- On my way to Boston this week for the 38th Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (look for me at the Rare Book School table) I'll be stopping off in Providence to give a talk, "Ownership Marks in Early American Books: Outliers & Oddities" as part of the Rhode Island Center for the Book's 2014 program, "Mine! Ownership Marks from Curses to Bookplates." See the full schedule of events and exhibits here.
- Speaking of Boston, the ABAA blog has been running a great series of posts on the Boston Book Fair and the Boston book scene writ large. Rusty Mott offers up "Recollections of the Boston Book Fair, by a Lifer," Peter Stern covers "Characters in the [Boston] Rare Book Trade," and Joyce Kosofsky writes about changes to the Boston rare books scene since the Boston Book Fair began.
- Many congratulations to Steve Ferguson, who has been named the Acting Associate University Librarian for Rare Books & Special Collections at Princeton.
- Thought this might be coming: the Rosenbach Library has filed a lawsuit against the executors of Maurice Sendak's will, charging that they are failing to comply with his wishes in various respects. There are some real howlers here, like the executors refusing to turn over rare Beatrix Potter books because they are "children's books, not rare books," or works by William Blake.
- Phil Collins has donated his collection of artifacts related to the Alamo and the Texas Revolution to the state of Texas.
- Both the Warburg Institute and the University of London claimed success after a judge handed down a decision in the dispute between the two sides. More from the Warburg Institute here.
- Some excellent news from New York: next year the Manhattan Vintage Book & Ephemera Fair ("The Shadow Show") will take place on Friday 10 April at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, 869 Lexington Avenue at 66th St, New York (right across the street from the Armory show).
- The University of Chicago has received a $250,000 gift from Roger and Julie Baskes to enhance online catalog records.
- The Getty Research Institute has acquired a number of unpublished Joseph Cornell letters.
- Staff at the Imperial War Museum are pushing back against the planned closure of the museum's library.
- The Boston Athenaeum is digitizing its collection of Boston city directories from 1789 through 1900.
- The Ashmolean Museum is planning to reconstruct William Blake's studio as part of an upcoming exhibit on the artist.
- Richard Adams talked to the Telegraph about his writing, to mark the publication of a new edition of Watership Down.
- Over at Printeresting, a look at the Museum of Printing and Graphic Communication in Lyon.
- Bruce Holsinger writes for Humanities about the writing of historical fiction.
- The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from the Conan Doyle estate, with the effect that Sherlock Holmes stories published before 1923 are determined to be in the public domain in the United States.
- Heritage Auctions is selling the archive of American Heritage Publishing.
- David Whitesell has compiled a few highlights from the new acquisitions to the McGregor Library this year.
Reviews
- Bradford Morrow's The Forgers and Charlie Lovett's First Impressions; review by Rebecca Rego Barry at Fine Books Blog. The Forgers is also reviewed by Colin Dwyer for WSHU.
- Richard Norton Smith's On His Own Terms; review by David Nasaw in the WaPo.
- Jenny Uglow's In These Times; review by Nicholas Shakespeare in the Telegraph.
- Robert Darnton's Censors at Work; review by Alberto Manguel in the NYTimes.
- C.D. Rose's The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- E.O. Wilson's The Meaning of Human Existence; review by Danny Heitman in the CSM.
- E.O. Wilson's A Window on Eternity; review by Jonathan Weiner in the NYTimes.
