God's Secretaries The Making of the King James Bible

     ...for the supremacy of their own church views and a fierce new commercial culture reaching out for luxuries of the world. This was the England of Shakespeare, Jonson, and Bacon; of the Gunpowder Plot and the worst outbreak of the Plague England had ever seen. It was the world that created the King James Bible, the greatest work of English prose ever written. The sponsor and guide of the whole Bible project was King James himself, who saw a chance to unify his kingdom with this new translation. Approximately 50 scholars from Cambridge, Oxford, and London did the work as a committee and created a text that has never been equaled. That is the central question of this book: how did this group of ordinary men, ambitious but nearly anonymous, manage to bring off this astonishing translation? Adam Nicolson gives a fascinating and dramatic account of the era of the King James Bible and its translation, immersing us in an age whose greatest monument is not a painting or a building but a book....

     ...the country had ever been, and the entire culture was drawn taut between these polarities. This was the world that created the King James Bible. It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment "Englishness," specifically the English language itself, had come into its first passionate maturity. The English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own scope than any form of the language before or since. It drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more....