Book Fair at 70: A report

So, the 70th Frankfurt Book Fair. (Post-WWII that is; the actual Frankfurt Book Fair dates back to the 1500s, and there' s a hilarious in hindsight account of some printers going to celebrate in the evening to Sachsenhausen (part of Frankfurt) WHICH IS STILL HAPPENING).

(One of these days I'll write a sketch or a story about those early book fairs. Dürer's wife Agnes is the secret star, outselling everyone with her prints but having to battle with illegal Italian copyright infringement, mapmaker Gerhard Mercator has to explain why his maps come in Catholic and Protestant editions (the Catholic ones depict Scotland and Ireland far more prominently than that English bit in between), Luther has finally been wood into doing a reading and signing, err, preaching appearance but then is pissed off when learning that so will Erasmus of Rotterdam, and the British deligation leaves in a huff when finding out Henry VIII. isn't even considered for any awards because everyone takes it for granted Thomas More was his ghost writer.)

( Meanwhile, what happened in 2018 in Frankfurt was this: )