Some more great reviews

Yesterday, we looked at some of the good reviews our books have recently received. Today we look at the rest!

 The History of the Library in Western Civilization IV: The Medieval World in the West – From Cassiodorus to Furnival by Konstantinos Staikos

Covering the period from about 330AD to the mid-14^th century in only 500 pages, one understands that this in not a full-scale history of libraries over 1000 years in the West. Rather it is an overview, focusing on particular themes and vignettes that illustrate the evolution of library collections, management, architecture and users during this period. This is not to say that this work lacks scholarship; like the preceding volumes in the series, it is indeed a work of scholarship, with copious notes, in one instance nine pages of notes for 34 pages (and with copious illustrations), showing how deeply the author has read, synthesized and interpreted his knowledge of the facts.

Overall this work, like others in the series, offers a good overview and in this sense will stand the test of time.

-G. E. Gorman, Australian Library Journal

Dr. Rosenbach and Mr. Lilly: Book Collecting in a Golden Age by Joel Silver

Silver’s story is interestingly told, and he relies heavily on the letters exchanged by the two principal characters in it.

We do get an inside look at the back and forth negotiations between a major antiquarian bookseller and entertainer, and a major collector, and that is useful information to have. The book is generously illustrated, and since it reproduces the typography of the letterpress edition printed by the Bird & Bull Press in 2010, it is a more than usually handsome book for a trade edition.

-Bruce Whiteman, SHARP News

 Arthur Miller: A Descriptive Bibliography by George W. Crandell

Well bound and printed, there is an attractive dust jacket designed by Laura R. Williams.

It should be purchased by all libraries collecting twentieth century American literature and cultural achievements.

-William Baker, Emerald Journal, Reference Reviews

Historical Types from Gutenberg to Ashendene by Stan Knight 

Like its predecessor Historical Types a modest book in scale and appearance that deceptively hides a wealth of information, all of it solidly researched.

Promises to become an essential resource for anyone studying or teaching typography

-Paul Shaw, Codex Magazine

 Christina Rossetti: A Descriptive Bibliography by Maura Ives

Nobody will doubt that Maura Ives’s meticulous bibliography is a much-needed contribution to the study of English literature.

Even scholars who have worked on Rossetti’s publishing history will find much that is new here, especially in the three central sections which detail many previously unrecorded appearances in print.

Ives’s documenting of the printings of Rossetti’s work by Robert Brothers of Boston, beginning with Poems (1866), is, by itseld, a notable contribution to understanding Rossetti’s publishing history and one which should encourage further research.

Maura Ives’s bibliography, evidently based on years of determined and careful research, should prove both an incitement to further scholarly work an and important resource for those undertaking that work.

It should be put beside Rebecca Crump’s edition of the poems in every university library.

-Simon Humphries, Victorian Poetry

Books as History: The Importance of Books beyond Their Texts by David Pearson

Chapter 1 (Books as History) raises questions regarding books in the suture, where the bookworld is going and how we will manage the book if we see it only as content and not as artifact. But does this diminish the content that matters most to the hoi polloi? Pearson challenges in a gentle, oblique way.

The other chapters, dealing with provenance, binding, ownership marking, marginalia, etc. are interesting and not overly precious. They convey the author’s message clearly and with excellent illustrations, as well as humour.

-G. E. Gorman, Australian Library Journal

 Rudyard Kipling: A Bibliography by David Alan Richards

Richards describes Livingston’s bibliography as “monumental” and Stewart’s as “magisterial”, and both adjectives can be applied to his own, which now replaces them.

The entries are by no means dry bibliographical details, but often contain lengthy notes of biographical interest

Unlike many bibliographies, this is therefore often a readable and interesting text, even for a non-specialist.

-David Geall, Emerald Journal, Reference Reviews

David Alan Richards has produced a masterful example of modern bibliographical research.

Rudyard Kipling: A Bibliography is an incredible resource to collectors of Kipling’s works and to bookbinders who are looking to identify binding copies of his first editions.

-Frank Lehmann, Guild of Book Workers

Greek Library: The Konstantinos Sp. Staikos Book Collection Henceforth the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation Library by Konstantinos Sp. Staikos

The book is an aesthetic treasure and a fine resource. It reveals the long, rich history of Greek writing and its role in the formation of the modern Greek nation.

-Carol G. Thomas, SHARP News

 Small Books for the Common Man: A Descriptive Bibliography edited by John Meriton

Perhaps the first ironic detail to note about Small Books for the Common Man is the sheer bulk of this bibliography, containing as it does over 800 individual entries of nineteenth century chapbooks from the National Art Library’s collection. However, the book itself is a delight to behold and vastly informative on many levels.

Students, librarians, and archivists will all find something of interest

-Sarah Powell, Emerald Journal, Reference Reviews

Book-Jackets: Their History, Forms, and Use by G. Thomas Tanselle

Tanselle (Columbia Univ.) offers one of the very few books devoted to the study of the book jacket or dust jacket.

The text features 24 color plates and is superbly printed and bound.

Highly recommended. A general audience of book lovers, interested undergraduates, and researchers/faculty.

-W. Baker, CHOICE