Will Bradley, His Chap Book / An account, in the words of the dean of American typographers, of his graphic arts adventures ...

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Will Bradley, His Chap Book, by Will Bradley, Edited by Paul A. Bennett
Typophile Chap Books: 30
AN ACCOUNT, IN THE WORDS OF THE DEAN OF AMERICAN TYPOGRAPHERS, OF HIS GRAPHIC ARTS ADVENTURES: AS BOY PRINTER IN ISHPEMING; ART STUDENT IN CHICAGO; DESIGNER, PRINTER AND PUBLISHER AT THE WAYSIDE PRESS; THE YEARS AS ART DIRECTOR IN PERIODICAL PUBLISHING, AND THE INTERLUDES OF STAGE, CINEMA AND AUTHORSHIP
New York: The Typophiles 1955
The special contents of this edition are copyright 1955 by Paul A. Bennett for the Typophiles

Printed in the United States of America

This is a difficult task. I agreed to write an introduction to Will Bradley, His Chap Book before I had seen the book’s text itself. Now I have encountered here the gaiety, courage, vitality of this man who romped like a breeze through American graphic arts for several decades—and I feel that my part should be little more than the opening of a door to this perennial springtime freshness.
But still there is something to talk about that he, modest man, hasn’t even mentioned. And that is the impact of his work on his time. It should be talked about, because it is hard to realize today, in our state of emancipation, what a closed and stuffy room Bradley entered—and opened to the sun and air.
Across the Atlantic, the Nineteenth Century was bursting its seams: Morris failing to revive medievalism but startling his world with a revival of fine craftsmanship; Beardsley, the Yellow Book and their avant garde galaxy startling their world in quite a different way; Toulouse-Lautrec spreading modern art in the kiosks of Paris when only a handful knew anything about Cezanne, Van Gogh, Seurat; barriers being demolished everywhere.
In America, these goings-on were known to a few connoisseurs amid a vast indifference. It was Bradley in the Nineties who made the American public stir in its sleep and at least crack an eye. In the next decade he and the many who followed him were well advanced in the lively morning of a day that isn’t over yet.