For some reason this fancy term paper engineer came about, it came from the 70’s. There was a company here in the United States, Intervisual Books, that was really sort of creating the second golden age of pop-up books. The first golden age was in the late 1800’s. The second golden age started in the early 70’s. They coined the term paper engineer. I think that was just almost for lack of any other way to describe what it was. I mean, the mechanical part — the mechanics of creating a pop-up. Those people as individuals were called paper engineers.
Although I did once have a very embarrassing encounter. I was at a conference or a convention. It was a very long day. I had signings and everything. That night I went down to the bar which was very, very crowded, just to relax and have a drink. The guy standing next to me, we struck up a conversation, and he says to me, “Well what do you do for a living?” I said, “Oh, I’m a paper engineer.” And he’s like, “You’re kidding me, I’m a paper engineer.” I said, “No way.” He said, “Yeah.” He said, “What’s your name?” I said, “My name’s Robert Sabuda.” He said, “Really.” I said, “What’s your name.” He told me his name and I said, “I’m so sorry that I don’t know you.” I said, “You know, the paper engineering community is so small I feel like I know everybody who’s in the paper engineering world.”
I said, “So what books have you worked on.” He said, “What books have I worked on? What are you talking about.” I said, “Well, you said you’re a paper engineer.” He said, “Yeah. I engineer paper. I take fiber and water, I’m a scientist. I actually engineer the actual paper. I’m here for a paper conference. What do you do?” And I said, “I make pop-up books.” I scurried away becuase I felt so stupid because here was this guy who was really a paper engineer and I was just using this term that someone had made up in the 70’s to describe myself.
Sometimes I use paper engineer, but I prefer not to use that. Usually when people ask I just say I’m a bookmaker because I do so much now. I mean, I write, illustrate, and do the engineering, I’m just involved in so many aspects that sometimes bookmaker just seems more realistic than “paper engineer”, this fancy job that I have. The guy makes pop-up books!
