Above: Thomas Caryle on Books. As Printed by John Fass.
In the 1920s, John Fass established a reputation as one of the leading American printers and book designers. He had earlier worked for the famous New York printer William Edwin Rudge ...who was known for employing and instructing some of the best American printers / book designers of the time, including Bruce Rogers and Frederic Warde.
In 1925 John Fass formed the Harbor Press, in Manhattan, along with Roland Wood. They quickly established an excellent reputation as fine printers and book designers.
George Macy, the publisher of the Limited Editions Club books, immediately noticed John's talents. From 1925 into the 1940s, John designed and printed many of the books published by John Macy.
John also worked as a typographer-designer for other printers and publishers.
Books designed and printed by John Fass and Roland Wood at their Harbor Press include the following partial list:
- Extracts from the Diary of Roger Payne (for the American Institute of Graphic Arts) (1928)
- Undine by F. De La Motte Fouqué (for the Limited Editions Club) (1930)
- The Epping Hunt by Thomas Hood (for the Derrydale Press) (1930)
- Idyll in the Desert by William Faulkner (for Random House) (1931)
- A Bibliography of the Works of Ernest Hemingway by Louis Henry Cohn (1931)
- The Golden Ass by Apuleius (for the Limited Editions Club) (1932)
- The Angler by Washington Irving (1933)
- Hunting Sketches by Anthony Trollope (1933)
- The Study of Incunabula (for the Grolier Club) (1933)
- Typee by Herman Melville (for the Limited Editions Club) (1935)
- The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde (for the Limited Editions Club) (1937)
- An evening with Ninon by Louis How (1941)
In the 1930s, John also designed books for The Typophiles, a New York club for printers and typographers.
Dr Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt, in his Book in America explained that John Fass and his Harbor Press created books with "...a flavor of good breeding and tradition...which is pleasantly mixed with a sense of humor and intimacy."