The Definitive Dwiggins no. 93—Laurance B. Siegfried

Laurance B. Siegfried was a first cousin of W.A. Dwiggins on his mother’s side. He was born February 18, 1892 in Montclair, New Jersey to Addison H. and Mary (née Hetrick) Siegfried. Laurance was the youngest—by over a decade and a half—of three children, the other two being Mary (born 1869) and Frederick (born 1876). A little over two years later, on April 17, 1894, his mother died. [1] Seventeen months to the day after that his father died from peritonitis while on a business trip to Boston. [2] Laurance was suddenly an orphan. But less than five weeks later his sister married Henry King Hannah (1865–1920), providing him with a surrogate father and, in the decade to follow, three younger “brothers”. [3] He moved with his sister and grandmother, Margaret Hetrick to Lexington, Massachusetts where Hannah, a divinity student at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, had set up house. [4]

In May, the newly ordained Rev. Hannah became the rector of Trinity Church in Concord, Massachusetts and the family moved there. They remained in Concord until the burden of providing for a large household convinced Hannah in October 1906 to abandon the ministry and move to Montclair, New Jersey. [5] Frederick Siegfried and his family were living in nearby Glen Ridge and the brothers-in-law subsequently went into the advertising business together. [6]

In 1909 Laurance entered Harvard College. It was during his undergraduate years that he first met his older cousin. In an unpublished summary of his life he wrote:

…I took to dropping in on Dwiggins at 69 Cornhill, Boston; got interested, through him, in type design and the use of type, and later spent most of [my] weekends with him at his home in Hingham, Mass., where he engaged in activities ranging from publishing to kite-flying. From then, until 1920, when I had to move to New York because of a death in the family, I was probably closer to him and worked with him more closely than anyone else. [7]

During the years that Laurance was at Harvard Dwiggins created a bookplate for him and designed the cover format for the Harvard Musical Review. [8] Laurance was a founder of the student-run magazine and its business editor. The cover design that Dwiggins created lasted for its entire lifespan of thirty-four issues from October 1912 through March 1916. [9]

Bookplate for Laurence Benjamin Siegfried (1911). Design illustration and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection, Rochester Institute of Technoogy.

Cover of Harvard Musical Review vol. 1, no. 3 (December 1912). Design, illustration, and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins. (Original black on tan.)

Laurance graduated from Harvard in 1913 and apparently returned to his sister’s home in Montclair, New Jersey for several months. For a few months in the winter of 1913/1914 he worked for Happyland, a magazine for children published by L.A. Rankin & Co. in Boston. Although he claimed to have been its editor, examination of copies of the magazine lists Edith Hapgood in that role. Whatever position he did have at the magazine may have come at the instigation of Dwiggins who was the art editor of its first three issues. [10]

Opening page of the first installment of “The Long Men of Lampanzie” by Laurance B. Siegfried. From Happyland (December 1913). Illustration and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins.

“Extra-Wild Animals of the Faraway-Land of Lurg: The Drab Doroone” by Hermann and Jacob Püterschein. From Happyland (March 1914), p. 41. Illustrations and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins; text by Laurance Siegfried. Note the joint monogram at lower left.

The first known collaborations of the two cousins occurred in the pages of Happyland. Laurance contributed a serial story called “The Long Men of Lampanzie” (December 1913 to May 1914, the magazine’s last known issue) that Dwiggins illustrated. And under their noms de plume of Hermann and Jacob Püterschein they teamed up on an illustrated bit of Learesque verse entitled “The Drab Doroone.” [11]

W.A. Dwiggins, Laurance B. Siegfried, and Mabel Dwiggins in the backyard at the Dwiggins’ Leavitt Street home in Hingham, c. 1913–1917. Photograph courtesy of Special Collections, The Boston Public Library.

Happyland failed in the spring of 1914. Over the next three years Laurance worked intermittently for The Heintzemann Press and Brad Stephens & Company. Here is how he described that period of his life in 1920:

During Summer of 1914, loafed and tutored. Enjoyed the loafing most. Fall of 1914, joined up with The Heintzemann Press and Brad Stephens & Company, Boston, publishing, printing, and advertising business; with them up to summer of 1916, which I spent in the Magdalen Islands, Canada. Came back to Boston in fall and did some freelancing, mostly in advertising field. At the press again during winter, 1916-’17. [12]

Earlier Laurance had said that he did not begin working for The Heintzemann Press—with no mention of Brad Stephens & Company—until January 1915 and that he left them in June 1916. His sojourn in the Magdalen Islands ended in November 1916 [13] His job at The Heintzemann Press as a “copy man” was probably secured for him by Dwiggins who had been working steadily with the press since the beginning of 1913.

Laurance was in the “direct-by-mail advertising” department at The Heintzemann Press, which means he worked with Brad Stephens, the apostle of house organs and direct advertising (and another Dwiggins client). Since 1911 Stephens and George Heintzemann had been collaborating on publications aimed at the printing and advertising trades. That year they began Print and House Organ Review (which had become Direct Advertising by 1915). Both Brad Stephens & Company and The Heintzemann Press shared a common address, first at 185 Franklin Street and after the summer of 1915 at 530 Atlantic Avenue. [14]

Cover of Print vol. IV, no. 2 (1914). Design and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins.

Cover of Direct Advertising vol. 3, no. 2 (Fall 1914). Design, illustration, and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins. For a brief period the magazine bore the imprint of various local printers in the East who purchased copies from Brad Stephens & Co.

