By all indications Printing for Pleasure was well received. Mr Ryder and Mr John Baker, his employer at Phoenix House, must have been thrilled by the October 7, 1955 review in The Times Literary Supplement, which began by calling it “... altogether admirable. It will surely please the scholarly pioneers of the revival of printing.” Noting that Meynell’s foreword was deservedly enthusiastic and that while writing for the amateur, Ryder the professional, “... further demonstrates how much his colleagues might be refreshed and benefited by working with their hands themselves, happily away from the atmosphere of sales promotion.” The reviewer next remarks on the few recruits Ryder will likely have, due to the many with a dislike for drudgery and orderliness. Ryder is then briefly quoted warning those whose temperament run count to these requirements to beware. The reader, made of the right stuff, is reassured with “... but those he does inspire with his enthusiasm, admirable clear technical instruction and his good taste will be very well equipped.” The little book is then declared beautifully designed, printed, and illustrated. It ends by praising the illustrations made especially for the book by Miss Heather Copley and Mr Christopher Chamberlain. This same publication gave the equally deserving revised edition a positive, but perfunctory notice at the bottom of the page on June 25, 1976.

In August of 1955, the San Francisco Chronicle equally as effusive wrote that “It is precisely the unpragmatic aesthetic tone … of Printing for Pleasure that proves to be its most charming attribute.” The review quotes Ryder on keeping the attitude that will stave off a sense of drudgery and restates his point accurately but prosaically that “Obviously the mere taint of commercialism and all the pleasure of the enterprise is lost.” This review of the Phoenix House edition runs through the virtues of the text noting both its style and practical considerations clearly and well enough that this review was abstracted in the Book Review Digest 1955 entry for John Ryder. Where it is was quoted on its practicality that “... having underlined the necessity for simon-pure amateurism, Mr. Ryder goes on to lead us through such knotty problems as the selection on a press (he supplies tables of American sources and prices), the choice of a typeface (“Choose a face you can live with”), the technique of setting type and of taking an impression. All along the way he pauses to give some sage advice or to fill in with background information of the type that will make us know and love our equipment.”

The Book Review Digest editors must have been especially impressed with this review. First, it is given thirteen lines and the lead in this entry and then an additional eleven lines after seven from the Library Journal who thought it “well set forth,” “an attractive English import,” and “... useful in typographical collections; in general collections it will answer the questions of readers and librarians who have or want to have a press of their own.” The entry concludes with three lines from the Times Literary Supplement. Other publications in which Mr Ryder’s book was reviewed were The Bookseller, British Printer, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Listener, and Printing World.

Returning to the Chronicle, its reviewer found that, “Mr Ryder’s book is filled with stimulating ideas and suggestions for a really graceful and unusual hobby. It is all very tempting, particularly since he shows how it can be geared down to a very small scale and still be pleasurable.” Who in the bay area — the land of the Grabhorns, Staffaucher and Wilson — became enticed by that review, and sought pleasure as their profit through printing?

The only critical note appears in David Chambers’ review of the revised edition for The Private Library (Summer 1976). Chambers first states that the premise of the book’s title is persuasively argued and recommends it as the first book an amateur reads when struck by the notion to print. After welcoming this new edition back into print, he then takes inventory of the contents and laments that, “... the tables of useful weights of Albions and other hand-presses has regrettably been dropped — and the use of millimetres to describe presses manufactured in inches is tiresome.” This criticism confirms the rationale for possessing both editions. Chambers, like Ridler in his foreword, wishes he had Ryder’s advice when he first embarked on printing. After a brief run through of the remaining chapters and appendix, he recalls the omitted postscript attributed to Fournier le Jeune, the last line of which is “Printing is the mouthpiece of human sense and human folly...” to which Chambers magnanimously adds “Those who have studied Ryder‘s text will at least express this sense of folly in an elegant style.” Who wouldn't be emboldened by a statement like that?

Sources  |   Top

Book Review Digest 1955 “Ryder, John.” p 791. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1955.

Library Journal. v. 80. January- June 15, 1955, p1492.

[PaGA]. Printing and Graphic Arts. Vol.5, No1, p12. || Reviewed together with A Suite of Fluerons.

The Private Library. Reviews. Second Series V9:23 Summer 1976, p71.

San Francisco Chronicle.“New Do It Yourself Shows How to Have Fun Prining”. August 10, 1955, p. 19.

Times Literary Supplement . “Lettering and Typography” October 7, 1955, p. 596.

—. Item. June 25, 1976, p. 805.