With 260 illustrated books to his name and 90 of them authored by him, Leonard Everett Fisher would have been remiss not to have contributed works to the category of alphabets and artists’ books.

Alphabet Art (1978)

Alphabet Art: Thirteen ABCs from Around the World (1978)
Leonard Everett Fisher
Dustjacket. Casebound, one-eighth cloth and paper over board. Doublures. Sewn binding. H287 x W225 mm. 64 pages. Acquired from 2VBooks, 28 August 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

Leonard Everett Fisher offers thirteen non-English languages — Arabic, Cherokee, Chinese, Cyrillic, Eskimo, Gaelic, German, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Sanskrit, Thai and Tibetan — each with an illustrative image alongside a page of background text followed by a double-page spread of hand-drawn characters of the writing system. Unlike Tommy Thompson’s The ABC of Our Alphabet (1952) and William Dugan’s How Our Alphabet Grew (1972), Fisher’s book does not focus on the development of the Latin alphabet, but unusually aims instead to interest the children’s market in the variety of non-Latin alphabets. In this, it is a precursor to Sam Winston’s One & Everything (2022).

The book has no bibliography or indication of sources, and the background text’s few slightly off-center assertions (e.g., that the Chinese writing system is a syllabary) create a slight unease about the accuracy of the character sets. Nevertheless, for calligraphic inspiration, the double-page presentation of consistent hand-drawn character sets delivers strong impressions of the differences in the look and feel among the languages’ writing systems.

The ABC Exhibit (1991)

The ABC Exhibit (1991)
Leonard Everett Fisher
Dustjacket. Casebound, one-eighth cloth and paper over board. Doublures. Sewn binding. H287 x W225 mm. 32 pages. Acquired from Books End, 28 August 2022.
Photos: Books On Books Collection.

The ABC Exhibit emphasizes image more than letter or text. Forgoing other usual features of a children’s alphabet book (such as presenting upper and lowercase letters), the book steers more toward an artist’s book or catalogue of the artist’s style of illustration and art. The colophon even specifies that the original artwork was prepared as acrylics on board. While the image of the elephant and several others can be easily imagined in a children’s book, the rendering of the Brooklyn Bridge in fog stands out as do a sailboat in motion and a still life of oranges.

The book features around the 24′ mark in this interview with the Hennepin County Library in 1991.

Further Reading

“Abecedaries I (in progress)“. Books On Books Collection. 31 March 2020.

“William Dugan“. 10 July 2023. Books On Books Collection. Children’s reference.

“Stephen T. Johnson“. Books On Books Collection. 30 November 2021.

“Tommy Thompson“. 21 August 2022. Books On Books Collection. Reference.

“Sam Winston“. 18 May 2023. Books On Books Collection. Children’s book.