A celebration of the printed book, told through the lives of 18 people who took it in radical new directions.

* AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 * A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE SUMMER 2024 *

'This really is the loveliest of books' I
'I cannot recommend it highly enough' SPECTATOR

This is an extraordinary story of skill, craft, mess, cunning, triumph, improvisation, and error. Of printers and binders, publishers and artists, paper-makers and library founders.

Some we know. We meet jobbing printer (and United States Founding Father) Benjamin Franklin, and watch Thomas Cobden-Sanderson conjure books that flicker between the 20th and 15th centuries. Others we've forgotten. We don't recall 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 publishing before Jeff Bezos. Nor William Wildgoose, who meticulously bound Shakespeare's First Folio, then disappeared.

The Book-Makers puts people back into the story of the book. It takes us 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 tale of contingencies and quirks, of successes and failures, of routes forward and paths not taken. This is a history of book-making that leaves ink on your fingers, and shows why the printed book will continue to flourish.

'Amazing. 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' JOSEPH HONE, author of The Book Forger

• We started tracking this book on May 23, 2024.
• This book was £10.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 5 times in the past 262 days.
• The current price of this book is £9.99 last checked 4 hours ago.
• This book is at its lowest price in the past six months.
• The lowest price to date was £0.99 last reached on June 13, 2024.
• This book has been £0.99 one time since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was £11.00 last reached on July 16, 2024.
• This book has been £11.00 one time since we started tracking it.

• Education & ReferencePublishing & Books
• Biography & True AccountsProfessionals & AcademicsJournalists
• Biography & True AccountsProfessionals & Academics

• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 388 Pages
• File Size: 43,912 KB