![]() ![]() Even so, the death of the book has been exaggerated.īooks have been around for about 1,800 years. People have always placed more importance on good food and drink and other forms of entertainment than on words, which have often been regarded as mostly harmless but of marginal value to daily life. ![]() People laughed at Erasmus’s little books, and he was glad.įewer people read books of any kind today than a decade ago, but in fact there have never been a lot of book readers. Erasmus wrote a series of what were called colloquies, or entertaining short plays used to teach Latin, and he compiled many volumes of short proverbs from literature around the world. The Dutch humanist Erasmus also used small books, meant to be entertaining-using sarcasm, puns, proverbs and other forms of witticism-to fuel the Renaissance. He believed each one would sway public opinion to his causes, and they often did. For the decade or so when his life was in constant danger, Luther was always anxiously waiting for some tract to come off the press. The Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation were fueled by little books. Little books were actually once the most incendiary devices to affect opinion and effect change, as when Martin Luther was publishing his little tracts to stoke the fires of reformation in the early 16th century. But by no means are they benign, nor have they ever been. Of course they can go anywhere, even easily through airport security. Little books are chief among the things that carry spiritual meaning in my life. R.,” he wrote the following (I’ve updated some of the language): The 17th-century poet Richard Crashaw once wrote 118 lines on the power of a little prayer book. Prayer collections, saints’ lives, spirituality, books of blessings and penny catechisms-all of these genres are often found in little books. Little did I know years ago that loving little books was preparing me to appreciate piety (that sadly frowned-upon word). Just the other day, I purchased three from the dealer nearest to my home in Vermont-a pocket hardcover edition of Thomas Merton’s Seeds of Contemplation and two early New Directions “paperbooks” of Denise Levertov’s poems, with sewn bindings. It could be a photograph collection about 19th-century railroads in western North Carolina, but if it is a small format and feels cozy in the palm, I’m hooked. In used bookstores, I pause to look at almost every smaller volume. In contrast to what publishers today call “books for the pocket”-this one actually fits there. He provocatively wrote on the title page that this one was written by “Brother Leo of Assisi.” Yet, despite the fanfare, the diminutive size of the volume is noteworthy it is much smaller than today’s mass-market paperbacks. Influential when first published, the book’s great editor, Paul Sabatier, believed he was presenting a life of St. ![]() ![]() My Mirror of Perfection, on the other hand, is tiny. But its size is no accident: the Scofield was the most protestant of Bibles, presented as if it had a lot to say. I’m glad to have it, and I read it when I want to be reminded of the poetry of the Authorized Version. Gramps used to shake it from behind the pulpit while preaching long sermons in Baptist churches. It is the only thing I inherited from him. Grandpa’s big black Scofield is thick, weighty with opinion and commentary. The two books dearest to me are my grandfather’s Scofield King James Bible and my copy of the 19th-century book The Mirror of Perfection, one of the earliest English-language biographies of St. ![]()
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