Sunday, September 22, 2013

Links & Reviews

- Quite a fascinating post from Anthony Tedeschi at Antipodean Footnotes this week, on the discovery of a truly odd printing error in the University of Melbourne copy of the Gesta Romanorum (~1484).

- Some exciting news from Amherst College, where the Frost Library has acquired the Pablo Eisenberg Collection of Native American Literature, described as the most complete collection of Native American literature and history ever assembled.

- Adams Hooks covers a really lovely 16th-century English binding, the only one known to have a printer's device and motton in gilt on both covers (and now at Houghton).

- Heather Cole is profiled in the FB&C "Bright Young Librarians" series this week.

- In the Telegraph, an excerpt from Vybarr Cregan-Reid's new book on George Smith and his (re)discovery of the epic of Gilgamesh.

- University of South Carolina English professor Gregg Hecimovich believes he has identified the author of The Bondwoman's Narrative, an 1850s novel by an enslaved woman.

- At The Steeple Times, twenty questions for bookseller Pom Harrington.

- From Nathan Raab, a Forbes blog post on crowdsourcing technologies and public engagement in history.

- A 1592 compilation of Frankfurt Book Fair catalogues from 1564-1592 goes under the hammer on 1 October.

- With the launch of Oyster this week, Ian Crouch asks "What does it mean to own a book?"

- Over at the John J. Burns Library blog, 17th-century traveler Thomas Gage's The English-American is highlighted.

- In the NYTimes this week, a profile of the Art Loss Register and its leader, Julian Radcliffe.

- Via Dan Cohen on Twitter, a new research paper, "Solving the Orphan Works Problem for the United States."

Reviews

- Andrew Lycett's Wilkie Collins; review by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst in the Telegraph.

- A. Scott Berg's Wilson; review by Kevin Baker in the NYTimes.

- Robert O'Kell's Disraeli; review by Daisy Hay in the TLS.

- Melissa Mohr's Holy Shit: A Brief History of Swearing; review by Colin Burrow in the LRB.

- Anna Whitelock's Elizabeth's Bedfellows; review by Helen Hackett in the TLS.