Eric Gill was born in 1882. He originally trained as an architect, but later learned lettering as well as masonry and stone-cutting. He was instrumental in the revival of these Crafts in the early years of the twentieth century, along with W. R. Lethaby, Edward Johnston and others. In 1913 he was received into the Catholic Church, moved to Ditchling in Sussex and began to set up the first of several Catholic Craft Workshop Communities. Over the last 30 years of his life he was a prolific sculptor, wood engraver, writer, polemicist, letter-cutter and type designer. His classic typeface Gill Sans, first introduced in 1927, has never since been out of use, a rare indication of classic status. His example and inscriptional work continue to inspire letter-cutters today. His most important books (of the dozen he wrote) are Art Nonsense and other Essays (1929), Beauty Looks After Herself (1933), The Necessity of Belief (1936), Last Essays (1942) and In a Strange Land (1944). His autobiography was published in 1940, the year of his death.

Mr. Gill's essays, "The Four Causes" and ”Of Beauty”, can be found in Every Man an Artist edited by Brian Keeble .