- In today's Boston Globe, JCB Library director Ted Widmer has an essay on Samuel de Champlain's New England voyages and the 400th anniversary of Quebec's founding. An exhibit curated by the JCB, "Champlain's America: New England and New France," will run at the Boston Public Library from 13 March to 31 May.
- Paul Collins expands on Paul Constant's The Stranger piece on chasing book thieves. Travis notes "the profile of this group is almost exactly like the profile of my book thieves, just younger. My guys are white, middle-aged, males with some education, money problems and (often) mommy issues. I couldn’t help thinking, after reading the article, that these thefts were gateway book crimes. In ten years that idiot who threw A People’s History into Puget Sound is going to be cutting up a Blaeu Atlas."
- Three men have been arrested in India for trying to sell Mughal-era Quran manuscripts. "The exact source of the books is yet to be traced, [but] police said they were stolen from either Haryana or Rajasthan."
- Michael Lieberman has a post on the Booksellers Provident Retreat, founded in 1843 and still in existence as "the only estate dedicated to providing homes for people who have worked in book publishing, distribution or sales, where they can live safe in the knowledge that they have a home for as long as they need it, within a community of like-minded people who share a common interest." Michael asks "How long is the waiting list?"
- In Paper Cuts, Jennifer Schuessler comments on Nicholson Baker's Deletopedia idea (which I mentioned here last week). She also points out a profile of Baker which recently appeared in the NYTimes.
- From BibliOdyssey, a collection of anthropomorphic trade cards and images of the Montgolfier balloons.
- Laura at Bookn3rd has found a fascinating new book on birds: Walter Buller's A History of the Birds of New Zealand (online here). NB: Seeing a kiwi in person is one of the things that's on my list of things to do before I die.
- Bauman Rare Books is opening a showroom in Las Vegas. (h/t Book Patrol)
- David King notes the impending publication of his new book, Vienna, 1814.
- LT unveiled another fun new feature this week, LibraryThing Local.
- David Rubenstein, who bought the Magna Carta in December, returned the document to the National Archives this week. (h/t fade theory)
- In the TLS, Peter Porter comments on Shakespeare as poet and dramatist.
- Fort Wayne, Indiana's Lincoln Museum will close on 30 June, the Journal-Gazette reported recently. "Much of the ... extensive collection – a treasure trove for historians that includes 18,000 books and 350 documents signed by Lincoln, among other rarities – will be digitized or sent to other museums around the country, possibly making it more difficult for researchers to access them all." (h/t RBN)
Reviews
- In the NYTimes, Robert Sullivan reviews Jonathan Rosen's The Life of the Skies, which he calls "part birding history, part birding travelogue."
- In the Washington Post, Michael Dirda reviews Steven Waldman's Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America.