Years later Laurance was described as the assistant editor of both Print and Direct Advertising during his year and a half at The Heintzemann Press, though his name does not appear on either’s masthead. However, his second stint with The Heintzemann Press—following his summer of “loafing” and freelance advertising work in the fall—did result in one by-lined article for Direct Advertising. [15]

In his second report to his Harvard College classmates, written in early 1917, Laurance downplayed his work for The Heintzemann Press. Instead he proudly focused on his writing for Happyland and—without elaboration or explanation—for The Fabulist, a publication issued by Thedam Püterschein’s Sons. [16] Among the articles that he wrote for the first two numbers of The Fabulist was “Genus Püterschein,” a lengthy explanation of the origins of the fictitious brothers Hermann and Jacob Püterschein who had contributed “The Drab Doroone” to Happyland. [17] The cousins were kindred spirits who shared a mischievous and playful sense of humor. They worked on the first number of The Fabulist from August to November 1915, presumably on weekends when Laurance was able to travel from his rooming house at 8 Irvington Street in Boston to Dwiggins’ home on Leavitt Street in Hingham Centre. [18] The Fabulist no. 2 was issued in the spring of 1916 with an “Announcement” about a planned celebration in 1917 of Thedam Püterschein’s 80th birthday written by Laurance. [19]

“Genus Püterschein” from The Fabulist no. 1 (Autumn 1915). Design, decoration and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Haas Family Arts Library, Yale University.

Cover of The Fabulist no. 2 (Spring 1916). Lettering and illustration by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection, Rochester Institute of Technology. The floral illustration was originally created for a never-issued publication called The Nosegay (1913).

Whether a celebration of Thedam Püterschein’s 80th birthday in Hingham Centre ever occurred or not is unknown. However, the entry of the United States into World War I on April 6, 1917 put a temporary stop to the publishing activities of the Püterschein brothers. Within two weeks Laurance had enrolled in the United States Naval Reserve. Here is a bureaucratic summary of his military service:

Enrolled seaman 1st class U.S. naval Reserve Force April 1, 1917; assigned to Naval Training Station, Newport, R.I.; promoted quartermaster; transferred to Scout patrl No. 531; appointed ensign September 17; assigned to Scout Patrol. Fearless as commanding officer; to USS Georgia in November as junior watch and division officer; to Submarine Chaser No. 97 March 1918 as executive officer; sailed for overseas service April 25; assigned to Submarine Chaser Force, U.S. Naval Base No. 27, Plymouth, England, June 12; promoted lieutenant (junior grade) July 1; transferred to Submarine ChaserNo. 35 as commanding officer March 1919; returned to Unites States May 23; released from active duty June 28, 1919. [20]

In contrast, here is Laurance’s own account, showing that his sense of humor survived the war intact:

April 17, 1917, [I] declared war on Germany and enlisted as seaman in U. S. Naval Reserve Force, signing on at Newport. Learned so much in next two months that I was rated Q.M. 3c. They needed Quartermasters. In fall lack of Ensigns developed. Got commission as of September 17, 1917. Commanded two or three patrol boats at Newport and got so popular that in November I was transferred to U.S.S. Georgia, formerly a battleship. Did a few months of J. W. & D. work on the G-boat, mostly training 3-inch gun crews and making crab cruises. Saw no subs, so on March 8, 1918, transferred to Sub Chaser No. 97, then fitting out at New London for foreign service. Left New London with chaser detachment on April 25 and went across, via Bermuda, Azores (Ponta Delgada), and Brest, to Plymouth, England. Commenced active service at Plymouth in June, operating in English Channel and Channel approaches up to two hundred miles off shore. Found surface of channel very poorly adapted to submarine chasing, and have recommended changes to British Admiralty. Was in middle of channel when Armistice was signed. Left it immediately there after.

Made two four-day leaves in London. Nice town. Reminds one very much of Boston. Second time I was there, saw Messrs. Foch, Clemenceau, Lloyd George , Bonar Law, Orlando, and Sonnino —also Duke of Connaught. They didn’t see me. Also made a leave in Ireland to visit Dunsany Castle. Saw where Sinn Fein had held forth in Dublin. Looked very much like American House [in Boston] after freshman banquet. Left Plymouth middle of February and went to Brest. Spent a month or more in Brest. Was there when President arrived on second trip. He didn’t see me either. Only good thing in Brest was train to Paris. Took that one night and stayed away five days. Wanted to stay longer. Saw the battlefront in and around Rheims, also Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry. Visited Eiffel Tower, Versailles, and the Boulevard des Italiens. No casualties. Left Brest middle of March and returned to States via Lisbon, Ponta Delgada, Bermuda, and Charleston, S. C. At Lisbon was transferred to S. C. 35 as commanding officer. Forgot to state that in Fall of ’18 was promoted to exalted rank of Lieutenant (j.g.), U. S. N. R. F., commission dating as of August 1. Cause of this still unascertained. Probably clerical error. Was sent to Boston with boat and put on ferry boat duty there through May and June. Kicked like hell and got out of service June 28, 1919. Shall celebrate that next year instead of Armistice day. [21]

After he was finally released from military service, Laurance returned to Boston to do editorial and layout work for Brad Stephens & Co., but not via The Heintzemann Press. The latter had been “dissolved” by the State of Massachusetts on March 28, 1919. [22] Laurance lived at 2 Brimmer Street in the Back Bay area of Boston. When not working for Stephens, he resumed hanging out with Dwiggins, both in Boston and in Hingham Centre.

Dwiggins had moved his Boston studio from 26 Lime Street to room 25 at 384A Boylston Street in September 1917. He was sharing it with illustrator John Goss (1886–1964) who recalls Dwiggins playing—and winning—simultaneous chess games with himself and Laurance. [23] Goss also describes Dwiggins flying kites in Boston Common, a block-and-a-half away:

Bill had made his own kites; of those he made, I think the one he found best for his purpose was a Malay kite. The idea was unique. He had constructed a variety of paper devices, both large and small, designed to drop from high up in the sky and float down as a kind of display—paper in flocks of small and brilliant colors. Parachutes that floated away, I think there some in the shape of fish that filled with air as they were released. These were all in gay colors.” ¶ The whole idea was very ingenious and required some careful working out. There was the reel that controlled the kite line and then the small car that was to carry the display up to the proper height for its take off. This carrier was very cleverly constructed of very light material and rigged with a sail. It was designed to hang, from small wheels, on the kite line, and the wind would carry the car up the line until it came in contact with a trip or device to open the door of the car and release the display. [24]

W.A. Dwiggins and Laurance B. Siegfried flying a kite designed by Dwiggins, c.1919. Photograph courtesy of Special Collections, The Boston Public Library.

