Books and Bookmen
by Andrew Lang
Longmans, Green, & Co., 1912, London, New York, Bombay and Calcutta
CONDITION:
Poor. The covers and boards are in poor condition, featuring bumped corners, moderate edge wear, moderate rubbing, soiling, and worn leather. Cover detached. The spine is missing. The hinges and joints are broken. The text block and pages are in good condition, exhibiting toning and loose pages. The endpapers are graded very good, showing toning, an inscription, a cracked hinge, and detachment. Plates and illustrations remain in good condition.
ATTRIBUTES:
Illustrated edition. Hardcover. No dust jacket. Bound in leather.
DESCRIPTION:
Books and Bookmen is a celebrated collection of essays dedicated to the passions, eccentricities, and lore of the ardent bibliophile. Written with wit and charm, the book explores wide-ranging topics centered on the love of books as physical objects and cultural artifacts, including literary forgeries, rare bindings, bibliomania, and historical book-collecting habits across different eras. Through these reflections, the text captures the distinct spirit of literary appreciation and the curious obsessions that have driven book hunters through the centuries.
The author, Andrew Lang, was a prolific Scottish man of letters, poet, novelist, literary critic, and anthropologist. Born in Selkirk in 1844 and educated at St Andrews University and Balliol College, Oxford, Lang established himself as one of the most versatile and influential writers of the Victorian era. While widely renowned today for his extensive anthologies of folk and fairy tales—such as the famous color fairy book series—Lang was equally respected in his time as a brilliant essayist, classical scholar, and commentator on literary history.
As a piece of literary criticism and cultural commentary, Books and Bookmen holds an enduring significance for its affectionate and humorous portrayal of the reading life during the late nineteenth century. It occupies a special place in the genre of writing about books, reflecting the sophisticated yet accessible style that defined Lang's career. For book collectors and antiquarian enthusiasts, the volume is particularly engaging because it playfully mirrors their own passions, offering an insightful and historically rich look into the timeless subculture of book collecting and bibliomania.
FLASHBACK TO 1912 WHEN THIS BOOK WAS PUBLISHED:
When this book was published in 1912, the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic stunned a global public riding the crest of the second industrial revolution, just as the waning days of the Qing Dynasty gave way to the birth of the Republic of China. Amidst these monumental shifts, the British Empire expanded its administrative reach with the grand Delhi Durbar shifting the imperial capital, while the cultural world mourned the passing of the beloved Scottish polymath Andrew Lang.
Location: ABS-1-1-009