A Note On The Type
L-Hepatic type was born in Antwerp, Belgium, 1938, and moved to Houston, Texas at the start of World War II. First featured in the G.I. favorite MaryJo Forsure, it barnstormed cross-country after the War, appearing in such books as Seismography for Singles, The Big Little Book of Skin-Lightening, and Healing Ham. Its dream to be the type of choice for baseball columnists was never realized, though it did appear in an ad for trusses next to a picture of Willy Mays.
A long affair with a type known only as "RD" ended badly when RD merged with Helvetica.
L-Hepatic's mood darkened after that. It aspired to Oedipus and Lear, but typesetters saved it for "a lighter touch."
Favorite lines in it include:
1) Let a dog's barking light your way.
2) My voice fails me, I can't say why.
3) Smoking causes colon cancer? Hell, some people don't know how to
smoke!
Its honors include the Wallace Beaver Award, and the little-known
Ralph and Mary Dollop Prize.
Used rarely in the 1990's, L-Hepatic nearly died in a linotype fire
in Alvin, Texas, August 1999, but was rescued by the poet Randolph
Sunscreen Pricklypear.
A sworn bachelor until "world acclaim frees
up the energy for love," Pricklypear had come, at age 50, to believe
his poems to be so sui generis, and his name so ludicrous that
he would never please the Powers-That-Be, and that therefore L-Hepatic
was perfect for the self-published book you must be holding in your
hand.
Contents
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Charles
Webb
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