Robert R. Reid Printing & Book Design

Between 1949 - the year Robert published his first book - and 1962 - the year he left Vancouver to travel the world thanks to a Canada Council grant - Robert Reid published five limited editions. These books are significant because they are the first sustained body of work from a Canadian that truly fit in the private press tradition established in the United Kingdom and the United States during the first half of the 20th century. This tradition was (and still is) characterized by a dedication to the traditional book-making crafts - letterpress, metal type, handmade papers and custom bindings.

Although Robert's Vancouver limited editions clearly were inspired by, and fit within this tradition, the spectrum of content and graphic styles displayed in just these five books display Robert's early development from a very traditional typographer and designer, to a very contemporary and innovative one.

Born in Alberta in 1927, Robert moved to Vancouver at the age of nine. It was shortly thereafter he received his first printing set - a toy made from tin, with rubber type - and a lifelong obsession was sparked. He played at printing newspapers, and worked at printing cards, through his teenage years. In 1948, while at the University of British Columbia (commerce, as befits any solid young man of Scottish stock), he issued one of his earliest remembered titles, a stapled pamphlet titled The First Shot of the 19th Hole (title page shown at right). This, and the sight of a rubricated volume on display in the library sparked his desire to print a proper book.

Looking for guidance from UBC librarian Kaye Lamb, Reid was directed toward Alfred Waddington's The Fraser Mines Vindicated, the second book printed in B.C. (For many years it was credited as the first book printed in the province, but it actually was beaten out by a few weeks by Cameron's Rules). Though only 90 years had passed since its publication, the book had already become exceedingly scarce by 1948, with only a handful of copies known to exist. Satisfied that the book deserved his attention, Reid embarked on a two-year project of copying out the text from the UBC copy; setting the 90 pages of type by hand; and printing them in two colors on his treadle-operated platen press. The edition of 110 copies was published in 1949, bound in quarter leather with paper marbled by Reid on the boards, and a grey flannel 'slipcase' made by his mother. The book's publication was noted in the Vancouver Province, which ran the photo at right showing the young printer and his new book. Fraser Mines sold out (at $10 a copy), and was even accepted into the prestigious Rounce & Coffin Club's annual Best Books of the Year show.

The success of Fraser Mines convinced Reid to pursue his passion for printing, and he established his own shop - Graphos Press - in downtown Vancouver. Through the 1950s he did a wide range of commercial printing, including the B.C. Library Quarterly and George Woodcock's Canadian Literature quarterly, and came into contact with many of the artists emerging from the West Coast at the time, including Bill Reid. He was typographic advisor to the editorial committee at the University of British Columbia at the time, whose members included Neal Harlow and Stanley Read. Robert also designed many of the university's publications during the 1950s (most printed by Morris Printing, of Victoria); of particular note was the anthology Academic Symposium, which was embellished with multicolor decorative initials by George Kuthan. Kuthan was Reid's favorite graphic in Vancouver, and they collaborated on many projects. See here for a biography of George Kuthan.

It was during this time that Takao Tanabe met and worked with Robert, collaborating on a range of commercial work and his second limited edition book, the historical reprint Gold. Tanabe went on to establish a reputation for creative use of type and printing with his own Periwinkle Press during the early 1960s, before abandoning printing to focus on painting. A major retrospective catalogue of his work was published in 2005, in conjunction with a show of his paintings at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Between The Fraser Mines Vindicated and Gold, Robert's focus was on his printing and design work (he became typographic consultant to Grant-Mann, Vancouver's major printing business, from 1953 to 1956, and designed many promotional and commercial pieces through the period). In 1957 the started teaching at the Vancouver Art School (which would later become the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design). Throughout all this he continued doing the freelance graphic and book design work described above. His private press publishing during the period was limited to a single item, The Basque Sheepherder and the Shepherd Psalm (1954). This elaborately set pamphlet - the only publication to bear the Graphos Press imprint (sample page shown at right) - was handset in Perpetua and Libra typefaces by Felicity, Reid's wife.

Gold succeeded in reviving Robert's interesting in publishing limited editions, and three more followed - The Journal of Norman Lee (1959), Kuthan's Menagerie of Interesting Zoo Animals (1960), and Grave Sirs: (1962) - before he departed for Montreal and a job as in-house designer for McGill University Press.

Return to the main Robert Reid Printing page.

HEAVENLY MONKEY

BOOK LINKS:
The Fraser Mines Vindicted

Gold

The Journal of Norman Lee

Kuthan's Menagerie of Interesting Zoo Animals

Grave Sirs: