Limpronta delleditore (Piccola biblioteca Adelphi) (Italian Edition)

The Art of the Publisher

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About cover designs and blurbs.

About relationships between publishers and authors, publishers and readers. About halfway through I had to go grab a set of pencils and start marking my copy up, something I do very rarely - a book has to make a significant impression on me to overcome my reticence to deface a book. This shall also curb my impulse buying, I'm sure. I'll close with one more quote from the book: Today, in fact, more than ever before, one of the prime objectives of publishing could be to shift the line determining what is publishable , and include as feasible a lot of what currently lies outside that line.

Lui un grande maestro. Dec 09, Marius Ghencea rated it really liked it Shelves: Not only is Calasso's knowledge of the book and publishing industry-as-art proven in this brief collection of essays, but it is his humor that captivated me. As I continued to read Calasso's prose, I became engrossed in his idiosyncratic voice, his astute observations, and overall delightfulness.

His insights on the digitalization of books, re: Google and the Internet, is Simply stated: Google and the Internet, is a fresh, persuasive read. I must add that this book surprised me; the first twenty or so pages could be perceived as daunting, with it's overview of European publishing. This may turn away some readers to whom the lists of names and references could be qualified as "elitist" or alienating to perhaps an American reader.

Some might assume its demographic is a niche audience--those involved or invested in book publishing in Europe. But I would, respectfully, disagree with those critics; I believe the audience to "The Art of the Publisher" is broader than first glance. With adamancy, I hold that Calasso's book is an important, near necessary, read for anyone interested in reading, writing, editing, and, of course, publishing.

That is to say, anyone who loves books. On a final note, I believe that the translator, Richard Dixon, deserves high praise. He captures Calasso's nuanced ideas, his sly humor with deft ability and understanding of the Italian language. We owe praise to translators who are able to capture to "feel" of an author's voice and Dixon proves to be a learned reader to Calasso's individual style. It's still distracting to read the metaphor about publishing being a single serpentine book again and again, but it is a good simile, so I can't mind that much. I like the connection explicitly drawn between "success in publishing" and "having a lot of money already to use up," which is becoming clearer and clearer to me as I go through life, and which I would have liked to see more of an analysis of.

I would like to read more analyses generally about the role of money in the arts and the intersections of art and business, but this is a fault of mine, not Calasso's, I guess? Really really good book. Conjunto de ensayos sobre el oficio de editar, sobre el oficio de seleccionar, de dar forma y contexto a los libros que se publican. No one writes books like he does — he's created his own genre of elegant, elusive meditations on literature, books that sweep across the centuries, from subtle commentaries on Greek and Indian mythology to arcane classics in the modernist pantheon.

For anyone familiar with his work, there's no point in piling up praise; for anyone who loves literature but does not Ever since I happened upon The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony in , I've bought every book by Roberto Calasso published in the US. For anyone familiar with his work, there's no point in piling up praise; for anyone who loves literature but does not know Calasso's work: From the first I was curious about Calasso: Often I've wished I was fluent in Italian and had access to the collection of books he's published in their original form.

The Art of the Publisher addresses this curiosity. After that encomium above, I should say that this isn't like his other books.

Textual Studies

It's a short collection of talks provided for specific occasions and is as repetitive as such collections tend to be. I suspect its audience will be small: I distinctly recall the look and feel of that first book, published by Knopf, beautifully designed and presented with a slightly archaic Bodoni typeface. Despite the occasional nature of the chapters and the somewhat predictable publisher complaints, there's also a scattering of insights that could only come from Calasso.

In every aspect of our experience we are in contact with things that escape the control of our ego — and it is precisely in the area outside our control where we find that which is most important and essential to us…. If everywhere — in the forests of Brazil and the Kalahari Desert, in ancient China and Homer's Greece, in Mesopotamia and Egypt just as in Vedic India — the first form in which language manifested itself was the story, and a story that each time told of beings that were not entirely human, then this presupposes that no other use of words appeared to be more effective in establishing contact with entities that are around us and beyond us.

And there is no risk of these stories, often immensely remote in time and space, being extraneous or inaccessible to us. All mythical stories, whatever their origin, are to do with something very close to us, though we often fail to realize it.

Calasso is convincing when he argues that judgment is "the basic founding element for the existence of the publisher," that publishing is indeed an art in which a line of books are, in a sense, one book with many chapters because they share the publisher's intuition of their value and singularity. I am not as opposed to ebooks or the information cloud as Calasso is — for certain types of texts the electronic form is completely adequate, and in the skilled hands of a publisher like touchpress the experience of a classic text like Eliot's "Wasteland" or Beethoven's 9th Symphony or Leonardo's notebooks is completely transformed.

But I'm passionate in my hope we will always have publishers like Calasso, printing books that are also art with fine covers, elegant layout and typefaces, ink, paper, and texture, "that kind of book that is an experiment in knowledge, and as such can be transmuted into the experience of those who read it, thereby transforming that experience. Feb 06, Sergio D. May 26, Sara M rated it it was amazing.

Esce nel , una tempistica di diffusione che rende parte dei contenuti un po' controversa. Non so, prendiamo l'omaggio a G. Lettura imprescindibile, dunque, se si vuol ragionevolmente capire come questo magnifico serpente universale sia diventato sinonimo di fiducia a priori. Calasso es un director que conoce bien su arte.

