Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World

Basbanes, Nicholas A

ISBN 10: 0060593245 / ISBN 13: 9780060593247

Published by Harper Perennial, 2006

About this Item

Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc.

Seller Inventory # 00084940381

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0060593245
• ISBN 13: 9780060593247
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Inspired by a landmark exhibition mounted by the British Museum in 1963 to celebrate five eventful centuries of the printed word, Nicholas A. Basbanes offers a lively consideration of writings that have "made things happen" in the world, works that have both nudged the course of history and fired the imagination of countless influential people.

In his fifth work to examine a specific aspect of book culture, Basbanes also asks what we can know about such figures as John Milton, Edward Gibbon, John Locke, Isaac Newton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Adams, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Henry James, Thomas Edison, Helen Keller––even the notorious Marquis de Sade and Adolf Hitler––by knowing what they have read. He shows how books that many of these people have consulted, in some cases annotated with their marginal notes, can offer tantalizing clues to the evolution of their character and the development of their thought.

About the Author

Nicholas A. Basbanes has worked as an award-winning investigative reporter, a literary editor, and a nationally syndicated columnist. The author of five books, he also writes a regular column for Fine Books & Collections magazine and lectures widely on book-related issues. He and his wife, Constance, live in Massachusetts.