Available at long last, this volume is the posthumous memoir of a peasant from the depths of old Russia who rose to great wealth and influence as his country's most successful publisher. Though never fully literate, Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin (1851-1934) was a shrewd businessman who made millions by publishing books for all manner of readers. My Life for the Book makes available the full text of Sytin's unpublished memoir, along with various writings by those who knew him. Through sharp and unremittingly ironic observations, Sytin describes with insight and amusement or dismay Tsarist Russia's...