Vivian Ridler

Vivian Hughes Ridler, CBE (2 October 1913–11 January 2009), was a printer, typographer and scholar in Britain. He was Printer to the University of Oxford at Oxford University Press from 1958 until his retirement in 1978; and also established his own Perpetua Press. Biography Ridler was born in Cardiff, Wales on 2 October 1913. When he was a boy, he and his family moved to Bristol. While still at Bristol Grammar School, he became interested in printing and typography. He bought an Adana platen, and with his friend, David Bland (who had a Wharfedale), established the Perpetua Press, a private press which they ran between 1931 and 1936. One year their Fifteen Old Nursery Rhymes was chosen as one of the 50 best books of the year. During this time, Ridler met Eric Gill and Douglas Cleverdon. After school he served a short apprenticeship at the Bristol firm of E. S. and A. Robinson. Ridler got to know John Johnson, then Printer to the University of Oxford, and in 1936 went to Oxford to help the Assistant Printer, Charles Batey. In the late 1930s, Ridler moved from Oxford to London, to establish the Bunhill Press for Theodore Besterman, the Voltaire scholar. He also designed for the publishers Faber and Faber, where David Bland was Production Manager. Through Bland he met Anne Bradby, who was working at Faber's as secretary to T. S. Eliot. In 1938 he and Anne were married, and they went on to have four children - Jane, Kate, Benedict, and Colin. Anne Ridler became well known as a poet, published first by Faber and later by Carcanet.