The Definitive Dwiggins no. 219—The Long Men of Lampanzie

The Long Men of Lampanzie was a fantasy written by Laurance B. Siegfried and serialized in Happyland magazine from December 1913 to May 1914. Due to the demise of the magazine in the fall of 1914, only the first seven chapters were published in Siegfried’s lifetime. However, in 2003, Melissa Austen Langeland published a limited edition of the The Long Men of Lampanzie: A Tale of the Faraway Land of Lurg which contained twenty-two chapters. [1] Langeland, the great-granddaughter of Siegfried, was apparently unaware of Happyland and the fact that W.A. Dwiggins, Siegfried’s cousin—and, by extension, hers—had illustrated the first six chapters. Her edition was illustrated by Martin Langeland, her father. [2] Dwiggins is not mentioned.

In the colophon, Langeland says this of Siegfried’s text:

This is The Long Men of Lampanzie as Larry left it, ready, he thought, to send to publishers. Though I was sorely tempted after several readings to apply the blue pencil (actually beige keyboard), I refrained. Perhaps I might have improved the telling of a very good story. Perhaps, again, I would only have changed its style. Even were that an improvement (which is not guaranteed) we might have lost his idiosyncratic and printerly punctuation with its em dashes, ellipses, and ‘ands’, and those great clauses rattling along like box cars on a freight train. This book is Larry’s. This edition is meant to allow him to speak to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. [3]

For the incomplete Happyland version of The Long Men of Lampanzie Dwiggins contributed thirty-three illustrations. Four of them were full size, one took up half of a page, three of them were designed as chapter openings (ranging in size from one-quarter to three-quarters of a page in depth), and the remaining twenty-five illustrations were “spots” (all but two fitted to a single column width). He also aded some “typographic” interventions.

For Chapters I and II of The Long Men of Lampanzie (Happyland, December 1913)  Dwiggins created “The Glunderlange Embankment,” a full-page frontispiece illustration (p. 24);  the chapter opening showing a waterfall (p. 25); “The Finest Book of Fairy Tales,” a full-page illustration (p. 31); and spot illustrations for pp. 26–29 and 32. (The second illustration on p. 32 of a female fairy is a space filler done by someone else.)

Dwiggins also drew a business card in the Artistic Printing style of the 1870s and 1880s for Isadore Levinsky, “Dealer in second-hand Books, Old Violins, Canton Chinaware and all other Miscellaneous Article.” The card, with its rounded corners, mixes five styles of type plus a rustic log initial, two asterisk-style ornaments, and a triangular “spiral” example of bent rule. [4]  It is from Levinsky that Tom, the hero of the serial, buys Strange Tales of the Land of Lurg, a book that explains the magical powers of the River Glunderlange. [5] On page 30 Dwiggins introduces a blackletter type to suggest the “quaint old-fashioned letters” of Strange Tales of the Land of Lurg. [6]

Spot illustrations of Isidore Levinsky and his businesss card from The Long Men of Lampanzie, Chapters I and II in Happyland (December 1913), p. 29. Drawings by W.A. Dwiggins.

Dwiggins’ illustration (p. 31) of Tom reading the book in Levinsky’s shop is in a different style from the other illustrations for The Long Men of Lampanzie. It is much denser, possibly to suggest the wood engravings that graced the pages of nineteenth-century children’s adventure books such as those by H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, and H. Rider Haggard. [7] That Dwiggins employed the style for its allusiveness is evident from the fact that there is no other illustration like it in his oeuvre. It is one of only two illustrations he made for The Long Men of Lampanzie that he signed—a sure sign that he wanted readers to know that it was his work despite the unfamiliar style. (The other one is “The Glunderange Embankment” frontispiece from Chapter I.)

“The Finest Book of Fairy Stories.” Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins for Chapter I of The Long Men of Lampanzie in Happyland vol. XXVII, no. 3 (Christmas issue, December 1913), p. 31.

For Chapter III in the January 1914 issue of Happyland, Dwiggins again drew a chapter opening illustration (p. 19), but this time it was much smaller. He simply showed Tom as the first “Long Man” in a sitting position. But he also provided seven spot illustrations and one that took up a half-page. As part of the same page (p. 25) with the latter, Dwiggins recreated a triple-decker newspaper headline. He also used his lettering skills to depict part of the signage (“[LAMPAN]ZIE HERALD”) on a newsstand (p. 26).

“When Tom began to laugh more of the crowd laughed, too.” From Chapter III of The Long Men of Lampanzie in Happyland (January 1914), p. 25. Illustration and newspaper heading by W.A. Dwiggins.

End of Chapter III of The Long Men of Lampanzie in Happyland (January 1914), p. 26. Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins.

Dwiggins’ chapter opening illustration for Chapter 4 [sic] of The Long Men of Lampanzie in the February 1914 issue of Happyland (p. 22) marked a deviation from those for the earlier chapters. This time he integrated the title into the scene depicted, a crowd watching a banner unfurl.

Illustration for Chapter 4 [sic] of The Long Men of Lampanzie. Original artwork by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Special Collections, the Boston Public Library.

Although Dwiggins is known for the sans serif Metro series (designed for Mergenthaler Linotype in 1929), he rarely employed sans serif lettering or typefaces in his work. For that reason alone this illustration is of interest. Presumably, he chose grotesque letters to simulate outdoor advertising. In the previous chapter openings he had employed seriffed letters and his own idiosyncratic script.

Chapter 4 also included a full-page illustration, four spots, and a “heading in great staring black letters” which Dwiggins set in a condensed gothic typeface rather than lettering it by hand. [8] The decision to make the scene where Tom as a “tall man” is measured for a sit a full-page illustration (p. 28) was an obvious opportunity to visually stress his height. Dwiggins slipped in a little indicator in the form of a knotted three-piece measuring tape.

“‘The suit will have to be nine feet long,’ said the first clerk.” from The Long Men of Lampanzie in Happyland (February 1914), p. 28. Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins.

Dwiggins was the art editor of Happyland from October 1913 through February 1914. Once he was no longer in that position, his contributions to chapters 5 through 7 of The Long Men of Lampanzie drop off. [9] Dwiggins did not illustrate the opening of Chapter 5 in the March 1914 issue of Happyland, though he did draw a full-page depiction of Tom hanging pictures on a wall and two smaller two-column wide pictures. For the former his lettering is a more controlled script than the one used in the previous chapters; and for the latter he shifted to an “oldstyle” roman.

“‘These pictures were all given to me by my friends and relatives…'” from Chapter 5 of The Long Men of Lampanzie in Happyland (March 1914), p. 36. Original artwork by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Special Collections, the Boston Public Library..

“But Tom, instead of speaking, began to smile” from Chapter 5 of The Long Men of Lampanzie in Happyland (March 1914), p. 32. Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Barry Snider.

The only trace of Dwiggins in Chapter VI of The Long Men of Lampanzie in the April 1914 issue of Happyland is the chapter opening illustration which was re-used from the December 1913 issue. With the May 1913 issue of Happyland and Chapter VII of The Long Men of Lampanzie, Dwiggins’ illustrations were supplanted by those of Waunita Smith. [10]

Original artwork for chapter opening for The Long Men of Lampanzie. First used in Happyland (December 1913), p. 25 and then re-used in Happyland (April 1914), p. 39. Illustration and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Special Collections, the Boston Public Library.

Dwiggins’ large illustrations are all framed while his spots (both one- and two-column wide) and his small chapter opening are unframed. This suggests that he was trying to both “square-up” the pages that had little or no text while simultaneously opening up those pages that were dense with text.

Although the publication of the first seven chapters of The Long Men of Lampanzie was not a private affair like The Fabulist, the periodical issued by Thedam Püterschein’s Sons and its successors, it equally served as an unfettered outlet for Dwiggins’ illustration and lettering urges. [12]

Original artwork. Tom’s house for Chapter II of The Long Men of Lampanzie. Reproduced in Happyland (December 1913), p. 28. Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Special Collections, the Boston Public Library.

Original artwork. Policemen and citizens for Chapter I of The Long Men of Lampanzie. Reproduced in Happyland (December 1913), p. 27. Illustration by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Special Collections, the Boston Library.

Artwork for only ten of the thirty-three illustrations—and none of the three instances of lettering—that Dwiggins created for The Long Men of Lampanzie survive. [11] Two of the four full-page illustrations (Tom being measured for a suit and Tom hanging pictures), two chapter openings (the one for Chapters I and II which was reused for Chapter VI; and Chapter 4), and four spot illustrations (all from Chapters I and II in the December 1913 issue of Happyland) are in the 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection at the Boston Public Library. [12]

