The Good Citizen's Alphabet
In these political times, so polarized with heated rhetoric, I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across a copy of Bertrand Russell's The Good Citizen's Alphabet. A important philosopher, Russell had the wisdom to realize that certain words require proper definition to be used correctly in political and social discourse; words such as, "asinine," "erroneous," even "nincompoop." Of course, there are also words that inspire: "liberty," "sacrifice," even "zeal." Russell aspired to educational enlightenment, believing "the ABC, that gateway to all wisdom, is not made sufficiently attractive to immature minds." In his research with this teaching tool, respondents found his explication of the alphabet both "wise" and "foolish," "right-minded" and "subversive." It is this spirit that this alphabet is offered here as a slide show for our readers, accompanied by Bertrand Russell's original introduction.
The back story for designers is that this book was published by Stefan Themerson of the Gaberbocchus Press, with illustrations by his partner and wife, Franciszka Themerson. Between 1948 and 1979, they published over 60 titles, including works by Alfred Jarry, Raymond Queneau, Bertrand Russell and Kurt Schwitters. Stefans Themerson's "Kurt Schwitters on a Time Chart," published in Typographica in 1967, is a seminal, and ironic, piece of information design. In 1973, they published a classic of collage, a visual novel, The True Life of Sweeney Todd, who would later make an appearance in a Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim; as I look at my copy today, I discover that it was previously owned by Ruari McLean.
It is fascinating to think back to the early 1950s. A couple of Polish émigrés, having studied physics, architecture and painting, and having made a few art films and started a publishing company, sit down with a leading philosopher to make something whimsical and subversive. That an alphabet book was the outcome pleases me to no end.