Some esoteric book publishing history trivia promoted by the recent death of Gerard Van Der Leun, a book editor at Houghton Mifflin in the early 1980s.
Earlier this week @xPamelaPainterx recalled how GVDL got in a bit of corporate hot water in 1982.
A #BookHistory 🧵
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Earlier this week @xPamelaPainterx recalled how GVDL got in a bit of corporate hot water in 1982.
A #BookHistory 🧵
1/5
For decades the Houghton Mifflin colophon depicted variations on the image of a piper later joined with a dolphin, the Cetacean being traditionally used as a publisher’s logo since it was the trademark of printer Aldus Manutius in 1502.
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2/5
In the 1950s minimal version of the colophon appeared in HMCo. trade book publications.
And when Gerard Van Der Leun published a humor book MINIMS by Tom Weller in 1982, the final page contained an inside joke.
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And when Gerard Van Der Leun published a humor book MINIMS by Tom Weller in 1982, the final page contained an inside joke.
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Here it is.
(Thank you, @internetarchive)
It was widely rumored that the HMCo. corporate legal department was not amused.
This would not be the last time GVDL ran afoul of the C Suite offices.
4/5
(Thank you, @internetarchive)
It was widely rumored that the HMCo. corporate legal department was not amused.
This would not be the last time GVDL ran afoul of the C Suite offices.
4/5
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