Adam Smyth The Book-Makers : A History of the Book in 18 Remarkable Lives

A celebration of the printed book, told through the lives of 18 people who took it in radical new directions. AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE SUMMER 2024 This really is the loveliest of books II cannot recommend it highly enough SPECTATORThis is an extraordinary story of skill, craft, mess, cunning, triumph, improvisation, and error. Of printers and binders, publishers and artists, papermakers and library founders. Some we know. We meet jobbing printer (and United States Founding Father) Benjamin Franklin, and watch Thomas CobdenSanderson conjure books that flicker between the 20th and 15th centuries. Others weve forgotten. We dont recall Sarah Eaves, wife of John Baskerville, and her crucial contribution to the history of type. Nor Charles Edward Mudie, populariser of the circulating library and the most influential figure in publishing before Jeff Bezos. Nor William Wildgoose, who meticulously bound Shakespeares First Folio, then disappeared. The BookMakers puts people back into the story of the book. It takes us inside the printshop as the deadline looms and the adrenaline flows from the Fleet Street of 1492 to presentday New York. Its a tale of contingencies and quirks, of successes and failures, of routes forward and paths not taken. This is a history of bookmaking that leaves ink on your fingers, and shows why the printed book will continue to flourish. Amazing. This book is a soulexpanding celebration of the human spirit MARTIN... | Adam Smyth The Book-Makers : A History of the Book in 18 Remarkable Lives