Fredric Goudy was born in Bloomington Illinois on March 8, 1865. After graduating from high school Fred became a bookkeeper at his fathers real estate office. By 24, Fred was ready to venture out on his own. He moved to Chicago and began to work as a clerk in a local book store.

This sparked his interest in books, and Frederic soon began a new position at the rare book department, of A.C. McClurg. Here he came into contact with some of the finest editors of the English private presses like Kelmscott, Doves, Erangny and Vale. His passion was born.

In 1895 Fred and his buddy , Lauren C. Hooper founded the Camelot Press. Lauren was a previously a Chicago English instructor, and together the two young men printed a magazine called the "Chap-book". Unfortunately the magazine was a flop and the business went bankrupt within a year.

In 1986 Goudy sold his first alphabet of letters to the Dickenson Type Foundry for ten dollars. The type was called "Camelot". One year later Frederic prepared to be married. His wife to be, was a local bookkeeper named Bertha Sprinks. Once the two were happily wed, Bertha emerged herself in the interests of her husband. She learned to set type by hand and later became an expert typesetter. She died in 1935.

In 1900 Frederic Goudy while still designing type, became a lettering instructor as well as a lecturer on the topic of typography. He was well sought after and continued on his lecturing circuit for over fifty years. His lifetime of teaching inspired such typesetting giants as William A. Dwiggins, Oswald Cooper, and R. Hunter Miller.

Gathering together $300 in capital, Goudy and another friend H. Ransom began a partnership and founded the Village Press in 1903. Once again Goudy's business was destined to fail. This time however is was due to no fault of his own. Five years after opening the Illinois based business, a fire was to demolish the building, burning it and his designs . Devastated by the setback Fredric Goudy left the print business shortly after and returned to work as a bookkeeper.

His love of type would not abandon him for long. After World War 1, Goudy and his partner rebuilt their beloved Village Press....this time in Queens. It remained there until 1924 when Goudy and his partner packed up the shop and moved to Marlboro New York.

In 1911, Goudy produced his first font 'hit'. It was called Kennerly Old Style and was designed for an H.G. Wells anthology. In the early years of his career, Goudy designed mostly display faces for advertising. As time went on his interests shifted and he began to focused on perfecting the traditional roman typeface. His most popular and widely used type was Goudy Oldstyle. It was released by the American Type Founders Company in 1915 and became an immediate classic. The font was made with graceful letterforms that added to its appeal, and made it visually appealing

Goudy drew all of his letters by hand. He intensely disliked the mechanical approach that the large commercial foundries used to translate his designs into commercial type. To achieve his vision of design/production harmony, Fred decided to open his own foundry in 1925. Here he personally engraved his own matrices. Once again disaster hit. Another fire was to burn his designs, machinery and building to the ground.

After the fire Fredric Goudy did not attempt to reestablish his business. Instead he focused his energies on type design , writing and lecturing. In 1920 Goudy became the Art Director at the Lanstom Type Company, where he remained for over thirty years. At age seventy five Goudy was still lecturing at the Syracuse University's School of Journalism, and is still today considered America's most prolific type designer. At the time of his death in 1947, Fredric W. Goudy had 124 type designs to his credit.