19 Facts About Beatrice Warde

Beatrice Lamberton Warde was a twentieth-century writer and scholar of typography.

Beatrice Warde's writing advocated higher standards in printing, and championed intelligent use of historic typefaces from the past, which Monotype specialised in reviving, and the work of contemporary typeface designers.

Beatrice Warde became acquainted with Bruce Rogers and, on his recommendation, was appointed after graduation to the post of assistant librarian to the American Type Founders Company.

Beatrice Warde worked in Jersey City under Henry Lewis Bullen, where she concentrated on self-education and research.

Beatrice Warde spent time investigating the origins of the Garamond design of type, and published the results in The Fleuron in 1926 under the pen-name "Paul Beaujon".

Beatrice Warde's conclusion that many typefaces previously attributed to Claude Garamond were in fact made ninety years later by Jean Jannon was a lasting contribution to scholarship.

Beatrice Warde was promoted to publicity manager in about 1929, a post she retained until her retirement in 1960 on her 60th birthday.

Beatrice Warde thought of herself as an outsider, working in a man's world, but she gained respect for her work and her personal qualities.

Beatrice Warde penned her famous broadside "This is a Printing Office", to show the Perpetua typeface off.

Beatrice Warde exchanged many heated letters with Eric Gill about the nature of this relationship, with Gill denigrating the use of promotional materials to sell his designs.

Beatrice Warde defended her position by arguing, as one historian notes, "that mass culture would be elevated and the public good achieved when artists came to accept their social responsibility, and to regard the forces of advertising as a means to achieve their ends, not the defeat of everything".

Beatrice Warde often visited printing schools, universities, and factories both in England and abroad to bring this message.

For Beatrice Warde, this meant teaching good handwriting and designing attractive schoolbooks for children.

Beatrice Warde had, as one historian has noted, "the popular touch" which connected printing education with the printing trade.

Beatrice Warde's work has been continually referred to within discussions on graphic design and typography, for example during the 1990s "legibility wars" or debates concerning electronic interface design.

The Beatrice Warde scholarship emphasizes the merging of technology and typography, as she used to encourage the best use of technology in design.

In 1922, Beatrice married Frederic Warde, printer to Princeton University and a typographic designer.

Morison divorced his wife for her, and Beatrice Warde left her husband for him.

Although, Morison, being a Catholic, decided he could not actually marry Beatrice Warde, she was with him when he died in 1967.