Merle Armitage’s Books^211
Merle ArmitageMerle Armitage ( 1893 – 1975 ) taught himself to design sets and costumes for
the theater in New York. Next he became a theatrical impresario, managing
concert tours for Will Rogers, Martha Graham, and Igor Stravinsky. Later
he segued into the role of publicity and advertising director for Diaghilev’s
Ballet Russe before cofounding the Los Angeles Grand Opera Association,
followed by a stint as manager of the Philharmonic Auditorium in Los
Angeles, where he presented concerts with conductor Leopold Stokowski
and the first staging of Porgy and Bessby composer George Gershwin—all
before his thirtieth birthday.
An avid attraction for the arts, and especially modern artists like
Picasso, Klee, Kandinsky, et al., inspired his ultimate and total immersion
into typography and book design, often for books he authored, edited, or
published about progressive artists of his time, many of whom became his
friends. Armitage mined everything from his early career as inspiration for
authorship and book design. However, he is perhaps best known for his
book design (especially among book art aficionados), although he is
considerably less celebrated than his modern contemporaries. Although his
books are seriously collected today and his writings are occasionally cited,
owing to his stylized “period” typography (which even he admitted became
“outmoded”), he is nonetheless rarely taught as an exemplar or discussed as
a member of the orthodox modern clan. Many of his over one hundred