Literature as a Book

Books are the repository of literary history. Once we have familiarized ourselves with the broad outlines of literary history, we realize that it would be unthinkable without books, which preserve the endless micro-histories of literature.

Discoveries about the history of literature resemble archaeological discoveries—they often happen by chance. Old books hold buried secrets; they carry information that is invisible to the "naked eye," but upon closer and more patient examination, they reveal signs, solve riddles, and lead to new interpretations of literary and literary-related facts.

Book publishing is an indispensable part of the memory of literature. The publisher materializes the literary work, transforming it into an object with a unique form and structure. It is worth considering a reading, or even a history, of Bulgarian literature, made through our book publishing on the one hand, and on the other, through that unique flavor that the physicality of books lends to literature.

My book is a "tool of labor," but also an endless adventure of the spirit and the body. I have selected here some of my literary and publishing stories that I consider essential, but which seem to have been overlooked by researchers. I have also included the names of artists whose tragic fate has been deliberately concealed and whose legacy has been ideologically denied. I have not neglected some contemporary manifestations of our fine literature, without hiding the subjectivity of my judgments.

Albert Benbasat