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

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      Firm sale: non returnable item
      SKU 9781847926296 Categories ,
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      A celebration of the printed book, told through the lives of 18 people who took it in radical new directions. 'This really is the loveliest of books' I'I cannot recommend it highly enough' SPECTATORThis is an extraordinary story of skill, craft, mess, cunning, triumph, impro...

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      Description

      Product ID:9781847926296
      Product Form:Hardback
      Country of Manufacture:GB
      Title:The Book-Makers
      Subtitle:A History of the Book in 18 Remarkable Lives
      Authors:Author: Adam Smyth
      Page Count:400
      Subjects:Book design and Bookbinding, Book design, Biography: business and industry, Social and cultural history, Publishing and book trade, Biography: business & industry, Social & cultural history, Publishing industry & book trade, Modern period, c 1500 onwards
      Description:Select Guide Rating
      A celebration of the printed book, told through the lives of 18 people who took it in radical new directions. 'This really is the loveliest of books' I'I 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, paper-makers and library founders. Some we know. We meet jobbing printer (and United States Founding Father) Benjamin Franklin, and watch Thomas Cobden-Sanderson conjure books that flicker between the 20th and 15th centuries. Others we’ve forgotten. We don't 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 Shakespeare’s First Folio, then disappeared. The Book-Makers puts people back into the story of the book. It takes us inside the print-shop as the deadline looms and the adrenaline flows – from the Fleet Street of 1492 to present-day New York. It’s a tale of contingencies and quirks, of successes and failures, of routes forward and paths not taken. This is a history of book-making that leaves ink on your fingers, and shows why the printed book will continue to flourish. ‘Amazing. This book is a soul-expanding celebration of the human spirit’ MARTIN LATHAM, author of The Bookseller's Tale‘A brilliant time machine of a book’ JOSEPH HONE, author of The Book Forger

      A celebration of the printed book, told through the lives of 18 people who took it in radical new directions.

      ''This really is the loveliest of books'' I

      ''I cannot recommend it highly enough'' SPECTATOR

      This is an extraordinary story of skill, craft, mess, cunning, triumph, improvisation, and error. Of printers and binders, publishers and artists, paper-makers and library founders.

      Some we know. We meet jobbing printer (and United States Founding Father) Benjamin Franklin, and watch Thomas Cobden-Sanderson conjure books that flicker between the 20th and 15th centuries. Others we’ve forgotten. We don''t 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 Shakespeare’s First Folio, then disappeared.

      The Book-Makers puts people back into the story of the book. It takes us inside the print-shop as the deadline looms and the adrenaline flows – from the Fleet Street of 1492 to present-day New York. It’s a tale of contingencies and quirks, of successes and failures, of routes forward and paths not taken. This is a history of book-making that leaves ink on your fingers, and shows why the printed book will continue to flourish.

      ‘Amazing. This book is a soul-expanding celebration of the human spirit’ MARTIN LATHAM, author of The Bookseller''s Tale

      ‘A brilliant time machine of a book’ JOSEPH HONE, author of The Book Forger


      Imprint Name:The Bodley Head Ltd
      Publisher Name:Vintage Publishing
      Country of Publication:GB
      Publishing Date:2024-04-18

      Additional information

      Weight638 g
      Dimensions198 × 396 × 37 mm