Sunday, March 27, 2011

Links & Reviews

- In the LATimes, a fascinating essay by Tony DiTerlizzi on a planned edition of The Hobbit that was to be illustrated by Maurice Sendak (but which never happened).

- Over at Mercurius Politicus, Nick has pulled together a great list of digital and digitized resources useful for studying the 17th-century English book trade.

- From James Warner at McSweeney's, "The Future of Books."

- Stephen Prothero has a WSJ essay on the Jefferson Bible and what it says about Jefferson's faith (and America's).

- Robert Louis Stevenson's "lost" first novel, "The Hair Trunk," has been "finished" by French scholar Michel Le Bris, and will be published next month in French.

- From Res Obscura, playing cards of the South Sea Bubble period.

- William Wordsworth's home at Allan Bank in Cumbria was partially destroyed by fire this week.

- In the Boston Globe today, a long profile of art book dealer Elmar Seibel, owner of Boston's Ars Libri bookshop. Well worth a read.

- Another installment in the NYTimes series on digital humanities, this one on teaching with digital tools.

- From Past is Present, an example of an advice book bound in unused sheets from Fanny Hill.

- Robert Darnton writes in Library Journal about the input of public librarians in the discussions over a Digital Public Library of America.

Reviews

- Edward Lengel's Inventing George Washington; review by Michiko Kakutani in the NYTimes.

- Laura Snyder's The Philosophical Breakfast Club; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.

- Edward Dolnick's The Clockwork Universe; review by Anne Finkbeiner in the NYTimes.

- David Goldfield's America Aflame; review by Andrew Delbanco in the NYTimes.