Printer's Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History

Summary (from the publisher): A funny and entertaining history of printed books as told through absurd moments in the lives of authors and printers, collected by television’s favorite rare-book expert from History’s hit series Pawn Stars.

Since the Gutenberg Bible first went on sale in 1455, printing has been viewed as one of the highest achievements of human innovation. But the march of progress hasn’t been smooth; downright bizarre is more like it. Printer’s Error chronicles some of the strangest and most humorous episodes in the history of Western printing, and makes clear that we’ve succeeded despite ourselves. Rare-book expert Rebecca Romney and author J. P. Romney take us from monasteries and museums to auction houses and libraries to introduce curious episodes in the history of print that have had a profound impact on our world.

Take, for example, the Gutenberg Bible. While the book is regarded as the first printed work in the Western world, Gutenberg’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on it. Today, Johannes Gutenberg is recognized as the father of Western printing. But for the first few hundred years after the invention of the printing press, no one knew who printed the first book. This long-standing mystery took researchers down a labyrinth of ancient archives and libraries, and unearthed surprising details, such as the fact that Gutenberg’s financier sued him, repossessed his printing equipment, and started his own printing business afterward. Eventually the first printed book was tracked to the library of Cardinal Mazarin in France, and Gutenberg’s forty-two-line Bible was finally credited to him, thus ensuring Gutenberg’s name would be remembered by middle-school students worldwide.

Like the works of Sarah Vowell, John Hodgman, and Ken Jennings, Printer’s Error is a rollicking ride through the annals of time and the printed word.  

 

Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from HarperCollins.

 

This work of non-fiction shares selected historical tales from the world of publishing. Although printing is viewed as a prime example of human innovation, it has also been at the center of controversy, mishaps, and strange events since it first came on the scene. Authors J.P. and Rebecca Romney highlight just a few of these stories throughout history in this book. Important figures in the history of publishing covered in this book include Gutenberg, Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, William Blake, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Charles Dickens.

 

This book shared some interesting tidbits from history. For instance, although Shakespeare's name was more commonly spelled "Shakspeare," "Shakspere," or "Shakspe" during his lifetime, the process of printing ultimately led to it taking the form recognized today: "When typesetting Shakespeare's name, specifically in italics, the k and the antiquated long s overlapped. Under the mechanical pressures of thee printing press, the two letters tended to chip or break. In order to resolve this issue, compositors slapped an e between the letters" (116). Another interesting fact: indentured servants got their name from the indentured contracts that were printed in pairs on a single sheet of paper, "then cut down the middle to produce two copies. The middle cut was serrated, thereby creating a unique edge of indentations used to verify that the contract of the apprentice matched the contract of his master" (139-140). As the book's stories progress through time, it was interesting to see the evolution of publishing and writing, from the early lack of recognition of writer as a profession to the struggle of best selling authors to pay their bills because of the lack of copyright laws that meant published authors saw little of the proceeds from their work.

 

I found the writing style in this grating at times. The authors attempt to use an informal, conversational narrative style that I assume is meant to be comical and amusing but I mostly found aggravating. For example, they express their frustration with Gutenberg's illusive connection to his invention by saying, "All this could have been avoided if Gutenberg had just printed his motherfucking name on his motherfucking books. (The authors apologize for using expletives in connection with the Gutenberg Bible. It's a pretty accurate representation of our scholarly frustration, though. Also, if Samuel L. Jackson had been a Gutenberg historian, it's what he would have said) (47). This sort of banter probably translates better on television, but it falls flat in printed form.

 

Additionally, I found the scattered nature of the history frustrating. Rather than a comprehensive history about a single, cohesive topic, the book is a collection of disparate stories from history, with the only common thread being that the stories are all about printing. The authors address this in the conclusion, citing the use of the word "stories" in the subtitle is an intentional choice and argue that this is "a work that attempts to highlight a few events (so very few) from half a millennium of history, and knowing firsthand the ocean of material that could never be included" (283). However, I found the connection between the stories tenuous as best, as each chapter travels through time and distance and focuses on wildly different aspects of writing and publishing. I would have preferred either a more cohesive theme or a more comprehensive, in-depth look at a smaller topic related to publishing.

 

Stars: 3