Every Book Its Reader - The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World

Nicholas A. Basbanes offers a lively consideration of writings that have ''made things happen'' in the world, works that have both nudged the course of history and fired the imagination of countless influential people. Basbanes also asks what we can know about such figures as John Milton, Edward Gibbon, John Locke, Isaac Newton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Adams, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Henry James, Thomas Edison, Helen Keller-even the notorious Marquis de Sade and Adolf Hitler-by knowing what they have read. He shows how books that many of these people have consulted, in some cases annotated with their marginal notes, can offer tantalizing clues to the evolution of their character and the development of their thought.

About the author

Nicholas A. Basbanes has worked as an award-winning investigative reporter, a literary editor, and a nationally syndicated columnist. The author of five books, he also writes a regular column for Fine Books & Collections magazine and lectures widely on book-related issues. He and his wife, Constance, live in Massachusetts.

Product details

• Authors: Nicholas A Basbanes, Nicholas A. Basbanes
• Publisher: Harper Perennial USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 12.12.2006
• EAN: 9780060593247
• ISBN: 978-0-06-059324-7
• No. of pages: 400
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 25 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; HISTORY: General, HISTORY: Women, LITERARY CRITICISM: Books & Reading, LITERARY COLLECTIONS: Essays, COMPOSITION & WRITING: ON LANGUAGE, LITERARY CRITICISM: Jewish, LITERARY CRITICISM: Reference