Margaret Leslie Davis

I greatly enjoyed reading this book. While the book touches on, at various points, the story surrounding the creation and printing of the various copies of the "Gutenberg Bible," the actual focus is on one particular copy, the copy that is known to scholars as "Number 45" from a catalogue of surviving copies made by one 19th century scholar. The author traces the history of the copy from the early 19th century to the present day. (The book's title is somewhat misleading, in that we aren't told anything about the copy's history prior to about 1825.) The two century odyssey -- and that's a good use of that word -- is quite fascinating, as we get a good look at the individuals that owned it. The widow of oil baron Edward Dohney gets the most coverage, possibly because her story is the best documented. And the end of her saga, after her death, is probably the most enraging, with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles fumbling it away. It is noteworthy how much bad luck and tragedy seems to attach to this copy. The author clearly had a good time writing this book, and it shows. For book-lovers, a highly enjoyable read.… (more)

This is the second book I've read this year regarding book collecting and collectors, and it was just as fascinating as the The Millionaire and the Bard, which I read first. The history of the Gutenberg bible and early printing is so interesting, and as I was reading, I thought a lot about another book I read a year or so ago, The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time, which I highly recommend to people who enjoyed this book.

I wish the author hadn't chosen to write about this history in the present tense. I never got used to it, and it irritated and distracted me enough to knock down my rating. I don't know if the choice was to make it all sound more exciting, like someone breathlessly telling a story and painting a picture, but I didn't love it, and I wanted it to stop. Maybe that's picky, but I've been reading for almost 50 years now, and I have my crotchets. It doesn't keep me from recommending this book, because it had a lot of great, well-researched content for people interested in the subject.… (more)