Editions & Impressions: Twenty Years on the Book Beatcollects thirty-three of Nicholas Basbaness most engaging articlesgrouped into three sections: Book Culture; People; and Places. Mr.Basbanes writes passionately about bibliomania, bibliokleptomania, andbiblioclasms, as well as book people like Otto Bettmann, Tom Wolfe,Michael Zinnman, and others. He travels the world, visiting andreporting on libraries in Sweden, Germany, Iraq, and New York. Mr.Basbanes selected the essays in this collection precisely because theywere not replicated in substantial ways in his other books. More thanone-third of the essays in Editions & Impressions are publishedhere for the first time in their full, uncut versions, and one essayand the introduction have never been previously published at all. Mostof the essays include an endnote, telling the behind-the-scenes storyabout the article and bringing the subject up to date.
Mr. Basbanes, of course, is meant to be read, and so Editions & Impressionswill be available in a smartly produced trade edition. The tradeedition includes a dust jacket in the style of A Gentle Madness andPatience & Fortitude, Mr. Basbanes groundbreaking books oncollecting. 224 pages. (HARDCOVER)
