A CALLIGRAPHIC LIBRARY

Writing, Illuminating and Lettering, Edward Johnston, Taplinger-Pentalic

The Italic Way To Beautiful Handwriting, Fred Eager, Collier Books, 1974 (out of print, but available $10-12)

Italic Handwriting Series, vol. 1-8, Dubay and Getty, Continuing Education Services, Portland St. Univ., POBox 1394, Portland, OR 97207

My Dear Runemeister, Lloyd Reynolds, Taplinger Publishing Company, New York

A Handwriting Manual, Alfred Fairbank, Watson-Guptil Publications, New York, 1975

The Story Of Writing, Donald Jackson, Taplinger Publishing Company, New York, 1981

The Mystic Art Of Written Forms, Frederich Neugebauer, Neugebauer Press, London

Medieval Calligraphy, Marc Drogin, Allanheld & Schram, London, 1989

The Irene Wellington Copybook, Omnibus Edition, Pentalic/Taplinger Publishing, New York, 1977

More Than Fine Writing: Irene Wellington, Donald Jackson and Others, Taplinger, 1987
(Someone has my copy - please look around and return it to me please)
The Anatomy Of Letters, Charles Pearce, Taplinger Publishing Company, New York

Three Classics Of Italian Calligraphy, Oscar Ogg, Editor, Dover Publications, New York, 1953

The 26 Letters, Oscar Ogg, Crowell Press, 1948

The Speedball Textbook, current edition, Hunt Speedball Bienfang, Philadelphia

Written Letters, Jacqueline Svaren, Taplinger-Pentalic, New York

Calligraphy School, Gaynor Goffe & Anna Ravenscroft, Reader’s Digest, 1993

The Essentials Of Lettering, Tomas French & Robert Meiklejohn, McGraw Hill, 1912

Cursive Handwriting, Philip Burgoyne, The Dryad Press, 1955

Encyclopedia Of Calligraphy Techniques, Diana Hardy Wilson, Running Press, 1990

The Calligraphy Of Lloyd J. Reynolds, William Gundersen & Charles Lehman, Oregon Hist. Soc. Press, 1989

Words Of Risk: The Art Of Thomas Ingmire, Michael Gullick, Calligraphy Review, 1989

The Art Of Hand Lettering, Helm Wotzkow, Dover, 1952

The First Writing Book: Arrighi’s Operina (16th C.), John Howard Benson, 1954

A Book Of Sample Scripts(1914), Edward Johnston, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1966

The Illuminated Naples Bible(14th C), Eva Irblich & Gabriel Bise, Crescent Books, 1979

(Most of these books, if available, can be gotten from John Neal Bookseller, Greensboro, NC)

This list is not comprehensive.

Of the making of books about calligraphy there is no end. And, there seems to be a cycle of interest in the sport and I recently came across several books at a used book store that a guy was selling off, just to make room on his shelves for his new books about cooking. What I got were real classics - all out of print and I was glad to get them.

The three books I revisit MOST are Johnston's Writing, Illuminating and Lettering, Neugebauer's Mystic Art Of Written Forms and Jackson's Story Of Writing.

These have the content, formulas and examples that I find most useful. Maybe a poll of our cyberscribes could see which three books most letterfolk would hold onto.

Precious also are my handouts from Peter Thornton, Denys Brown and Michael Clark.

These are the people and letterforms I want to emulate. I have been fortunate enough to study with them and have picked up their joy and energy of working with letters. I try to pass that along to anyone that wants to learn about that crazy little thing called calligraphy.  (c) Tim  http://www.timjohnsonphoto.com/

PS - Next - The 3 references regarding photography that I'd like to keep at hand - or at least in  my library.