- An "absolutely brilliant" first edition of Orwell's Down and Out in Paris signed by Orwell to his agent sold for £86,000 this week (with commission, £101,500).
- The Guardian previews the 8 April Swann sale of the Otto Penzler Collection of British Espionage and Thriller Fiction.
- A 1946 J.D. Salinger letter to Hemingway will be displayed publicly for the first time today at the JFK Library in Boston.
- An author has discovered an unpublished late-life memoir fragment by Claire Claremont (scorned lover of both Byron and Shelley), in the Pforzheimer Collection at the New York Public Library.
- Philip Pullman's new book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, is covered in the Guardian this week; there's also an excerpt and a summary of the letters he's begun receiving about the work.
- A new online exhibit at Harvard, "Books in Books: Reflections on Reading and Writing in the Middle Ages." The physical exhibit opens on 5 April. Also from Harvard, John Overholt examines the marginalia of Hester Thrale Piozzi.
- Ian found a very cool collection of bookplates.
- Book Patrol checks out the London Library.
- In the TNR, Rochelle Gurstein responds to Anthony Grafton's recent review of Louis Menand's The Marketplace of Ideas.
- A number of British institutions are planning a historical search engine, the BBC reports.
- Paul Collins looks at ads for "peaceful combat" games.
- At the NYT's Paper Cuts blog, a Q&A with author Lauren Groff.
- Sarah Rose was on NPR this week to talk about her new book All the Tea in China.
Reviews
- Andre Cossette's Humanism and Libraries: review by Wayne Bivens-Tatum at Academic Librarian.
- James Shapiro's Contested Will: reviews in The Economist and by Boyd Tonkin in the Independent.
- Adrian Tinniswood's Pirates of Barbary: review by James MacConnachie in the Sunday Times.
- Michael O'Brien's Mrs. Adams in Winter: review by Stacy Schiff in the NYTimes.
- E.O. Wilson's Anthill: review by Alexandra Alter in the WSJ.
- Olena Beal's Dora Wordsworth: A Poet's Daughter: review by Frances Wilson in the TLS.
