Ritchie, Ward, 1905-1996

Biography

Ward Ritchie was born in 1905 in Los Angeles, and grew up in a series of residences in the Los Angeles and Pasadena areas. His father was in the pharmaceutical trade. He attended Marengo Avenue School and Occidental College, transferring to Stanford, University of the South, and back to Occidental again. After a brief try at law school at USC he decided to make a career the book arts, influenced by a reading of T.J. Cobden-Sanderson's Journals. By examining examples of fine printing, mainly at the Huntington Library, he learned the elements of book design, and a semester at Frank Wiggins Trade School gave him some technical knowledge. He began printing in 1929. The next year he talked himself into an "apprenticeship" with François Louis Schmied, the French art-deco designer, illustrator, and printer. After four months with Schmied he returned to Los Angeles and a brief job with bookseller Jake Zeitlin.

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