Alright, oodles of links and other goodies today:
- A Greek court threw out charges against former Getty curator Marion True last week, deferring to a California law setting a three year statute of limitations "for prosecutions once the whereabouts of a stolen artifact have been established." True was accused of conspiring to acquire a looted gold wreath, which the Getty purchased in 1993 and returned to Greece eight months ago. True's trial on similar charges in Italy has been ongoing since 2005.
- Photos of some interesting new library exteriors have been making the rounds ... very imaginative!
- I missed this one originally, but The Guardian reported on 24 November about the massive warehouses being built to store excess books from the BL and other libraries. Some good discussion here of legal deposit libraries, digitization and other "Big Issues".
- On 13 December, the Library of Congress will unveil a new exhibit, "Exploring the Early Americas," which will feature the Library's newly-acquired 1507 Waldseemüller map (the first document which includes the name 'America'), among many other highlights from the LOC's collections. In this weekend's NYTimes Magazine, Mason Wyatt has a worthwhile essay on the naming of the continent. Another preview of the exhibit, here.
- The Boston Globe (among many others) reports on the auction sale yesterday of a single manuscript page from a love story (?!) written by Napoleon Bonaparte. The hammer price was $35,400.
- Over in the Philly Inquirer, Kate Haegele covers LibraryThing.
- Umberto Eco talks to the NYTimes (mp3).
- John Overholt's got some more images from his Edward Gibbon display at Harvard's Houghton Library. This post includes one of Gibbon's personal library catalogue cards, which he made using the blank backs of playing cards.
- Paul Collins notes his appearance on NPR this Saturday to discuss his NYTimes essay on cigarette advertising in paperback books (very popular in the 1970s).
- Rare Book Review notes that the Bodleian Library will pay tribute to John Milton's 400th birthday with an exhibit, "Citizen Milton," opening 8 December and running through 26 April 2008.
- From BibliOdyssey, some allegorical engravings of the continents and some images from the tombs of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta from a 1781 album.
- The Guardian profiles Philip Pullman.
- The NYPL has acquired a collection of archival materials from Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (h/t fade theory)
- William Blake's 250th birthday was last week; Michael Lieberman has some good links.
Lists:
- Gail Caldwell has the Boston Globe's Best Fiction of 2007 list, while Michael Kenney tackles Non-Fiction.
- The Washington Post offers up their Ten Best of 2007, and the NYTimes follows suit. Two overlaps on the fiction lists (The Savage Detectives and Tree of Smoke), none on the non-fiction.
Review (didn't seem to be many that struck my fancy this week):
- In the Boston Globe, David Waldstreicher reviews Edward Larson's new book on the Election of 1800, A Magnificent Catastrophe.
