Krisis

You may recall that four years ago I found myself spending 3 weeks sorting type, the result of having purchase 30 pounds of Bodoni 12 point that came to me slightly out of sorts.

One of the things I discovered during that process is that my font of Bodoni 12 point was missing the capital K entirely. How this might have happened along the road that drawer of type took from founding to me is a mystery: perhaps it was cast for someone with fear of the letter K? perhaps a printer setting type in a K-less language?

Fortunately this K-drought was the spark that led me to Swamp Press, which was in a position to cast me some supplemental K. I mailed down a type sample for matching, the match was confirmed, and the order was left to me to complete.

Which, procrastination being procrastination, I didn’t.

How often does the capital letter K appear anyway, I thought in the back of my mind.

And so life was good.

Until today.

When, as part of my sesquicentennial setting of type, I had cause to set the credit line for a section of the poem Jacques Cartier by Thomas D’Arcy McGee. The edition from which the poem was taken was, as it turned out, edited by Edited by Carl F. Klinck and Reginald E. Waters.

I am setting the body of the passages in Bodoni 14 pt. and the credit lines in Bodoni 12 pt. Eagle-eyed readers will have already noticed by this point that Klinck starts with a capital K.

Oops.

Panicky emails ensued to my typefounder with hopes that the K-thirst can be slaked; stay tuned.

In the meantime, I will continue on with setting additional non-K-containing passages. Already, though, I see a section from Klee Wyck by Emily Carr on the horizon.

Moral of the story: when you are without K, act immediately.