A Gentle Madness : Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes and the Eternal Passsion for Books by Basbanes, Nicholas A - 1995

New York: Henry Holt, 1995 "The passion to possess books has never been more widespread than it is today; indeed, obsessive book collecting remains the only hobby to have a disease named after it. A Gentle Madness is an adventure among the afflicted. Richly anecdotal and fully documented, it combines the perspective of historical research with the immediacy of investigative journalism. Above all, it is a celebration of books and the people who have revered, gathered, and preserved them over the centuries. Author Nicholas Basbanes. a dedicated bibliophile himself, begins his book 2,200 years ago in Alexandria, when a commitment was made to gather all the world's knowledge beneath one roof. In a series of lively chapters, the continuum then passes through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the twentieth century. with a special emphasis on book lore and book culture in Great Britain and North America. In the second half of A Gentle Madness. Basbanes offers a gallery of revealing profiles of living collectors and presents exclusive examinations of the great contemporary stories-the rare-book thefts of Stephen Blumberg: "institutional bilbiomania" at the University of Texas; the mystery man who used $17 million of another preson's money to gain recognition as the greatest book collector alive. These are just a few of the stories detailed for the first time. The book also includes the most comprehensive bibliography on book collecting compiled in more than a quarter century." 638 p.Illus.notes, biibliography index.. 1st US Ed.. Hard Cover. Fine/Near Fine - Price Clipped.