Editions and Impressions: Twenty Years on the Book Beat

by Nicholas A. Basbanes

Collects thirty-three of the author's articles grouped into three sections - Book Culture; People; and, Places. This title includes the essays that include an endnote, telling the behind-the-scenes story about the article.

One critic has written:- This collection of articles from Basbane's columns in BIBLIO and FINE BOOKS & COLLECTIBLES and other sources is an okay read, but not as in depth or detailed as his previous 4 books. A good read for bibliophiles, but its constant referencing back to A GENTLE MADNESS (his 1st and best book) is slighly irritating after a while, as this book becomes more of a sales pitch for those who missed that book 15 years ago.

Genres: Books About Books, Essays, Nonfiction

224 pages

First published January 11, 2007

About the author

Nicholas A. Basbanes is an award-winning investigative journalist and was literary editor of the Worcester Sunday Telegram. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and Smithsonian, and he is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. Basbanes lives in North Grafton, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

If there is an authority on book collecting (and I think there is probably more than one), Basbanes is it. In his twenty years of writing about collectors, he has traveled the world to interview various members of the book community, visit libraries, and collect the anecdotes and research that make up the myriad articles and books he's written to chronicle his findings. If for no other reason, Basbanes is *the* authority because of the breadth of his work. However, reading this collection (which is almost wholly comprised of articles he wrote for Biblio magazine), I was for the first time struck by the bias he brings to so many of his (always entertaining and informative) tales. That is, a collector himself, Basbanes is constantly interjecting how he feels about the practice (e.g. the hunt is the most important part, finding rarities is more important than possessing first editions) rather than allowing his subjects to speak these opinions themselves. The vast array of collectors he knows suggest a more complex portrait of the "average collector", but Basbanes strives to make them out as similar rather than allowing their differences to speak what I imagine to be important truths regarding the diversity of motivations and impulses that drive collection.

[dejah_thoris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Add an extra star if you haven't read Basbanes' column in Fine Books and Editions. Almost all of the short chapters are reprints, so I decided to count how many I already read. Despite starting at 2004, it's nearly half the book! (15/32) Definitely better to borrow than buy, at least for me.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Officially published in 2007, "Editions and Impressions" is actually a set of revised essays, published over the past 20 years. Many of the essays actually pre-date Basbane's best-known book, "A Gentle Madness".

The connecting thread in this set of essays is the topic of book collecting. The best part of the book is the first 52 pages, consisting of 7 short essays on "book culture". These essays introduced me to the words "bibliokleptomania", "bibliolatry", and "biblioclasm"!

I found the rest of the book tedious to read, and loaded with information that is trivial and arcane. These essays are organized into two broad categories, people and places. All of them were forgettable, save the essay on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

None of these negative remarks are intended to question Basbane's unassailable status as "the leading authority on books about books". But his writing style is stream of consciousness and rambling, forcing the reader to wade through lots of obscure and obsolete information in order to find some useful or enjoyable nuggets.

I attempted recently to read another of his books, "Patience and Fortitude", and abandoned it as unreadable.

Undeterred, I am currently reading his "A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World", and so far (10-9-2013) finding it much better than the book reviewed herein.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of articles from Basbane's columns in BIBLIO and FINE BOOKS & COLLECTIBLES and other sources is an okay read, but not as in depth or detailed as his previous 4 books. A good read for bibliophiles, but its constant referencing back to A GENTLE MADNESS (his 1st and best book) is slighly irritating after a while, as this book becomes more of a sales pitch for those who missed that book 15 years ago.

[Najibah Bakar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book enriches my knowledge about special collection, and considering I am a new librarian in the field of special collection, stories told by librarians and collectors interviewed by the author are gems.

Somehow I envy the book culture of Europe and the US, because book-collecting in its professional meaning is nearly non-existant here in my country. I hope to spread this hobby further among my bookish friends.

[Thom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice series of essays. Can't wait for his new book on the history of paper due out next year.

[David]

Pleasant enough but rather passe. To quote a critic:- This collection of articles from Basbane's columns in "Biblio" and other sources is an okay read, but not as in depth or detailed as his previous 4 books. A good read for bibliophiles, but its constant referencing back to A GENTLE MADNESS (his 1st and best book) is slightly irritating after a while, as this book becomes more of a sales pitch for those who missed that book 15 years ago.