[2] He was born into a Jewish family at Offenbach near Frankfurt, emigrated to England soon after the Nazis came to power in 1935 and became a naturalized British citizen in 1947.

In 1932 he visited London and met Stanley Morison, who invited Wolpe to design a printing type of capital letters for the Monotype Corporation.

When World War II was declared Wolpe, along with other German nationals living in England, was sent to an internment camp in Australia.

The Life & Work of: John de Beauchesne & the First English Writing-books was published in a limited edition of 50 copies for the Society for Italic Handwriting, and was subsequently republished as a chapter in A. S. Osley's Scribes and Sources (1980).

[33][34] His wife was fellow artist Margaret Wolpe (née Smith; sculptor and silversmith)[35][36] and his children are Paul (doctor); Toby (technology journalist);[37] Sarah [Wolpe-Lawrence] (designer and basket maker); Deborah [Hopson-Wolpe] (potter and printmaker – who uses BLW's Albertus typeface in her work).