Porter Garnett (March 12, 1871 – March 21, 1951) was a playwright, critic, editor,

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

, and

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James ...

Biography

Porter Garnett was born in 1871 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. He was an active member in San Francisco's literary scene and a member of the Bohemian Club, writing and directing plays at

Bohemian Grove Bohemian Grove is a restricted 2,700-acre (1,100 ha) campground at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, United States, belonging to a private San Francisco–based gentlemen's club known as the Bohemian Club. In mid-July each year, ...

. In 1896, he joined ''The Lark'', founded the previous year by

Gelett Burgess Frank Gelett Burgess (January 30, 1866 – September 18, 1951) was an American artist, art critic, poet, author and humorist. An important figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary renaissance of the 1890s, particularly through his iconoclas ...

and

Bruce Porter Bruce Porter (23 February 1865, San Francisco – 25 November 1953, San Francisco) was an American painter, sculptor, stained-glass designer, writer, muralist, landscape designer, and art critic. Biography Porter was raised in the East Bay town ...

. In 1907 he became assistant curator of Bancroft Library at the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

. Sometime between 1920 and 1925, Porter Garnett was one of 242

bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

to sign ''

The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door (1920–25) separated the back office from the main area of Frank Shay's Bookshop in Greenwich Village from 1920 until 1925, where it served as an autograph book for nearly two hundred and fifty authors, arti ...

'' at Frank Shay's Bookshop. The door is now held by the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe for the pur ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...

, and Garnett's signature can be found on front panel 1. In 1922, Garnett became professor of graphic arts at the

Carnegie Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, teaching traditions, development and ideals of printing. There, he founded the Laboratory Press, as the only program in the country for the teaching of fine printing until the press closed in 1935. The Press was one of the only dedicated to education in printing as a fine art. In 1932, he was awarded the

AIGA Medal Following is a list of AIGA medalists who have been awarded the American Institute of Graphic Arts medal. On its website, AIGA says "The medal of the AIGA, the most distinguished in the field, is awarded to individuals in recognition of their ex ...

. When Porter and his wife Edna retired, they established their home at Foote Ranch in the Bay Area, which Edna's father had pioneered. Garnett died on March 21, 1951, in Calistoga,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. After his death, an archive of his papers was created in his name in the Bancroft Library.

Bibliography

Plays

* ''The Green Knight, A Vision,'' 1911

Books

* ''The Bohemian jinks; a treatise'', 1908 * ''Papers of the San Francisco Committee of vigilance of 1851'', 1910 * ''San Francisco one hundred years ago,'' tr. from the French of Louis Choris, 1913 * ''The lure of the traffic: a melodrama of social evil, in six acts and nineteen scenes'', 1914 * ''A pageant of May: I. The masque of Proserpine; II. The revels of May'', 1914 * ''The inscriptions at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition'', 1915 * ''Stately Homes of California'', 1915 * ''The grove plays of the Bohemian Club'', 1918

References

External links

Finding aid to Laboratory Press records at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garnett, Porter Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area People from San Francisco 1871 births 1951 deaths University of California, Berkeley people Carnegie Mellon University faculty AIGA medalists