Chess-playing and kite-flying were not the most important things that Laurance and Dwiggins did in 1919. Those activities were overshadowed by their collaboration on a publication that eclipsed The Fabulist in impact and importance, the cumbersomely (but deliberately) named Extracts from an Investigation into the Physical Properties of Books as They Are at Present Published. Although Laurance is listed as co-publisher with Dwiggins, he declined credit for having much to do with the text. In a 1944 letter to Paul A. Bennett (1897–1966), the longtime publicist for Mergenthaler Linotype and ringleader of The Typophiles, he said:

The text had been almost completed at the time I got out of the navy at the end of June, 1919, and I was quite surprised and very much delighted to find that my name had been included on the MS title page. The reason Bill included it probably was that the Society of Calligraphers was a sort of spiritual successor to, or anyhow an offshoot of, the firm of Thedam Püterschein’s Sons and, to that extent anyhow, was a continuation of the prewar publishing activities in which we had been jointly implicated. I had a hand in editing, proofreading, seeing the book through the press (it was printed by Lincoln & Smith, Boston), and in shaping the final conclusion regarding the study of advertising; otherwise the project, finances included, was entirely Bill’s. [25]

Dwiggins designed a return-address label for himself and Laurance to use in mailing out Extracts. He called it a “Dwig-sig mark.” [26]

Extracts from an Investigation into the Physical Properties of Books as They Are at Present Published by The Society of Calligraphers (Boston: Published by W.A. Dwiggins and L.B. Siegfried for the Society of Calligraphers, 1919). Design and illustration by W.A. Dwiggins.

“Books from W.A. Dwiggins and L.B. Siegfried” mailing label (1919). Design, illustration and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Boston Public Library.

Although the length of Laurance’s third tenure with Brad Stephens is unclear, the reason for its termination is not. The death of his brother-in-law (and de facto stepfather) Henry King Hannah on July 22, 1920 compelled him to return to Montclair, New Jersey to live with his sister Mary. [27] Once in the New York metropolitan area, Laurance embarked on a succession of jobs with companies in the city. From November 1920 until the end of 1922, he worked for the Bartlett-Orr Press, located in The Printing Crafts Building at 461 Eighth Avenue. At the beginning of 1923 he “transferred to the Publicity Department of the Mergenthaler Linotype Co. as Associate Editor of The Linotype Bulletin and general factotum of the Department of Linotype Typography.” [28] After two years with Mergenthaler Linotype, Laurance continued to jump from one job to another: he spent 1926-1927 in the merchandising division of Rogers & Co.; 1928 as the associate and managing editor of Advertising & Selling; and 1929 in the promotion department of Condé Nast Publications. [29] He also designed a type specimen book for the Continental Typefounders Association in 1929. [30]

Specimen Book of Continental Types… 5th ed. (New York: Continental Typefounders Association, Inc., 1930). Design by Laurance B. Siegfried; typesetting by George W. Van Vechten; printing by The Quinnipiack Press.

In the fall of 1921 the third number of The Fabulist was published by “W.A. Dwiggins and L.B. Siegfried, 384A Boylston Street Boston, U.S.A., (successors to Thedam Püterschein’s Sons.)” It was the last “collaboration” by the two cousins, though they continued to use the names of Hermann and Jacob Püterschein periodically thereafter. [31] Laurance married Elizabeth Austin Bixby, a teacher, in Woburn, Massachusetts, in 1923. [32]

Laurance finally settled down professionally at the end of 1929 when he was appointed as the successor to E.G. Gress (1872–1934), the longtime editor of The American Printer. [33] He remained in the job until 1940 when he was hired as an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism at Syracuse University and as the managing director of the university’s Orange Publishing Company. At the School of Journalism Laurance was the chairman of the Department of Graphic Arts. In 1945 he left that position to become the head of the Department of Printing at Carnegie Institute Technology in Pitttsburgh. However, he did not stay in Pittsburgh long, returning to his position at Syracuse University in mid-1947 and remaining there until his retirement in 1961. Laurance died September 29, 1978, a year after receiving the Frederic W. Goudy Award from the Rochester institute of Technology. [34]

Laurance B. Siegfried (1945). From Carnegie Alumnus (March 1945), p. 5.

Besides his fame as Dwiggins’ cousin, Laurance B. Siegfried was known during his lifetime as a writer on printing and graphic design topics, especially the textbook Typographic Design in Advertising published by the United Typothetæ of America. The book was written at the behest of Harry L. Gage (1887–1982), a former colleague of Laurance’s during his time at Mergenthaler Linotype and the editor of the U.T.A. Typographic Library. Of the book’s genesis Gage wrote:

When we asked Mr. Siegfried to undertake this book, his reply was the wish that W.A. Dwiggins hadn’t so recently covered somewhat the same subject. To make it the more difficult, it happens that both authors are founder members of The Society of Calligraphers and more closely related as kin to the well-known Püterschein family.

