Publisher: Hyphen Press London, ISBN: 9780907259329, Author: Christopher Burke, Format: Hardcover, 280 x 215 mm, 335pp
Jan Tschichold (1902-1974) has good claim to being the key typographer of the twentieth-century as one of the leaders of the modernist movement of the 1920s and, in the classical typography of his later career, perhaps the first typographic modernist. Active Literature is a close study of his modernist years, based on extensive research in the archives and introducing a wealth of fresh reproductions. Burke lays particular emphasis on Tschichold as a propagandist of New Typography, through his many books and articles, showing that he was as much an explainer as a designer. The subject comes to life in the letters written between colleagues across Europe in the turbulent years of the Nazi ascent to power. The book is introduced with an essay by Robin Kinross, discussing Tschichold's present reputation, and is rounded off with a selection of key texts by the subject.