Daniel Berkeley Updike letter (RLC.Ms.579)

Biographical note

Daniel Berkeley Updike (1860-1941) was born on February 24, 1860, to Caesar Augustus and Elizabeth Bigelow Updike of Providence, Rhode Island. While living in Providence, he volunteered at the Providence Athenaeum in his teens and, rather than attend college, he then relocated to Boston in 1880 and accepted a position working for Houghton, Mifflin & Co. at the lowest level as an errand boy. Updike remained with the company for twelve years, working his way up into positions of greater responsibility and learning the details of fine printing. From 1892 to 1893, he was at that company’s Riverside Press in Cambridge gaining further typographical experience.

In 1893, Updike went into business for himself; he used other presses for his press-work, which were issued with colophons that described them as being from his own design or published under his supervision. By 1896, he had secured his own presses and types and began to publish as the Merrymount Press. Although his early work was influenced by William Morris, he developed a different purpose for his press. Instead of producing books with a purely aesthetic appeal, as Morris was known for, Updike made it his concern to see that the books he printed were readable and properly suited to the conditions under which they would be used; then he would focus on their style. The Merrymount Press gained a reputation for superior design, readability, and impressive workmanship. He also taught printing history at the Harvard Business School and his Printing Types: Their History, Forms, and Use (1922) became an authoritative text, now in its third edition. Updike died at his home in Boston on December 28, 1941 at the age of 81.