El texto y su materia son como cuerpo y alma, los insumos de un hi Calasso es un director que conoce bien su arte. El texto y su materia son como cuerpo y alma, los insumos de un hilemorfismo cuya alquimia es la raison d'etre del editor-artista. Pero se le perdona. Slim and cobbled together from a collection of texts that occasionally feel repetitive, Calasso's meditations on publishing are insightful enough to warrant reading anyway. His basic idea--that a publisher is or at least was responsible for creating and shaping a "form"--is intriguing and, in the current publishing landscape, seemingly anachronistic.

Though, when thinking about the publishers I love, the idea of form holds true. Calasso is also, of c Slim and cobbled together from a collection of texts that occasionally feel repetitive, Calasso's meditations on publishing are insightful enough to warrant reading anyway. Calasso is also, of course, wonderfully learned and insanely well-read, so expect your book list to grow as you read The Art of the Publisher.

Spices up some dry material with occasional literary flair: Incluye un apartado con breves semblanzas de los grandes del oficio. Todo lo que escriba este gran autor italiano es de obligada lectura. Jul 29, Madison Johnson rated it did not like it. Hanno questo dono di scegliere libri a cui io darei fuoco volentieri, di autori che mi trasmettono un senso di arroganza decisamente detestabile.

Centosessanta pagine, ma il contenuto? Una miscellanea di testi che forse vogliono dire qualcosa, separatamente, ma nell'insieme ti fanno solo sperare che la tortura finisca presto. Lindo libro, como siempre con Calasso. Mar 31, Massimo Monteverdi rated it liked it. Remunerato moderatamente, si sceglie di farlo per inclinazione naturale pur consapevoli delle infinite insidie che cela.

Ma quanto deve essere travolgente e appagante il percorso di chi ha creato Adelphi e ancora oggi guida la nave che tiene dritta la barra della letteratura colta ben lontana da qualsiasi mainstream. Very particular to Italian publishing, but the general lessons to pull out of it are great. Ocurrencias de un editor fundamental, buen punto de partida para quienes comenzamos a acercarnos al mundo editorial. Oct 03, Maurizio Manco rated it really liked it. Feb 21, elisabetta added it Shelves: Forse si diventa editori solamente per prolungare all'infinito una conversazione sui libri.

This book is a series of speeches and essays by a well-known Italian publisher. The book is short and not hard to get through. I found it mixed.

The most impressive parts of the book is where Calasso defines what he thinks is the role and contribution of the publisher to literature. It is an interesting perspective, making me think about what it is that publishers do, something I have spent almost no thought on before. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The Art of the Publisher by Roberto Calasso ,. Recalling the beginnings of Adelphi in the s, he touches on the Italian house's defining qualities, including the considerations involved in designing the An interior look at Roberto Calasso's work as a publisher and his reflections on the art of book publishing In this fascinating memoir, the author and publisher Roberto Calasso meditates on the art of book publishing.

Kindle Edition , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Art of the Publisher , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Art of the Publisher. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. It's still distracting to read the metaphor about publishing being a single serpentine book again and again, but it is a good simile, so I can't mind that much.

I like the connection explicitly drawn between "success in publishing" and "having a lot of money already to use up," which is becoming clearer and clearer to me as I go through life, and which I would have liked to see more of an analysis of. I would like to read more analyses generally about the role of money in the arts and the intersections of art and business, but this is a fault of mine, not Calasso's, I guess?

Really really good book. Slim and cobbled together from a collection of texts that occasionally feel repetitive, Calasso's meditations on publishing are insightful enough to warrant reading anyway. His basic idea--that a publisher is or at least was responsible for creating and shaping a "form"--is intriguing and, in the current publishing landscape, seemingly anachronistic. Though, when thinking about the publishers I love, the idea of form holds true.

Calasso is also, of c Slim and cobbled together from a collection of texts that occasionally feel repetitive, Calasso's meditations on publishing are insightful enough to warrant reading anyway. Calasso is also, of course, wonderfully learned and insanely well-read, so expect your book list to grow as you read The Art of the Publisher.

Lindo libro, como siempre con Calasso. Una riflessione stimolante per ogni lettore interessato al mondo dei libri. Mi ha affascinato entrare nella mente di Calasso, scoprire le radici di Adelphi, la sua filosofia e il suo preciso piano editoriale. L'excursus su Manuzio e il suo ruolo chiave nella Venezia di fine Quattrocento-iniz Mi ha affascinato entrare nella mente di Calasso, scoprire le radici di Adelphi, la sua filosofia e il suo preciso piano editoriale. Ci vorrebbero tanti altri come lui.

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Tanto vale allora fornire ai lettori un prodotto valido, del quale andare fieri, e crearsi uno spazio e un pubblico che riconosca il valore del lavoro che sta alle spalle del libro finito. Uneven but insightful, this Italian translation makes a good argument for the importance of publishers. A collection of essays and speeches rather than a single cohesive narrative, The Art of the Publisher amasses Mr. Calasso's book reads as the publisher in the age of mechanical and digital exhaustion as its perennial notion.

Given Calasso's long career in publishing, this is a slim book. Yet, the book gives the reader an excellent glimpse into the world of publishing. Stefan rated it really liked it Mar 18, Shannow rated it really liked it Jan 16, Johanna Pas rated it really liked it Dec 30, Matthew Mansfield rated it really liked it Mar 06, Juan Ignacio rated it really liked it Jul 27, Filippo Corti rated it really liked it Jul 02, Evans rated it really liked it Mar 14, Ginevra Villa rated it really liked it Aug 05,

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