Carl Schlesinger

My father, Carl Schlesinger, a giant in the printing history field, passed away last Sunday (see NY Times for obit on 11/11 and a longer one to be printed this Sunday). We have many of his memorabilia which we will be cataloging and deciding how to disperse in the next few months. We may be giving a lot of it to Frank Romano at the Printing Museum in Andover, MA. Any inquiries re: my dad can still be sent to [email protected]. My sister, Jeanne Buesser, checks the email. Please notify folks NOT to call my mother. She no longer can understand what folks are calling about. Thank you. Laura Schlesinger Minor

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I’m very sorry to hear of this, Laura. Carl was a great friend to many in the scene and was always happy to take a call and answer strange printing-related historical questions for me and my students. I am happy to have had the chance to meet him.

Daniel Gardiner Morris
The Arm Letterpress
Brooklyn, NY

Carl was a pleasure to know and I was sad to see the news of his passing. I met him through several ATF conferences and a visit he made to Silverton after one of the conferences, I think it was the one held in Provo. He had written a piece of music, a march, which he named after the New York Times, where he worked as a linotype operator for many years. He was here at the same time we had our annual brass band festival. His march was one of the featured pieces of music played, so we had the world premier of his masterpiece right here. George Chapman, a fellow printer who lived here at the time, had arranged for the premier performance.

Carl also was fond of telling the story of a visit from Marilyn Monroe to the composing room at the New York Times. Carl was the shop foreman for the ITU so Marilyn was taken to Carl’s machine for a demonstration. He used the linotype trick of casting a coin into a slug which he presented to Marilyn, and she in turn gave him a kiss to his forehead. Carl was in seventh heaven.

Carl was responsible for “etaoin shrdlu,” the movie of the last day of hot metal at the New York Times. He was featured in the film and also narrated it. Carl also wrote “Ottmar Mergenthaler,” published by Oak Knoll Books, that tells the story of the Linotype.

He truly loved his craft and remained active in printing well into his 80s.

Is there anyone I can contact regarding the documentary film “Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu,”, I have a friend who is very into printing and I would love to get a copy of it to surprise him. Thank you for any assistance. ralston @ iserv . net