‘A Specimen of Fine Letterpress Printing’ booklet – Wil Hudson, 1965

This is the first known specimen of type and printing produced by Wil Hudson in Vancouver.

Born in Milwaukee in 1928, his father died when he was a teenager and his mother then moved to California. After attending high school he apprenticed at a small typesetting shop in San Jose and then worked for a time in San Francisco before moving to Vancouver in 1962.

Hudson’s first press was located on Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver. He soon moved to Vancouver’s growing West End, sharing space in Pauline’s Books, a small bookstore at 1105 Denman Street. The partnership was short-lived and Hudson then moved his type and presses to a basement shop at 323 Cambie Street, just below Hastings Street. He remained there until 1972 when he moved to Cape Dorset. Wil Hudson died in Port Alberni in 2014.

It was at the Denman Street location where the book collector Geoffrey Spencer first met Hudson. Spencer was quite taken with the few pieces of typography that were for sale in the back of the book shop. Careful typesetting and printing of that quality was quite unusual in Vancouver at that time. In an effort to keep Hudson gainfully employed, something he seemed unable to do for himself, Spencer came up with the idea of forming a book society that would commission fine editions from Hudson. In the Fall of 1965 Spencer assembled a small group who met and quickly formed the Alcuin Society. The relationship between Hudson and the Alcuin Society did not last long enough to see their first project finished. However, the Alcuin Society grew and today is the only non-profit organization in Canada devoted to the book arts.