However, as Mr. Siegfried writes from the experience of some years of typographic practice in New York while his distinguished kinsman philosophized from his more cloistered studio in Boston, the reader and student may profitably dip deeply into both books. [35]

Siegfried quotes Dwiggins twice in his text and then, in the bibliography gushes over his cousin’s book Layout in Advertising (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1928), calling it “Probably the most complete, authoritative and readable work on the subject that has yet been written, covering all phases of layout.” [36]

Typographic Design in Advertising was not the first—or the last—time that Siegfried used his jobs to promote Dwiggins and his work. Gage, in reminiscences about C.H. Griffith, Director of Typography at Merrgenthaler Linotype, said that it was Siegfried who first suggested that the composing machine company commission Dwiggins to design a typeface. This was apparently during the time that Gage and Siegfried were both working on The Linotype Bulletin, at least half-a-decade before Dwiggins designed Metro for Mergenthaler Linotype. [37]

“We believe this is a Dwiggins year, the year when a distinguished designer seems to have come into his own in trade and public recognition,” declared the editors of Publishers’ Weekly in late 1928. Their claim introduced a heavily-illustrated eight-page article written by Jacob Püterschein (aka Siegfried) about Dwiggins’ long-time desire to make books and his recent activities in that line. Two of the eight books (and one book format) that Siegfried highlighted were in progress; five of them went on to be included in AIGA 50 Books of the Year lists. The article marked a watershed in Dwiggins’ fame, spreading his name beyond New England and beyond the advertising arena. “[T]he publishers are waking up to Dwiggins,” it concluded. [38]

The “Dwiggins year of 1928” continued into 1929. At the beginning of the year the American Institute of Graphic Arts awarded Dwiggins its Gold Medal. The ceremony was accompanied by the first ever exhibition of Dwiggins’ work. The show was organized by Elmer Adler (1884–1962), David Silvè (1889–1966) and Siegfried and held at the Art Center (65 East 56 Street) in New York City. It encompassed “lettering, book design and illustration.” [39]

Siegfried’s efforts to promote Dwiggins’ bookmaking activities increased once he became the editor of The American Printer. In “Modern Fine Book Printing in America” in the February 1930 issue Paul Johnston wrote that, “Dwiggins represents a contemporary expression in typography. His work has no perceptible antecedents.” He considered Dwiggins’ work to be modern but “neither garish nor freakish.” [40] Johnston’s article elicited a voluble complaint from Henry Lewis Bullen, librarian at the American Type Founders Company and a prolific writer on typographical and printing topics, to Frederick C. Kendall, the editor-in-chief at The American Printer:

Mr. Siegfried’s virtue of boosting his friends is also observable in… an article written by a facile writer [Paul Johnston] with a shallow background of knowledge of his subject, and a penchant for over praising the playboys of typography…. Mr. Dwiggins is a very good artist who has the further advantage of being a cousin, hence the eulogy, which good judgment would have withheld until the editor had got warm in the seat. If he gives superlative praise to a cousin, or a [Melbert] Cary, or others of the clique, what is left to be said in praise of mere mortals? [41]

Kendall’s response was to call Bullen’s accusations unjust. In this instance he was right since the praise of Dwiggins came from Johnston and not from Siegfried, but Bullen’s general point was valid. The American Printer included special inserts for Dwiggins books on three occasions between 1931 and 1934: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, Droll Stories by Honorè Balzac, and The Travels of Marco Polo. And in 1934 it ran “A Two-Column Book Page? Why Not?,” an article by Dwiggins in which he defended his design of the omnibus collection Seven Famous Novels by H.G. Wells. [42] There was also the June 1932 cover with an ornamental design signed HP [Hermann Püterschein]. [43]

Cover of The American Printer (June 1932). Design by G. Gehman Taylor with “picture” by Hermann Püterschein [W.A. Dwiggins].

The log-rolling that Siegfried did was not uncommon in his day—or even now—and it was quite mild compared to efforts on behalf of Dwiggins’ contemporaries Frederic W. Goudy and Bruce Rogers. [44] Furthermore, others besides Siegfried—notably Paul Hollister (1890–1970), Philip Hofer (1898–1984), and Paul Standard (1896–1992)—were active in promoting Dwiggins in the decades between the two world wars.

Siegfried’s special position as Dwiggins’ cousin made him the inevitable choice to deliver the first annual William Addison Dwiggins Lecture (co-sponsored by the Society of Printers) at the Boston Public Library in 1974 following the opening of the library’s Dwiggins Collection and its accompanying studio and marionette rooms. It was entitled “WAD—A Personal Recollection.” [45]

