From whether you can judge a book without its cover to a future of universal digitization, and from the most beautiful book ever printed to the elusive notion of quality, Calasso creates a vision of publishing as ' a literary work in itself, belonging to a genre all its own '.
All the books published by a certain publisher could be seen as links in a single chain. In this book, the author meditates on the art of book publishing. It looks at the publishing industry as a whole, from the essential importance of graphics, jackets and cover flaps to the consequences of universal digitization.
A fascinating look at Roberto Calasso's work as a publisher and his reflections on the art of book publishing'All the books published by a certain publisher could be seen as links in a single chain'In this fascinating memoir and manifesto the author and publisher Roberto Calasso meditates on the art of book publishing. With his signature erudition and polemical flair, Calasso transcends Adelphi to look at the publishing industry as a whole, from the essential importance of graphics, jackets and cover flaps to the consequences of universal digitization. And he outlines what he describes as the 'most hazardous and ambitious' profile of what a publishing house can be- a book comprising many books, akin to that of other twentieth-century publishers, from Giulio Einaudi to Roger Straus, of whom the book offers brief portraits.
“Written with passion, intelligence and not without a certain flair for a story, it's a treat for any bibliophile, a manifesto/memoir that proves he's a master of the art form he's arguing for”
Independent
Roberto Calasso (1941-2021) was the director of the renowned Italian publishing house Adelphi Edizioni and the author of numerous books, including the international bestseller The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, a touchstone in his wide-ranging series of works that map the emergence of mind from myth to modernity. The series began with The Ruin of Kasch and also includes Ka, K., Tiepolo Pink, La Folie Baudelaire, Ardor, The Celestial Hunter and The Unnamable Present.
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