Presents the work and life of this essential typographer, until now too little known outside the circle of his friends and students. Froshaug was a deep and charismatic thinker-practitioner, whose insights return us to the fundamentals of typography. The book consists of two interacting volumes: the solid record of the work is placed against the contingencies of the life. A traditional monograph is unsettled by an exploration in documentary.
| availability | in print |
| published | 2000.10.12 |
| extent | 528 pp |
| dimensions | 240 × 170 mm |
| illustrations | 273 b&w + 86 colour pictures |
| binding | sewn paperbacks in slip-case |
| ISBN | 0-907259-09-X |
| ISBN13 | 978-0-907259-09-1 |
| £40.00 |
This two-volume work retrieves and re-presents the English typographer Anthony Froshaug (1920–84): what he made, his ideas, his life. The two books are published as a set, selling for a single price.
Typography & texts concerns the work of Anthony Froshaug. A substantial introduction by Robin Kinross outlines the nature and achievement of Froshaug: idiosyncratic, but of fundamental importance to any serious practice of design. Then a selection of his printed products is shown in reproduction and with extended critical captions, followed by layouts that he made as instructions. At the centre of this book is the section of ‘texts’: all the writings that Froshaug published in his lifetime or which exist in manuscript in some adequately finished state. This volume concludes with a reference section: catalogue of work, bibliographies, index (to both volumes).
Documents of a life is not a biography, but rather a sequence of documents, mostly drawn from hitherto private sources, interspersed with necessary explanation by the editor. Among these documents: autobiographical memories by Froshaug, correspondence between him and a range of contemporaries. Notable correspondences represent his attempt in the 1940s to publish texts by Jan Tschichold, and his friendship with the writer Stefan Themerson. Memories by his friend Wolfgang Hildesheimer are given here for the first time in English. Froshaug’s periods as a one-man printer in Cornwall, adjacent to the artists at St Ives, are documented. The book also represents his seminal teaching work: at the Central School of Arts & Crafts, the Hochschule fur Gestaltung Ulm, the Royal College of Art, Watford School of Art. Photographs and other visual material add to our sense of a remarkable man.
