Loyd Haberly

Who was Loyd Haberly?

Loyd Haberly was an American poet, letterpress printer, and educator. He was born in Ellsworth, Iowa on December 9, 1896 and raised in Iowa and Oregon. After studying at Reed College and Harvard, Haberly was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study Law at Trinity College, Oxford. However, he became interested in fine printing while in England and began to print and bind books under his own imprint, the Seven Acres Press. He was named controller of the Gregynog Press, a well-known private press in Wales, in 1933, but his tenure with the press was brief and, by most accounts, less than satisfactory to all concerned.

While with the press he commissioned a typeface, variously known as Paradiso, Gregynog, Gwendoline or Foligno; when he left he was presented with a supply of the type, which he later used, after returning to the United States, in the production of a number of hand-printed limited editions for which he served as author, illustrator, printer, and binder.

In addition to his poetic work and 'bookbuilding' activities, Haberly wrote a biography of George Catlin entitled Pursuit of the Horizon, and translated portions of Pliny's Natural History, and also wrote an account of his life as a printer in the United Kingdom. He taught at several universities, most notably Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, where he became Dean. He died on March 27, 1981. His son, David Haberly, is a noted scholar in the field of Latin American studies.