History of Bookselling, Selling the Bible, and A Librarian’s Memoir: September Books Roundup

Our regular look at the new books that have recently caught the eye of our print and online editors this month.

Selling the Word of God: The Early Commercial History of the English Bible by Harry Spillane

On the 500th anniversary of the publication of Tyndale's New Testament, Spillane (Munby Fellow in Bibliography at the University of Cambridge) takes a look at how the Bible, and versions of it,  has been printed, marketed, advertised, commissioned and sold over the centuries. From Bodleian Library Publishing, with a foreword by Diarmaid MacCulloch. 

The Bookshop: A History of Bookselling From the Dawn of Print to the 21st Century by Andrew Pettegree

A superb look at 600 years of booksellers and bookselling (both new and rare), concentrating especially on the US, England, France and Germany, and including how books have also been sold by travelling salesmen, in railway stations, and general stores from ancient Roman sellers of scrolls to Amazon. Published by Profile Books.

The Bayeux Tapestry

The famous embroidery is temporarily on display at the British Museum in London through July 2027 and the museum has published three books for the occasion with full-colour reproductions, essays by experts, and including a concertina pull-out of the entire tapestry as well as a large format deluxe edition.

John Aubrey’s Natural History, edited by Louise Ryland-Epton

The 17th century biographer and antiquarian also attempted to put together the first systematic survey of an English county's natural world, Wiltshire, which touches on a huge range of subjects from deforestation and fossils to wool prices. His work has only been published partially but this edition contains the whole manuscript, newly transcribed. It is published by Hobnob Press to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Aubrey’s birth.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

A first edition facsimile of the classic in a two-volume edition with covers typical of the era, including Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846), faithfully reproduced from the British Library’s original 1847 copy published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. It also includes facsimile looseleaf pages from Emily’s two manuscript poetry notebooks (also held in the Library collections) that show earlier versions of a couple of poems that appear in Poems.

Letter Box: The Geometry of Loss by Rick Black, visualized By Warren Lehrer

Written by former New York Times reporter turned poet, essayist, and book artist Rick Black, this artist's book looks at dealing with grief with short pieces of text arranged in imaginative typographic settings. Published by The Center for Book Arts & Earsay Books.

The Letters of Robert Frost (Vol 4)

Harvard University Press's penultimate volume covering more than 600 letters from the poet’s personal correspondence between 1937 and 1946 when Frost was at the height of his fame. Many of the letters have never previously been printed or collected together in one volume.

Behind the Desk at the Main: A Librarian’s Memoir by Dorothy Lazard

Lazard's experiences at the Oakland Public Library, chronicling the day-to-day life of library work and explaining the economic, political, and ideological pressures that library workers are under. Published by Heyday

Hannah Arendt: A Life of the Mind by Thomas Meyer translated by Shelley Frisch

A major new biography of one of the 20th century's leading philosophers which makes use of newly discovered archival materials to chart Arendt's life, especially the periods of living in Paris after escaping from Nazi Germany and the United States and the publication of her The Origins of Totalitarianism in 1951. Published by Penguin Press.

Classical Myth and Literature in Parody: Ancient and Modern by William F. Hansen 

Hansen charts the evolution of classical parody, from ancient Greece and Rome to the modern day, concentrating on two periods, the sixth century BCE to the second century CE, and the 17th-21st centuries. From Bloomsbury who describe it as "the first comprehensive study of anglophone classical parody revealing how authors through the centuries have reimagined and distorted classical texts for humorous effect".

Alphabettes Soup: Feminist Approaches to Type edited by Amy Papaelias

A survey of 10 years of feminist approaches to type research and design, featuring essays from the Alphabettes platform as well as original pieces looking at type's central place in culture. It features more than 100 typefaces designed by women and non-binary individuals. Published by Bikini Books.

On the Mark: From Periods to Interrobangs, How Punctuation Remade the World by Florence Hazrat

A lively history of punctuation from the earliest Mesopotamia triangular symbol to the internet, and featuring the stories of the familiar (apostrophe) and the less wellknown (the percontation point), as well as the Nazi's obsession with exclamation marks and AI's obsession with em dashes. Published by Profile Books.