The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives [Hardcover]

AnEconomistBook of the Year

A five-hundred-year history of printed books, told through the people who created them.

Almost every pagealmost every paragraphfizzes with facts, allusions, speculations, tidbits of etymology and gems of historical interest. Wall Street Journal

Books have transformed humankind, yet we know little about the individuals who brought these fascinating objects into existence. Who were these renegade book-makers who changed the course of history through their experiments in the arts of printing, paper making, type designing, binding, advertising, and selling?

The Book-Makersoffers a new way to understand the story of Western cultures most important object through a series of dynamic portraits of eighteen men and women who helped to define the book. From Wynkyn de Wordes cheap bestsellers produced in fifteenth-century London, to Nancy Cunards avant-garde pamphlets made on her small press in Normandy; from Benjamin Franklins inky entrepreneurialism, to the radical culture of contemporary zines, this is a celebration of the book with the people put back in.

 Adam Smythis professor of English literature and the history of the book at Balliol College, University of Oxford. He is a regular contributor to theLondon Review of Booksand theTimes Literary Supplementand runs the 39 Steps Press, a small printing press that he keeps in a barn. Smyth lives in Oxford, England.An EconomistandEngelsberg IdeasBest Book of 2024
A Library Journal Best Nonfiction Book of 2024 “Almost every page—almost every paragraph—fizzes with facts, allusions, speculations, tidbits of etymology and gems of historical interest.”Wall Street Journal"In a world where digital text shouts louder than ever it is refreshing to be reminded of the imagination and ingenuity oflã9