Book Madness
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€31.99
19th century
A01=Denise Gigante
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american
antiquarian books
Author_Denise Gigante
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bibliophile
biographical
bookish
bookseller
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=DS
Category=HBJK
Category=HBTB
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
charles lamb
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
ephemera
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eq_nobargain
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first edition
intellectual life
Language_English
literary culture
massachusetts historical society
PA=Available
personal collection
Price_€20 to €50
private library
PS=Active
softlaunch
steamships
transatlantic book trade
Product details
- ISBN 9780300248487
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 10 Jan 2023
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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The fascinating history of American bookishness as told through the sale of Charles Lamb’s library in 1848
Charles Lamb’s library—a heap of sixty scruffy old books singed with smoke, soaked with gin, sprinkled with crumbs, stripped of illustrations, and bescribbled by the essayist and his literary friends—caused a sensation when it was sold in New York in 1848. The transatlantic book world watched as the relics of a man revered as the patron saint of book collectors were dispersed.
Following those books through the stories of the bibliophiles who shaped intellectual life in America—booksellers, publishers, journalists, editors, bibliographers, librarians, actors, antiquarians, philanthropists, politicians, poets, clergymen—Denise Gigante brings to life a lost world of letters at a time when Americans were busy assembling the country’s major public, university, and society libraries. A human tale of loss, obsession, and spiritual survival, this book reveals the magical power books can have to bring people together and will be an absorbing read for anyone interested in what makes a book special.
Charles Lamb’s library—a heap of sixty scruffy old books singed with smoke, soaked with gin, sprinkled with crumbs, stripped of illustrations, and bescribbled by the essayist and his literary friends—caused a sensation when it was sold in New York in 1848. The transatlantic book world watched as the relics of a man revered as the patron saint of book collectors were dispersed.
Following those books through the stories of the bibliophiles who shaped intellectual life in America—booksellers, publishers, journalists, editors, bibliographers, librarians, actors, antiquarians, philanthropists, politicians, poets, clergymen—Denise Gigante brings to life a lost world of letters at a time when Americans were busy assembling the country’s major public, university, and society libraries. A human tale of loss, obsession, and spiritual survival, this book reveals the magical power books can have to bring people together and will be an absorbing read for anyone interested in what makes a book special.
Denise Gigante is the Sadie Dernham Patek Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University. She is the author of The Keats Brothers: The Life of John and George and Taste: A Literary History.
