photomontages, three-dimensional objects, and necklaces of typographic
material were combined in an anarchic but decidedly transparent step-by-
step instructional guide that was as playful as it was sophisticated.
This typographic revolution did not, however, make an impact on
the conventions of children’s book publishing because the books were not
printed in large enough quantities and generally landed on the shelves of
collectors rather than children. James Fraser, editor of Phaedrus: An Annual
of Children’s Literature Research, said there was also a lack of interest in these
avant-garde experiments among average readers: “I used to find ex-library
copies of the avant-garde experiments in surprisingly very good condition,
while copies of the standard text and picture books were tattered and
worn.” Indeed for substantive change to have occurred a radical shift in
adult design conventions would have been necessary, which even during the
1920 s when experimental design was at is zenith did not affect the
children’s book genre. Educators maintained rigid standards over how
children were to be taught, and children’s librarians generally decided which
books were suitable to that task. Adults determined the conventions that
governed the content and design of picture books for prereaders,
picture/story books for young readers, and illustrated novels for older
readers. Illustration was either realistic or fanciful, typography was
straightforward and legible—any deviation from these norms was termed
inappropriate. Neil Postman writes in The Disappearance of Childhood
(Delacorte Press, New York, 1982 ) that “a particular form of information,
controlled by adults, was made available in stages to children in what was
judged to be psychologically assimilable ways.” Until the advent of
television (and now, increasingly, digital media) the printed book was the
vessel in which this information was stored and distributed; its presentation
has, therefore, always been controlled by adult assumptions about what best
suited children. Left unchallenged, many assumptions were further adopted
as marketing truths.
By the late 1930 s children’s book design was in a few instances
influenced by the New Typography in the form of sans-serif typefaces in
asymmetrical compositions. In The Noisy Book(Harper Brothers, 1939 ) by
Margaret Wise Brown, machine-inspired Futura set with skewed line
breaks approximated the sounds of household appliances and larger
machines. Yet during the 1940 s and 1950 s forums of the American Institute
of Graphic Arts codified standards of legibility for children’s books to
which most publishers adhered. Readability was vigilantly preserved, and
change in children’s book typography during the early postwar era was
marked by little more than the occasional switch from typefaces like Janson
or Garamond to Futura or Akzidenz or Grotesque rather than adoption of
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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