Frederic Goudy

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Frederic W. Goudy (1865–1947) was a prolific American type designer whose fonts include Copperplate Gothic, Kennerley, and Goudy Old Style. He also designed, in 1938, University of California Oldstyle, for the sole proprietary use of the University of California Press. The Lanston Monotype Company released a version of the face, called Californian, for wider distribution in 1956, and a digital version, called Berkeley, in 1983.

From 1920-1947, Goudy was art director for Lanston Monotype. By the end of his life, Goudy had designed 116 typefaces and published 59 literary works. Goudy was the originator of the well-known statement, "Anyone who would letterspace blackletter would steal sheep." (More commonly misquoted as: "Anyone who would letterspace lowercase would steal sheep.")

Goudy wasn't always a type designer. "At 40, this short, plump, pinkish, and puckish gentleman kept books for a Chicago realtor, and considered himself a failure. During the next 36 years, starting almost from scratch at an age when most men are permanently set in their chosen vocations, he cut 113 fonts of type, thereby creating more usable faces than did the seven greatest inventors of type and books, from Gutenberg to Garamond."[1]

Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest "When I was a boy my father spelled our name 'Gowdy' which didn't offer any particular reason for verbal gymnastics. Later, learning that the old Scotch spelling was 'Goudy,' he changed to that form, while I, for some years, retained the old way. My brother, in Chicago, still spells with the w. However, I find that occasionally a stranger pronounces the word with ou as long o in go, sometimes as ou in soup, or goo and less frequently with the ou as oo in good. I retain the original pronunciation with ou as in out." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)