A Book Of The Book: Some Works and Projections about the Book & Writing (Paperback)

by Jerome Rothenberg (Author), Steven Clay (Contributor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
From Blake, Breton, Whitman, Khlebnikov, Blanchot and Duchamp to Artaud, book artist Johanna Drucker and poet-critic Charles Bernstein, this massive collection houses a trove of essays, poems, prose text, illustrations and photographs that ponder just what a book is, isn't or can be. All are provocative. Poet and ethnologist Rothenberg (Technicians of the Sacred) and publisher and book dealer Clay present Derrida writing on Edmond Jab s, examining the differing sources of writing and speech and the role of inscription; critic Richard Sieburth on Mallarm and the latter's contention that the world exists to be in a book; Bernstein proposes language as the technology behind all technologies; and Jorge Luis Borges finds "the cult of books" evidenced in the world's religions. Generous excerpts from Jess Collins's O!, Tom Phillips's A Humument and many non-Western texts make this collection an eyeful, including the spectacular carved fonts in an imaginary language by Xu Bing. And bound into A Book of the Book is a gatefold on glossy stock of a poem by Blaise Cendars, illustrated by Sonia Delaunay. Rothenberg and Clay have intelligently structured their book, allowing the reader to move through the four sections and become increasingly grounded in an understanding of what the book qua book has become over two millennia. Just as wisely, they stay away from reducing this great effort to an appeal for recovering a tradition. (Dec.) Forecast: Every piece here deals in one way or the other with the book as objectDwhether phenomenological, cultural, historical, technical or aestheticDat a moment in history when the demise of books as we've come to know them is more than just cocktail-party chatterDit's boardroom chatter. If sought out and handsold, this book could be a hit with any literate reader; it will certainly find its way onto syllabi.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
Books…might be called our cultural cornerstones…this collection might be considered a primer in the field [book arts criticism and theory]. -- Rain Tax, Spring 2001 --Charles Alexander

…this book could be a hit with any literate reader; it will certainly find its way onto syllabi. -- Publisher’s Weekly, November 13, 2000, Volume 247, Number 46 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 580 pages
• Publisher: Granary Books; Second Edition edition (November 2, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887123288
• ISBN-13: 978-1887123280
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 6.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #588,057 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A rich overview of new visions of the book, June 19, 2008

By	Jeff Abell (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

Jerome Rothenberg is a tireless (and often brilliant) anthologist of all things literary and poetic. His 2-volume "Poems for the Millennium" is an astonishing collection, and his revelatory "Technicians of the Sacred" should be in the library of anyone interested in the connections of modern literature and world culture. "A Book of the Book," edited with Steven Clay, assembles a fascinating collection of articles about books and writing, ranging from Keith Smith's "The Book as Physical Object" to Jacques Derrida. Then he goes on to explore experimental works that exploded the notion of writing and the book, from Gertrude Stein to F.T. Marinetti, from Blaise Cendrars & Sonia Delauney's "Trans-Siberian" (included in full-color facsimile) to Max Ernst's collaged "novel" and Marcel Duchamp's "Boite-en-valise." From theorists like Roland Barthes to "artists' books" by Tom Phillips, Dieter Roth, Alison Knowles and many others, this anthology presents the book as both thing and idea. This anthology will be of interest to writers and artists alike.