Notes
1. Mary E. Siegfried’s date of death is indicated in the Essex County, New Jersey estate rolls for 18 October 1895, p. 456. Her maiden name was Hetrick, not Heterick as some accounts of Siegfried’s life have it spelled. This is only the first of several fudges, omissions and errors in the various biographical profiles of Siegfried, both published and unpublished.
2. There are numerous obituaries for Addison H. Siegfried, but the fullest account of his death is in The Boston Globe 18 September 1895. He died on September 17, 1895 at the home of Col. C.F. Spaulding in Waltham, Massachusetts. It states that his three children were living in Philadelphia, which was surely shorthand for Montclair, New Jersey, the Siegfried home since the mid-1880s.
3. How Mary H. Siegfried and Henry King Hannah met is a mystery. The marriage took place in Philadelphia in late October 1895. See The Philadelphia Times 22 October 1895 for notice of a marriage license.
4. Laurance Siegfried often claimed that he moved to Concord in 1894, but there is no documentation to support the assertion while there is information that undermines it. (E.g. “Laurance Siegfried” by Raymond Lufkin in Print vol. 1, no. 2 [September 1940].) The only evidence of where Henry King and Mary Hannah lived between the time of their marriage and Hannah’s installation as the rector of Trinity Church in May 1897 comes from the birth of their first child, Siegfried Hannah, which occurred in Lexington, Massachusetts on December 26, 1896. See Lexington Record of Births, p. 241 in Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988. Laurance’s brother Frederick did not join the family in Massachusetts since he was attending the University of Pennsylvania.
5. For biographical information on Henry King Hannah’s tenure as a minister see Who’s Who in Advertising 1916 (Detroit: Business Service Corporation, 1916), pp. 31–32; and the Journal of the Episcopal Church, Diocese of Massachusetts, Annual Meeting of the Convention vols. 112–114 (1897). By 1906 Hannah’s household included himself and his wife; his sons Siegfried (b. 1896), Henry, Jr. (b. 1898), and William (b. 1904); his nephew Laurance; and two servants. It is unknown if Margaret Hetrick (b. 1829) was still alive at the time of the move. For the size of the household see the 1900 United States Census. Laurance was in the middle of high school when the move occurred. See
6. Hannah’s post-ministerial career, and his tangled relationship with Frederick Siegfried are discussed in The Definitive Dwiggins no. 190.
7. See an untitled typescript dated 27 March 1975 in the George Arents Archives, Syracuse University Library. Siegfried reiterated the same information elsewhere.
8. The bookplate was printed by The Merrymount Press. See Huntington Library, The Merrymount Press Collection, Business Records, Sales 1911–1914 book, entry for 15 February 1911 and Correspondence 108:18 Daniel Berkeley Updike to W.A. Dwiggins 15 February 1911. It is unknown whether the ex libris was a commission from Siegfried or a gift to him from Dwiggins. Pages for February to December 1911 are missing from Dwiggins’ account book in the Boston Public Library, 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Box 81 (1), Folder 2.
9. A color image of the Harvard Musical Review color is in W.A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design by Bruce Kennett (San Francisco: Letterform Archive, 2017), p. 91. Kennett makes no mention of Siegfried’s role in the review.
10. The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine September 1913 issue listed Siegfried as living in Montclair at Henry King Hannah’s address. His stint as editor of Happyland is noted in a biographical profile in The American Printer vol. 120 (1945), p. 61, where it is said to have been his first job after graduating from college. However, the only traces of Siegfried in the magazine, other than as an author, is a mention of him as being a “good friend” of the magazine in its January 1914 editorial. Beginning with the January 1914 issue of Happyland no one was listed as an art editor. Dwiggins designed the covers of the magazine and contributed lettering and illustrations. For more on Happyland see The Definitive Dwiggins no. 87 i progress.
11. The last installment of “The Long Men of Lampanzie” was illustrated by Waunita Smith. “The Drab Doroone,” an installment in the series “Extra-Wild Animals of the Faraway-Land of Lurg,” appeared in the March 1914 issue. The illustrated verses about the “Extra-Wild Animals of the Faraway-Land of Lurg” mark the first public appearance of the fictional Hermann and Jacob Püterschein, pseudonyms for Dwiggins and Siegfried respectively. There is an unpublished verse in the series by the cousins (about a Cadgerwhink) that may have been a casualty of Happyland‘s closure. See the BostonPublic Library, 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Box 42pb, Folder 7.
12. Laurance B. Siegfried biographical entry in Harvard College Class of 1913: Secretary’s Third Report June, 1920 (Norwood, Massachusetts: Plimpton Press, 1920), pp. 340–341. Siegfried’s rambling report on his activities during the years 1913–1920 is the most detailed account of his life at that time. Its garrulousness is exceeded only by his contribution to Harvard Class of 1913: Fiftieth Anniversary Report (Cambridge: Harvard College, 1963), pp. 577–580. The latter focuses principally on his career and life after 1940 with a long diatribe about Social Security regulations and labor unions.
13. For this account of his initial time at The Heintzemann Press, see Laurance B. Siegfried biographical entry in Harvard College Class of 1913: Secretary’s Second Report June, 1917 (Norwood, Massachusetts: Plimpton Press, 1917), p. 284. Later biographical accounts of Siegfried’s early career say that he worked for The Heintzemann Press for three years, either 1913–1916 or 1914–1917. For the former dates see “Laurance Siegfried” by Raymond Lufkin in Print vol. 1, no. 2 (September 1940) and The Publishers’ Weekly vol. 138 (1940), p. 59. For the latter dates see Who’s Who in Printing in the the United States and Canada (American Printing Industry Bulletin No. 1, Part I) by David Gustafson (published by the author, 1933), p. 60 and a printed summary of his career by R.L. [Raymond Lufkin?] that accompanied the 17 June 1977 press release announcing Siegfried as the recipient of the Frederic W. Goudy Award. The terse entry for Siegfried in the 1915 Harvard Alumni Bulletin simply says, “[class of] ’13 —Laurance B. Siegfried is in the direct-by-mail advertising department of The Heintzemann Press. 185 Franklin St., Boston.” Harvard Alumni Bulletin vol. XVII, no. 22 (March 3, 1915), p. 408.
