If we may properly glorify the appellation of Genius, certainly Frederic Goudy was born to enrich typography and the printed word, and thus achieve immortality in our great Art Preservative of All Arts.

From hand lettering and decorative design of his earliest work, in the eighteen-nineties, to type design and printing was a natural transition and development in Goudy’s career. With an instinctive gift for letter forms and typography, he came into his own during that epochal fin de siècle era of William Morris, Emery Walker, and their group in England, whose conspicuous creative work brought about the renaissance of the art of typography and printing. Their stimulating accomplishments inspired American artist-craftsmen of this period; Will Bradley, Bruce Rogers, D.B. Updike, and notably Frederic Goudy, who were quick to appreciate this revival in the book arts and desired to add their own chapter in such a significant endeavor. It was the work of these four men, in particular, that gave a freshness of perspective to the American typographic scene, which had been so long in a state of inertia. And it was this reawakening of the art of printing that gave Fred Goudy the added impetus and inspiration to carry out his own ideas in the greatly needed improvement of type design.

It was in 1896 that he drew and sold analphabet of capitals, which became known as Camelot; but his first complete type series was designed in 1902, known as Pabst, which is still popular in advertising. The first type series design that possessed the full expression of his artistry and good taste became his own Village type. With this as a nucleus, the Village Press was established in 1903, in Park Ridge, Illinois, with young Will Ransom a partner. Their first book, set in the Village type, and printed on a hand press, was fittingly, “An Essay on Printing” by William Morris and Emery Walker. This was the auspicious beginning of Goudy’s career in the art of printing and of type design. Through many moves and many activities, Fred and Bertha Goudy carried on their creative accomplishments. It was at their final home, Deepdene, Marlborough-on-the-Hudson, that their Village Press and Letter Foundery became a complete reality. As Art Director for the Lanston Monotype Company for over twenty years, Frederic Goudy made available on the Monotype many of his beautiful types; and in addition to these, a variety of designs produced at his own and other foundries. Two great tragedies marred the happiness and success at Deepdene: the loss of his wife and co-worker of forty years, in 1935; and the complete destruction by fire of his Mill and Type Foundery in 1939, which contained his drawings, patterns and matrices of the last years of his prolific work.

We cannot pay proper homage to Frederic Goudy without including a tribute to his beloved wife. Bertha, who worked with him closely during all the years they were together; sharing in the honors, successes, and at times the tribulations. In Goudy’s important work, “The Alphabet,” first published by his enthusiastic sponsor Mitchell Kennerley in 1918, and which was composed by Bertha Goudy in Kennerley type, Goudy included this expressive Dedication: “To his wife Bertha M. Goudy, his friend, companion, and co-worker, this volume is affectionately inscribed by the author. Whatever success he may have achieved in the fields of typography and design, has been made possible by her unfailing patience, counsel, and intelligent craftsmanship.”

Through many overwhelming handicaps and disasters during his long career, it was Fred Goudy’s tremendous courage, great love of his work, and ever a sense of humor, which enabled him to carry-on to greater achievements. He worked right up to that last fateful hour—the 11thof May, 1947—when, after midnight, with a new type design in the making, he left his workshop to retire. Suddenly feeling ill, in less than an hour “the Squire of Deepdene” was gone. Thus, at 82, after a full and rewarding life, the fertile mind and skillful hands, were stilled—

Gold medals, honorary degrees from Universities, and many citations had been awarded Frederic Goudy during his eventful life, but it is the well over an hundred distinguished and individual type designs that have built for him an outstanding record of achievement, and that have brought honor and acclaim to American Typography and Printing.

My own first meeting with Frederic Goudy and his wife Bertha, was upon that memorable occasion, in March, 1924, at Mitchell Kennerley’s Anderson Galleries, New York. Here had been installed the famed William Morris Albion hand press, and upon which Goudy pulled impressions of a special keepsake for the guests, properly signed. This cherished item is now probably one of the scarcest of Goudy printings. We kept in close contact through the many years of treasured memory.

Those of us who were fortunate to have known Fred Goudy, and to have been enriched by his loyal friendship and inspired by his enthusiasm, can fully appreciate the indefatigable energy and devotion to his ideas and ideals which made such a happy and successful union of Goudy the Man, and Goudy the Artist-Craftsman. He would never compromise with his sense of duty to his art, nor in the integrity of his work.

We, who are the fortunate inheritors of this genius, have a fundamental responsibility as well as a professional duty, to carry on the accumulated tradition of good taste and skilled craftsmanship, that future inheritors may judiciously profit by those opportunities which Frederic Goudy’s enduring typographic heritage will afford.

This form was not written by Earl H. Emmons, not composed in Goudy Kennerley and Forum, not designed and printed by Lewis F. White, on paper not furnished by Quincy P. Emery for the Thirty-fifth Anniversary of The Village Press not held at Marlboro July 23, 1938.