A generously illustrated examination of the enduring influence of and
many variations on the classical Roman capital letter.
The fiftieth anniversary of Helvetica, the most famous of all sans serif
typefaces, was celebrated with an excitement unusual in the staid world
of typography and culminated in the release of the first movie ever made
starring a typeface. Yet Helvetica's fifty-year milestone pales in
comparison with the two thousandth anniversary in 2014 of Trajan's
Column and its famous inscription--the preeminent illustration of the
classical Roman capital letter. For, despite the modern ascendance of
the sans serif, serif typefaces, most notably Times Roman, still
dominate printed matter and retain a strong presence in screen-based
communication. The Eternal Letter is a lavishly illustrated
examination of the enduring influence of, and many variations on, the
classical Roman capital letter.
The Eternal Letter offers a series of essays by some of the most
highly regarded practitioners in the fields of typography, lettering,
and stone carving. They discuss the subtleties of the classical Roman
capital letter itself, different iterations of it over the years, and
the work of famous typographers and craftsmen. The essays cover such
topics as efforts to calculate a geometric formulation of the Trajan
letters; the recalculation of their proportions by early typefounders;
the development and astonishing popularity of Adobe Trajan; type and
letter designs by Father Edward M. Catich, Frederic W. Goudy, Eric Gill,
Jan van Krimpen, Hermann Zapf, Matthew Carter, and others; the influence
of Trajan in Russia; and three generations of lettercarvers at the John
Stevens Shop in Newport, Rhode Island. Essays about modern
typefaces--including Matinia, Senatus, and Penumbra--are contributed by
the designers of these typefaces.
**Contributors
**John and Nicholas Benson, Frank E. Blokland, Matthew Carter, Ewan
Clayton, Lance Hidy, Jost Hochuli, Jonathan Hoefler, Richard Kindersley,
Scott-Martin Kosofsky, Gerry Leonidas, Martin Majoor, Steve Matteson,
Gregory MacNaughton, James Mosley, Tom Perkins, Yves Peters, Ryan L.
Roth, Werner Schneider, Paul Shaw, Julian Waters, Maxim Zhukov
