Irvin Borowsky

THE YEAR was 1958. A 14-year-old named Bobby Fischer wins the U.S. Chess Championship. Willie O’Ree is the first African-American to play in the National Hockey League. The U.S. Air Force loses a hydrogen bomb off the coast of Savannah, GA, and it’s never found. Poet Ezra Pound is ordered to be released from an insane asylum, and “that book by Nabokov” (“Lolita”) is published in the United States. And, in Philadelphia, a 34-year-old man named Irvin Borowsky published the first issue of Printing Impressions. The industry, this magazine—indeed, our nation and world—have undergone dramatic transformations over the last 50 years. Our publication, just

45 Years and Counting! This issue marks the 45th anniversary of this—I guess I can now say venerable—industry publication. Despite the fact that there was already an overcrowded field of some 17 other magazines, Irvin Borowsky launched Printing Impressions in June of 1958 as a tabloid newspaper (see inset), coincidentally the same month that I would celebrate my first birthday. The former printing company owner, publisher of a regional television listings guide (Borowsky sold his product to TV Guide founder Walter Annenberg in '53) and graphic arts equipment dealer felt that none of them effectively focused on managing a successful printing operation. While some