Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books, Paperback

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"