Jack Stauffacher

Who is Jack Stauffacher?

Jack Werner Stauffacher is an American printer, typographer, and fine book publisher. He has taught at Carnegie Mellon University and at the San Francisco Art Institute.

In 1936, he established the Greenwood Press, named after the street on which it was located, in a small building that he and his father built behind the family home in San Mateo, California. His first books appeared when he was in his early 20s.

In 1955, he received a Fulbright grant for three years of study in Florence, Italy. There he met master printers Giovanni Mardersteig and Alberto Tallone, whose work and ideas influenced him profoundly.

After his return to the U.S., he became assistant professor of typographic design at Carnegie Mellon. His work led to the formation of the New Laboratory Press. He went on to become typographic director at Stanford University Press and to teach at the San Francisco Art Institute.

In 1966, he reopened the Greenwood Press in a building at 300 Broadway in San Francisco and resumed producing books and limited editions such as Albert Camus and the Men of Stone. In 1967, he was commissioned to redesign the Journal of Typographic Research, later renamed Visible Language.