Books have been valued and consulted for centuries, though we often think of them mostly as words on pages, containers of knowledge, stories, ideas. But there is so much more to books than words; the ways they have been made, marked, decorated, mutilated and collected can tell us all kinds of interesting things. From the moment they leave the production line, books begin their own individual journeys, with successive owners leaving traces behind showing how they were used (or not). Books come to life when they are owned, and looking at this kind of evidence shows us what impact particular books had on previous generations. David Pearson will explore these themes, using his 2022 book, Speaking Volumes: Books with Histories, illustrating books from many centuries, in libraries around the world. He will look at books owned by kings and schoolboys, ones that have been censored or shot at, ones that have been rescued from dangerous places. He will also reflect on the importance of this kind of evidence in an increasingly digital world, when the words may be so readily available online. Afterwards, you should never look at (or collect) books in quite the same way again – or, you will look for so much more than just the words. 

 
David Pearson is a leading expert on the history of books, after a lifetime spent working with them, writing about them and owning them. 

All talks at Firsts London take place in the Talks Space on the top floor.