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Some great reviews
It’s been a while since we’ve showed off the great reviews our books continue to get, and we have quite a stack for you to read. We’ll post half today and half tomorrow. These reviews have been featured in some of the leading journals in the field of books.
Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography by C. Edgar Grissom
One of the most significant decisions on the part of Grissom and the publishers was to take advantage of the benefits of modern technology and include a DVD-ROM with over 2,000 color images of various details such as dust jackets, covers, dummy copies, copyright pages, pages of text, slipcases, spines, and frontispieces. These high quality JPEG images allow one to make in-depth comparisons between different copies and in so doing offer an interesting glimpse into publishing practices at the time.
A writer of such stature deserves a comprehensive bibliography of his literary efforts, and this is exactly what Grissom has compiled. It is a masterful work of careful scholarship that will from time to time need to be updates, yet as a basic bibliography of Hemingway’s canon, it may never be surpassed.
-John Roger Paas, Wolfenbutteler Notizen zur Buchgeschichte
If your pulse quickens upon hearing that a new edition or printing or state has been discovered, then you should stop reading this review and lay hands on this new bibliography. You will find C. Edgar Grissom’s Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography to be the welcome product of a persistent and inquiring mind. One gets the sense that he has chased the sometimes confounding details of his tome to their source—or else pursued them as far as we could have possibly followed ourselves, leaving us with a trustworthy reference tool that answers, but also asks, questions.
The details and depth of this volume delight. Hanneman’s work may have been foundational for two generations of Hemingway scholars, but the foundation of Grissom’s work is Grissom’s work. He began over again, as it were, and concentrated. A self-taught bibliophile, he spent a dozen years at this task. What has resulted is not merely a description of historical artifacts, although it is precise and painstaking in its description. Grissom has produced the narrative of Hemingway’s primary bibliography by first describing, then annotating, and finally supplementing his text with appendices and illustrations. He observes in his introduction “a properly conceived and executed single-author bibliography chronicles the author’s writing career.”
Judged only by the virtues of the comprehensiveness and thoroughness of Grissom’s bibliographical descriptions, his work is without question the new standard for Hemingway scholars.
-Albert J. DeFazio III, The Hemingway Review
The American Antiquarian Society, 1812-2012: A Bicentennial History by Philip F. Gura
Philip F. Gura’s splendidly written bicentennial history is focused on an institution that has evaded fossilization. He describes the Society’s “evolution from a small library and cabinet museum started by local businessmen and scholars to an internationally renowned library and scholarly center”.
Gura’s chapters are full of such fascinating detail. They tell the tale of how, step by step, a provincial library became a mecca for scholars from all over the world.
William Baker, Times Literary Supplement
Beautiful Bookbindings: A Thousand Years of the Bookbinder’s Art 
by P. J. M. Marks
The eclectic, sensitive choice of materials makes this collection more interesting than similar works. The chapter content consists largely of illustrations of the bindings in full, and close-up. By Elizabeth Hunter, these photographs are stunning and evocative, encouraging the reader to pore over them for hours.
The work is beautifully printed on quality paper and solidly bound with a lovely dust jacket.
This is a worthy volume for study by scholars and students, and for the coffee tables of discerning laymen.
-G. E. Gorman, Australian Library Journal
This is the kind of book that even non-bibliophiles will look at and go: Wow. You can imagine then how much more of a delight it is to the connoisseur of the printed book, the lover of fine bindings.
This sumptuously illustrated book on bookbinding is also informed by fine scholarship. Most books on the subject of bookbinding tend to be either pretty pictures without the scholarship or scholarship (usually technical) without the nice pictures. By intelligently and deeply drawing from both, Beautiful Bookbindings becomes not just the most exciting, but also the most illuminating, introduction to the art and craft of fine bindings.
-Pradeep Sebastian, The Hindu
I Classici che hanno Fatto L’italia: Per un Nuovo Canone Bio-Bibliografico degli Autori Italiani by Fabrizio Govi
I Classici is a superb reference to be consulted repeatedly for its pithy insights.
Bibliophiles with knowledge of Italian undoubtedly will take delight in perusing this colossal accomplishment and identifying their own favorites.
-Madison U. Sowell, SHARP News
The Kelmscott Chaucer: A Census by 
William S. Peterson and Sylvia Holton Peterson
This meticulously documented and handsomely designed volume obviously belongs in most of the research libraries of the world concerned with fine printing, but it should be held more broadly than just in institutions whose acquisitions are guided by that subject interest.
They have created a fascinating survey of the major collectors of the period and the extended provenance of these volumes.
-Printing History
A History of Longmans and Their Books, 1724-1990: Longevity in Publishing by Asa Briggs
This is a social history, anecdotal and familiar, of seven generations of a grand publishing house.
There are good reasons for adding the volume to a personal or institutional library, beginning with the fact that a well-designed and well-made book is always worth holding in one’s hands.
-Melvyn New, The Scriblerian
Dr. Rosenbach and Mr. Lilly: Book Collecting in a Golden Age 
by Joel Silver
It is another example of the fine printing and book design for which the Oak Knoll Press has a now well-established reputation. A word of praise for the outstanding dustcover with its excellent photos of Rosenbach and Lilly is appropriate.
Joel Silver writes in an engaging, readable style addressed to the ordinary reader. The result is pleasing in all respects and makes a gift to delight any booklover.
-R. L. Cope, Australian Library Journal
Historical Scripts from Classical Times to the Renaissance by Stan Knight
Historical Scripts is an essential reference book for anyone sincerely fascinated by the history of Western letters.
