Monroe Wheeler | Biography

A native of Evanston, Illinois, Monroe Wheeler spent most of the twenties traveling through Europe with his friend from their days at the University of Chicago, Glenway Wescott. Wheeler studied in England, France, and Germany in 1922-1923 and began a career in typographical design and book production that was to bring him critical recognition in Parisian literary circles in the early thirties. Wheeler had begun his career by publishing Wescott's The Bitterns in 1920, and he continued to publish books throughout the twenties. Of particular interest are the three books of poetry Wheeler published in the Manikin series: Janet Lewis's The Indians in the Woods (1922), William Carlos Williams's Go Go (1923), and Marianne Moore's Marriage (1923). While at Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Riviera he published another book by Wescott, Like a Lover (1926).

In 1930 Wheeler settled in Paris, and he and Barbara Harrison established Harrison of Paris, announcing that they would produce high quality limited editions to be sold at reasonable prices. Harrison provided the financial backing; Wheeler contributed his experience in typographical design and book production. Although Wescott was not officially a partner, he helped Wheeler select manuscripts for publication. Between October 1930 and December 1934 Harrison of Paris published thirteen books, twelve of which were produced in Paris. (The last, Katherine Anne Porter's Hacienda, was published in New York.) All displayed what Waverley Root of the Paris Tribune (the European edition of the Chicago Tribune) termed "uniform good taste, intelligence and artistic sensibility" (16 February 1931).

Harrison of Paris's first venture, in October 1930, was the publication of Shakespeare's poem Venus and Adonis , with a cover design by Wescott. It was followed in the same month by a collection of seven tales by Bret Harte, The Wild West, with illustrations by Pierre Falke. In November 1930 they published the first English translation of Thomas Mann's autobiography, A Sketch of My Life, and the first edition of Wescott's The Babe's Bed , which was dedicated to Barbara Harrison.

In 1931 the number of titles for publication was increased to five. The Fables of Aesop in Sir Roger L'Estrange's witty Elizabethan translation was published in October, with Alexander Calder's spare line drawings complementing the text. Next, Wheeler and Harrison published their own translation of Merimee's opera libretto Carmen, to which they appended a series of Merimee's letters, containing early sketches for the libretto. The book was illustrated by Swiss painter Maurice Barraud. Wheeler also translated the third work to be published that October, Madame de La Fayette's description of the death of Charles I's daughter, The Death of Madame. Wheeler and Wescott then decided to publish Constance Garnett's translation of Fedor Dostoevski's A Gentle Spirit: A Fantastic Story (November 1931), with original drawings by Christian Berard, thus continuing Wheeler's practice of using highly talented but lesser known artists to illustrate the press's books. Harrison of Paris's last venture that year was also its largest edition to date: 700 copies of Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (November 1931), 35 of which were bound in Moroccan leather by the master craftsman, Huser of Paris. The volume contained twenty-eight illustrations by Sir Francis Cyril Rose.

During the next three years Wheeler published only four more books. The reasons for such a curtailment in production are not altogether clear, though the poor sale of Wheeler's most ambitious project, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, may have been partly to blame. In 1932 Harrison of Paris published two delightful and ingenious typographical experiments: Wheeler's A Typographical Commonplace-Book and Wescott's A Calendar of Saints for Unbelievers. Wheeler's book was a typographer's tour de force: a compilation of literary anecdotes and purple passages in a bewildering variety of type styles, intended, Wheeler said, to "exploit the possibilities of certain European type-faces" that were "for the most part unsuitable for book-printing." Wescott's book, the longest ever published by Harrison of Paris, was set by hand at the Enschede foundry in Haarlem and consisted of a series of irreverent portraits of saints, illustrated with zodiac signs by Pavel Tchelitchew. In 1933 Wheeler commissioned Katherine Anne Porter to compile and to translate a selection of French songs spanning nearly six hundred years. Katherine Anne Porter's French Song-Book was a masterpiece of design, harmonizing poetry, prose, and musical notation in an aesthetic whole.

In early 1934 Harrison of Paris transferred its operations to New York. After the publication of Porter's Hacienda, the partners agreed that prohibitive costs and inadequate facilities for carrying on their publishing ventures in the United States meant that the enterprise had to be abandoned, and in December 1934 Harrison of Paris closed down. Wheeler continued to be involved in publishing and book design, working for the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Museum of Modern Art in various capacities. He has written books on such subjects as illustration and modern art, and among his publishing projects was directing the Museum of Modern Art's publication of Wescott's 12 Fables of Aesop (1954). At present he lives in New Jersey.