Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781565125131)

"Incredible . . . Inspiring . . . Important." --Library Journal, starred review

"A marvelous yarn, loaded with near-calamitous adventures and characters as memorable as Singer creations." --The New York Post

"What began as a quixotic journey was also a picaresque romp, a detective story, a profound history lesson, and a poignant evocation of a bygone world." --The Boston Globe

"Every now and again a book with near-universal appeal comes along: Outwitting History is just such a book." --The Sunday Oregonian

As a twenty-three-year-old graduate student, Aaron Lansky set out to save the world's abandoned Yiddish books before it was too late. Today, more than a million books later, he has accomplished what has been called "the greatest cultural rescue effort in Jewish history." In Outwitting History, Lansky shares his adventures as well as the poignant and often laugh-out-loud stories he heard as he traveled the country collecting books. Introducing us to a dazzling array of writers, he shows us how an almost-lost culture is the bridge between the old world and the future--and how the written word can unite everyone who believes in the power of great literature.

A Library Journal Best Book
A Massachusetts Book Award Winner in Nonfiction
An ALA Notable Book

Author: Aaron Lansky
ISBN-10: 1565125134
ISBN-13: 9781565125131
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Language: English
Published: 09/02/2005
Pages: 328
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Ingram Advance 10/01/2005 pg. 115
New York Times 11/20/2005 pg. 28