Book Review: The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books

The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books

Christopher Columbus, His Son, and the Quest to Build the World’s Greatest Library

by Edward Wilson-Lee

Scribner

Biographies & Memoirs

Pub Date 12 Mar 2019

I am reviewing a copy of The Catalogue if Shipwrecked Books through Scribner and Netgalley:

This book tells the story of the first visionary of the print age. A man who saw the great expansion of knowledge and information brought on by the invention of the printing press. This man would help to change the landscape of thought and society. This man also happened to be Christopher Columbus illegitimate son Hernando Colon.

Hernando Colon wanted to do more for exploration than even his Father Christopher Columbus did, he not only wants to visit these places, he wanted to build a library that covered all books in all languages, and all subjects. In this quest he spent his life traveling first with his Father in 1502 where he survived being Shipwrecked in Jamaica, where there was a bloody mutiny and later in Europe where he scoured bookstores at the epicenter of printing. Hernando was s true renaissance man.

In this well researched biography the author tells the story of the first genius of the print age.

I give The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!