-Paul Shaw, Codex
Great Hemingway review by Kirk Curnutt
Quite honestly, I had as enjoyable a time reading C. Edgar Grissom’s new descriptive bibliography of Ernest Hemingway as I did Umberto Eco’s The Prague Cemetery (2011). Both are hefty volumes—more than 500 pages—chockfull of semiotic intrigue and inferences lurking in the white space, waiting to be drawn out. (The plot in Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography moves a little faster, however). In both cases, the storyline pivots around the relationships between books. In Eco’s case, the intertextual referent is Dumas père’s Joseph Balsamo (1854). In Mr. Grissom’s case, it’s a source with which all serious Hemingway aficionados have more than a little familiarity: Audre Hanneman’s Ernest Hemingway: A Comprehensive Bibliography (1967).
Read more on The Hemingway Project. You can order the book on our website.
Oak Knoll books in review
Check out some recent reviews of publications from Oak Knoll!
Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography by C. Edgar Grissom
A massive, near definitive resource that goes places I have never traveled with any other bibliography. Grissom’s scholarship is breathtaking. Oak Knoll Press has touted it as ‘sure to be the definitive resource for Hemingway collectors, scholars and libraries for years to come,’ and I see no reason why it won’t.”– Craig Stark, BookThink
He has been scrupulous in identifying previous omissions and he has corrected the errors of earlier bibliographers. This exemplary study now stands as a solid foundation for future Hemingway scholarship. That it will soon be superseded is difficult to imagine. One last observation: while this title’s price may appear daunting, it has been my experience that making use of reference volume just once often justifies its purchase. I have my copy. Get yours.” –Ralph Sipper, ABAA
“The Good Education of Youth”: Worlds of Learning in the Age of Franklin edited by John H. Pollack
A remarkable collection that successfully combines scholarly articles, an exhibition catalogue, and a photographic essay within its covers. The images in the book reinforce the value of using material culture to understand the historical past, and they give life to the subjects discussed in the essays. Overall, this book is a “must have” for those interested in the educational, social, and cultural history of early America.”–Keith Pacholl, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
Series Americana: Post Depression-Era Regional Literature, 1938-1980: A Descriptive Bibliography by Carol Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald’s descriptions for each entry are extraordinarily detailed. The entries are models of technique for twentieth century books. The eight pages of color plates are especially welcome and help to capture some of the charm of the books themselves, many of which were attractively designed and printed. In short, Series Americana, exhaustively researched and painstakingly written, is an essential tool for all research libraries and will provide ample rewards for the librarian, the collector, and the student of American publishing history.”–Russell L. Martin III, SHARP News
Printed Cookbooks in Europe 1470-1700 by Henry Notaker
It will, I am sure, become a collector’s item in its own right for it is a handsome volume, well printed in a pleasing font on cream-coloured paper with each entry well set out. The bibliographic content of each entry is meticulous and will be of great service to everyone whose research involves cookbooks. At the back are lists of bibliographical reference works, libraries, and background literature. Four indices, arranged under names, chronology, and geography, cover all the ways one might want to use the book.”–Malcolm Thick, Petits Propos Culinaires
Aun Aprendo: A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Writings of Aldous Leonard Huxley by David J. Bromer
This volume is unquestionably a valuable resource. The book is extremely well typeset and the use of a grey rule admirably breaks up descriptions. There are also thirteen full-page colour and two full-page black and white illustrations and a magnificent dust-jacket.” –Philip W. Errington, Book Collector
The Hemingway Bibliography Debut at Lemuria Bookstore
Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography by Edgar C. Grissom can succinctly be described as the culmination of all previous endeavors in Hemingway bibliography. Correcting the work of previous bibliographers, it adds numerous editions and printings to the periods they covered and addresses the years 1975-2009, which had previously been left untouched.
Check out this post on the Lemuria Bookstore Blog about the debut of Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography at the Lemuria shop. Grissom has been a lifelong customer of Lemuria, as well as an avid collector of Ernest Hemingway for fifty years. Celebrating his new publication and his years of hard work and research, the article talks about Grissom’s own collection and the steps he went through in publishing his book.
Click here to read the article and click here for more information on Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography.
The release of our Hemingway bibliography 50 years after his death
This week honors the 50th anniversary of the death of the great journalist and author, Ernest Hemingway. After suffering from many illnesses during his lifetime, Hemingway committed suicide on on July 2, 1961. In order to celebrate the life of Hemingway and remember the 50th anniversary of his death, Oak Knoll is excited to release our new publication, Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography by Edgar C. Grissom.
Described as the culmination of all previous endeavors in Hemingway bibliography, this bibliography is the only publication to classify edition, printing, issue, and state, provide classical bibliographical descriptions, and describe every printing of every edition. The book is generously illustrated with title pages and copyright pages throughout the text and is accompanied by a DVD-ROM of more than 2,000 color illustrations and more than 50 images of 
Hemingway’s signature from 1908 to 1960. As this bibliography is sure to be the definitive resource for Hemingway collectors, scholars, and librarians for many years to come, we are happy to present our book on the anniversary of the death of such an important literary figure.
Click here for more information on Ernest Hemingway: A Descriptive Bibliography, and click on the following links to read more articles honoring the anniversary of Hemingway’s death.
Los Angeles Times Entertainment
Open Culture: the best free and cultural & educational media on the web
The Oak Knoll Biblio-Blog 