Maximilien Vox (real name: Samuel William Théodore Monod) was a French writer, cartoonist, illustrator, publisher, journalist, critic art theorist and historian of the French letter and typography. He was born on 16 December 1894 in

Condé-sur-Noireau Condé-sur-Noireau () is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Condé-en-Normandie. It is situated on the River. In the fifteenth c ...

in Calvados, where his father was a minister, and educated at the Corneille school in Rouen. In 1914 he published his humorous cartoons in ''

L'Humanité ''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist." History and profile Pre-World Wa ...

'', ''Floréal'' and ''La Guerre Sociale'' and became editor of ''Le Mot'', the review produced by

Paul Iribe Paul Iribe (8 June 1883 – 21 September 1935) was a French illustrator and designer in the decorative arts. He worked in Hollywood during the 1920s and was Coco Chanel's lover from 1931 to his death. Early life and career Joseph Paul Iribe was b ...

. Most of his cartoons were signed Sam Monod or Esmono. Monod adopted a number of aliases before settling on Maximilien Vox. After getting married he went to Paris to learn typography, and in 1926 was awarded the

Prix Blumenthal The Prix Blumenthal (or ''Blumenthal Prize'') was a grant or stipend awarded through the philanthropy of Florence Meyer Blumenthal (1875–1930) – and the foundation she created, ''Fondation franco-américaine Florence Blumenthal (Franco-Amer ...

, worth 20,000 Francs, for a series of 24 book covers. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he worked as a department head for the Ministry of Information, whilst at the same time continuing his editorial activities. In 1942 he founded The Union Bibliophile de France, which published artworks. After the war he concentrated on typography and created in 1949 the professional magazine ''Characters'', which he edited until 1964. He created the

VOX-ATypI classification In typography, the Vox-ATypI classification makes it possible to classify typefaces into general classes. Devised by Maximilien Vox in 1954, it was adopted in 1962 by the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) and in 1967 as a British S ...

of type characters. In 1952 he moved to

Lurs Lurs () are an Iranian people living in the mountains of western Iran. The four Luri branches are the Bakhtiari, Mamasani, Kohgiluyeh and Lur proper, who are principally linked by the Luri language. Lorestan Province is named after the Lu ...

to live in a house he called ''Monodière'' and founded Rencontres internationales de Lure. He died there on 18 December 1974 and was buried in Lurs. He had married Eliane Poulain in 1917 and had five sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vox, Maximilien 1894 births 1974 deaths People from Condé-sur-Noireau Prix Blumenthal French male writers 20th-century French journalists 20th-century French male writers