The Dictionary of the Book

Reviews / Votes

First published in 1952 with eight revised later editions, the ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter has long served as the standard glossary for the book trade. Nicely illustrated with photographs and drawings, The Dictionary of the Book updates Carter's classic volume with additional coverage on book-printing terms, typography, papermaking, and binding, among other topics. A former museum library director and curator of manuscripts at different institutions, Berger is highly qualified to compile this informative and important work. A venerable bibliophile who delights in all aspects of book production and history, he hopes the readers will get as much 'pleasure out of this book' as he did in compiling it. * Booklist * An authority on rare books and special collections, Berger offers this dictionary for 'anyone who wants to speak intelligently about books-to use the right terms in the right contexts and with the right meanings.' The work begins with the ABA, the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association ('the British organization of high-end booksellers'), and concludes with Zinc Cuts ('metal plates made from zinc that contain images for printing'). Entries contain pertinent further readings cross-referenced with URLs where relevant. 'Online Books Sales' is just one of many examples of informative entries of varying length. Five helpful appendixes discuss paper and paper-related terminology, typeface terminology, paper sizes, binding terminology, and book collectors' clubs and societies. The concluding, partly annotated bibliography usefully assembles many printed works and internet resources mentioned in the main dictionary.... The handsome work is sturdily bound for reference collection use in a quarto double-columned format with numerous black-and-white and color illustrations. Clearly written and updated for the present age....

Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. * CHOICE * I've been racing through Sidney E. Berger's The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others from cover to cover as if it was one of those unputdownable, page-turning blockbusters. This lively, wide-ranging, finely detailed glossary is high entertainment for bibliophiles of every stripe. Berger is a Renaissance bookman, at once scholar, collector, bibliographer, rare book-librarian, paper historian, curator, hand press printer and papermaker. Like John Carter before him, whose venerable ABC for Book Collectors often serves as the inspiration for this book collector's glossary, Berger is personal, witty and opinionated in the way he writes up these entries. We badly needed not just an update to Carter's ABC, but a fresh book-collecting glossary that is more in-depth, comprehensive, and scholarly-and that's exactly what Sidney Berger's passionate dictionary is. . . .Berger means this for the use of scholars and bibliophiles alike. He wears his scholarship lightly and informally, making the whole task of writing and producing this book look easy, but a decade of work went into it, and of course, a lifetime of being a devout bibliophile. . . .Two reference works are now indispensable to the bibliophile: the Oxford Companion to the Book in two volumes, and now this portable one volume by Sidney Berger. I have been, since getting hold of his Dictionary of The Book, reaching for it so many times, I can't imagine how I-or any bibliophile-got along without it so far. * The Hindu * With its plentiful illustrations and extensive - and largely print - bibliography, [The Dictionary of the Book] will be a valuable and often entertaining point of reference for people whose interest in physical books goes beyond simply collecting them. * Times Literary Supplement * Book terminology can be complicated and esoteric, but Berger's entries provide concise and often entertaining explanations for book history terms from papyrus to e books. Berger's Dictionary of the Book updates and expands the classic reference work on this topic, John Carter's ABC for Book Collectors, which was first published in 1952. In compiling his dictionary, Berger has drawn on his more than 40 years of experience as a special collections librarian, scholar, teacher, collector, and practitioner of the book arts.... Berger covers a wide range of subjects in a manner both clear and erudite. Berger's extensive experience in the library and the classroom is much in evidence: He understands what readers need to know about book history, and he knows how to explain it. From a technical services standpoint, Berger's dictionary is a useful addition to the reference shelf for anyone tasked with creating metadata that highlights the historic aspects of material texts. Berger's Dictionary of the Book is an accessible and comprehensive guide for anyone who needs to gain a vocabulary for talking about books and the processes that create them. * Technical Services Quarterly * Berger is a passionate bibliomaniac with a scholar's eye for details and a bibliophile's eye for the beauty in the details. He takes a language defined (now) long ago by John Carter and refined more recently by Nicolas Barker and brings it into the 21st century with a deft blend of deference and irreverence and more than a dash of humor, to make learning the arcane patois of books an educational treat and a great read. He adds from his own vast knowledge and experience a fresh perspective which will delight beginners and cognoscenti alike, and offers us all a chance to look afresh at our world of books. -- John Windle, Owner, John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller in San Francisco The Dictionary of the Book is a reference work that is as wide-ranging and encyclopedic as its author. Sid Berger has produced an essential tool for the trade. -- Phil Salmon, Bromer Booksellers This is not an ABC of book terms, this is an A to Z of all things bookish! From bookbinding to paper making to library terminology, this glossary leaves nothing out and its definitions are clear, concise and on target. No librarian's shelf should be without it. -- Valerie Hotchkiss, Andrew S. G. Turyn Endowed Professor & Director of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois