A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles Bibliomanes and the Eternal Passion for Books
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About this book
From an Amazon reader review: "Spanning the long period from ancient times when books were hand-copied to the modern day "A Gentle Madness" takes us on a strange and exciting journey through the world of rare book collectors. Our society owes a lot to book collectors. Determination time and money have enabled them to seek out and preserve rare books manuscripts documents and letters of profound cultural and historical importance. Many of the most noted collectors have ultimately given their world-class libraries to colleges and universities where the fruits of their labor have benefited generations of scholars and researchers. This book demonstrates in a colorful manner how book collectors are driven to seek out new acquisitions for their libraries. For some it is a consuming passion. For a few it is a dangerous obsession that forces them to sacrifice the basic amenities of life or even break the law. Nicholas Basbanes not only introduces readers to book collectors throughout history but also to the books themselves and to the methods employed to obtain rare books."
