Exhibition of RR Donnelley's Four American Books

2007-08-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

In 1926, the nation’s largest printer, RR Donelley in Chicago, started planning a series of literary classics to be designed and illustrated by the best American practitioners of the day, producing: Richard Henry Dana Jr.’s Two Years Before the Mast, designed by Edward A. Wilson, Thoreau’s Walden, designed by Rudolph Ruzicka, Edgar Allen Poe’s Tales, designed by W. A. Dwiggins, and Melville’s Moby-Dick, illustrated by Rockwell Kent. Known as the “Four American Books,” these were intended to prove that American book design and printing equaled that of Europe. The four books are featured in an exhibition in the Arion Press gallery beginning September 11, 2007.

Herman Melville
Moby Dick, Or the Whale, 1930
Chicago: The Lakeside Press
Illustrated by Rockwell Kent

Kent himself described his book as "the most beautiful book ever published in America." Professor Claire Badaracco writes, "Kent's work was successful not solely because of his reputation as an artist but also because of the aesthetics of the text of Moby Dick itself. Melville's book is a philosophical story told in Old Testament dimensions . . . The whale that sound the ocean's depths is depicted by Rockwell Kent against stars in a pitch black sky."

Both Moby Dick and Walden were recognized for superior design by the Fifty Books of the Year competition in 1931.

Herman Melville
Moby Dick, Or the Whale, 1930
New York: Random House
Illustrated by Rockwell Kent

When Rockwell Kent submitted his drawings for Moby Dick, it was evident that this book was destined for success. It was quickly decided that a one-volume pocket-size trade edition of Moby Dick should be published in addition to the three-volume collector’s edition. Random House was selected as the publisher and the printing was done by R.R. Donnelley. Ten thousand copies were distributed through the Book-of-the Month Club. Many other editions of Donnelley’s illustrated Moby Dick have been issued over the last sixty years. It is still in print and requests for use of Kent’s drawings continue to be received.

Edgar Allen Poe
Tales, 1930
Chicago: The Lakeside Press
Illustrated by W. A. Dwiggins

There were several obstacles in publishing Poe’s Tales. It took nearly a year for R.R. Donnelley to select the 1840 edition as the one to publish. Dwiggins also found his task daunting, “I knew that it was foolish to try to ornament Poe. Nobody could hope to make pictures rich enough in weave to stand up beside the intricate embroidery of the text.” Indeed, Kittredge had a difficult time getting Dwiggins to finish his illustrations. Dwiggins wrote to Kittredge about the delay, complaining about the “jungle of damn little hurry up jobs,” but stating, “The Poe racket is the thing I am keenest about.”

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea, 1930
Chicago: The Lakeside Press
Illustrated by Edward A. Wilson

The binding materials used for this book were most unusual. The blue cloth was purchased from Lord & Taylor in New York City. The cloth on the backbone, a natural linen, was purchased from Marshall Field & Company in Chicago. As these were not materials customarily used in book binding, it required special attention from the R.R. Donnelley bindery to prepare the cloth so it would take gold leaf stamping.

Henry David Thoreau
Walden: Or Life in the Woods, 1930
Chicago: The Lakeside Press
Illustrated by Rudolph Ruzicka

Rudolph Ruzicka, a native of Chicago, was an experienced book designer who had worked for R.R. Donnelley on several projects before the Four American Books commission. R.R. Donnelley arranged for a house for Ruzicka in Concord, Massachusetts during the summer of 1929, so he could be near Walden Pond while completing the illustrations.
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Illustrated Talk on RR Donnelley Sept. 10th

2007-08-30T14:01:00.000-07:00

The Grabhorn Institute Lecture Series is presenting an Illustrated talk by Kim Coventry: “Printing for the Modern Age: Commerce, Craft, and Culture from the Presses of RR Donnelley.” The talk takes place September 10, 2007, at 6 p.m.

Illustrated with materials from the RR Donnelley archive, this talk will explore the company's role from its founding in Chicago in 1864 to the 1980s with an emphasis on the 1920s–1950s, at which point it was arguably the largest printer in the world. Among the many topics will be the history of the company's 1930 Rockwell Kent-illustrated edtion of Moby Dick, considered one of the definitive illustrated editions.

The event is preceded by a reception at 5 p.m. R.S.V.P.: 415-668-2548 or grabhorn@arionpress.com. This lecture is supported by the Book Club of California and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Kim Coventry served as a curatorial consultant at RR Donnelley for 16 years, during which time she organized the company's archive and oversaw its transfer (in 2006) to the University of Chicago, where an exhibition of the Donnelley materials, including photographs, books, and graphic arts, was held at the Library in 2006.

In the 1930s, R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company launched a promotional campaign to position itself as a printer for a then-growing mass market book trade. To attract the attention of book publishers and to prove that high quality books could be printed in America by a large commercial printer, R.R. Donnelley embarked on a rare publishing venture, referred to as "The Four American Books" project.

The books were to be "American" in every way—authors, illustrators, typefaces and even paper were all of American origin. "The type will be set by machine, the paper made by machine, and the book printed in the regular book pressroom in the ordinary way on cylinder presses," stated the pre-publication prospectus.

One criteria for selection was that the literary works considered could not have been illustrated previously. Four well-known artists were each given a list of books from which to chose; each was then commissioned to undertake the design and original illustration of a single title. Rockwell Kent selected Moby Dick, W.A. Dwiggins selected Poe's Tales, Edward A. Wilson selected Two Years Before the Mast, and Rudolph Ruzicka selected Walden. Every small detail—the choice of paper, typeface, ink, binding materials, and in one case the design of the wrapping paper and mailing label—was included in the planning of this project.

The campaign had the desired result. Of the limited editions of 1,000 copies published, nearly all were sold. Moreover, the project exerted an influence over the way books were published for several decades. The Lakeside Press's three-volume Moby Dick was, for many decades, regarded as the definitive edition of Melville's great work. Most importantly, the project expanded R.R. Donnelley's client base among book publishers.
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Arion Press News & Notes

Exhibition of RR Donnelley's Four American Books

Illustrated Talk on RR Donnelley Sept. 10th