Any serious book collector (and the most serious belong to The Grolier Club, that pre-eminent New York shrine) harbors a latent penchant for lists.
These lists are usually generated in neat doses of one hundred titles. Here then (at least in the opinions of Messrs, Hutner, and Kelly) are the hundred greatest printed books of the twentieth century. Given another pair of editors, you’d probably be offered a different list, but this one serves and serves well, for it concentrates not only on the recognized chestnuts, but also lesser-known, and often exceedingly récherché volumes that have left their mark. It is noteworthy that only two books in the survey were printed by offset; the rest are all letterpress. And although America is strongly represented, there are also selections from Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, England, Wales and Switzerland. Every book is illustrated in fine line duotone, many in color, and best of all, the captions that accompanied the original Grolier exhibit have been transcribed intact. In their two prefatory essays, Hutner has provided a convincing defense of his choices (1900–1948), and Kelly, a spirited apologia for his (1949–1999).
Joe Blumenthal ended his survey of fine printing in America with the observation that the “art of the book, one of the slender graces of civilization, works its charm on each new generation.” This survey, while admittedly neither comprehensive nor definitive, provides an excellent overview of fine printing over the past hundred years. Despite Morison’s contention that typography is the most conservative of all the arts, the form of the book continues to mutate, evolve, and advance. If we are to overcome the complexities of a digital age, we would do well to appreciate, if not embrace, that heritage.