The Justification of Johann Gutenberg

by Blake Morrison (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $4.82

  In the year 1400, in the city of Mainz, a man was born whose heretical invention was to change history. Sixty odd years later he died - bankrupt, robbed of his business, his printing presses, his good name and, so he thought, immortality. Reading between the lines of history, Blake Morrison has woven a stunning novel around the few facts that are known about the life and work of Johann Gensfleisch of Gutenberg, master printer, charmer, conman and visionary - the man who invented 'artifical writing', first printed a Latin grammar and then the 'Gutenberg' Bible, putting thousands of monks out of work. In a first novel that is dazzling in its artistry and delicacy, and pure enchantment for the reader, Morrison gives us Gutenberg's 'testament'. Gutenberg dictates his justification and apologia - ironically enough - to pretty young scribes, who have the power not only to reject an old man's advances but also to change his words, since with his failing eyesight he can barely read them. Through the words he puts into the mouth of this endearing, maddening, touching creation Morrison conjures up a noisy, colourful, plague-ridden fifteenth-century world in the rival cities of Mainz and Strasbourg, as well as in the wider European world beyond, from the flourishing cities of the Rhine to the lowland plains in the North.

• New

  Paperback
  2001

  $45.14

  Every year in the UK over 10,000 babies die before birth or shortly afterwards. For the parents, the grief is hard to bear. In this book, parents who have lost a baby tell their stories. They speak about what happened, how they felt, how they have been helped by others and how they helped themselves. Using letters from and interviews with many bereaved parents, Nancy Kohner and Alix Henley have written a book which offers understanding of what it means to lose a baby and the grief that follows. When a Baby Dies also contains valuable information about why a baby dies, hospital practices, the process of grieving, sources of support, and the care parents need in future pregnancies.