- The Universal Short Title Catalogue launched this week: Brook Palmieri has a good introduction (and recap of the launch conference) in an 8vo post.
- Here's a new one: a woman is suing bookseller Ken Lopez because he noted in a book description that a copy of Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road was inscribed to her by the author.
- Last week I noted John Plotz's Slate essay about the "What Middletown Read" database; Anne Trubek weighs in this week in the New York Times with a fantastic essay on what the database can tell us.
- From the Telegraph, a profile of retired professional quarterback Pat McInally's Winnie the Pooh collection, now for sale via Peter Harrington.
- A small "magazine" produced by Charlotte Brontë at around age 14 will be sold at Christie's next month. The book was discussed this week on NPR's "Morning Edition."
- Andrew McKie's "Bibliophilia for Beginners" in the WSJ is quite a decent book-collecting primer.
- Don't miss Garrett Scott's post on antiquarian bookselling, "The anatomy of a melancholy trade," inspired in part by Lorne Blair's "And So It Begins "(which you should also read if you haven't yet done so).
- The manuscript of Casanova's memoirs is currently on display at the Paris' Bibliothèque Nationale for the first time. The BnF acquired the manuscript last year for more than 7 million Euros. More from Bloomberg news.
- Anchora's "Faking Shakespeare" series continues with a post on the William Henry Ireland forgeries.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art has acquired the book of hours produced for François I (1539-40) by the Master of François de Rohan which sold at Christie's as part of the Arcana Collection in July for £337,250. The buyer then was Galerie Les Enluminures, and they've put a digital version of the book online.
- The Israeli paper Ma'ariv reports that an investigation has revealed more than 400 items missing from the collections of the National Library of Israel, including Einstein and Chagall letters, Kafka manuscripts, and poems by Chaim Nachman Bialik. A rough translation of the original Hebrew article is posted here.
- Maya Jasanoff's Liberty's Exiles; review by Ed Larkin in Common-place.
- Garry Wills' Verdi's Shakespeare and Rome and Rhetoric; review by John Simon in the NYTimes.
- Hugh Nissenson's The Pilgrim; review by Ron Charles in the Washington Post.
- Robert Massie's Catherine the Great; review by Wendy Smith in the LATimes.
