As connectors of readers and scholarship, we spend a fair amount of time thinking about the intended audience for our books. It’s actually a question that we ask very early in our consideration of any project: “Who is this book for? What person will want or need this book?” During this gift-giving time of year, many of you may be asking yourselves the reverse of that question: “What book will this person want or need?” By some transitive property of books to people, we may have answers. So, herewith, a collection of suggestions of books for persons. You’re bound to know a few of these folks.
Readers and Writers of Fiction – The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist, by Orhan Pamuk
Devourers of Biographies – Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero, by Abigail Green
Poetry People – Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries, by Helen Vendler
Civil War Buffs – Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South, by Stephanie McCurry
Lovers of Dreams from My Father – A Home Elsewhere: Reading African American Classics in the Age of Obama, by Robert B. Stepto
Fans of Rollicking Tales of Victorian Identity Theft – A Swindler's Progress: Nobles and Convicts in the Age of Liberty, by Kirsten McKenzie
Historians of Religion – Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam, by Fred M. Donner
Armchair Travelers and Amateur Archaeologists – The Parthenon, by Mary Beard
Philosophers – The Consolation of Philosophy, translation by David R. Slavitt
Big Thinkers – Justice for Hedgehogs, by Ronald Dworkin
Austenites – Pride and Prejudice, annotated by Patricia Meyer Spacks
Political Movers – Roosevelt's Purge: How FDR Fought to Change the Democratic Party, by Susan Dunn
Classicists – The Classical Tradition, edited by Anthony Grafton, Glenn W. Most, and Salvatore Settis
Fans of Yiddish Theatre – Wandering Soul: The Dybbuk's Creator, S. An-sky, by Gabriella Safran
Art Historians – The Image of the Black in Western Art, edited by David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Revolutionary Sweethearts – My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams, edited by Margaret A. Hogan and James C. Taylor
Science Buffs of Nearly any Age – The 50 Most Extreme Places in Our Solar System, by David Baker and Todd Ratcliff
Darwin Fish Bumper Sticker-ers – How Many Friends Does One Person Need? Dunbar’s Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks, by Robin Dunbar
Shakespeare Lovers – Prefaces to Shakespeare, by Tony Tanner
Mythbusters – Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion, by Ronald L. Numbers
Mummy Enthusiasts – Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, by John H. Taylor
Bostonians – Eden on the Charles: The Making of Boston, by Michael Rawson
Romantics – La Vita Nuova, translated by David R. Slavitt
Provocative Musical Eroticists – Wagner and the Erotic Impulse, by Laurence Dreyfus
Burgeoning Academics – Promotion and Tenure Confidential, by David D. Perlmutter
Blade Runner Deconstructionists – Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? A Science-Fictional Theory of Representation, by Seo-Young Chu
Foodies – Fresh: A Perishable History, by Susanne Freidberg