The great American type and book designer W.A. Dwiggins never much liked our currency and harbored particular disdain for the US Printing Office, which he considered little better than a hack service operation that showed little evidence of taste or graphic sensibility. All through the twenties, this prejudice festered until in 1932, at the very depth of the Great Depression, he convinced George Macy, the founder and primum mobile of the Limited Editions Club, to print a little manifesto he had put together on how everything from the paper money to the design of stamps in this country could be improved. Macy reluctantly agreed, on the condition that he would print only as many copies as their customers might order. The count came in at 522, and the legendary critique was issued.
This edition includes a new introduction by Bruce Kennett, facsimiles of the American paper currency in 1928 which Dwiggins found so objectionable, and reproductions of the period stamps he so disliked. Dwiggins’ text, articulate, opinionated, convincing, reads as well today as it did 73 years ago.