Martin Cohen (1915-2005) was a professor in the former School of Librarianship at Western Michigan University where he taught a course on the history of the book. His interest in printing evolved from teaching this course. He was born in East Boston in 1915 and graduated from Harvard College in 1937. In May 1940, he enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard, which was federalized into the U.S. Army. Martin served in the European Theatre during WWII. Following the war, he earned a degree in library science from Simmons College in 1946, under the G.I. Bill. After working in libraries in Newark, New Jersey, and Decatur, Illinois, Martin moved to Kalamazoo where he worked at the Kalamazoo Public Library from 1950 to 1960. In 1960, he began teaching librarianship at Western Michigan University, where he was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1976. Martin retired from WMU in 1978, but continued to engage in a wide range of activities including travel, photography, calligraphy, birding and letterpress printing.