In the past 6 months or so, I’ve been able to snag 2 copies of this insane looking vintage book called “Printer’s Devil to Publisher.”
It always makes me laugh - because:
1) WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
2) And also, I scored both copies of this book at the same local churchy thrift store. I always think it is wacky when churchy thrift stores have things that might be considered taboo. I guess I expect them to burn (instantly) anything that even bears the word DEVIL on its cover.
3) It’s kind of a lousy name for a book. If it makes no sense and makes people scratch their heads, rename it!
But the cover is basically awesome and I absolutely love covers like this; slightly embossed with a couple of screened in colors. And the color combo is great, too.
Still, I wanted to understand what the title means, so I googled it. It’s actually pretty interesting.
A printer’s devil was an apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type. A number of famous men served as printer’s devils in their youth; dudes like Benjiman Franklin, Walt Whitman, Thomas Jefferson and the guy the book is about: Adolph Ochs, who went on to start the New York Times.
But where did the term originate? Well, there are a number of theories, according to Wikipedia.
The first is that these printer’s devils hands were constantly covered in black ink AND on top of that, early printing was allegedly (somehow) associated with ‘black arts’ aka black magic, thus they were willingly doing this work so they must be devilish in some way.
Second (directly from wiki) - English tradition links the origin of printer’s devil to the assistant of the first English printer and book publisher, William Caxton, whose assistant was named “Deville” which evolved to “devil” over time, as that name was used to describe other printers’ apprentices.
Another theory, probably the cutest: “Another origin is linked to the fanciful belief among printers that a special devil haunted every print shop, performing mischief such as inverting type, misspelling words or removing entire lines of completed type. The apprentice became a substitute source of blame and came to be called a printer’s devil by association.”
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