Blumenthal, Joseph

Blumenthal, Joseph

(1897–1990) printer, book designer, publisher; born in New York City. As head of the Spiral Press, which he founded in 1926, he printed fine editions for the Morgan Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Grolier Club, and others; he was known especially for his special editions of the poems of Robert Frost. He designed the Spiral typeface, re-named Emerson when it became available commercially. After closing the Spiral Press in 1971, he organized a famous exhibit at the Morgan Library, "The Art of the Printed Book" (1973), and wrote several books on this subject.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.