First edition. This is new full scale biography of Theodore Low De Vinne (1828-1914), which explores the life of a seminal figure in the history of American printing. His masterly printing of wood engravings, together with his obsession with presswork, tight composition, and typefaces, gained him and his firm an international reputation and made De Vinne a rich man. His four volumes on the practice of typography are considered classics & he made significant scholarly contributions to the study of early printed books. He was also one of the founding members, in 1884, of the Grolier Club.