1
: a person who has a love of books and especially of reading
2
: a person who is involved in the writing, publishing, or selling of books
Examples of bookman in a Sentence
a bookman since toddlerhood, he's never shown much interest in television or video games
Recent Examples on the Web
Subsequent chapters explore great bookmen of the Renaissance, from the Florentine tradesman Vespasiano da Bisticci and the Flemish illuminator Simon Bening to the English antiquarian Sir Robert Cotton — manuscript obsessives all.
—
Bruce Holsinger, New York Times, 11 Nov. 2023
Once asked to describe himself, McMurtry called himself a writer, a screenwriter — and perhaps most significantly, a bookman.
—Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2021
In the 1970s and ’80s, a flamboyant Texas bookman and one-time president of the ABAA named John Jenkins made money selling stolen and forged items to libraries and collectors.
—Travis McDade, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Aug. 2020
As bookmen and women became intelligence agents, the ordinary activities of librarianship—acquisition, cataloguing, and reproduction—became fraught with mystery, uncertainty, and even danger.
—Time, 3 Jan. 2020
Books would come in monthly, 10 or 15 at a time, carefully packed as only a bookman can pack books, and Dimunation would open them, eager for the riches inside.
—Jorge Dionis, Town & Country, 6 Dec. 2013
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Bruce Holsinger, New York Times, 11 Nov. 2023
Once asked to describe himself, McMurtry called himself a writer, a screenwriter — and perhaps most significantly, a bookman.
—Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2021
In the 1970s and ’80s, a flamboyant Texas bookman and one-time president of the ABAA named John Jenkins made money selling stolen and forged items to libraries and collectors.
—Travis McDade, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Aug. 2020
As bookmen and women became intelligence agents, the ordinary activities of librarianship—acquisition, cataloguing, and reproduction—became fraught with mystery, uncertainty, and even danger.
—Time, 3 Jan. 2020
Books would come in monthly, 10 or 15 at a time, carefully packed as only a bookman can pack books, and Dimunation would open them, eager for the riches inside.
—Jorge Dionis, Town & Country, 6 Dec. 2013
Cite this Entry
“Bookman.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bookman. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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