Typo: The Last American Typesetter or How I Made an Lost 4 Million Dollars

Two months before David Silverman’s 32nd birthday, he visited the Charles Schwab branch in the basement of the World Trade Center to wire his father’s life savings towards the purchase of the Clarinda Typesetting company in Clarinda, Iowa. Typo tells the true story of the Clarinda company’s last rise and fall — and with it one entrepreneur’s story of what it means to take on, run, and ultimately lose an entire life’s work. This book is an American dream run aground, told with humor despite moments of tragedy. The story reveals the impact of losing part of an entire industry and answers questions about how that impacts American business. The reader sees in Clarinda’s fate the potential peril faced by every company, and the lessons learned are applicable to anyone who wants to run his or her own business, succeed in a large corporation, and not be stranded by the reality of shifting markets, outsourcing, and, ultimately, capitalism itself.

David Silverman moved up the ranks from tech geek to owner and president of Clarinda, the largest American owned typesetting and publishing company before it ceased operations due to overseas competition in 2003. He has published articles on technology and publishing in industry publications, including Wired magazine and Publishers Weekly. In addition, he has been a consultant in the industry, a frequent speaker at publishing conferences, a member of international publishing technical committees, and been a guest lecturer on the typesetting industry at New York University's master's in publishing program. He currently works as an executive at Citigroup where he is responsible for, what else, disaster recovery.