bookman

Before long, the island’s new sovereign began to issue proclamations, investing his favorite bookmen and women with titles and high offices in the Redondan court.

“That bookman’s paradise belongs to all of us,” the exhibition declares.

These days the word “essayist” sounds fussy and a little old-fashioned, nearly as archaic as “bookman” and “poetess.”

In fact, the now antiquated term “bookman” more aptly describes the multitalented Valentine.

Atlas reads the work himself, and his voice — that of the bookman, rather than professional narrator — is saturated with feeling.