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.”[1]
Status
History[edit]
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.[2] As Updike described the Press's establishment: “In no exact sense was the Press ever founded—it only began.”[3]
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.[4] According to Updike, “The Press took its name from the fancy that one could work hard and have a good time.”[5]
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.[6] Bookplates, advertisements, concert programs, catalogs, greeting cards, periodicals, government tracts, diplomas, and more made up the bulk of the work done at Merrymount.[7]
From 1915, Updike ran the Press with John Bianchi, who had been a foreman in the workroom since Merrymount’s early days.[8] Bianchi shared many of Updike’s same values and objectives, and was therefore made partner in 1915.[9] Every single item produced by Merrymount was supervised by either Updike or Bianchi.[10] After Updike’s death in 1941, Bianchi carried on the work of the Press with his son Daniel Berkeley Bianchi (named after Updike), but business dwindled and Merrymount Press ceased operations in 1949.[11]
Over the course of 56 years of operation, the Merrymount Press printed more than 20,000 items.[12] 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…”[13]
According to Updike's own bibliography of the Press's work, the following typefaces comprised the majority of work produced by Merrymount:[14]
Notably, Updike was the first in America to acquire the now universal Times New Roman; its first major appearance was the December 1941 issue of Woman’s Home Companion, which was set by Merrymount.[15][16][17] That same year, Updike used Times to print his last publication, Some Aspects of Printing Old and New.[18]
Locations of collections[edit]
Boston Athenæum[edit]
The Boston Athenæum maintains an extensive collection of material designed, printed, and generated by Merrymount Press, including job tickets, specimens of type, artwork, and correspondence.
Huntington Library[edit]
The Huntington Library holds the business records of the Merrymount Press and the papers of Daniel Berkeley Updike, including correspondence with authors and publishers, and bills and estimates for clients.
Providence Public Library[edit]
The Daniel Berkeley Updike Collection on the History of Printing at the Providence Public Library in Rhode Island contains Updike's personal collection of books on printing, as well as ephemera from the Merrymount Press, including a set of punches and two sets of matrices for Merrymount's proprietary types, Montallegro and Merrymount. Updike's personal correspondence, as well as books produced by Merrymount Press, also comprise the collection.