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Born in 1925, just in time for the Great Depression, most of his youngest years were spent in near-poverty. In 1939 he enrolled in the printing course at the Dobbins vocational school, which was across the street from Connie Mack's Shibe Park stadium. Anxious to start earning money, he quit school after six months, and after a series of jobs in printing and a 12-month job in a shipyard, joined the Navy in 1943, serving 30 months, in part on the USS Shangri-La, an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. After the war, he and a former printing schoolmate pooled their mustering-out pay, bought some old printing equipment and started a print shop in Henry's mother's cellar. Neither had any idea of how to conduct a business and both lacked even the most basic printing skills. After about 8 years, the pair achieved very modest success, and after about 13 years, they actually were making money. In the words of their accountant, "you guys are succeeding in spite of yourselves." In 1949, Pearl took a chance and married Henry. They have two daughters and will celebrate 59 years of marital bliss in 2008. Henry calls her "Mrs. Wonderful." In 1958, Henry became interested in papermaking and built a small paper mill in his basement. To find a use for the paper he made, he began printing on it. This was the start of Bird & Bull Press, and explains why so many of his books deal in some way with paper or papermaking. Over the years Bird & Bull has published 77 books and has produced many other comissioned titles. A few of Henry's favorites are his Three Lions and the Cross of Lorraine, Dard Hunter & Son, Chinese Hand Made Papers and So Long Hot Metal Men. His greatest commissioned work is the 351-page Comitia Americana, produced in an edition of 60 copies for one of America's foremost numismatic historians, John W. Adams. Henry is currently working on three books, for which he has great enthusiasm. He prints most of his books on a Miehle Vertical and his wish is to be running a job on the Vertical when he is called to the great hot-metal shop in the sky, or in some lower region, if that is where the hot-metal people go, where they are already used to the hot temperatures. |
