The Bookbreaker of New York: A ripping yarn

Join the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand (BSANZ) for their conference keynote talk from Michael Visontay about Gabriel Wells, a New York bookseller who committed a crime against history.

In 1921, Gabriel Wells, a New York bookseller, broke up a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, and sold it off in individual pages, calling them ‘Noble Fragments’. His audacity scandalised the rare book world. The Gutenberg Bible was the first substantial book in Europe to have been printed on a printing press and was the Holy Grail of rare books. A few years ago, Sydney journalist Michael Visontay stumbled upon a mysterious legal document that linked Wells to his own family. He became obsessed by the Gutenberg’s invisible imprint on his life and set out to track down the pages of the broken bible. His new book, Noble Fragments, tells the story of his hunt for those pages and his family’s debt to an act of literary vandalism.

This is a free, public event. If you are interested in attending other BSANZ Conference sessions (options starting at $10), please visit https://bibliomaniabsanz.com/ 

The event is held in partnership with the annual Conference of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand, which is being held at the National Library of Australia 4-5 December. For more information about the conference and to register, please visit: https://bibliomaniabsanz.com/ 

About Michael Visontay

Michael Visontay has worked as a journalist and senior editor at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and The Jewish Independent, and taught journalism at university. He is the author of several non-fiction books, including Welcome to Wanderland, Who Gave You Permission? (with Manny Waks), and Undies to Equities: The remarkable life of Henri Aram. 

Buy Noble Fragments

Image captions: Mesrobian, Photo of Wells, ca. 1920s,courtesy Michael Dobo; The leaf is courtesy Princeton University Library Special Collections.

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