Sunday, March 13, 2011

Links & Reviews

- Northeastern University is hosting book artist Deborah Davidson this week, and the Humanities Center has planned a series of events, including a bookmaking workshop, a gallery talk by Sven Birkets, and a panel discussion "Beyond the Pages: the Future of the Book." Info on all the events here.

- From the Harvard Gazette, a report on Hollywood's take on Arthur Crew Inman's 17-million word diary, held at the Houghton Library. The film, "Hypergraphia," will star John Hurt. [h/t John Overholt]

- The winners of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle awards were announced this week.

- News that the Smithsonian has begun conservation work on the Jefferson Bible, which will also be digitized. The conserved bible will go on display this fall.

- Over on the Fine Books Blog, Rebecca Rego Barry reviews the recent PRB&M list "Libraries - Librarians - Labors!"

- Launched this week: the fascinating What Middletown Read database, drawing on the lending records of the Muncie, IN Public Library from 1891-1902. I'm glad to see more projects like this emerging (like the New York Society Library's lending ledger) - it's good stuff!


- From Early Modern Bibliography online, some good links and discussion of the proposed Digital Public Library of America.

- Over at the Foxhill Review, another look at the travesty that is Kessinger.

- Swann Galleries report on their sale of African-Americana this week: the top lot was an archive of the papers of educator Charles Harris Wesley, which made $43,500.

- A previously unknown copy of Blake's Poetical Sketches will be sold at Bonhams on 22 April.

- Well here's an interesting one: an investment fund claims to have been conned into buying rare books and portraits. Seems like sort of a complex story, which I'll have to dig into a bit, but among the defendants in the lawsuit are "Lou Weinstein, Heritage Book Shop, Krown & Spellman Booksellers, Michael Sharpe Rare & Antiquarian Books, W.P. Watson Antiquarian Books, and 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop."

- The Boston Globe has cut two book reviewers.

- Rick Gekoski bids a fond farewell to the second-hand bookshop.

- Lisa Krieger reviews the new "American Enlightenment" exhibit now display at Stanford.


Reviews

- Maya Jasanoff's Liberty's Exiles; review by Pauline Maier in the Washington Post.

- James Nelson's With Fire and Sword; review by Chris Patsilelis in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

- Mat Johnson's Pym; review by Michael Dirda in the Washington Post.

- Richard Francis' Paradise Unachieved; review by Elaine Showalter in Literary Review.

- Rebecca Hunt's Mr. Chartwell; review by Tadzio Koelb in the NYTimes.

- Dale Peterson's The Moral Lives of Animals; review by Stephen Budiansky in the WSJ.