Noble fragments : the gripping story of the antiquarian bookseller who broke up a Gutenberg Bible / Michael Visontay.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Visontay, Michael, author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wells, Gabriel, 1861-1946.

Wells, Gabriel.

Visontay, Michael.

Visontay, Michael--Family.

Bible--Latin--Vulgate--1454.

Bible.

Book collectors.

Booksellers and bookselling.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

266 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : Scribe Publications, 2025.

Summary:

"One hundred years ago, Gabriel Wells, a New York bookseller, committed a crime against history. He broke up the world's greatest book, the Gutenberg Bible, and sold it off in individual pages. This is the story of an Australian man's hunt for those fragments and his family's debt to an act of literary vandalism. In 1921, Wells' audacity scandalised the rare-book world. The Gutenberg was the first substantial book in Europe to have been printed on a printing press. It represented the democratisation of knowledge and was the Holy Grail of rare books. Was the break-up a sacrilege or a canny deal? New Yorkers were divided. For every frown of disapproval, there was a lick of the lips. It was the Roaring Twenties, the Gatsby era of fabulous wealth. Tycoons were in a feeding frenzy to acquire items that would demonstrate their refinement. Wells marketed the pages as 'Noble Fragments', they sold like hot cakes, and he died a rich man. Half a century later, Sydney journalist Michael Visontay stumbled upon a mysterious legal document that linked Wells to his own family. He became obsessed by the Gutenberg's invisible imprint on his life, and set out to track down the pages of the broken bible. Part detective story and part memoir, Noble Fragments is an expedition into the arcane world of book collectors and their eccentric passions, and a journey of discovery about how Wells's gamble set off a chain of events that changed a family's destiny" -- Back cover.

Contents:

Introduction

The merchant and the scholar

An auction in London

Talking about my revelation

Angel of life

The landlady

Saving Esther

Leader of the band

Wogs and witches

An offer he couldn't refuse

Will you buy me a Gutenberg Bible, dear?

The 20 commandments

'You're no beauty yourself!'

When Ivan met Eva

Confessions of a teenage book hustler

Bragging rights

Kings Cross confidential

From Kalman, with love

The concert in the cafeteria

Seoul searching

One-leaf wonders

Dirty secrets

Epilogue: balancing the ledger.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-239) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Garrison fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9781957363981

1957363983

OCLC:

1482784414