19 Facts About Frederic Goudy

Frederic William Goudy was an American printer, artist and type designer whose typefaces include Copperplate Gothic, Goudy Old Style and Kennerley.

Frederic Goudy was one of the most prolific of American type designers and his self-named type continues to be one of the most popular in America.

Frederic William Goudy was born on March 8,1865, in Bloomington, Illinois.

In 1911, Goudy produced his first "hit", Kennerley Old Style, for an H G Wells anthology published by Mitchell Kennerley.

Frederic Goudy agreed "on the condition that his original drawings would not be subjected to interference by the founder's drawing room".

Frederic Goudy types were clearly very lucrative for ATF, but Frederic Goudy did not receive anything because he had sold his original design for $1,500 instead of entering into a royalty agreement.

From 1920 to 1947, Frederic Goudy was art director for Lanston Monotype.

Frederic Goudy withdrew partly because he believed that the methods the Monotype firm used to transfer his designs to matrices compromised his work.

Two of his most successful designs created for Monotype, Deepdene and Frederic Goudy Text, were not destroyed.

Frederic Goudy was widely known from 1915 to 1940 mainly because of the success of his typefaces, but because he gave many lectures and speeches on "the great love he had for letter forms".

Frederic Goudy was known to rarely turn down a speaking engagement.

Frederic Goudy worked extensively with his wife Bertha M Goudy, who particularly collaborated with him on printing projects in which she acted as a compositor of type.

Frederic Goudy's career was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and the growth of fine book printing in the United States.

At a time when printing types had become quite mechanical and geometric under the influence of Didone designs such as Bodoni, Frederic Goudy spent his career developing old-style serifs often influenced by the printing of the Italian Renaissance and calligraphy, with a characteristic warmth and irregularity.

Frederic Goudy developed a number of typefaces influenced by blackletter medieval manuscripts, illuminated manuscript capitals and Roman capitals engraved in stone.

Some of his most famous designs such as Copperplate Gothic and Frederic Goudy Stout are unusual deviations from his normal style.

Frederic Goudy's career was aided by the new pantograph engraving technology, which made it easier to rapidly cut the matrices used as moulds to form metal type.

Frederic Goudy kept records of his work, giving his typefaces numbers for his own use in a similar way to the opus numbers used by composers.

Frederic Goudy wrote that Goudy had "never gotten over" a desire to imitate medieval books.