A Gentle Madness : Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes and the Eternal Passion for Books (SIGNED)

New York, NY, U.S.A.:: Henry Holt & Company, LLC,, 1995.. First edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Near Fine dj. Stated FIRST EDITION, SECOND PRINTING ("First Edition-1995 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2"). SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR on the half title page. This is NOT the later OWL printing edition. 638 pages including notes, bibliography, and index. The book and dust jacket are in NEAR FINE condition with very small abrasion to bottom front jacket edge. NOT price-clipped or remaindered. The dust jacket reads: "The passion to possess books has never been more widespread than it is today; indeed, obsessive book collecting remains the only hobby to have a disease named after it. A Gentle Madness is an adventure among the afflicted. Richly anecdotal and fully documented, it combines the perspective of historical research with the immediacy of investigative journalism. Above all, it is a celebration of books and the people who have revered, gathered, and preserved them over the centuries. Author Nicholas Basbanes. a dedicated bibliophile himself, begins his book 2,200 years ago in Alexandria, when a commitment was made to gather all the world's knowledge beneath one roof. In a series of lively chapters, the continuum then passes through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the twentieth century. with a special emphasis on book lore and book culture in Great Britain and North America. In the second half of A Gentle Madness. Basbanes offers a gallery of revealing profiles of living collectors and presents exclusive examinations of the great contemporary stories-the rare-book thefts of Stephen Blumberg: 'institutional bilbiomania' at the University of Texas; the mystery man who used $17 million of another preson's money to gain recognition as the greatest book collector alive. These are just a few of the stories detailed for the first time. The book also includes the most comprehensive bibliography on book collecting compiled in more than a quarter century.