The hundred poorly revealed 2/5

 

It seems a contradiction that this title displays the hundred best-looking books of the last century in what I consider to be an incredibly dull-looking book. Remove the hundred title pages and what remains, from the frontis page, title, imprint, Contents, Foreword, Acknowledgements, notes, bibliography to the indices, is laid out and uses type in a completely unimaginative way. It's as if the book is in some time-warp and is still living in the Thirties.

In this digital age, why would anyone use Roman numerals for page numbers from I to LXII as they do in these pages and in the indices (or in 2012: the index) have to use both Roman and Arabic numbers. In the front of the book, there are two interesting essays and thirty-two pages of notes, full of fascinating detail, about the hundred titles. The essays are set in one big block of type per page, with numbers in the margin referring to the hundred. It all looks incredibly bland because it's just type. These front pages could easily have been set in two columns, which would have allowed for thumbnails of the relevant title pages from the hundred.

These top books are represented by one page from each tile, frequently the title page and strangely, I thought, many are reproduced smaller than the originals, though they would easily fit on the pages in this book. The selection is, of course, personal to the two authors and a huge number had to be left out (one I consider missing is Bradbury Thompson's 'Washburn College Bible', 1980).

The selection does vary enormously. Rather flat-looking title pages with everything centered could share a spread with a page from another book showing very creative typography. Some books, now over a hundred years old, show flair and imagination with just type: the 1903-1905 Doves Press 'Bible' and their 1908 'Men & Women' look remarkable. The title page of Typographica Practica by Max Caflisch, from 1988, with everything in caps and centred looks very boring, as does the title page from Charles Enschede's 1978 'Typefoundries in the Netherlands' again with all the setting in centered caps. I get the impression that a more conservatively designed page would win inclusion in the hundred rather than a really creative handling of headline and text setting. It should be said though that handset type from the case puts enormous limitations on creative typography.

The hundred best books of the century provide an interesting look back but I was disappointed in the very unimaginative way the editorial was presented.