[Item #5255] The Man Who Loved China. Simon Winchester, Joseph Needham.
The Man Who Loved China
The Man Who Loved China
The Man Who Loved China
The Man Who Loved China
The Man Who Loved China
The Man Who Loved China

The Man Who Loved China

New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2008. First Printing. Hardcover. Signed by Noted Biographer, Simon Winchester. Subtitled "The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom," historian & author Simon Winchester (b. 1944) "brings to life the extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China, long the world's most technologically advanced country. / No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair. / He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire. He searched everywhere for evidence to bolster his conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds of mankind's most familiar innovations--including printing, the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, toilet paper--often centuries before the rest of the world....After the war, Needham was determined to tell the world what he had discovered, and began writing his majestic 'Science and Civilization in China,' describing the country's long and astonishing history of invention and technology. By the time he died, he had produced, essentially single-handedly, seventeen immense volumes, marking him as the greatest one-man encyclopedist ever" (Front Flap). On that last point, I'll register my dissent and vote for the visionary Polish sculptor-&-artist, Stanislaw Szukalski, as the greatest "one-man encyclopedist ever," -- for Szukalski's "Zermatism" series encompasses more than 17 volumes (if sheer quantity is our metric, and my partisanship is excused, ha-ha). Now, a few words of support for Joseph Needham (1900-1995), the quite clearly polymathic Gonzo biochemist & autodidact whose sui generis contributions to science, the history of science, and Chinese history, writ large certainly make him among the most expansive minds to grace the 20th century--a century with no shortage of heavy-hitters to nominate in this regard. His life is so interesting (and so clumsily dis-serviced by its title, "The Man Who Loved China" -- a phrase with as explosive and assertive a flavor profile as an unseasoned bowl of rice -- that I had to quote the flap in its coronational entirety. [ISBN: 978-0-06-088459-8]. Hardcover in unclipped dust-jacket: First Edition, as stated on copyright page; First Printing, as indicated by number sequence thereon. This copy is additionally signed by Winchester on title page below his printed name (which he has crossed out in the same pen ink used to enrich the work by virtue of the presence of said signature, here). Winchester signature, in quality black pen ink reads: "Simon Winchester." Book in very fine condition with only slightest shelf-wear to fine-edges & corners of front, back cover, virtually as new. Dust-jacket in correspondingly clean condition, with only related slight wear to fine-edges & corners of same & slight low-impact scratch-like nicks "phantom scuffs" is what I'd call them, visible only in certain light. Very Fine / Very fine. [Item #5255]

Price: $30.00

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