The
Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections and Archives
was pleased to welcome author and self-proclaimed “bibliophiliac” Nicholas Basbanes for a lecture and book signing on Wednesday, March 4, 2015. Dr. Myron D. Yeager gave an enthusiastic introduction of the Zamorano Club, of which Basbanes in a member. The Zamorano Club is Southern California’s oldest organization of bibliophiles and manuscript collectors. Nick Basbanes was introduced by the Leatherby Libraries Coordinator of Special Collections and Archives, Rand Boyd.

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Jen Johnson, Dean Charlene Baldwin, and author Nick Basbanes



Basbanes is well-known for writing about books and several aspects of book culture. His new book,
On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year History,
celebrates the book as an artifact— in particular how paper has evolved to become a part of the creative process. During his lecture, Basbanes spoke of his travels to China, Japan, and Korea in search of local papermakers to see their process up close. Basbanes also discussed his opportunity to meet papermaker Ichibei Iwano IX while in Japan and described him as a “living national treasure papermaker.”

Copies of Basbanes book were available for purchase, thanks to Jen and Brad Johnson from The Book Shop bookstore in Covina. The author also signed two first-edition copies of his latest book, as well as
A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books
for the Leatherby Libraries.