Books about lettering

["Maureen Thompson" <maureen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John-
Unfortunately there aren't so many books about how to carve letters into
stone. I will recommend some but you will learn the most from drawing your
own letters on stone and carving them. Go to any old cemetery and study
those letters, take photos, see how deep the letter is, what angle the
chisel was held, is the carving smooth, what's the material, the year of
birth and death. This will help you discover what you like and what you
don't. Look at the old Roman carvings too. The Trajan column, anything in
Rome is fascinating. Do you have any tools, any pieces of stone, any pens or
pencils handy? Do you need to know where to get lettercarving tools? Let me
know.

Here are some books though:
Lettercutting in Stone by Richard Grasby
Letters Slate Cut by Kindersley and Cardozo
The Origin of the Serif by Edward Catich
Writing & Illuminating & Lettering by Edward Johnston

also look into these for inspiration:
Eric Gill, The Inscriptions
J.H.Benson- The First Writing Book
A book of Scripts-Fairbank
John Howard Benson and his work-Hofer
Gravestone Designs-Emily Wasserman
Early New England Gravestone Rubbings-Edmund Gillon
Good luck, email if you have any questions.
Maureen