A SPLENDOR OF LETTERS: The Permanence of Book in an Impermanent World

Nicholas A. Basbanes

ISBN 10: 0060082879 / ISBN 13: 9780060082871

Verlag: HarperCollins, New York, 2003

444p. A hardcover book in fine condition with a like dustjacket. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 185812

Inhaltsangabe:

In A Splendor of Letters, Nicholas A. Basbanes continues the lively, richly anecdotal exploration of book people, places, and culture he began in 1995 with A Gentle Madness (a finalist that year for the National Book Critics Circle Award) and expanded in 2001 with Patience & Fortitude, a companion work that prompted the two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and biographer David McCullough to proclaim him "the leading authority of books about books."

Basbanes now offers a consideration of the many pressing issues that surround the role of books in contemporary society, such as the willful destruction of books and libraries in Sarajevo, Tibet, and Cambodia, and the spirited efforts to restore them. The matter of "discards" at various libraries takes on an entirely new dimension as well, with fully researched stories about the kind of attitudes that may lead to the loss of “last copies” of important works.

In vivid detail, Basbanes examines the many materials that have been used over the centuries to record information -- among them clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, slabs of stone, palm leaves, animal skins, and hammered sheets of gold and copper. Also discussed are the various debates that continue to rage about preservation, which may mean saving and storing books on paper indefinitely, or as electronic data, which are by nature ephemeral.

In this beautifully packaged edition, Nicholas Basbanes brings to a close his wonderful trilogy on the remarkable world of books and bibliophiles.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor: Nicholas A. Basbanes was literary editor of the Worcester Sunday Telegram from 1978 to 1991, and is a former president of the Friends of the Robert H. Goddard Library of Clark University.

Bibliografische Details

Titel: A SPLENDOR OF LETTERS: The Permanence of ...
Verlag: HarperCollins, New York
Erscheinungsdatum: 2003
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: As New
Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Schutzumschlag
Auflage: First Edition, First Printing.