Warren Chappell

Warren Chappell was born in 1904 in Richmond, Virginia.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/29/obituaries/warren-chappell-illustrator-teacher-and-artist-86-dies.html?pagewanted=1 |title=Warren Chappell, Illustrator, Teacher And Artist, 86, Dies |access-date=2010-03-07 |date=1991-03-29 |work=New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305015037/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/29/obituaries/warren-chappell-illustrator-teacher-and-artist-86-dies.html?pagewanted=1 |archive-date=2016-03-05 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-progress-resident-uva-artist-d/166431129/ |title=Resident UVa Artist Dies at 86 |date=1991-03-28 |newspaper=The Daily Progress |page=14 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2025-02-22}}{{Open access}} He drew and modeled with clay at a young age. According to his obituary, at the age of 11, magazine drawings by Boardman Robinson led him to become an artist.

He was a graduate of the University of Richmond, and then studied at the Art Students League of New York, under Boardman Robinson, where he later taught. In 1931-2 he studied type design and punch-cutting under Rudolf Koch at the Design School Offenbach in Germany. In 1935 he studied illustration at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.

The University of Richmond awarded him an honorary D.F.A. in 1968. In 1970 his work in the graphic arts was recognized by the Rochester Institute of Technology, with the presentation of their Goudy Award.

After running his studio in New York City for several years, Chappell traveled to Germany just before World War II to work at Stempel on the typeface Trajanus. He returned to the United States at the onset of the war, having seen only initial proofs. He first saw the completed typeface in Swedish design magazines during the war. He later devoted himself to book design and illustration and was closely associated with the firm of Alfred A. Knopf for which he designed many books. He also did illustrations for Random House, Harper & Row, and Doubleday. He was a typography consultant to both the Book of the Month Club and American Type Founders.Friedl, Ott, and Stein, p. 167. He was Artist-in-Residence at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He had a studio in the library stacks.

John Updike and Chappell worked together on books for children on music, including "The Magic Flute" (1962), "The Ring" (1964) and "Bottom's Dream" (1969). His design for the E. P. Dutton re-issues of A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books are considered to be particularly elegant.{{citation needed |date=February 2025}} Towards the end of his life, he donated books on design to the University of Virginia. After the death of his friend Charles Locke, he organized the Charles Locke Fund at the University of Virginia.

• Koch Uncial (1932) in collaboration with Paul Koch
• Lydian Series (ATF)
• Lydian + Italic (1938)
• Lydian Bold + Italic (1938)
• Lydian Cursive (1940)
• Lydian Condensed + Italic (1946)
• Trajanus Antiqua (roman) + Trajanus Kursiv (italic) + Trajanus Halbfett (semi-bold) (1939, Stempel + Linotype (Frankfurt)), named for the same Roman emperor as Carol Twombly's Trajan but a very different design, being a Medieval. See Fr. Edward Catich's research for more on the origin of the monumental lettering style which was the inspiration for the typeface Trajan.Carl Purlington Rollins, American Type Designers and Their Work. in Print, V. 4, #1. The semi-bold weight however, was prepared by the foundry, Chappell having only made drawings (starting with a broad nibbed pen, then refining the contours using opaque white as if using an engraver) for the roman and italic designs. The Huxley House specimen book for it was featured in an AIGA [http://designarchives.aiga.org/#/entries/%2Bid%3A18365/_/detail/relevance/asc/0/7/18365/trajanus/1 design annual].

Chappell married Lydia Hatfield. He named the Lydian typeface after his wife Lydia.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/richmond-times-dispatch-warren-chappell/166432420/ |title=Warren Chappell, Illustrator, Dies |date=1991-03-28 |newspaper=Richmond Times-Dispatch |page=B2 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=2025-02-22}}{{Open access}}

Chappell moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1978. He died on March 26, 1991, at his home in Charlottesville.

Books written by Chappell:

• The Anatomy of Lettering (1934)
• A Short History of the Printed Word (1970; a revised edition was published in 2000)
• The Living Alphabet (on calligraphy, 1975)
• The Proverbial Bestiary with Rick Cusick (1982)

Illustrated children's books:

• A Tale of a Tub by Swift, (1930)
• The Nutcracker (1958)
• They Say Stories (1960)
• Sleeping Beauty (1961)
• Moby-Dick W. W. Norton & Co. (1967).

• MacGrew, Mac, "American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century," Oak Knoll Books, New Castle Delaware, 1993, {{ISBN|0-938768-34-4}}.
• Friedl, Ott, and Stein, Typography: an Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History. Black Dog & Levinthal Publishers: 1998. {{ISBN|1-57912-023-7}}.

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• [http://small.library.virginia.edu Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library] at University of Virginia holds Chappell's papers and a large collection of his books – as of June 2016, reports 651 hits for Author: Chappell, Warren, 1904–1991
• [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079660 Warren Chappell papers, 1931–1978] at Columbia University Libraries Archival Collections
• Discussion about an unpublished font of Chappell's called [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927020923/http://typophile.com/node/15906 Eichenauer]
• {{LCAuth|n80013210|Warren Chappell|48|}}

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Category:1904 births

Category:1991 deaths

Category:American children's writers

Category:American graphic designers

Category:20th-century American illustrators

Category:American typographers and type designers

Category:Art Students League of New York alumni

Category:Artists from Richmond, Virginia

Category:University of Richmond alumni

Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers