This study describes the books produced by one of America's most controversial publishers, Thomas Bird Mosher, whose editions helped disseminate British literature and design to the American public. Variously described as literary pirate by some yet praised as prince of publishers by others, Mosher's passion for literary texts led him to reprint books without the author's permission, though he often paid royalties. Mosher never technically broke any copyright laws, and many authors defended him for assisting in introducing the American public to authors such as William Morris, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter Pater, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, George Meredith, Robert Browning and George Gissing in affordable editions. The designs of Blake, Rossetti, Pissarro, Strang, Morris and MacMurdo and presses such as the Vale, Chiswick and Kelmscott also appeared in The Mosher Books.

These lists are usually generated in neat doses of one hundred titles. Here then (at least in the opinions of Messrs. Hutner and Kelly) are the hundred greatest printed books of the twentieth century. Given another pair of editors, you d probably be offered a different list, but this one serves and serves well, for it concentrates not only on the recognized chestnuts, but also lesser-known, and often exceedingly récherché volumes that have left their mark. It is noteworthy that only two books in the survey were printed by offset; the rest are all letterpress. And although America is strongly represented, there are also selections from Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, England, Wales and Switzerland. Every book is illustrated in fine line duotone, many in color, and best of all, the captions that accompanied the original Grolier exhibit have been transcribed intact. In their two prefatory essays, Hutner has provided a convincing defense of his choices (1900 1948), and Kelly, a spirited apologia for his (1949 1999). Joe Blumenthal ended his survey of fine printing in America with the observation that the art of the book, one of the slender graces of civilization, works its charm on each new generation. This survey, while admittedly neither comprehensive nor definitive, provides an excellent overview of fine printing over the past hundred years. Despite Morison s contention that typography is the most conservative of all the arts, the form of the book continues to mutate, evolve, and advance. If we are to overcome the complexities of a digital age, we would do well to appreciate, if not embrace, that heritage. -- Amazon.com.

"Tells the story of how the clashes between authors, publishers, and literary "pirates" influenced both American copyright law and literature itself."--Dust jacket flap

Reference tool for Rare Books Collection.

Named a Library Journal Best Reference of 2023 - From Library Journal's Starred Review: "This ambitious and entertaining update solidifies Berger’s volume as a must-have title for librarians, booksellers, collectors, and students of the book arts and book history." This new edition of The Dictionary of the Book adds more than 700 new entries and many new illustrations and brings the vocabulary and theory of bookselling and collecting into the modern commercial and academic world, which has been forced to adjust to a new reality. The definitive glossary of the book covers all the terms needed for a thorough understanding of how books are made, the materials they are made of, and how they are described in the bookselling, book collecting, and library worlds. Every key term—more than 2,000—that could be used in booksellers’ catalogs, library records, and collectors’ descriptions of their holdings is represented in this dictionary. This authoritative source covers all areas of book knowledge, including: The book as physical object Typeface terminology Paper terminology Printing Book collecting Cataloging Book design Bibliography as a discipline, bibliographies, and bibliographical description Physical Condition and how to describe it Calligraphy Language of manuscripts Writing implements Librarianship Legal issues Parts of a book Book condition terminology Pricing of books Buying and selling Auctions Items one will see an antiquarian book fairs Preservation and conservation issues, and the notion of restoration Key figures, presses / publishers, and libraries in the history of books Book collecting clubs and societies How to read and decipher new and old dealers’ catalogs And much more The Dictionary also contains an extensive bibliography—more than 1,000 key readings in the book world and it gives current (and past) definitions of terms whose meaning has shifted over the centuries. More than 200 images accompany the entries, making the work even more valuable for understanding the terms described.