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The Romance of Letterpress: James Cryer’s fascinating story based on the discovery of a lost diary.
Lavishly illustrated throughout with no expense spared in its production, this hardcover, coffee-table edition is a tribute to print!
Order it online, https://booksonlineaustralia.com.au/shop/the-romance-of-letterpress
When James Cryer discovered his grandfather’s handwritten journal he had no idea he had a historical record of the printing industry in his hands. Learn about life in print in the early 1900’s, how postcards transformed the industry, and more through this incredible first-hand account that spans 2 continents.
The Romance of Letterpress gives an account of life in Australia and America within the Printing Industry at the turn of the 20th Century.
This is the story of Wal Cryer, a freshly-minted letterpress printer from Sydney.
In November 1913, at the tender age of 21, he packed his bags and jumped on board a steamer to try his luck working his way across America as a printer.
The Romance of Letterpress is a story about what society looked like at that time: that uniquely fragile era just before the Great War, which hovered tentatively on the brink of modernity, when, if you ventured out onto the road you could be trampled to death by a horse, or run over by a car.
It is also a story with a romantic undercurrent, as he left behind a fiancé in Sydney, to whom he sent a veritable treasure-trove of postcards as he wended his way across the Mid-west, facing both unemployment queues and tough bosses – and getting work in Chicago before heading to New York and then via several ships back to Australia when the war broke out.
(There is also the mysterious “L” which we will touch upon, ever so discreetly.)
It is, therefore, the story of a collision of two cultures (America’s and Australia’s), which could not have been more different and which still are today!
Finally, The Romance of Letterpress is a story of how printing at that time was beginning to penetrate into the nooks and crannies of people’s everyday lives, in ways both amusing and pervasive, that we now take for granted today.
None of this would have been brought to light, however, if it wasn’t for a remarkable discovery – not only the diary itself, tucked away in a long-forgotten cupboard, but also a much-battered album bulging with post-cards. This then is a look down a time-tunnel, 1914 under a microscope!
There is, however, yet another deeper theme underpinning all this – what is the nature of the relationship we have with our grandparents?
Interested in the history of printing in Australia? Visit The Penrith Museum of Printing
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