"Will surely command a wide audience in the academy and gain a regular place on syllabi devoted to book history. Hall is a master of the historiographical essay and in his reflections on the history of the book, he manages both to assay the shape of the field and to suggest the cultural insights it offers into the past. This is a growing international field and Hall is its most sophisticated proponent and practitioner in the Americanist camp."—Robert A. Gross, chair of the Program in the History of the Book, American Antiquarian Society
"Hall is widely acknowledged to be the foremost authority in the United States today in this field, and this collection of essays represents some of his most important work. It promises to be the starting point for anyone working in the history of the book in America."—Mary Kupiec Cayton, Miami University