A Human Alphabet (1897)

A Human Alphabet (1897)
The Three Delevines
Loose folios, William G. Shepherd’s article in The Strand Magazine, Vol. XIV, December, pages 660-64.H230 x W160 mm. Acquired from Cosmo Books, 26 August 2023.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

Only remembered after the Alphabets Alive! exhibition opened at the Bodleian in July 2023, The Three Delevines and W.G. Shepherd (their impresario on the occasion in 1897) have nevertheless demanded an appearance online among the other embodied alphabets (or lettered bodies) included in the “B for Bodies” display.

Shepherd is not merely the author of the Strand article but asserts his authorship of the alphabet performed by The Three Delevines. Although generous in his praise of the Australian brothers Sam, Harry and Percy for holding each of their poses for at least seven seconds and, in some uppercases, for twelve, Shepherd does not identify the Strand’s photographer by name or acknowledge his skill beyond “snapping”. At least, he refers to him as “our artist”.

So much of his effort went into discovering the music hall troupe and its performance called the “Satanic gambols”, and congratulating himself on his sculptural instruction, and then describing superfluously what his “artist” and the Delevines rendered, Shepherd neglected to do the research at the British Museum (before the Library was hived off) to realize that his claim to “Novelty” had been superseded several times over. Even right back to the diabolical calligraphy of the — oh the shame of it — French graphic artist Jean Midolle (b. 1794). Blame the oversight on the combination of Christmas and the Jubilee.

Further Reading

“Abecedaries I (in progress)“. Books On Books Collection.

“Alphabets Alive! – Body” 19 July 2023. Books On Books.

“The New Vaudeville Company“. 29 May 1897. Geelong Advertiser (Vic. : 1859 – 1929), p. 4. Retrieved 6 September 2023.

Bibliothèque nationale de France. “Alphabet diabolique|BnF Essentiels“. Accessed 6 September 2023.

Devroye, Luc. 2022. “Jean Midolle“. On Snots and Fonts. McGill University, Montreal. Accessed 6 September 2023.

Dukes, Hunter. 27 April 2023. “Punctuation Personified (1824)“. The Public Domain Review. Not only could letters be formed with the human body, so could quotation marks and square brackets.

FitzGerald, William G. December 1897. “A Human Alphabet”. The Strand Magazine. Vol. XIV. London.

Goetz, Sair. 11 June 2020. “Letterforms / Humanforms“. Letterform Archive News. Accessed 30 January 2022.