Happy birthday, typographer John Baskerville

It is the birthday of English printer John Baskerville (1706), who is best remembered for his enduring typeface, which is named for him. Scholars say Baskerville was an attempt to improve on the old-style typefaces of William Caslon, and represents a transition between them and more modern fonts, such as Bodoni and Didot. It is marked by more thick and thin strokes, and a refined simplicity. (Note the graceful swash of the Q). Baskerville’s first published book was a collection of works by the Roman poet Virgil in 1757. The following year Baskerville became printer of Cambridge University Press. He printed more than 50 classics in his lifetime, including his best known work, a folio Bible (1763). Benjamin Franklin was a huge fan and brought the typeface to America, where it was used to print many early government documents. Baskerville (the typeface) fell out of favor in printing circles for awhile but was revived in 1917. A related font, Mrs Eaves, was produced in 1996, and is named for Baskerville’s wife.

Happy birthday, Benjamin Franklin

It is the birthday of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin (1706), who is remembered for far more than having his picture on the $100 bill. He was a writer and publisher, inventor, and statesman. Biographer Walter Isaacson wrote that Franklin was "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become." He first published, with partners, the Pennsylvania Chronicle, then later, independently, Poor Richard’s Almanack and The Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin experimented with electricity and invented the lightning rod. He also invented a carriage odometer, a stove that heated a room better than a fireplace, and bifocals. He was designated the Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress and helped fashion the Declaration of Independence. He served as an advocate for the colonies in England before the Revolution, and later, as American ambassador to France. His image first appeared on the $100 Federal Reserve Note in 1914.

Happy birthday, Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine

It is the birthday of early American political activist Thomas Paine (1737), whose pamphlet Common Sense (1776) credited with inspiring American colonists to embrace the idea of independence from Great Britain. The American Revolution had already started but the work served to spur volunteers for the Continental Army. It was widely distributed throughout the colonies, read aloud in taverns, and unabashedly pirated. Some scholars say it was the first American bestseller.

A pamphlet series, The American Crisis (1776-1783), was first published in December of 1776, and served as inspiration to citizen soldiers fighting the British Army. George Washington had the first in the series read to his troops. That's the one that begins "These are the times that try men's souls: the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country …"

Paine, who was born Thomas Pain and evidently added the "e" to the end himself, didn't start out as a revolutionary writer. He trained as a corset maker (his father's trade) and later had a shop of his own. The politics came later. In his mid 30s, while working as a excise officer, Paine wrote his first political piece, a 21-page article making a case to Parliament for better pay and working conditions for those in his profession. 

Eventually, Paine had his own tobacco shop but it went out of business and Paine sold everything to stay out of debtor's prison. He moved to London, where a mutual friend introduced him to Benjamin Franklin. It was Franklin who helped him emigrate to the colonies. He did so in 1774, but the voyage was so arduous that Paine arrived quite ill and had to be carried off the ship. Within a few months, though, he had recovered and he became editor of Pennsylvania Magazine.

In the early days of the republic, Paine took a role in negotiating loans from France to aid the fledgling United States. During his time in Paris, he lived with political activist Nicholas Bonneville and his wife and children. Later, he helped Bonneville's family get to America. Eventually, Bonneville joined them and lived for a time in America. In 1818, Bonneville returned to Paris and opened a bookshop.

Paine also wrote Rights of Man (1791), a treatise in support of the French Revolution. It makes the case that if the government doesn't safeguard the people and their natural rights, then popular political revolution is permissible.