Book

Dark archives : a librarian's investigation into the science and history of books bound in human skin / Megan Rosenbloom.

Rosenbloom, Megan, 1981- (author.).

Summary:

"A medical librarian presents a fascinating, terrifying look into history's rarest books-- those bound in human skin-- and the stories of their creation and collection"-- Provided by publisher.

On bookshelves around the world, surrounded by ordinary books bound in paper and leather, rest other volumes of a distinctly strange and grisly sort: those bound in human skin. Rosenbloom seeks out the historic and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy-- the practice of binding books in this most intimate covering. She exhumes their origins and brings to life the doctors, murderers, innocents, and indigents whose lives are sewn together in this disquieting collection. Along the way, Rosenbloom tells the story of how her team of scientists, curators, and librarians test rumored anthropodermic books, untangling the myths around their creation and reckoning with the ethics of their custodianship. -- adapted from jacket

Record details

ISBN: 9780374134709
ISBN: 0374134707
Physical Description: ix, 274 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020.
Copyright: ©2020

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

The First Printing -- This Dreadful Workshop -- Gentlemen Collectors -- Skin Craft -- Secrets of the Sages-Femmes -- The Long Shadow of the Night Doctors -- The Postmortem Travels of William Corder -- Echoes of Tanner's Close -- The Highwayman's Gift -- Ghosts in the Library -- My Corpse, My Choice -- The French Connection -- Epilogue: Humane Anatomy -- The Anthropodermic Book Project's List of Confirmed Human Skin Books as of March 2020.