This brief biography of the man called Dean of American Designers by _The Saturday Evening Post_ and Dean of American Art Editors by _Publishers’ Weekly_, is amplified from its earlier compilation and printing as a Typophile keepsake in 1948. It was first distributed at a birthday luncheon held in New York, for Mr. Bradley’s eightieth.
1868 Born in Boston, July 10, son of a cartoonist on a Lynn daily newspaper.
1874 First finger in the “pi”--on being presented a box of characters brought home by his father for a small printing press Will bought with his own savings as a delivery boy.
1877 Moves to Ishpeming, a mining town in northern Michigan.
1880 A job (with a salary of $3 a week) as a printer’s devil, with the _Iron Agitator_ (later _Iron Ore_).
1885 Foreman with _Iron Ore_ at a man’s wages, $15 a week.
1886 To Chicago--and an art department apprenticeship with Rand McNally--sweeping, dusting, running errands, grinding tempera ... at $3 a week.
1887 With Knight & Leonard, Chicago’s leading fine printers, as a full-fledged designer at a salary of $21, and then $24 a week.
1889 Free-lancing in Chicago; studio in the Caxton Building.
1890 To Geneva, Ill., and first recognition through covers for _Harper’s Weekly_; posters for Stone & Kimball’s _Chap Book_; cover designs for the _Inland Printer_ (perhaps the first magazine covers ever to be changed monthly).
1890 The creation of a widely copied type face named “Bradley” by ATF.
1893 An exhibition at the Chicago World’s Fair.
1895 To Springfield, Mass., the launching of his Wayside Press, “At the Sign of the Dandelion,” and plans for publication of _Bradley: His Book_ ... his love for Caslon and the beginning of a new Caslon era as a result.
1895 The initial Bradley-designed paper sample book for Strathmore.
1896 Exhibits at Boston Arts and Crafts; Colonial typography attracts national attention.
1897 Caslon types on Strathmore Deckle Edge Papers prove successful; Bradley’s plant is expanded and moved to a loft in the Strathmore mill at Mittineague.
1898 Merges business with University Press, Boston. Opens design and art service in New York; specialty, bicycle catalogs.
1900 Mr. Bok, editor of _Ladies’ Home Journal_, commissions a series of eight full pages of house interiors for the _Journal_. A roman and italic face, used later for _Peter Poodle, Toy Maker to the King_, is designed for American Type Founders. While recovering from illness, _Castle Perilous_ is written, later serialized in _Collier’s_ with Bradley illustrations.