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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire
"You'll finish [Greenfield's] book with new respect for color, especially for red. With A Perfect Red, she does for it what Mark Kurlansky in Salt did for that common commodity."--Houston Chronicle
Interweaving mystery, empire, and adventure, Amy Butler Greenfield's masterful popular history offers a window onto a world far different from our own: a world in which the color red was rare and precious--a source of wealth and power for those who could unlock its secrets. And in this world nothing was more prized than cochineal, a red dye that produced the brightest, strongest red the Old World had ever seen.
A Perfect Red recounts the story of this legendary red dye, from its cultivation by the ancient Mexicans and discovery by 16th-century Spanish conquistadors to the European pirates, explorers, alchemists, scientists, and spies who joined in the chase to unlock its secrets, a chase that lasted more than three centuries. It evokes with style and verve this history of a grand obsession, of intrigue, empire, and adventure in pursuit of the most desirable color on earth.
Book Details
- Publisher: Harper Perennial
- Publish Date: Apr 25th, 2006
- Pages: 352
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.00in - 5.28in - 0.87in - 0.61lb
- EAN: 9780060522766
- Categories: • World - General• Techniques - Color• Chemical & Biochemical
About the Author
Amy Butler Greenfield's grandfather and great-grandfather were dyers, and she has long been fascinated by the history of color. Born in Philadelphia, she grew up in the Adirondacks and graduated from Williams College. As a Marshall Scholar at Oxford, she studied imperial Spain and Renaissance Europe. She now lives with her husband near Boston.
Praise for this book
"Delightful, rollicking history . . . A fun read, well-supported by extensive research." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Fascinating...Greenfield has given us a superbly researched history of cochineal red, full of angles and tangents, curiosities and arcana." -- Diane Ackerman, Washington Post Book World
"With A PERFECT RED, she does for [red] what Mark Kurlansky in SALT did for that common commodity." -- Houston Chronicle
"A fascinating story of greed and subterfuge, mixing fashion, folly and ingenuity in equal measure... Written with style and verve." -- J. H. Elliott, University of Oxford
"A marvelous book... Meticulously researched, this saga will enchant lovers of historical mysteries, fascinating characters, and world economics." -- Mark Pendergrast, author of UNCOMMON GROUNDS and MIRROR MIRROR
"A gem of accessible history." -- San Diego Union-Tribune
"[An] intricate history...Greenfield paints a broad historical panorama, never neglecting the intimate, eccentric, and often absurd human details." -- Boston Globe
"Greenfield does what the best historical authors do--follows the thread of a story through history without missing a stitch." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer