an Archive

by Edmund de Waal

an Archive ABISBOOK Ivorypress.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays

254 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2025

About the author

Edmund de Waal describes himself as a 'potter who writes'. His porcelain has been displayed in many museum collections around the world and he has recently made a huge installation for the dome of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Edmund was apprenticed as a potter, studied in Japan, and read English Literature at Cambridge University. 'The Hare with Amber Eyes', a journey through the history of a family in objects, is his most personal book.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/edmund...

Reviews

[Ines Maldonado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a special book. A reflection on memory and archive, on what we keep and what we pass on. It reads more like thoughts than a single narrative, but it’s very inspiring and thought provoking.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about archives-- but it also becomes a kind of archive itself because it’s composed of the author‘s reflections on those archives that have informed his work, from his memoir about Netsuke to the one about porcelain, he has traveled from Odessa to Jingdezhen to Paris and onward....

I have read everything de Waal has written and I am pretty sure I am his biggest and most devoted fan. For me, this book was most moving when he discussed his installation the Library in Exile, which I happened upon a few years ago in Venice. I thought that was the most beautiful part of the book, especially the way he discussed the creation of that installation. The book itself, published by ivory press, is beautiful!

This book will be re-read and treasured.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a little biased as I am about to start a master’s in archiving but this book has such lovely prose about the nature of libraries and archiving. De Waal cuts to the heart of why we preserve things, both big and small.