A Splendor of Letters -- Signed

By Nicholas A. Basbanes.

This copy comes from the author's private stock of books, and it is signed.

In his fourth book, Basbanes contiunes the lively anecdotal exploration of book people, places, and culture he began in 1995 with A Gentle Madness. Basbanes now offers a consideration of the many pressing issues that surround the role of books in contemporary society, such as the willful destruction of books and libraries in Sarajevo, Tibet, and Cambodia, and the spirited efforts to restore them. The matter of "discards" at various libraries takes on an entirely new dimension as well, with fully researched stories about the kind of attitudes that may lead to the loss of the last copies of important works.

In vivid detail, Basbanes examines the many materials that have been used over the centuries to record information, among them clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, slabs of stone, palm leaves, animal skins, and hammered sheets of gold and copper. Also discussed are the various debates that continue to rage about preservation, which may mean saving and storing books on paper indefinitely, or as electronic data, which are by nature ephemeral.

We have a very limited supply of these books.