Looking for the font used in the Touchstone 3rd edition of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning

[Ellen Schroeder]

As stated in the title, the book is Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. It's the Touchstone (Simon & Schuster) 3rd edition with a copyright year of 1984.

Here is a random paragraph from the book:

I would like to know the exact font name, and also any free alternatives if possible.

[Bjørn Edvard Torbo]

I'm thinking some sort of Goudy Old Style. A free alternative for that would be Sorts Mill Goudy by Barry Schwartz. Not an exact match, but fairly close.

[Kevin Thompson]

With that Q, g, and a, I would have guessed some flavor of Baskerville, but without a larger and sharper sample, hard to be sure.

[Bjørn Edvard Torbo]

11 minutes ago, Kevin Thompson said:

With that Q, g, and a, I would have guessed some flavor of Baskerville, but without a larger and sharper sample, hard to be sure.

That would be my second guess, agreed. 

[SapereAude]

Actually, the upper case 'Q' is much more like Goudy Old Style than it is to Baskerville.

https://www.1001fonts.com/ofl-sorts-mill-goudy-font.html

[Kevin Thompson]

Sorts Mill Goudy vs. the sample:

In 1984 this would have been a phototypesetting font, and while I've yet to find a digital version of Baskerville that is a close match, the Q, a, and g point in that general direction. You have to take into account the low quality of the sample and the effect of ink spread on the paper, but the tail on Goudy's Q (plus it's poor match on other letters) rule it out.

[SapereAude]

Yet the tail in Baskerville Old face doesn't extend outside the left side of the body of the oval, which the sample clearly does.

And yet, the sample appears to be vertical, while Goudy (as a classic typeface) is oblique slanted.

'Tis a mystery.

[Kevin Thompson]

I didn't say anything about Baskerville Old Face. Your sample appears to be set in a face very similar to Baskerville, but one with a narrower and more angled tail on the Q and a few other differences. Whatever it is, it may not have survived into the digital age.

[MissNobody]

To chime in. The closest I can find were: Dashiell or Halant. There's probably not an exact digital match. Can you, perhaps, post a more quality photo (meaning less text in favor of being more zoomed in)?

[Ellen Schroeder]

Thank you everyone for your thoughts! I unfortunately don't have a better scan, but here's an attempt to post more "zoomed in" images:

[Kevin Thompson]

The italic definitely puts it squarely in the Baskerville family (Bulmer, Morris Fuller Benton’s/ATF's version of Baskerville, is also a possibility).

Libre Baskerville would be a good open source alternate.

[Bjørn Edvard Torbo]

What bothers me about Baskerville in this scenario is that I haven’t been able to find a version where the lowercase h is lower than the uppercase T. 

[Kevin Thompson]

I think Linotype's phototypesetting version comes quite close (from page 23 of The Type Specimen Book, 1974). Note the tail on the Q  below—a better match to the sample than any current digital version of Baskerville/Bulmer.

As for the h cresting the top of the T, that varies among the current digital versions as well (some with more extreme differences than in the sample below). To my eye, the T and h are pretty much even in the original sample.

If Ms. Schroeder could find a page with numbers and/or an ampersand, that could narrow the ID further.

Not all phototypesetting faces were faithfully reproduced as digital typefaces (if they were digitized at all). Alternate characters were often excluded, the person doing the digitizing would “fix” things they considered errors, or the digital face would be based on much larger (display size) samples, which often changed the character of the face at text sizes.

Without a better source image, I've exhausted my resources.

[Bjørn Edvard Torbo]

To my eye, the h is clearly lower that the T. 🤷‍♂️

[Kevin Thompson]

Look at the baseline in what you posted, Bjørn, and then check the other Th pairing in “Thus” at the end of the next line....

With such an uneven baseline, I'm now wondering if the book was actually set in metal type, and just how old that type was....

[Bjørn Edvard Torbo]

I must admit that your argument is convincing, Kevin. It stands to reason that the production of this sample is characterized by unreliable mechanical manufacturing. 

[Ellen Schroeder]

As requested, here are some numbers and ampersands:

As well, here are some more "Th" pairings:

[Kevin Thompson]

The ampersand and numerals (the latter in old style form on the original sample) seem to be a match to the sample I posted. Calling this Linotype Baskerville, likely a metal version given how much the baseline jumps.

Unfortunately, none of the currently available digital versions of Baskerville or Bulmer are spot-on matches for the printed sample from 40 years ago. Some digital versions don’t even include old style figures (like Libre Baskerville, unfortunately).

ITC New Baskerville or Baskerville Neo would be your best bets for approximating the look.