One hundred years ago, Gabriel Wells, a New York bookseller, committed a crime against history. He broke up the world’s greatest book, the Gutenberg Bible, and sold it off in individual pages. This is the story of an Australian man’s hunt for those fragments and his family’s debt to an act of literary vandalism.
In 1921, Wells’ audacity scandalised the rare-book world. The Gutenberg was the first substantial book in Europe to have been printed on a printing press. It represented the democratisation of knowledge and was the Holy Grail of rare books.
Was the break-up a sacrilege or a canny deal? New Yorkers were divided. For every frown of disapproval, there was a lick of the lips. It was the Roaring Twenties, the Gatsby era of fabulous wealth. Tycoons were in a feeding frenzy to acquire items that would demonstrate their refinement. Wells marketed the pages as ‘Noble Fragments’, they sold like hot cakes, and he died a rich man.
Half a century later, 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.
Part detective story and part memoir, Noble Fragments is an expedition into the arcane world of book collectors and their eccentric passions, and a journey of discovery about how Wells’s gamble set off a chain of events that changed a family’s destiny.
‘A riveting hunt for the mysterious leaves of a book perched in the branches of a family tree. Proof that epic sagas are rooted in life’s most intimate details. I was hooked from the start.’
Marc Fennell, host of Stuff the British Stole
‘In reading this book, we accompany Visontay on his journey down the rabbit-hole of discovery, and can fully appreciate the steep learning curve he embarked upon as he investigated Wells and the collectors of the scattered Noble Fragments. This book offers readers a wonderful look into this unique and somewhat arcane world, and the dealers, scholars, and collectors of rare books and incunables who populate it … Part-memoir, part-art history investigation, Noble Fragments will delight readers of books such as those by Christopher de Hamel, but also readers who love stories of hope and resilience.’
Julia Jackson, Readings
