Paul Standard

"Here we have Arrighi’s most devoted and scholarly advocate. At Cooper Union and New York University, Standard taught the pure, straight stuff, both as to the mechanics of pen management and to legitimate variations of the Italian renaissance hands. Basics came before personal frills. His dedication to teaching and research left the exploitation of beautiful writing to others. Paul was friend and consultant to designers without every quite becoming one of them. His gutty, uninhibited italic could have forged a papal bull or a canto from Dante with convincing aplomb. Standard’s personal correspondence (always in sepia ink) with fellow calligraphiles was as worldwide as the reading of his published writing. As a persuasive crusader for the reform of everyday penmanship (excoriating the Palmer method of public schools), Paul drew favorable attention but few converts. Because of his perceptive insights into alphabet history from Phoenician script to twentieth-century typefounding, his authority was unchallenged. He delights in a stubborn anachronism that charms all who are privileged to know him."

The First Writing Book:

John Howard Benson, born in 1901, attended public schools in Newport, Rhode Island, and studied for five years at the Art Students League in New York. He took no formal courses in lettering, but designed some bookplates, title-pages, and other layouts. When a friend gave him Edward Johnston’s Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering he became devoted to the creation of beautiful letters, both in pen and ink and later by cutting letters in stone with mallet and chisel.

Starting in the 1930s in the United States there was an interest in the reform of handwriting and a revival of the practice of italic handwriting. John Howard Benson translated the sixteenth-century writing manual of Ludovico degli Arrighi, which has historical and practical interest. Arrighi’s instructions for the formation of letters and the technique of writing are still basic models for modern italic handwriting.

Writing & Illuminating,
& Lettering

In the late 1890s Edward Johnston became interested in the burgeoning English Arts & Crafts Movement, led by such notables as William Morris and W.R. Lethaby. Johnston’s interest in manuscript illumination and writing led him to study early sources at the British Museum to develop an historically-based calligraphic style. Johnston was in great part responsible for the revival, practice, and teaching of the almost lost heritage of medieval scribes. Charles Skaggs wrote in 1984 that Johnston and others, including Eric Gill and Alfred Fairbank, “helped to revitalize British consciousness of new typefaces and letterforms.”

Charles Skaggs started to assemble a fine working library early in his career. He purchased this book in 1948; the invoice from well-known New York rare book dealer Philip C. Duschnes also is shown here.

Calligraphy's Flowering, Decay, and Restauration

Calligraphic scholar and practitioner Paul Standard refers to Arrighi’s sixteenth-century manual of the italic hand in his book, but illustrates the text almost entirely with examples of calli-graphers working in the 1940s.

This book is inscribed to Charles Skaggs: “Presented to Calligraphile CHARLES SKAGGS with the high regard of his fellow-Calligraphile RAY DABOLL June, 1948.” Raymond DaBoll designed this book and “calligraphed” the marginal notes throughout.

Paul Standard visited Smith College in 1972 to speak with calligraphy students taught by Elliot Offner. Each student wrote him a letter, which he graciously returned with calligraphic comments and suggestions for improvement. The letter written by Barbara Borenstein (Blumenthal), class of 1975, is shown here, on loan.