Customer Reviews

Dear Mr. Hunter : The Letters of Vojtech Preissig to Dard Hunter, 1920-1925

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Some might find the topic of this book (letters between two artists who lived nearly a century ago) a bit dry, a specialist item meant mainly for "over-the-top" book arts afficionados. And unfortunately the editors only had access to one side of the correspondence. The "missing" letters were sent by Dard Hunter, who was the pre-eminent 20th century expert on the history of papermaking and who made several books for which he: 1)wrote the text; 2)designed the typeface; 3)cut the matrices for the typeface; 4)cast and set the metal type used to print the book; 5)made, by hand, the paper for the book; 6)printed the book; 7)and I believe, may have made his own ink, although I don't think that he *bound* the books himself!--so, even just the responses to his letters have an intrinsic interest.
The letters that we do have, those from Vojtech Preissig to Hunter, are of interest for several reasons: Preissig, older than Hunter, was also an important figure in art and graphic design. He had a long career in his native Czechoslovakia and then Paris as an engraver, book illustrator, and participant of the Art Noveau artistic circle. In middle age, Preissig came to the U.S.; influenced many promising young artists as an instructor at the Wentworth Institute of art; and is credited with inventing the medium of linoleum-block engraving, an important illustration and printing technique still in wide use today.
When the Nazis came to power in the 1930s, rather than stay safe in the U.S., Preissig went back to his home country to work in the Resistance, and was later killed in a Nazi concentration camp.
So, check out the book: sure, it has great illustrations and moderately interesting letters, but its true value lies in its illumination of the lives of two amazing 20th century artists and men whom we all should know more about.