I agree that Altick's The Scholar Adventurers is delightful.
Some of the list may remember Gilbert Highet's radio broadcasts about
books and literature on WQXR in New York in 1952. I wrote him a fan
latter, and in his reply he urged me to read The Scholar Adventurers.
And may I point out that the texts of those radio talks by Gilbert
Highet are in another delightful book: People, Places, and Books (OUP,
NY, 1953.)
-Steve Saxe
Germaine Warkentin wrote:
I'll second the Altick recommendation -- I read it right at the
beginning of my grad student career, and it changed my life; I had the
pleasure of telling him this when he visited Toronto many years later.
I have pressed it on many a subsequent grad student. It is full of
bibliographical and book history information and anecdotes, and it
stands up very well after many decades. A sheer delight! Germaine