The lost Gutenberg : the astounding story of one book's five-hundred-year odyssey / Margaret Leslie Davis.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-281) and index.

The Imperial century. Million-dollar bookshelf ; Treasure neglected ; The bibliophile ; The patriot -- The American century. The mighty woman book hunter ; The lost Gutenberg ; The Countess and her Gutenberg ; The nuclear bibliophiles -- The Asian century. The unexpected betrayal ; The virtual Gutenberg -- Epilogue: Final bows.

"The never-before-told story of one extremely rare copy of the Gutenberg Bible, and its impact on the lives of the fanatical few who were lucky enough to own it"--

"For rare-book collectors, an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible--of which there are fewer than 50 in existence--represents the ultimate prize. Here, Margaret Leslie Davis recounts five centuries in the life of one copy, from its creation by Johannes Gutenberg, through the hands of monks, an earl, the Worcestershire sauce king, and a nuclear physicist to its ultimate resting place, in a steel vault in Tokyo. Estelle Doheny, the first woman collector to add the book to her library and its last private owner, tipped the Bible onto a trajectory that forever changed our understanding of the first mechanically printed book."--from jacket