Being a printer was what Benjamin Franklin prided himself on most

The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in 18 Remarkable Lives Adam Smyth

The Bodley Head, pp.380, 25

For some readers this book will have the charm of the Antiques Roadshow. Adam Smyth, professor of English Literature and the History of the Book at Balliol College, Oxford, presents with caressing attention to technical detail an array of illustrious book people. They may be unfamiliar names to those who don’t know a colophon from a cauliflower, but he makes his characters wholly accessible.

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TaggedBenjamin Franklin, Biblical Harmonies, bibliophilia, book binding, history of printing, John Baskerville, the Bodleian Library, Wynken de Worde

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Being a printer was what Benjamin Franklin prided himself on most

Having learnt the trade as a child in London, the polymath established a thriving printing business in Philadelphia, bringing humour and enlightenment to the American millions

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