And Thank Goodness for That

From today’s edition of Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac:

It’s the anniversary of the printing of the first known book. In the year 868, Wang Chieh printed the Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scripture, on a 16-foot scroll using wood blocks. It was discovered in 1907 in Turkestan, among 40,000 books and manuscripts walled up in one of the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas.

More about the Diamond Sutra can be found here.