Award-winning Scottish historian Pettegree offers an abundantly detailed history of bookselling, spanning the past 600 years. As far back as Greek and Roman times, there was a market for handwritten texts, and, even before the invention of printing, doctors, lawyers, and clergymen collected relevant tomes. Gutenberg’s invention, though, fueled the start of a book industry that involved printers, typefounders, binders, publishers, and sellers. Read more
Tag: Booksellers
Dissident Hong Kong Bookseller Lam Wing-kee Dies Aged 70
He was one of several booksellers detained in 2015 after selling material critical of the political elite on China’s mainland. He fled to Taiwan – which is seen by Beijing as a renegade province that must be reunited – in 2019 for fear he would be sent back to China under Hong Kong’s proposed extradition bill. Taiwan’s authorities said at the time that the reopening of Lam’s Causeway Bay Books bookshop was a symbol of democracy and freedom on the island. Read more
Maldives Barefoot Bookseller
Dream jobs are a rare find, but nothing quite beats the role of bookseller in the Maldives, specifically at Soneva Fushi, one of the world’s most sublime resorts. Read more
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Leonard Riggio, Who Built Barnes & Noble Into a Bookselling Empire, Dies at 83
Leonard Riggio, a brash, self-styled underdog who transformed the publishing industry by building Barnes & Noble into the country’s most powerful bookseller before his company was overtaken by the rise of Amazon.com, has died at age 83. Read more
