The Books to Come

Literary Nonfiction. Poetry History & Criticism. Typography. Foreword by Jenni Quilter. Of Loney's long-anticipated collection of essays, Johanna Drucker has written: Few people have mused with such imagination on the topic of the book as Alan Loney does in this volume. His reflections distill a lifetime of practice and reading, of knowing books and living with and around them. His thoughts about libraries, writing, texts, the codex, printed books, the artist's book, fine press traditions, and bibliography are at once philosophical and poetical. Though writing in the tradition of Mallarmé, Jabès and Blanchot, Loney's sensibility is contemporary and original, informed by his practice as a printer and a profound engagement with books as expressive objects and objects of contemplation. I predict that this thoughtful, provocative, book will become a crucial reading on the codex. Loney's writing is wonderfully suggestive, but clear, fresh, and precise. He addresses issues much debated but rarely articulated so well and with such a skillful ability to open up the field for investigation and discussion.