Printing for Pleasure

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First published in Great Britain in 1955, and revised in 1976, Printing for Pleasure remains the best primer on letterpress printing for the hobbyist. The book’s aim is to foster the enjoyment of printing as a hobby, to seek “pleasure as profit” (perhaps a wink to Charles Francis’ Printing for Profit published in 1917, the year of Ryder’s birth). It conveys seasoned enthusiasm and sound advice; provides straightforward explanations of basic printing techniques and clear definitions of printing nomenclature; and reveals a well-ordered design with delightful illustrations, many of which were reprinted from notable fine private presses of the period.

Ryder urges the reader to develop a taste for experimental techniques such as inking small objects and printing on alternative substrates, “since it is here on the amateur’s workbench (a place which the time-sheet and the wage-bill are absent), that experiments can be made and repeated without end and without fear of bankruptcy.” It touches on all the major considerations of setting up a hobby press, its chapters are logically ordered step-by-step, each building upon the knowledge of the previous one.

It begins by addressing one’s attitude toward this endeavor, that is, how to proceed with the right spirit to maximize the pleasure to be derived and to avoid the possibility of drudgery. Next considered is the kind of press one should acquire and the physical space it shall require. This is followed by the choice of typeface, and then how to handle and arrange them, and finally how to ink and take impressions. With the technical instruction dispatched within fifty pages, the author turns to a brief history of the “little presses”¹ beginning with William Morris by way of introduction, but informs the reader that the existence of private presses goes back at least 350 years. He goes on to highlight several eighteenth century proprietors including Horace Walpole and Benjamin Franklin. This history of private printing is inextricably woven into the fabric of the larger history of printing.

Roderick Cave, in his book The Private Presses, writes of a new movement in British private printing emerging as the Golden Cockerel Press crowed its last, in the years following World War II: “This was almost a recrudescence of the Victorian parlor printers — amateurs with modest means, equipment, and time determined to try their hand at the art of printing. But these men and women had one significant difference from their Victorian forebears: they were informed by the work of printers of the period between the wars — commercial as well as fine printers — and by intelligent reading of the work of Stanley Morison, Beatrice Warde, and others. The publication of John Ryder’s Printing for Pleasure in 1955 marks this new movement.” Ans midway through his chapter Fine Printing Down Under, Cave writes that “... since World War II there have also been sporadic bursts of activity, for the most part reflecting the kind of small-scale printing for pleasure so effectively promoted by John Ryder.” Likewise, B.E. Bellamy in Private Presses & Publishing in England Since 1945, notes that “... this burgeoning interest in the art of printing was quickened and propagated with publication of John Ryder’s Printing for Pleasure.”

In his bibliography for Printing on the Iron Handpress Richard-Gabriel Rummonds cites both editions, saying of the first that it is “Probably the best guide ever published for amateur printers. Well written and illustrated to stimulate an interest and pride in fine craftsmanship.” His praise is exponential for the revised edition calling it quintessential and saying that “Ryder brings style, intelligence, and inspiration to his subject.” All true. He then counsels that it “briefly touches on handpress printing, but intended primarily for users of Adana tabletop platen press”. While true, even those chapters of Printing for Pleasure dealing directly with the operation of an Adana do not preclude something to learn for those amateurs who might encounter other presses such as a Vandercook.

Printing for Pleasure reached its mature state with The Bodley Head edition. Numerous copies still circulate in libraries and a search of online booksellers will yeild multiple copies of each edition throughout North America², the United Kingdom and Australia.

David Chambers, former editor of The Private Library, in an email to the present writer, wrote, “There had been talk of a new edition from Oak Knoll, with an appendix by someone who knew about computer setting, but the original edition was still in print, and in the end the idea was dropped. The fact is that the original book served to inspire a generation of printers on the handpress, but computer setting and printing needs an entirely new book, though with John’s sort of spirit pervading the text.” In his letter to this writer, Mr Ryder noted that a contract with Oak Knoll was dated and signed January 1996.

Given its availability, Printing for Pleasure, ought to be included in the list of recommended books for introductory letterpress courses and workshops. The text is inviting and concise and appeals to the spirit of artists like no other book on the subject had before or since. And like Vivian Ridler, who wrote the foreword to the 1976 edition, I believe that for those “tempted and then caught” by the lure of type, and ink, and paper should let themselves “be guided by Ryder. He will not let you down.”

Introduction		English Universities ed.	Henry Regnery ed.
Phoenix House ed.		Bodley Head ed.	Bibliography