Blake Morrison has woven a stunning novel around the few facts known about the life and work of Johann Gensfleisch (aka Gutenberg), master printer, charmer, con man, and visionary -- the man who invented "artificial writing" and printed the Gutenberg Bible, putting thousands of monks out of work.
In this dazzling debut novel, Morrison gives Gutenberg's final testament: a justification and apologia he dictated, ironically, to one of the young scribes made obsolete by his invention of movable metal type. Through the eyes of the aging narrator, we see the Middle Ages in a strange new light and witness a moment of cultural transition as dramatic as the communications revolution of today.

The Justification of Johann Gutenberg: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

MORRISON, Blake

United States

Harper-perennial

He has been called the most influential man of the last millennium, he launched a communications revolution, and he changed the written word for ever. This is his tale, and the story behind his heretical invention.
Reading between the lines of history, Blake Morrison has woven a stunning novel around the few facts known about the life and work of Johann Gensfleisch, aka Gutenberg, master printer, charmer, con man and visionary -- the man who invented "artificial writing" and printed the "Gutenberg" Bible, putting thousands of monks out of work.
In a first novel that is both dazzling in its artistry and pure enchantment for the reader, Morrison gives Gutenberg's final testament: a justification and apologia dictated, ironically enough, to the kind of pretty young scribes whom his invention of movable metal type made redundant. Through the eyes of the ageing narrator, the Middle Ages are seen in a strange and vivid new light. The Plague, craft guilds, religious wars, chivalric love, sexual politics, scientific invention, the rise of capitalism -- all are here, but the human dramas they give rise to seem anything but "historical" or remote. What Morrison captures is a moment of cultural transition as dramatic and immediate as the communications revolution of today.
But, above all, there is the exasperating, endearing and finally haunting figure of Gutenberg himself a man who gambled everything -- money, honour, friendship and a woman's love -- on the greatest invention of the last millennium.

Contemporary

William Morrow

This is Blake Morrison's memoir of his father, Dr Arthur Morrison. It shows a son asking who his father really was. Was he the man seen through a seven-year-old's eyes, jumping queues, or the sexual charmer seen by a 17-year-old? Or was he the figure, so hard to recognize, on his death-bed?

And when did you last see your father?

Biographies & Memoirs

Granta

A little girl's fascination with the yellow house she passes each day leads her into the garden which is full of fantastic surprises.

The yellow house

Harcourt, Brace. Jovanovich

First Edition, good quality hardcover, with unclipped dust jacket, mylar coated. DJ shows light edge creasing, and is heavily sunned; inside flap shows previous sticker and staining. Pageblock edges are slightly marked, significantly tanned, and this has leached through to the textblock. However, text is clean, no marginalia noted. CN

The Movement: English Poetry and Fiction of the 1950s

History

Oxford University Press

In a memoir of his father's life and death, the author asks if we can ever see parents as themselves, why they cannot reveal their secrets to us, and what they take with them that cannot be recovered when they die.

And When Did You Last See Your Father?

Parenting & Relationships

Picador USA

Soon to be a major motion picture, directed by Anand Tucker and starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent And when did you last see your father? Was it last weekend or last Christmas? Was it before or after he exhaled his last breath? And was it him really, or was it a version of him, shaped by your own expectations and disappointments? Blake Morrison's subject is universal: the life and death of a parent, a father at once beloved and exasperating, charming and infuriating, domineering and terribly vulnerable. In reading about Dr. Arthur Morrison, we come to ask ourselves the same searching questions that Blake Morrison poses: Can we ever see our parents as themselves, or are they forever defined through a child's eyes? What are the secrets of their lives, and why do they spare us that knowledge? And when they die, what do they take with them that cannot be recovered or inherited?

And when did you last see your father?: A Son's Memoir of Love and Loss

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Picador

A journalist for the The New Yorker takes a close-up look at a chilling 1993 murder case in Great Britain in which two ten-year-old boys killed a younger boy. 25,000 first printing. Tour.

As If: A Crime, a Trial, a Question of Childhood

St.Martin's Press

The critically-acclaimed memoir and the basis for the 2007 motion picture, directed by Anand Tucker and starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent
And when did you last see your father? Was it last weekend or last Christmas? Was it before or after he exhaled his last breath? And was it him really, or was it a version of him, shaped by your own expectations and disappointments?
Blake Morrison's subject is universal: the life and death of a parent, a father at once beloved and exasperating, charming and infuriating, domineering and terribly vulnerable. In reading about Dr. Arthur Morrison, we come to ask ourselves the same searching questions that Blake Morrison poses: Can we ever see our parents as themselves, or are they forever defined through a child's eyes? What are the secrets of their lives, and why do they spare us that knowledge? And when they die, what do they take with them that cannot be recovered or inherited?
When Did You Last See Your Father?: A Son's Memoir of Love and Loss has also been published as And When Did You Last See Your Father?

When Did You Last See Your Father?: A Son's Memoir of Love and Loss

Self-Help

Death & Grief

First Canadian edition. Morrison has written "a stunning novel around the few facts known about the life and work of Johann Gensfleisch, aka Gutenberg, master printer, charmer, conman and visionary..." vi , 259, 3 pages. paper-covered boards, dust jacket.. 8vo..

Justification/Johann Gutenberg

Literary

Doubleday, Canada

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Books by MORRISON, Blake

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by MORRISON, Blake. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Justification of Johann Gutenberg: A Novel

The Justification of Johann Gutenberg: A Novel

And when did you last see your father?

The yellow house

The Movement: English Poetry and Fiction of the 1950s

And When Did You Last See Your Father?

And when did you last see your father?: A Son's Memoir of Love and Loss

As If: A Crime, a Trial, a Question of Childhood

When Did You Last See Your Father?: A Son's Memoir of Love and Loss

Justification/Johann Gutenberg