Ink: The Mark of Human Identity by Ted Bishop

Ink: The Mark of Human Identity by Ted Bishop

A rich and imaginative discovery of how ink has shaped culture and why it is here to stay.

Ink is so much a part of daily life that we take it for granted, yet its invention was as significant as the wheel. Ink not only recorded culture, it bought political power, divided peoples, and led to murderous rivalries. Ancient letters on a page were revered as divine light, and precious ink recipes were held secret for centuries. And, when it first hit markets not so long ago, the excitement over the disposable ballpoint pen equalled that for a new smartphone-with similar complaints to the manufacturers.

Curious about its impact on culture, literature, and the course of history, Ted Bishop sets out to explore the story of ink. From Budapest to Buenos Aires, he traces the lives of the innovators who created the ballpoint pen-revolutionary technology that still requires exact engineering today. Bishop visits a ranch in Utah to meet a master ink-maker who relishes igniting linseed oil to make traditional printers' ink. In China, he learns that ink can be an exquisite object, the subject of poetry, and a means of strengthening (or straining) family bonds. And in the Middle East, he sees the world's oldest Qur'an, stained with the blood of the caliph who was assassinated while reading it.

An inquisitive and personal tour around the world, Ink asks us to look more closely at something we see so often that we don't see it at all.

Ted Bishop is an English and cinema studies professor at the University of Alberta. Riding with Rilke, his debut book, was a Canadian bestseller and a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction. His non-fiction travel piece The Hawkman of Kandahar earned the Prairie Fire Prize. He's won a CBC literary prize for travel writing, as well as two National Magazine Award nominations for his motorcycle stories.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780143169574
ISBN 10	0143169572
Titel	Ink: The Mark of Human Identity
Autor	Ted Bishop
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Paperback
Verlag	Penguin Putnam Inc
Erscheinungsjahr	2017-06-06
Seitenanzahl	400
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.