American Proprietary Typefaces

In these first days of 2026, it’s easy to forget that at one time in history, a proprietary typeface was a rare thing. It took a lot of work to make type. Yeah, yeah. We know. It still does. But in the hot type era, it was a different kind of work. It took forever and was incredibly expensive. Now everyone and every company has a custom typeface. But this is a book about American proprietary typefaces in the early twentieth century, when such a thing was not at all common. Updike. Dwiggins. Rogers. Take a look at that table of contents. This book tells the story of the old guys making types for their own pleasure and purpose. Now, this one is a reader with only handful of illustrations. But it’s from the de luxe edition of 120 copies printed on fancy paper and with an extra suite of broadsides printed from some of the American proprietary types in question.