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Michael Visontay: Noble Fragments 

Literary vandalism’s legacy lands in Sydney journalist’s lap

Michael Visontay
Caroline Baum (Photo credit Jeremy Park)
Wednesday 21 May 2025
4-5pm
Event Code: 14
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The Gutenberg Bible was the first substantial book in Europe to be produced on a printing press. Then in 1921 New York bookseller Gabriel Wells did the unthinkable: he broke up the famous Bible to sell it as individual pages, raking in a fortune and scandalising the literary world.

Decades later, Sydney journalist Michael Visontay stumbled on a legal document connecting Wells with his own family.

Follow Michael’s obsessive hunt to track down the scattered pages, documented in Noble Fragments. He shares his journey into the eccentric world of book collectors and his family’s secrets with host Caroline Baum.
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State Library of NSW, Library Auditorium
Macquarie Street Wing, Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000