Notes
1. The Long Men of Lampanzie: A Tale of the Faraway Land of Lurg by Laurance B. Siegfried (Burlington, Washington: PA / GCW, 2003). Langeland’s edition of 286 pages was “published under the Püterschein Authority gone considerably west [GCW]” in an edition of twenty-five copies intended for “Larry’s” grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Design printing and binding were by Martin Langeland under the rubric of Dum Luk’s Graphics. I want to thank Barry Snider, a collector of Dwigginsiana, who brought this edition of Siegfried’s tales to my attention.
2. Melissa Austen Langeland is the daughter of Diana J. Langeland who is the daughter of William Dutcher Siegfried, son of Laurence B. Siegfried.
3. The Long Men of Lampanzie: A Tale of the Faraway Land of Lurg by Laurance B. Siegfried (Burlington, Washington: PA / GCW, 2003).
4. For more on Artistic Printing see The Handy Book of Artistic Printing: A Collection of Letterpress Examples with Specimens of Type, Ornament, Corner Fills, Borders, Twisters, Wrinklers, and other Freaks of Fancy by Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas (New York: Pinceton Architectural Press, 2009) and the website sheaff:ephemera. Dwiggins’ recreation  of the style is tepid.
5. The title of this fictitious book links The Long Men of Lampanzie to the “Extra-Wild Animals of the Faraway-Land of Lurg,” the illustrated whimsical verses about mythical creatures that Dwiggins and Siegfried collaborated on for Happyland.
6. The typeface is similar to, but does not exactly match, Priory Text, Caslon Text, or Cloister Black. Most noticeably, the B and F are different.
7. Dwiggins was a devotee of such books throughout his life, frequently suggesting to publishers that he design and illustrate She by H. Rider Haggard, When the Sleeper Awakes by H.G. Wells, and others in that genre. There is also the possibility that this illustration—which is looser and “shaggier” than most wood engravings—may have been influenced by Daniel Vierge’s “Don Quixote Studies the Laws of Knighthood” in The History of the Valorous and Witty Knight-errant Don Quixote of the Mancha (New York: Chas. Scribner’s Sons, 1906), p. 7 (see below). Dwiggins studied the work of Vierge while at the Frank Holme School of Illustration in Chicago.

“Don Quixote Studies the Laws of Knighthood” from The History of the Valorous and Witty Knight-errant Don Quixote of the Mancha (New York: Chas. Scribner’s Sons, 1906), p. 7. Illustration by Daniel Vierge.

8. The typeface is probably a nineteenth-century gothic since nothing like it appears in American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century by Mac McGrew (New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Books, 1993). I have no idea why Dwiggins did not letter this headline as he had done with the one in Chapter III.
9. For more on Dwiggins’ tenure as the art editor of Happyland see The Definitive Dwiggins no. 87.
10. For more on Waunita Smith see The Definitive Dwiggins no. 87, footnote 20.
11. The three instances of lettering are the business card for Isidore Levinsky, the three-decker newspaper headline, and the calligraphic title for Chapter 5.
12. See the Boston Public Library, 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Box 42, Folder 34 for the four spot illustrations from Chapters I and II, Folder 37 for the openings for Chapters I–II and VI, and Folder 38 for the opening to Chapter 4; and Box 42pb, Folder 6 for the full-page illustrations of Tom being fitted for a suit and hanging pictures. The four spots are for p. 26 (the filtration plant behind the walls of Lampanzie), p. 27 (two policemen and several citizens; and citizens of Lampanzie along the embankment of the River Glunderlange), and p. 28 (Tom’s house).
13. The Fabulist no. 1 was published by Dwiggins and Siegfried under the name Thedam Püterschein’s Sons in Autumn 1915. Dwiggins was Hermann Püterschein and Siegfried was his younger brother Jacob. The first issue carried a putative history of the Püterschein family written by Siegfried. There were only three issues of The Fabulist, the last appearing in Autumn 1921. For more on the collaborations between the two cousins and the “genus Püterschein” see W.A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design by Bruce Kennett (San Francisco: Letterform Archive, 2017), pp. 84–87, 99–100, 105–108, and 154–157. Kennett is incorrect in indicating (p. 84) that The Long Men of Lampanzie came after the “Extra-Wild Animals of the Far-away Land of Lurg”. See The Definitive Dwiggins no. 87. Siegfried’s serial was linked to the verses about fantastic creatures since the book that Tom, the hero of The Long Men of Lampanzie, bought from Isidore Levinsky was titled Strange Tales from the Land of Lurg. Furthermore, Austen’s edition of Siegfried’s story was subtitled A Tale of the Faraway Land of Lurg. Presumably the city of Lampanzie was located in the land of Lurg.

A final note: Was Siegfried aware of The King of the Golden River or the Black Brothers: A Legend of Stiria by John Ruskin? (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1851) when he conceived The Long Men of Lampanzie? Ruskin’s fairy tale, originally written for the twelve-year-old Effie (Euphemia) Gray, whom Ruskin later married, was initially illustrated by Richard “Dickie” Doyle (1824-1883), one of the most famous of Victorian illustrators. His title page used rustic branch lettering and on p. 18 he illustrated a card from “South West Wind Esquire” in “windy” letters.  A twelfth printing, with Doyle’s illustrations, was published in the United States by L.C. Page & Publishers, Boston in August 1912. But Dwiggins may have known the story, if not the illustrations, even earlier when it was anthologized (pp. 3-35) in Modern Stories by Eva March Tappan (Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Company, 1907), volume 10 of The Children’s Hour series for which he designed the title page. See the entry for 5 July 1907 in his account books at the Boston Public Library, 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Box 81(2), Folder 2.