The Book: The Story of Printing & Bookmaking Illustrated, by McMurtrie, Douglas C.
Inventory #: 01390
Price: $35.00

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The Book: The Story of Printing & Bookmaking Illustrated, by McMurtrie, Douglas C.. Dorset Press: New York, 1989. Edition: Reprint. No price on jacket, so a possibly book club edition. Number line reads: M9876543231. ISBN: 0880293489. Hardcover, 8vo, 676 pages. Quarter bound in black cloth over brown, paper-covered boards. Gilt lettering on spine. Illustrated in black and white with more than one hundred and seventy illustrations including some hundred and twenty reproductions of title pages, text pages, and engravings from famous books. Includes over 42 pages of bibliographic references arranged by chapter and a comprehensive index.

Condition: Near Fine in a Fine jacket. Very slight wear to bottom edges from shelving.

Contents: A reprint of the third revised edition of McMurtrie's classic reference on The Book, which begins at nearly the beginning of time (Primitive Human Records and the Origin of the Alphabet are chapters one and two) and proceeds up to bookmaking, binding and illustrating in modern times.

From the jacket:

THE BOOK tells the story of how books came into being and of those earliest books that were written and illustrated by hand. It tells of the invention of printing and of how that invention made it possible for books to be produced so cheaply and in such quantities that all men might have them. It tells further of the development of bookmaking into an art and of the ceaseless effort of craftsmen and artists to produce the book that shall be perfect -- the golden book.