Margaret Leslie Davis' The Lost Gutenberg, which traces one Bible's 500-year journey, is an informative, superbly researched book that explores the lives of those who were in contact with the best example of Gutenberg's work ... Davis meticulously chronicles five centuries in the life of this special copy and those who owned it ... The depth of Davis' research cannot be understated. The writing in this book is straightforward and, at times, even heartbreaking, but outstanding reporting lies at its core ... The book can be seen online, but Davis describes it with beauty and accuracy, interweaving the descriptions throughout the book in a way that gives readers a sense of knowing, of having experienced Number 45 themselves ... This makes it a book about not only Number 45 and its owners but also a narrative that explores our collective obsession with art, technology, change, and history.
It’s an addictive and engaging look at the 'competitive, catty and slightly angst-ridden' heart of the world of book collecting ... The Lost Gutenberg reads like a comedy of manners starring the cast of an Ayn Rand novel ... It’s improbable and riveting. You learn a lot about the world when you see what it takes to both make and own something as precious as a Gutenberg Bible ... Davis has an extremely wry hand, often sliding in jokes so subtly you don’t even notice they’re there until you’re done laughing. By far, she has the poshest toilet pun I’ve ever read. My only complaint in her writing is a confusing mixture of past and present tenses that sometimes makes the scattered chronology of the book hard to follow, especially as it begins in the middle of the story. Beyond that, the journey of one of the most important books in human history is daring and endearing, a fitting period on the sentence Gutenberg himself began with his world-changing invention.
Book collecting might seem a preoccupation of a limited cadre of obsessive, pedantic academic wannabes, but Davis makes bibliographic history utterly page-turning and absorbing, with intrigues, devastating tragedies, vast fortunes, embezzlement, a seductively voiced telephone operator, the Teapot Dome scandal, murder-suicide, earthquake, and even Worcestershire sauce. Davis’ brilliantly told story features outsize characters[.]
This fascinating account ... deftly describes the lives and motives of the five identified modern owners [of the titular Gutenberg] ... Davis offers a gripping, well-researched account of the importance of books as cultural artifacts and of one particular work that transformed the world, as well as the lives of those who owned a copy, that will appeal especially to bibliophiles.
...[an] enjoyable but unsatisfying history ... Despite...intriguing facts and characters, Davis’s overall thesis—that 'each owner and his or her circle left a mark' on the book—doesn’t leave the reader with any meaningful insights by the end of her book.
Davis does a fine job telling a fascinating story that touches on the origin of books, the passion of collectors, the unseen world of rare-book dealers, and the lives of the super-rich, past and present. A great read for any book lover.