14. Print was begun as an example of co-operative advertising among businesses in printing and its allied trades by Stephens in January 1911. The initial businesses supporting it were: The Heintzemann Press (printing), the Boston branch of the American Type Founders Company (type), The Suffolk Engraving Co. (cuts), the George H. Morrill Co. (inks), and The A. Storrs & Bement Co. (paper). The House Organ Review, “devoted to house organ and catalog advertising,” was started in August 1911. (It changed its name in stages, not becoming Direct Advertising until the Summer 1914 issue.) George Heintzemann was listed as both the President and Treasurer of The Heintzemann Press and the Vice-President and Secretary of Brad Stephens & Co.! The designer of Print and the art editor for The House Organ Review was Herbert Gregson until early 1914 when Dwiggins took over as a de facto “art director” for both publications. His first cover for Print was vol. IV, no. 2 and for Direct Advertising it was either vol. II, no. 2 (Fall 1913) or vol. 3, no. 1 (Summer 1914).
15. For this claim, that does not appear anywhere else, see Advertising & Selling vol. 33, no. 2 (February 1923), p. 46. The magazine may have conflated Siegfried’s multiple stints with The Heintzemann Press and Brad Stephens & Co. Siegfried’s first by-lined article in the printing and advertising fields was “Advertising Shoes Direct to the Customer” in Direct Advertising vol. IV, no. 1 (1917).
16. “Publications: ‘The Long Men of Lempenzie [sic],’ (serial), Happyland Magazine, L. A. Rankin and Company, December, 1913, to July, 1914; ‘Genus Püterschein’ (article) and editorial articles, The Fabulist 1915 and 1916, Thedam Püterschein’s Sons.” Harvard College Class of 1913: Secretary’s Second Report June, 1917 (Norwood, Massachusetts: Plimpton Press, 1917), p. 284.
17. The history of Thedam Püterschein, his sons Hermann and Jacob, and other relatives will be told in The Definitive Dwiggins nos. 194-196.
18. The gestation period of The Fabulist no. 1 is indicated in Dwiggins’ work journal. See the Boston Public Library, 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Box 81, Work Journal 23 March 1914 to 31 December 1915. For Siegfried’s residence see The Boston Directory… (Boston: Sampson & Murdock Company, 1915), p. 1771. Irvington Street no longer exists. At the time it ran along the back of Huntington Avenue Station from Huntington Avenue to the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad tracks feeding Back Bay Station.
19. Surprisingly, Siegfried rather than Dwiggins was designated as the copyright holder for The Fabulist no. 2.
20. Harvard’s Military Record in the World War edited by Frederick S. Mead (Boston: The Harvard Alumni Association, 1921), p. 870.
21. Laurance B. Siegfried biographical entry in Harvard College Class of 1913: Secretary’s Third Report June, 1920 (Norwood, Massachusetts: Plimpton Press, 1920), pp. 340–341. Note Siegfried’s visit to Lord Dunsany’s castle. He and Dwiggins had published “East and West,” a story by Lord Dunsany in The Fabulist no. 2.
22. For Siegfried’s postwar stint with Brad Stephens & Co. see Harvard Class of 1913: Decennial Report (Cambridge: The University Press, 1923), p. 285 and Who’s Who in Printing in the the United States and Canada (American Printing Industry Bulletin No. 1, Part I) by David Gustafson (published by the author, 1933), p. 60. The dissolution of The Heintzeman Press is included in  Special Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court of Massachusetts in the Year 1919 (Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Company, State Printers, 1919), p. 81. What had caused the company’s demise is unclear. Stephens’ new printing partner was the Lincoln & Smith Press, located like The Heintzemann Press, at 530 Atlantic Avenue. The history of Direct Advertising from its origins as The House Organ Review through the early 1930s will be covered in The Definitive Dwiggins nos. 124, 128, and 129.
23. See “Sharing a Studio” by John Goss in Postscripts on Dwiggins: Essays and Recollections edited by Paul A. Bennett (New York: The Typophiles, 1960); Typophiles Chapbook no. 96, vol. 2, pp. 145–154. There is no documentary evidence that Siegfried shared the studio with Dwiggins and Goss as Bruce Kennett claims. W.A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design by Bruce Kennett (San Francisco: Letterform Archive, 2017), pp. 118, 128, and 136. Goss’ year of birth has been listed as 1887 as well as 1886, but the latter seems more likely based on his age of 21 at the time of his marriage (17 October 1907).
24. “Sharing a Studio” by John Goss in Postscripts on Dwiggins: Essays and Recollections edited by Paul A. Bennett (New York: The Typophiles, 1960); Typophiles Chapbook no. 96, vol. 2, pp. 153–154. Dwiggins and Siegfried also flew kites in Hingham. See Siegfried’s unpublished summary of his life (typescript dated 27 March 1975) at Syracuse University Library, George Arents Archives; and University of Kentucky, Margaret King Library, C.H. Griffith Papers, Box 8, Folder 3, “WAD” by MHD [Mabel Hoyle Dwiggins] June 13 ’58, p. 2: “William embroidered it [the kite] by inventing acrobatics to take place on the string. First he fastened a cork to the line not far behind the kite. Then he built a triangular, light-weight skeleton of wood, fitted with a detachable paper sail, and hanging below the line from little wheels which could carry it up the kite. From this skeleton depended a ‘carrier’—a paper cylinder with a latched bottom, and full of all sorts of things [rolled-up streamers and parachutes]. The wind behind the sail would carry the whole contraption up the kite line with such force that, on contact with the cork, latches would be sprung which opened the bottom of the cylinder, letting all the contents tumble out into the sky, and at the same time, releasing the paper sail so the the [sic] wooden skeleton would run back down the line on its little wheels, into their hands [Dwiggins and Siegfried] again, to be refilled.” For an additional photograph of Dwiggins and Siegfried kite-flying and Dwiggins’ “sail” device see W.A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design by Bruce Kennett (San Francisco: Letterform Archive, 2017), p. 142.
25. Extracts from an Investigation into the Physical Properties of Books as They Are at Present Published by The Society of Calligraphers (Boston: Published by W.A. Dwiggins and L.B. Siegfried for the Society of Calligraphers, 1919). The Definitive Dwiggins no. 192 will discuss the contents of the Extracts in detail along with its impact.
25. Laurance B. Siegfried to Paul A. Bennett, 17 October 1944 in Boston Public Library, 2001 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Box 16, Folder 493. Oddly, given that Lincoln & Smith Press shared premises with Brad Stephens & Co., Siegfried later told Alexander Lawson that he “took the job up the street to have it printed, an indifferent job it turned out to be!” From “When Bookmen Got the Needle” by Alexander Lawson in Printing Impressions (August 1969). Dwiggins’ account books indicate that he had begun the text of Extracts several days before Siegfried’s release from the Navy. “An Inquiry WAD Imprint” reads the entry for 23 June 1919. See Boston Public library, 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Box 81(1), Folder 5.
