Overview

Every book-lover's dream- a celebration of 550 years of the printed book, told through the lives of eighteen extraordinary men and women who took the book in radical new directions. The Book-Makers is a celebration of 550 years of the printed book, told through the lives of eighteen extraordinary men and women who took the book in radical new directions- printers and binders, publishers and artists, paper-makers and library founders. This is a story of skill, craft, mess, cunning, triumph, improvisation, and error. Some of these names we know. We meet jobbing printer (and United States Founding Father) Benjamin Franklin. We watch Thomas Cobden-Sanderson conjure books that flicker between the early twentieth century and the fifteenth. Others have been forgotten. We don't remember Sarah Eaves, wife of John Baskerville, and her crucial contribution to the history of type. Nor Charles Edward Mudie, populariser of the circulating library - and the most influential figure in book publishing before Jeff Bezos. Nor William Wildgoose, who meticulously bound Shakespeare's First Folio, and then disappeared from history. The Book-Makers puts people back into the story of the book. It takes you inside the print-shop as the deadline looms and the adrenaline flows - from the Fleet Street of 1492 to present-day New York. It's a story of contingencies and quirks, of successes and failures, of routes forward and paths not taken. The Book-Makers is a history of book-making that leaves ink on your fingers, and shows why the printed book will continue to flourish.

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9781847926296

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A brilliant time-machine of a book. Each chapter feels like a party packed with old friends and new, and Smyth plays the gregarious host with aplomb -- Joseph Hone, author of The Book Forger Fascinating ... Should teach even serious book-nerds a heap of forgotten and precious information about the making of books. Adam Smyth’s lively prose and human touch puts to rest the idea that book-talk has to be dry and dull. On the contrary! The development of printing, papermaking, and book distribution, for example, are told through the exploits of Wynkyn de Worde, Fourdrinier and Mudie in chapters as full of surprises as any novel -- David Bellos, author of The Novel of the Century I relished Adam Smyth's The Book-Makers: bursting with fascinating details and vividly-drawn characters, its stories will delight any book lover, and Smyth delivers them with an erudite brio -- Roland Allen, author of The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper Amazing. From typeface to papermaking to a whole new-to-me democratic world of book interaction like commonplacing and zines, this book is a soul-expanding celebration of the human spirit -- Martin Latham, author of The Bookseller's Tale Explores in compelling fashion the lives of these fascinating individuals and their roles in making the most powerful objects in human history - books * Richard Ovenden, author of Burning the Books *

A brilliant time-machine of a book. Each chapter feels like a party packed with old friends and new, and Smyth plays the gregarious host with aplomb -- Joseph Horne, author of The Book Forger Fascinating ... Should teach even serious book-nerds a heap of forgotten and precious information about the making of books. Adam Smyth’s lively prose and human touch puts to rest the idea that book-talk has to be dry and dull. On the contrary! The development of printing, paper-making, and book distribution, for example, are told through the exploits of Wynkyn de Worde, Fourdrinier and Mudie in chapters as full of surprises as any novel -- David Bellos, author of The Novel of the Century

A brilliant time-machine of a book. Each chapter feels like a party packed with old friends and new, and Smyth plays the gregarious host with aplomb -- Joseph Hone, author of The Book Forger Fascinating ... Should teach even serious book-nerds a heap of forgotten and precious information about the making of books. Adam Smyth’s lively prose and human touch puts to rest the idea that book-talk has to be dry and dull. On the contrary! The development of printing, papermaking, and book distribution, for example, are told through the exploits of Wynkyn de Worde, Fourdrinier and Mudie in chapters as full of surprises as any novel -- David Bellos, author of The Novel of the Century I relished Adam Smyth's The Book-Makers: bursting with fascinating details and vividly-drawn characters, its stories will delight any book lover, and Smyth delivers them with an erudite brio -- Roland Allen, author of The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper Amazing. From typeface to papermaking to a whole new-to-me democratic world of book interaction like commonplacing and zines, this book is a soul-expanding celebration of the human spirit -- Martin Latham, author of The Bookseller's Tale

This really is the loveliest of books and you will never take for granted reading a physical copy again * i * Agile storytelling and chatty erudition evoke not just the physicality of the book but also its innate humanity * Observer * A passionate paean to the book, in all its forms, as an object ... So interesting, so thought-provoking * Literary Review * Refreshing ... Smyth breathes both books-as-objects and their creators back into life * Financial Times * Bound to be brilliant ... There's no doubting the breadth of [Smyth's] knowledge and love of the business * Guardian * Fun and informative ... The Book-Makers gives you a lively sense of the way in which books have been made and unmade, crafted, handled and spliced down the centuries * Prospect * Fierce scholarship and fascinating print nerdery come together here as he illuminates brilliantly a cast of printers, binders, artists, papermakers and library founders. There is a wonderful immediacy to Adam Smyth's narrative * Country Life * Amazing. From typeface to papermaking to a whole new-to-me democratic world of book interaction like commonplacing and zines, this book is a soul-expanding celebration of the human spirit * Martin Latham, author of The Bookseller's Tale * A brilliant time-machine of a book. Each chapter feels like a party packed with old friends and new, and Smyth plays the gregarious host with aplomb * Joseph Hone, author of The Book Forger * I relished Adam Smyth's The Book-Makers: bursting with fascinating details and vividly-drawn characters, its stories will delight any book lover, and Smyth delivers them with an erudite brio * Roland Allen, author of The Notebook * Adam Smyth brings to life in delightful detail eighteen fascinating book makers, women and men, and their often-surprising books. Taking us from Wynkyn de Worde's early printed books in 1490s London to the zine creators of today, Smyth's wonderful book never ceases to captivate and enthrall the reader * Sarah Ogilvie, author of The Dictionary People * Explores in compelling fashion the lives of these fascinating individuals and their roles in making the most powerful objects in human history - books * Richard Ovenden, author of Burning the Books * A fascinating book that speaks volumes * Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2024* *

Author Information

Adam Smyth runs the 39 Step Press, an experiment in printing, from a cold barn in Oxfordshire. He is also Professor of English Literature and the History of the Book at Balliol College, University of Oxford.

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