Publishing and Book Design in Latvia

I have received a very beautiful present. A book „Publishing and Book Design in Latvia 1919-1940: a Re-discovery”. The American book specialist and historian of publishing, James Howard Fraser has written a book about design and publishing in Latvia. Sadly, this was his last work. It is the most comprehensive overview of the activities of Latvian, Russian, Jewish and German publishers in Latvia in the interwar period. It shows and explains how cover, endpaper and layout of the books reflected the trends in European book design of that period. 

Publishing and Book Design in Latvia by James Howard Frasier

On the left you can see the first Latvian edition of "Winnie the Pooh". Name of the main character was changed to sound more Latvian. Miks ['mik]

In Latvia at the beginning of 20th century there were plenty of books and periodicals published in Russian.

Endpaper Trends

This Latvian newspaper was called "Love, Marriage and Flirt". Amusingly the word "Marriage" is the small, almost un-noticeable one in the middle above "and".

In Latvia at the beginning of 20th century there were plenty of books and periodicals published in Yiddish.