[W]hat makes this slim text memorable is [Calasso's] sheer passion for books – not digital texts but physical objects, in which every part is designed to enhance the experience of reading. An important and timely book.
Calasso’s reflections on publishing show the same deep erudition and critical acuity as his earlier books, which include brilliant, polymathic, and difficult-to-classify works on Greek mythology, Hindu mythology, Kafka, and Tiepolo, among others. And while it’s clear that his new book, unlike these earlier works, collects separate, shorter pieces linked to discrete occasions, Calasso is too intelligent to write a speech or an article without saying something important and interesting.
[Calasso's] latest book, The Art of the Publisher, a collection of essays, can be seen as commentary and rich observations centered around aphorisms that confront not only the art, but the challenge of publishing during a time of great transition.
[Calasso] wants publishers to aspire to create new books that are equally as beautiful as Manutius’s perfect book. For some this charge may seem precious and as suffocating in its imposition of critical judgment as the Internet is in its lack of discrimination. This much is certain: No other publisher today has dared to claim as his own the singular judgment and unique artistry of the publisher-artist Calasso describes so precisely. That is because the one he has in mind is himself and the art his own.
