''The Enemies of Books'' is a book on
biblioclasts and book preservation by the 19th-century
bibliophile
Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. A bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads and/or collects books.
Profile
The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often ama ...
and book collector
William Blades
William Blades (5 December 182427 April 1890), English printer and bibliographer, was born at Clapham, London.
Career
In 1840 he was apprenticed to his father's printing business in London, being subsequently taken into partnership. The ...
. The book was first published in 1880 and has been republished in different editions in 1881, 1888, 1896, and 1902 and reproduced widely in electronic format in the 21st century. In the book, Blades, a well-known collector and preserver of the works of the English printer
William Caxton
William Caxton ( – ) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer to be the first English retailer of printed books.
His parentage a ...
, documented his outrage at any mistreatment of books in what became a passionate diatribe against biblioclasts, human and non-human, wherever he found them.
The book includes chapters on the following enemies of books:
fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products.
At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...
,
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...
,
gas
Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma).
A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...
and heat, dust and neglect, ignorance and bigotry, the
bookworm
Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. A bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads and/or collects books.
Profile
The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often ama ...
, bookbinders, book collectors, other vermin (such as rats or flies),
servants
A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service ...
, and children. The book ends with a passionate call for reverence for old books, something he felt was lacking during his life.
[The Conclusion at page 151 in the 1888 edition begins: "It is a great pity that there should be so many distinct enemies at work for the destruction of literature, and that they should so often be allowed to work out their sad end."]
See also
*
Destruction of libraries
300px, The urn containing ashes of the most precious Polish incunabula and manuscripts, deliberately burnt in the Krasiński Library by a Nazi Germany">Nazi German ''Brandkommando'' following the fall of the Warsaw Uprising
Libraries have been ...
Notes
External links
D. J. McAdam e text of ''The Enemies of Books''Project Gutenberg E-text*
1880 non-fiction books
English non-fiction books
Preservation (library and archival science)
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