Baskerville created many typefaces, with the help of his punchcutter, John Handy. Many of these typefaces were very similar, and were all lumped into the "Baskerville" font family. Benjamin Franklin noticed and admired these typefaces and brought them to the United States. They were eventually used for American government publishing. In the 1920's, some of Baskerville's fonts were revived and rereleased under the name "Mrs. Eaves," as Baskerville's wife's name was Sarah Eaves.
Aside from his accomplishments in the field of Typography, John Baskerville also in innovator in print, paper, and ink production. He came up with a way to make paper that was smoother and whiter, which made rich black text look much better. In printing, Baskerville was ahead of his time because he was the first to use layouts with wide margins and leading between each line of type.
Baskervile died in January of 1775, and was buried in the garden at his home. The remains of his body have since been moved on numerous occasions do to the demolishing of several buildings where his body was stored.
John Baskerville was unique because of the innovations he made in typography and printing. Rather than trying to cram loads of text onto one page, Baskerville strived to improve legibility by adding larger text and improving word spacing. This gave his layouts a much more modern look than the other typographers of his time.
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