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Let others tell about Henry Morris and the Bird & Bull Press:
University of Delaware Library Associates Newsletter. March 1987, no. 12.
“The Bird & Bull Press was founded by printer and papermaker Henry Morris in 1958 in Newtown, Pennsylvania. Since that time, Morris has produced broadsides, books, and other printed materials that are an important part of the contemporary American private press scene and significant documents in the art, craft, and history of hand papermaking. Morris first made paper as a commercial venture in 1958 for Cheney Pulp and Paper Company, later for his own books, and for friends. “
From the APHA website -Henry Morris Delivers 2006 J. Ben Lieberman Memorial Lecture
“For nearly fifty years Henry Morris has been variously a papermaker, printer, writer, publisher, editor and historian. Morris was first inspired to learn papermaking in 1956 upon seeing a sheet used in a 1491 book printed in Venice. The paper was in such good condition that Morris was convinced the leaf had to be modern. However, he saw other examples of old paper, and then studied works on the history of paper and papermaking. Morris taught himself to make paper and printed many of his books on it.
Morris’s Bird & Bull Press publishes books about paper, binding, printing and bookmaking, topics which Morris calls "worthwhile, albeit esoteric." His aim has been "to provide a worthwhile text in as physically attractive a form as my artistic and budgetary limitations will allow." Bird & Bull is also known for humorous and satirical work, notably those published in the fictional Republic of San Serriffe whose antic world of antiquarian booksellers and printers bears an uncanny resemblance to the contemporary American scene. “
APHA's 2008 Awards for Distinguished Achievement
Introduction of Henry Morris
Introductory remarks by Jane Rodgers Siegel
“ The criteria for the Individual award read in part: “The Award is for a distinguished contribution to the study, recording, preservation or dissemination of printing history, in any specific area or in general terms.” And the papermaker, printer and publisher Henry Morris has single-handedly contributed to the study, recording, preservation and dissemination of a good bit of printing history.
Sid Berger’s Forty-four Years of Bird & Bull: a Bibliography, 1958-2002, lists 66 items published by Henry Morris, in addition to 45 items printed for others and 37 items of ephemera; to bring us more-or-less up-to-date, I find in Columbia’s catalog eight additional items, including the Bibliography, published since, making 74 items published – so far. Perhaps we’ll hear soon what Henry has up his sleeve now.”
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