John Fass collection

John Stroble Fass was born August 25, 1890, in Lititz, Pennsylvania, the son of David C. and Sarah Stroble Fass. He was a graphic designer as well as a printer of fine press books. He began his printing career at the age of 12, working as an errand boy for a newspaper print shop. After high school, he continued working there as a typesetter. In 1918, Fass moved to Philidelphia to work as a compositor for the Holmes Press. He then moved on to New York City two years later to be a compositor for David Gildea & Company.

In 1925, he left his job at the publishing house of William Edwin Rudge and created his own printing house, Harbor Press. Here they producted limited edition works of famous American writers, gaining attention of influential bibliophiles like members of the Grolier Club and members of the Typophiles.

For a time, Fass lived in a single room apartment at the Bronx YMCA. It was there he created produced some of his most well known work, small editions printed on small handpresses. His first project that he did while at the YMCA he used the name Hell-Box Press. For these works he used miniature wooden printing presses.

The Hammer Creek Press was established in 1950, and was named for Hammer Creek which flowed near his hometown in Pennsylvania. He produced a variety of material from books, leaflets, bookplates, and broadsides, for his own pleasure as well as to gift to friends. He printed these projects with a tabletop Albion press which was made in 1905 that he recieved from his friend, Valenti Angelo. The press continued until the early 1960's when he moved from the Bronx YMCA to Brooklyn.

Photography was always a hobby of Fass. His photographs were for his own pleasure, not for commercial use or exhibition. Throughout his lifetime he captured images of a variety of landscapes and scences with a precisionist eye.

Fass died in 1973 and is buried in the Lilitz Moravian Cemetery.