‘Dear John: I’m afraid my effort at explaining the significance of Maritain is a bit of a flop. Somehow I could not get the piece moving. In despair I have written an account of the two occasions I met up with him – once pre-war and once during it. Anno Domini? Mike.’
Michael Harvey was the finest lettering artist of his generation, following in the tradition of Berthold Wolpe at Fabers. I first met him in 1972 when I worked for Heinemann, for whom he did some work. We discussed the idea of him doing an alphabet for the embryonic Whittington Press, but sadly nothing came of it. In Matrix 26 he described his apprenticeship with Reynolds Stone, and in Matrix 27 his earlier time stonecutting with Joseph Cribb, who had worked with Eric Gill at Ditchling before the war. John Randle
