The literary publisher and calligraphy expert Louis Strick has passed away. He was 87 years old, leaving behind a lifetime of books, art and writing scholarship.
Westport Now published an obituary about his long and varied career. Here is an excerpt:
In the late 1960s Strick began importing calligraphic art supplies, distributed through his Pentalic Company. By making special nibs, pens and instruction books widely available, Strick spearheaded a revival of the calligraphic movement in America;. He also established the Calligraphy Workshop, a school on lower Fifth Avenue. In the late 1970s, Strick purchased the Taplinger Publishing Company, bringing out works of literary fiction as well as volumes on modern art, reflecting two of his passions.
In addition, author Richard Grayson shared a tribute to the publisher. Back in 1979, Strick published a collection of his stories. Grayson wrote:
We loved hearing his stories about Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, John Ashbery, and other writers he knew. As his colleague from Meridian Books, the legendary editor Aaron Asher, once said, “Louis Strick was a guy who loved books and publishing and fiction” (Kenneth C. Davis, Two-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America 296).
Our mom was a calligrapher, as were some of our friends, and Louis Strick more than almost anyone was responsible for the flowering of calligraphy in mid-century America. (See this 1974 New Yorker “Talk of the Town” piece called “Everyman’s Art.”) He had an incredible career and a rich life.
(Image via latteda)