Annotated Bibliography: The Printed Book and Its Effects

My bibliography presents some books about the history of printing and its impact on the world.



I started my research for this annotated bibliography by looking for some children's books on the topic. I thought that would be a fun way to delve into the research (I really like the juvenile book collection at the library)! I used the online catalog to find a couple of picture books, but when I went to the shelves and looked at those books, they didn't have bibliographic information like I had hoped. They were informative though, so I've still included them in this bibliography. Fortunately, I didn't have to look further than a few books away on the same shelf to find exactly what I needed: a children's chapter book about printing with an extensive "For Further Reading" section. I chose several titles from that list that sounded promising, and when I went to the shelves to look at them, I found other informative books on the same topic surrounding them. I do love that books in the library are organized by topic!

• Bouchot, Henri. The Printed Book. New York: Scribner and Welford, 1887. Presents the history of the book, including changes in its format and the printing process. Covers this history in detail for the first and second generation of printers and then for subsequent centuries through the 1800s. [I found this book on the shelf next to another book of the same title by Carter.]
• Aldis, Harry G. The Printed Book. Cambridge University Press, 1951. Gives of history of the printed book in Europe. Includes technical information on paper, illustrations, and bookbinding. [This book was listed in the "For Further Reading" section of Simon's The Story of Printing.]
• Fisher, Leonard Everett. Gutenberg. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1993. Picture book. Relates the story of Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press in detail. Touches on the historical significance and impact of printing as a new medium. [I found this book in my original catalog search of the juvenile collection.]
• Krensky, Steven. Breaking into Print: Before and After the Invention of the Printing Press. Illus. Bonnie Christensen. Little, Brown and Company, 1996. Picture book. Tells the story of how printing changed the world. Includes a timeline of the history of printing. [This book was the other one I found in my juvenile collection catalog search].
• Lyons, Martyn. A History of Reading and Writing in the Western World. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Includes chapters challenging the revolutionary nature of printing and exploring the relationship between print and the Protestant Reformation. [This book was a golden find on the shelf near McMurtrie's The Book.]
• McMurtrie, Douglas C. The Book: The Story of Printing and Bookmaking. Oxford University Press, 1943. An encyclopedic treatment of the history and development of bookmaking, including printing. Includes an extensive index. [This book was also listed in the "For Further Reading" section of Simon's The Story of Printing.]
• Simon, Irving B. The Story of Printing: From Wood Blocks to Electronics. Illus. Charles E. Pont. Harvey House, Inc., 1965. Children's chapter book. Incorporates the history of printing with detailed explanations of the technicalities of printing. Replete with illustrations and diagrams. [This was the book I found on the shelf with the other children's picture books about printing].

Whew, it's neat to have weaved a web connecting all these books. It was also cool to realize how old many of these books were. One last observation: finding a book on the catalog online (which I had to do for every book so that I could provide the links) is ironically much easier if you already have the book in hand.