26. See the entry for 11 August 1919 in Dwiggins’ account book. Boston Public library, 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Box 81(1), Folder 5. Perhaps Kennett assumed that the mark indicated Siegfried was sharing the 384A Boylston Street studio with Dwiggins.
27. It is unclear why Siegfried felt compelled to support his sister in Montclair when all three of her sons (aged 24, 22 and 16) were still living with her. (Mary Siegfried Hannah died in 1957.) For Henry King Hannah’s death, see the obituary in The Montclair Times 24 July 1920. In his decennial report to the Class of 1913, Siegfried said that he only worked for Brad Stephens & Co. for “a couple of months” following his release from the United States Naval Reserve Force, yet he did not begin his next job until November 1920. Perhaps he spent the months between the time of Hannah’s death and his hiring by the Bartlett-Orr Press job hunting. Apparently his role in Extracts failed to land him a job in 1920 with the publishing house Charles Scribner’s Sons. See Harvard Class of 1913: Decennial Report (Cambridge: The University Press, 1923), p. 285; Advertising and Selling vol. 33, no. 2 (February 1923), p. 46; and Siegfried to Bennett 17 October 1944 in Boston Public Library, 2001 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Box 16, Folder 493. Siegfeied may also have been spending the months from July through October writing stories. There are several cryptic entries in Dwiggins’ account books from October 16 to October 27 about work on the “Bandit Fa-loong” and “The Thing (Siegfried’s story illustration).” See
Boston Public Library, 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Box 8191), Folder 6. I have been unable to identify these stories.
28. Harvard Class of 1913: Decennial Report (Cambridge: The University Press, 1923), p. 285 and Who’s Who in Printing in the the United States and Canada (American Printing Industry Bulletin No. 1, Part I) by David Gustafson (published by the author, 1933), p. 60. Siegfried called his hiring by Mergenthaler Linotype a “transfer” from Bartlett-Orr Press because the two companies (along with a third, the William H. Denney Company, an advertising agency), shared a number of employees, among them E.E. Bartlett, Harry L. Gage, Frank Denman, and Paul A. Bennett.  For instance, Bartlett (1863–1942) was both the President of the Bartlett-Orr Press and the Director of Linotype Typography. The Manual of Linotype Typography by William Dana Orcutt and Edward E. Bartlett was published in 1923, but whether Siegfried was involved in its content or production is unknown.
29. Who’s Who in Printing in the the United States and Canada (American Printing Industry Bulletin No. 1, Part I) by David Gustafson (published by the author, 1933), p. 60; Siegfried’s unpublished biographical summary (typescript c.1948) at Syracuse University Library, George Arents Archives.
30. The specimen book was Specimen Book of Continental Types Imported Exclusively by the Continental Typefounders Association, Inc. 5th ed. (New York: Continental Typefounders Association, Inc., 1930). It is mentioned in Who’s Who in Printing in the the United States and Canada (American Printing Industry Bulletin No. 1, Part I) by David Gustafson (published by the author, 1933), p. 60. Siegfried listed Continental Typefounders Association as one of his employers during the 1920s which seems to be stretching the truth. See his unpublished resumé (typescript 27 March 1975) at Syracuse University Library, George Arents Archives. Siegfried’s work for the Continental Typefounders Association was most likeky a freelance or contract job, similar to one he had at the American Type Founders Company: “He is a good writer, but with little depth. He worked here [American Type Founders Company] on a special job for three months, and has tried hard to get on the permanent staff to help Mr. [Wadsworth] Parker, but was turned down. He has never held a position for any length of time—pretty good, but not good enough.” Henry Lewis Bullen (librarian, American Type Founders Company) to J.L. Frazier (editor, The Inland Printer) 8 January 1930 in Columbia University, Special Manuscript Collections, Typographic [ATF], Box 34.
31. Dwiggins’ account books contain several entries for work on The Fabulist no. 3, the first of them being for February 27–29, 1920 but all of the others listed for the period from April 29 and August 10, 1921. See the Boston Public Library, 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Box 81, Folder 6. The Fabulist no. 3 was printed by Carl Purington Rollins and the Yale University Press between September 23 and November 22, 1921. See the correspondence between Dwiggins and Rollins in Box 2, Series II of the Carl Purington Rollins Collection, Haas Family Arts Library, Yale University. Although Siegfried included work on The Fabulist no. 3 in his decennial report to the Class of 1913 at Harvard College, there is no evidence that he contributed to its contents or was involved in its production.
32. Siegfried and Bixby were married 1 August 1923. How they met is unknown.
33. Siegfried’s tenure at The American Printer is often listed as having begun in 1929, but he did not assume the editorial chair until the January 1930 issue. His appointment was announced in The American Printer vol. 89, no. 6 (December 1929), p. 33. The American Printer was a sister publication to Advertising & Selling, both owned by Robbins Publications.
34. For Siegfried’s post-1940 career see The Ninth Annual Frederic W. Goudy Award presented to Laurance B. Siegfried (Rochester: School of Printing, Rochester Institute of Technology, 1977). Siegfried’s tenure at the Carnegie Institute of Technology began July 1, 1945. Although he said it ended in 1946, Carnegie Tech publications indicate otherwise. See Carnegie Alumnus, vol. 30, no. 3 (March 1945), p. 3 and The Thistle 1947, n.p. Siegfried’s death is recorded in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle 1 October 1978.
35. Typographic Design in Advertising by Laurance B. Siegfried (New York: Committee on Education, United Typothetæ of America, 1930), p. 2. The book is no. 47 in the UTA Typographic Library. Siegfried contributed the chapter on “Type and Typography” to the Handbook of Advertising edited by E.B. Weiss with F.C. Kendall and Carroll B. Larrrabee (New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1938). He was not its author as claimed in “Laurance Siegfried” by Raymond Lufkin in Print 1:2 (September 1940).
