Shown here in a stand-in face. Electra itself is a licensed typeface.
Electra
“Who decides what the letters in a book look like?”
Many books published by Alfred A. Knopf end with a short page headed A Note on the Type. It names the typeface the book is set in and tells a little about its designer. Plenty of readers never notice it.
One name appears there again and again: Electra, designed by William Addison Dwiggins for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company and released in 1935. Electra was not copied from any historical model. It avoids strong contrast between thick and thin strokes, so its letters look clean, even and modern, a type for the machine age.
Dwiggins, known as WAD, was a remarkable figure. In 1922 he described himself as a “graphic designer”, and he is often credited with coining the term, though it had been used before. He designed hundreds of book covers for his friend Alfred Knopf, and created the typefaces Caledonia and Metro as well as Electra.
He was also a woodcarver. Behind his home in Hingham, Massachusetts, he built a marionette theatre. He carved puppets about twelve inches tall, wrote the plays, and performed them. His marionettes and much of his work are now kept at the Boston Public Library.
Look closer: Next time you finish a book, check the last page. There may be a note on the type, and a person behind the letters you have just read.