Participant Info

First Name

David S.

Last Name

Rose

Press Name

Five Roses Press

City

New York

State

NY

Country

US

Email

david AT fiveroses.org

Website or Blogsite

fiveroses.org

Year You Started with Letterpress

1977

How You Got Involved In Letterpress Printing

I started printing at the Pierson College Press during my undergraduate days at Yale University.

Presses & Equipment

Vandercooks #4, SP-15, SP-20, Universal I, Universal III, Heidelberg KSB, Hohner table top, Sigwalt, Colts' Armory (3), Albion, C&P Pilot, Baltimorean, Kelsey, card press, ticket press, et al.

Education & Training

After teaching myself the rudiments of letterpress courtesy of Ralph Polk and Cleeton & Pitkin, I was fortunate to take a full course at Yale in the Art of the Book, taught by noted designer Howard I. Gralla. I also studied bibliography with Donald Gallup, and then studied at the Center for Book Arts in New York with Doug Wolf and Carol Sturm of Nadja.

Work History

David S. Rose, Past President of The Typophiles, is a letterpress printer and graphic designer as well as a book collector, writer and teacher on the subject of printing history and typography. He is best known in printing circles as the author of the Introduction to Letterpress Printing, one of the leading Internet sites on the subject, according to Google. He began working with type in the book arts program at Yale University, where as an undergraduate he was a recipient of Yale’s Lohmann Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Printing and Design as well as the Van Sinderen Book Collecting Prize for his collection on printing and typography. He was also awarded a Robert C. Bates Traveling Fellowship to study the fine presses, binderies and printing museums of Europe. After establishing his first press in New York in the early 1980’s he was elected to the Board of Directors of the Center for Book Arts where he taught on the subject of the History of Printing. He later served as a manager of Compuserve’s online Book Collecting and Macintosh Graphics forums. In 2001, he established the Five Roses Press to produce fine limited edition letterpress works. Its inaugural production was a large-format broadside for The Typophiles concerning Theodore Low De Vinne’s views on type design. Beginning with the third release of the Fontographer electronic type design application, he authored an annotated historical bibliography of typography expanding on some of his earlier published work, which was been updated and included with each successive version of the program. The bibliography was based on his personal collection of historical printing and typography manuals, which currently comprises over 6,000 volumes. Later, he wrote the new Forward for the 21st century reprinted edition of Cleet & Pitkin's General Printing. For over thirty years David has continued to be closely involved with the book arts at Yale, where he was appointed an Associate Fellow of Pierson College, serves as Scribe of the Honorable Company of College Printers, founded the Carl Purington Rollins Foundation, and is the Advisor to the Pierson/Davenport Book Arts Center. In addition to the Typophiles, he is a member of the Amalgamated Printers' Association, the American Printing History Association, the Grolier Club (to which he was nominated by Joseph Blumenthal) and is Chairman of the Book Arts Studio at the National Arts Club in New York. He is also a member of the Westchester Chappel of letterpress printers and was one of the designers from over 20 countries who contributed to the Font Aid II: September 11 font.

Other Interests & Hobbies

Although imortalized by the late Isaac Asimov as a printer the Asimov's final Black Widowers story, The Guest's Guest, David has numerous interests outside the typography field, in the academic, eleemosynary and business arenas. His TEDxTalk on the business career of Johan Gutenberg can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgYSqC-DetQ.

Letterpress Group Memberships, If Any

APA, APHA, Grolier Club, National Arts Club

Birth Year

1957

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