books could be simply designed, yet beautiful. Upon his death in 1941, the Press was taken over by his partner John Bianchi, but ceased operations in 1949. Updike and his Merrymount Press left a lasting impression on the printing industry, and today Updike is considered one of the most distinguished printers of the twentieth century. Stanley Morison, the typographer responsible for creating the ubiquitous Times New Roman, had this to say of the Merrymount Press after Updike's passing: “The essential qualities of the work of the Merrymount Press...may be said without exaggeration…to have reached a higher degree of quality and consistency than that of any other printing-house of its size, and period of operation, in America or Europe.”
History
In 1892, after 12 years at Houghton Mifflin and its Riverside Press, Daniel Berkeley Updike was approached to design a new standard version of the Episcopal Church's Book of Common Prayer. The following year, work began on what would become known as the Altar Book, to be funded by Harold Brown. The commencement of Merrymount Press followed. As Updike described the Press's establishment: “In no exact sense was the Press ever founded—it only began.”Updike derived the name Merrymount from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The May-Pole of Merrymount.” The story centers on Thomas Morton's seventeenth century settlement in present-day Quincy, Massachusetts. Morton's estate was apparently the site of sports, music, and frivolity—set up in the face of his Puritanical neighbors. According to Updike, “The Press took its name from the fancy that one could work hard and have a good time.”
The style of the Press developed quickly in its early years, at first imitating William Morris’s style and the Arts and Crafts movement. But where Morris’s work was decorative and heavy, Updike’s designs soon became clean and practical. By the end of the 19th century Updike had done away with designs inspired by Morris’s Gothic revival. Instead, Merrymount Press became known for its readable type and minimal decoration. This practicality could also be seen in the kinds of jobs that Updike took on, and which ultimately sustained the business. Bookplates, advertisements, concert programs, catalogs, greeting cards, periodicals, government tracts, diplomas, and more made up the bulk of the work done at Merrymount.
From 1915, Updike ran the Press with John Bianchi, who had been a foreman in the workroom since Merrymount’s early days. Bianchi shared many of Updike’s same values and objectives, and was therefore made partner in 1915. Every single item produced by Merrymount was supervised by either Updike or Bianchi. After Updike’s death in 1941, Bianchi carried on the work of the Press with his son Daniel Berkeley Bianchi, but business dwindled and Merrymount Press ceased operations in 1949.
Over the course of 56 years of operation, the Merrymount Press printed more than 20,000 items. Updike, always modest about his achievements, never attributed the Press’s success to any innate talent or instinct of his own, but to hard work and a desire to learn: “Perhaps the reason that I survived, in spite of mistakes, was that a simple idea had got hold of me—to make work better for its purpose than was commonly thought worth while…”
Typefaces used
According to Updike's own bibliography of the Press's work, the following typefaces comprised the majority of work produced by Merrymount:- Lettre Batarde acquired 1901
- Lettre de Somme acquired 1901
- Pica English Black acquired 1898
- Janson + Janson Italic acquired 1903
- Caslon + Caslon Italic acquired 1896
- Mountjoye + Mountjoye Italic acquired 1903
- Oxford + Oxford Italic acquired 1906
- Scotch-Face + Scotch-Face Italic acquired 1897
- French Old Style + French Script acquired 1901
- Bodoni + Bodoni Italic acquired 1930
- Poliphilus + Blado acquired 1925
- Lutetia + Lutetia Italic acquired 1927
- Montallegro acquired 1904
- Merrymount acquired 1894
Notable works
Over its 56-year history, Merrymount Press produced a significant volume of ephemera, especially for local businesses and organizations. Advertisements, dinner invitations, letterhead, and the like were Merrymount's bread and butter, keeping the Press in operation. What made Updike New England's most distinguished printer, however, were the beautiful, finely printed books produced by Merrymount Press. Below is a sampling of what many consider to be the Press's most noteworthy works.Altar Book
Merrymount's first major work was the Altar Book—begun in 1893 and completed in 1896—financed by Harold Brown. Updike attributed the establishment of Merrymount Press to the commission of the Altar Book saying, “Had I not had this definite work to do I should not have had the courage to leave my current position .” The Altar Book was set in the Press's proprietary Merrymount typeface, which was designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in 1895 and based on William Morris's Arts and Crafts style—or what Updike later called “Morris’s unduly black types.” After completing the Altar Book, Updike quickly abandoned this heavy style in favor of a cleaner, more practical look and reserved use of the Merrymount typeface for large pages as in the Altar Book.''Vexilla Regis Quotidie''
While the Altar Book was being prepared, Updike worked on other titles. The first of these was Vexilla Regis Quitidie, completed in 1893. The book was a selection of prayers and hymns for every day of the year compiled by Lucy Bradlee Stone. Because Merrymount had not yet acquired much type, the book was actually printed by Riverside Press, although Updike did arrange the book.The Humanists’ Library
The Humanists’ Library, edited by Lewis Einstein, was issued in two series and was printed in the Press's proprietary Montallegro type designed by Herbert Horne. The first series was printed between 1906 and 1908, the second from 1912 to 1914. Each consisted of four titles:- Petrarch and the Ancient World by Pierre de Nolhac
- The Defence of Poesie: A Letter to Q. Elizabeth and A Defence of Leicester by Sir Philip Sidney; edited by G.E. Woodberry
- The Correspondence of Philip Sidney and Hubert Languet edited by William Aspenwall Bradley
- Records of Journeys to Venice and the Low Countries by Albrecht Dürer; edited by Roger Fry
- A Platonick Discourse upon Love by Pico della Mirandola; edited by Edmund G. Gardner
- A Renaissance Courtesy Book: Galateo of Manners & Behaviours by Giovanni della Casa; introduction by J.E. Spingarn
Book of Common Prayer
Edith Wharton
Updike's friendship with Edith Wharton led to a long and successful relationship between Merrymount Press and Wharton's publisher, Scribner's. When Wharton published her first book in 1899, The Greater Inclination, she insisted that Merrymount be the printer. Merrymount would print many more of Wharton's books and other titles published by Scribner's. The association was a fruitful one and vital to Merrymount's success in its early years according to Updike: “Nothing could have helped the Press more, just then, than the Scribner connection, for it showed we were not amateurs but could hold our own with larger printing houses…” In 1915, after visiting the front of World War I, Wharton began collaborating with Updike to plan a collection of original stories, essays, poems, art works, and musical scores, the profits from which would benefit the war effort. The book was published in 1916 alongside a special limited edition run of 175 copies, each signed by Updike.Limited Editions Club
Between 1930 and 1942, Merrymount Press published eight books for The Limited Editions Club, a publisher of fine bindings. The Limited Editions Club issued just 1,500 copies per title and was available only to subscribing members. Merrymount also printed The Limited Editions Club's first prospectus, issued as a hardcover book.- 1930: The Fables of Jean de La Fontaine
- 1932: The Jaunts and Jollities of Mr. John Jorrocks by R.S. Surtees
- 1933: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- 1934: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- 1936: Walden, or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau
- 1940: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- 1941: The Flowering of New England by Van Wyck Brooks
- 1942: ''The Education of Henry Adams''
Artists employed