History

History

Man, John, Gutenberg: How One Man Remade The World With Words (John Wiley, 1st ed. 1st printing, 2002). ISBN 0-471-21823-5. A truly remarkable exercise in scholarship, this book seems to have run to ground every shred of documentary evidence to have survived through five centuries of European history to document the life of the man who invented moveable type. The detail is fascinating: how Gutenberg raised money and held at bay investors who wanted to interfere; how he tried to control the spread of his invention in an age without intellectual property laws; and how  the number of books in Europe went from a single wagon-load in 1455 to “tens of thousands, the individual volumes to millions” only fifty years later. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $15.

U.S. News & World Report, 200 Years: A Bicentennial History of the United States (1st ed. 1973). LOC 73-77836. Two-volume folio set in red cloth boards and leatherette bindings; Vol. 2’s spine is pretty faded compared to Vol. 1’s. Nice illustrated slipcase with one fold loose at the top rear. 702 pp. Very good condition. HBB Price: $35.