Thirty-plus years of my files are being recycled. Only a last few years are left to go. I kept them, thinking they might be of some historical use—maybe future entrepreneurs might want to see the efforts I put in to get the country’s first digital font range known, or building up Lucire from nothing. As the Alexander Turnbull Library didn’t sound particularly enthused, it was time to move it on.
As I flicked through for the last time, there were some interesting items—correspondence relating to one Melania Knauss, for instance (her then-agent, Paolo Zampolli, and I have known each other for decades, and I bet I have known of the then-Ms Knauss for longer than her fascist husband has)—and things relating to even bigger names. Also ministers of the Crown, a handful of prime ministers, and other politicians. Submissions to large typefoundries in the hope of being published—before I brought that all in-house. A Q&A with Hermann Zapf. There was an art to writing a business letter well, something no longer appreciated. At the end of the day, most of it detailed the minutiæ of running a business. I have my press clippings and much of the work that resulted from that effort (even if they took years to eventuate). I’m not so sure if the letters themselves were that important—and I empathize with the Alexander Turnbull, actually.
There was invention: faxes where the numbers were in 32 pt type as that looked good to my 20-something eyes; and instead of doing Re. after the salutation, I would give each letter a “title” in the top left-hand corner (unused space, anyway, since our logotype went on the right) in loose 12 pt Baskerville Italic. Why not mix up the form of the letter? It does seem, on this note, we have become more boring—but then again, how many letters are sent in 2024 compared with 1994? (Heaps more back then, which was part of the reason I kept all these files.)
After hearing that a friend—who is famous—had disposed of his correspondence from his working life (then realizing there were letters corresponding with the office of a royal that he should have held on to), I didn’t feel too uneasy about letting go.
Boxes of loose correspondence will have a new life as some other paper, on to which I hope their writers will change the world in a positive way with their words or drawings.
You may also like
