Nicholas A. Basbanes

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

A field guide for the modern book collector From the author of "A Gentle Madness"-a book with more than seventy thousand copies in print that delighted bibliophiles everywhere-comes a twenty-first-century guide to book collecting that deals with both the traditional methods of acquisition and the electronic tools now available on the Internet. Sharing the superb insight he has gathered from booksellers over the years, Nicholas Basbanes offers a refresher course on the fundamentals that endure, while questioning certain practices of doubtful validity. Topics include how to determine if a book is a first edition, how to spot book club editions, the importance of dust jackets, scouting the flea markets, how to work the book fairs, and the importance of handling the goods, as well as discussing less tangible issues like spotting trends and having a focus. Then he takes a long look at the pros and cons of Internet buying, illuminating how you can use these electronic tools to your advantage and making this the book no modern collector will want to be without.

"Companion Book to Edition & Impressions: Twenty Years on the Book Beat The final quarter of the last century was a period of extraordinary fervor in American letters. About the Author: Inside the Creative Process collects together more than forty of Nicholas Basbanes's interviews and essays that grew from this unique period of publishing. About the Author publishes for the first time the full interviews with important writers such as novelists A. S. Byatt, Joseph Heller, Edna O'Brien, and Kurt Vonnegut; the critic Alfred Kazin a few months before he died; and columnist Jimmy Breslin just after he had suffered an aneurysm. With the loss of so many of these writers and the imposing behemoth called the Internet, this sort of collection may never again be culled from the morning papers. As alive and refreshing as the day they were published, About the Author explores the creative process that was--and is--the foundation of books and publishing. This superbly crafted edition of About the Author is styled after the limited edition of Editions & Impressions. It is bound in a delightful hunter green linen-finished cloth on the spine with matching khaki toned cloth on the boards. The khaki toned slipcase with the book is embossed in gold foil. The book includes a hunter green ribbon bookmark and matching headbands. The limited edition is printed on Mohawk Superfine smooth finish stock in a soft-white shade, and is Smythe sewn into its binding. A total of 255 copies will be signed and numbered, and 250 will be for sale."--Publisher's website.

Paper sculpture and paper folding. Amazing.

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.

The passion to possess books has never been more widespread than it is today; indeed, obsessive book collecting remains the only hobby to have a disease named after it. A Gentle Madness is an adventure among the afflicted. Author Nicholas Basbanes, a dedicated bibliophile himself, begins his book 2,200 years ago in Alexandria, when a commitment was made to gather all the world's knowledge beneath one roof. In a series of lively chapters, the continuum then passes through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the twentieth century with a special emphasis on book lore and book culture in Great Britain and North America. In the second half of A Gentle Madness, Basbanes offers a gallery of revealing profiles of living collectors and presents exclusive examinations of the great contemporary stories. The book also includes the most comprehensive bibliography on book collecting compiled in more than a quarter century.

In "Patience and Fortitude," Nicholas Basbanes takes us through his discoveries of some of the greatest libraries of the world--from Alexandria to Glastonbury--and then on to the Vatican,Wolfenbüttel, and erudite universities.