author
Károly Steinhofer
A Hungarian bookseller and writer from Sopron, he brought a working insider’s knowledge to the history of printing and publishing. His best-known work, A könyv története (The History of the Book), reflects a deep fascination with how books are made, traded, and preserved.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Sopron on October 13, 1884, Károly Steinhofer trained for the book trade after finishing school in his hometown. A biographical dictionary of Hungarian writers describes him as a bookseller who spent apprentice years in Szentgotthárd and also worked in Arad, Kassa, and Budapest.
Steinhofer is best remembered for A könyv története, published in Budapest in 1914. In its preface, he wrote that the book drew on a specialist library of nearly 800 volumes, which helps explain its broad survey of printing, publishing, and book culture.
That background makes his writing especially appealing for readers interested in the life of books beyond the page. Rather than approaching the subject only as a scholar, he wrote as someone shaped by the day-to-day world of bookselling and the history of the printed book itself.