Sunday, September 05, 2010

Links & Reviews

- Looks like there's going to be quite a big auction this week in Worcester, where the estate of Andrew Haswell Green will be up for sale in a four-day bidding extravaganza. The Globe previews the sale(s) today, and you can browse the catalogs here. There are some very interesting lots in Session IV, including presidential correspondence, some early Worcester material, and books.

- Ian's got dispatches from the Baltimore book fair (and surrounding restaurants!).

- September's "Fine Books Notes" is out: it includes Richard Goodman's piece on David Karpeles, Ian McKay on the Arcana Sale, and an expanded version of my review of Andrew Pettegree's The Book in the Renaissance.

- At Fine Books Blog, Rebecca Rego Barry notes a new exhibit on paper money at Princeton and previews a new book by Roderick Cave, Impressions of Nature.

- Writing in the Independent, Saul Miller asks whether historians are the best writers of historical fiction.

- There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the biblio-blogosphere this week over the announcement that the third edition of the OED will not appear in print, but only online. In this case I really can't get too upset ... this is just the sort of thing that the internet is most useful for (and the online OED really is incredibly useful).

- Matt Richtel and Claire Cain Miller had a piece in the NYTimes this week about couples feuding over reading in digital v. print. I really hate the forced dichotomy.

- The preview for Skinner, Inc.'s fine books sale in November came this week, and it looks like the sale will include a 1776 broadside Declaration of Independence, this one from the Exeter, NH edition. I haven't seen the full catalog description yet, but the preview text indicated that it was found recently among the papers of a prominent judge from the Revolutionary period.

- In the NYTimes, Nick Bilton goes hunting for the perfect iPad case.

Reviews

- The new interim issue of Common-place is up, with reviews of several recent books.

- Edmund de Waal's The Hare with Amber Eyes; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.

- William Poole's John Aubrey and the Advancement of Learning, plus a new exhibit on Aubrey at the Bodleian (curated by Poole); review by Ruth Scurr in the TLS.

- A new edition of the Earl of Rochester's poems edited by Nicholas Fisher; review by Paul A.J. Davis in the TLS.