36. Typographic Design in Advertising by Laurance B. Siegfried (New York: Committee on Education, United Typothetæ of America, 1930), p. 124. There are no designs by Dwiggins in the book, though the “diagram of folding schemes” on p. 83 is clearly indebted to Layout in Advertising. The bibliography contains only one other title, Advertising Layout by Frank H. Young (Chicago: Pascal Covici, 1928). Young is quoted once in the book. The only other persons quoted are Gage and Lucian Bernhard—the latter from an issue of The Linotype Magazine!
37. Recollections of CHG [Chauncey Hawley Griffith] by HLG [Harry Laurence Gage] 12 February 1969 at University of Kentucky, Margaret King Library, C.H. Griffith Papers, Box 12. Gage’s typescript was prepared for a proposed book on Griffith by The Typophiles that was never completed.
38. “So These Are Dwiggins” by Jacob Püterschein [Laurance Siegfried] in Publishers’ Weekly
vol. CXIV, no. 18, (3 November 1928), pp. 1896–1904. The eight books were Tales by Edgar Allan Poe (Chicago: Lakeside Press, 1930), Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (New York: Random House, 1929), Layout in Advertising by Dwiggins (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1928), Paraphs by Hermann Püterschein [W.A. Dwiggins] (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928), Good Morning America by Carl Sandburg (New York: Crosby Gaige, 1928), Elizabeth and Essex by Lytton Strachey (New York: Crosby Gaige, 1928), Sonnets 1889–1972 by Edwin Arlington Robinson (New York: Crosby Gaige, 1928), Ballades from the Hidden Way by James Branch Cabell (New York: Crosby Gaige, 1928), The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton (Boston: C.E. Goodspeed & Co., 1928), and the format for The Sun Dial Library (Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing Co., 1928). The first two title were in progress. Four books that Dwiggins designed in 1928 were included in the list of Fifty Books of the Year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts: Layout in Advertising, Paraphs, Elizabeth and Essex, and America Conquers Death by Milton Waldman (New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1928). A fifth book, The Complete Angler, would surely have been on the list as well except that its printer Daniel Berkeley Updike told Dwiggins not to submit it to the AIGA since he was on the jury. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Tales by Poe were included on the AIGA 50 Books lists for 1930 and 1931 respectively.
39. The American Institute of Graphic Arts News Letter (March 22, 1929), p. 6. The exhibition opened February 4 and was scheduled to continue into early March, but apparently it ran until April 10. For the closing date see Elmer Adler to W.A Dwiggins, 10 April 1929 in New York Public Library, Pynson Printers Collection, Box 18. Although Siegfried was listed as one of the show’s organizers, its driving force was Adler. See the correspondence between Adler and Dwiggins from 26 October 1928 to 10 April 1929 in the Pynson Printers Collection at the New York Public Library and the Elmer Adler Collection at Princeton University.
40. “Modern Fine Book Printing in America” by Paul Johnston in The American Printer February 1930 vol. 90, no. 2, (February 1930), p. 39. Johnston considered Dwiggins’ illustrations to be “quaintly sober and conservative,” but he astutely recognized their important role in Dwiggins’ book designs. “These illustrations, I think, are the key to Dwiggins’ other work, for they prove him to be, in the face of his modernistic designs, a most retiring conservative. Dwiggins is an experimentalist in technique, not in pictorial arrangement.” Unfortunately this assessment was written before the publication of Tales by Poe (1930), The Time Machine (1931), The Travels of Marco Polo (1933), One More Spring (1934), and The Treasure in the Forest (1936).
41. H.L. Bullen to Frederick C. Kendall, 10 March 1930 and Kendall to Bullen 15 March 1930 in Columbia University, Special Manuscript Collections, Typographic [ATF], Box 34.
42. The Time Machine insert appeared in The American Printer for December 1931. The idea was Siegfried’s. See G. Gehman Taylor (the printer) to Bennett Cerf (the publisher) 10 December 1931 in Columbia University, Bennett Cerf Manuscript Collection, Box 165. The Droll Stories insert appeared as part of a Limited Editions Club portfolio titled “American Book Design” in the February 1934 issue and the Marco Polo insert appeared in the June 1934 issue. “A Two-Column Book Page? Why Not?” by W.A. Dwiggins in The American Printer vol. XCIX, no. 10 (October 1934), pp. 11–12.
43. “Our cover design this month is by G. Gehman Taylor, president of Gordon-Taylor Incorporated, The Abbey Press, Cambridge, Mass.… The type line at the side is in the A.T.F. Typo Slope, enlarged in reverse; rest of type matter in Franklin Gothic [No!]… The picture (if one may call it that) is the contribution of Dr. Hermann Püterschein of Hingham Centre, Mass., whose activities have sometimes been confused with those of W.A. Dwiggins, the Boston designer.… The color scheme for the cover, Mr. Taylor reports, as the unanimous choice of Püterschein, Dwiggins, Dwiggins’ color expert Goss, and himself, voting by Australian ballot.” The American Printer vol. 94, no. 6 (June 1932), p. 42. W.A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design by Bruce Kennett (San Francisco: Letterform Archive, 2017), p. 240 incorrectly credits the cover design to Hermann Püterschein. The American Printer also ran advertisements for Layout in Advertising by Dwiggins sold by Robbins Publications Book Service rather than Harper & Brothers, the book’s publisher. Was this Siegfried’s doing or Kendall’s?
44. In 1930 Constant Southworth of The Southworth Press in Portland, Maine approached Dwiggins about producing a book on the designer’s work. Although the project fizzled, a sketch of its title page (provisionally called W.A. Dwiggins: A Collection of His Designs) survives. It indicates that Siegfried was slated to be the author of the accompanying text. See the image in W.A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design by Bruce Kennett (San Francisco: Letterform Archive, 2017), p. 242. Information on the proposed Dwiggins book can be found in correspondence between 20 February 1931 and 29 July 1931 among Constant Southworth, Dwiggins, George Macy, Frederic Melcher, and Elmer Adler in various archives. Southworth exhibited his Dwiggins collection that summer at The Southworth Press.
45. It is curious that despite his special stature as Dwiggins’ cousin and early collaborator Siegfried did not contribute to the two-volume collection of essays and reminiscences on Dwiggins that The Tyophiles produced in 1960. See Postscripts on Dwiggins: Essays and Recollections edited by Paul A. Bennett (New York: The Typophiles, 1960); Typophiles Chapbook no. 96.