- Angelique Chrisafis reports for the Guardian about a remarkable legal battle in France over the manuscript of Chateaubriand's memoirs. Lawyer Pascal Dufour faces trial this week for "aggravated breach of trust" for attempting to sell the manuscript, which has been kept under lock and key since 1847, passed down through generations of notaries. Dufour claimed ownership of the ten volume memoir and tried to consign it for sale in 2012, but the state prosecutor maintains that Dufour can't sell it and that it should be returned to the author's heirs (who, apparently, may include Dufour's wife!). Meanwhile, Chateaubriand's will mandates that all copies by burnt without being read ... so there's that. Quite a story.
- In the New Yorker, Tim Wu asks "What ever happened to Google Books?"
- An early and unpublished Stravinsky work, "Funeral Song," has been located at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
- The AAS has acquired a copy of the first authorized American edition of Martin Chuzzlewit, in seven parts with their original wrappers.
- Bernard A. Barton, Jr. has been appointed CIO at the Library of Congress.
- Nick Basbanes writes in Humanities about Philip Kelley's efforts to publish the works of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
- Rare books from the collection of W.A. Cadbury (son of a co-founder of the chocolate company) will be sold at a Mellors & Kirk auction this week.
- From David Levy, an inside look at the XML schema he's using for his bibliography of the works of Edmond Hoyle.
- Michael Daly writes for The Daily Beast about the process of returning Jefferson's manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence to the NYPL from the British Library, where it was on display as part of the Magna Carta exhibition.
- Over on the Houghton Library Tumblr, an animated look at progressive proofs of a color image from Alice in Wonderland.
- There's a roundup of recent rare book catalogs at The New Antiquarian.
- Oak Knoll Press announced the creation of a new editorial board (list here).
- Pierre Bergé talked to WWD about the upcoming sale of books from his collection.
- From Christopher Minty at The Junto, "Finding Its Way: Gordon Wood and the William and Mary Quarterly."
- David Finkelstein has posted a Storify of the tweets from the Cultures of Communication conference in Edinburgh.
- The AHA has released guidelines for evaluation of digital scholarship.
- Lyrics written by Tupac Shakur while in jail are to be sold at Sotheby's Rock & Pop sale; they've rated an estimate of £30,000–50,000.
- Also up for sale, the manuscript of Wagner's "wedding march," available from the website Moments in Time for £2.3 million.
- John Palfrey will chair the search committee for the next BPL president.
- Dan Gillmor, writing for Slate, urges the appointment of Brewster Kahle as the next Librarian of Congress.
- The BPL highlights five recently-digitized rare books, including a 1613 title with "mourning pages."
- A new train line in Scotland is aimed (at least in part) at literary tourists interested in the scenes of Sir Walter Scott.
- At Fast Company, Tina Amirtha explores "The Trouble With Digitizing History."
- Open Culture highlights the digitized theater ephemera from the collections of the NYPL.
- Lew Jaffe's new post at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie concerns the disposal of bookplate collections.
- CLIR has issued a new report, "Changing and Expanding Libraries," by Amy Chen, Sarah Pickle, and Heather Waldroup.
- Thanks to an increase in funding, the NYPL will expand hours and hire more than 100 new staff members.
Reviews
- Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies; reviews by Robin Black in the NYTimes, Ron Charles in the WaPo, and Edan Lepucki in the LATimes.
- Irwin Gellman's The President and the Apprentice; review by Timothy Naftali in the NYTimes.
- M.L. West's The Making of the Odyssey; review by Peter Green in the TLS.
