Sunday, October 28, 2018

Links, Reviews & Auctions

- The Library of Congress launched a new crowd-sourced transcription tool.

- A man was arrested this week after attempting to steal a copy of Magna Carta from a display case at Salisbury Cathedral.

- A. N. Devers writes for the Fine Books Blog about Elizabeth Young's new Brooklyn bookshop.

- Sam Lemley, a doctoral student at UVA, won this year's National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest.

- Ken Sanders talked to France 24 in a short interview about his many years of tracking down book thieves, and about material he's handled relating to disappeared poet Everett Ruess.

- Over at Res Obscura, Ben Breen highlights isochronic maps.

- On the American Scholar's "Smarty Pants" podcast, "The Future is Feminist Book Collecting."

- The Washington Papers editorial project celebrates its fiftieth birthday.

- An unpublished Sylvia Plath story will be published in January by Faber, the Guardian reports.

Review

- Benjamin Balint's Kafka's Last Trial; review by Lev Mendes in the NYTimes.

Upcoming Auctions

- Bibliothèque de François Mitterand: Livres Modernes de 1900 à nos jours - Première partie at PIASA on 29 October.

- Bibliothèque de François Mitterand: Livres Modernes de 1900 à nos jours - Seconde partie at PIASA on 30 October.

- Travel Literature and Sporting Books from the Library of Arnold 'Jake' Johnson at Doyle New York on 30 October.

- Sotheby's single-item sale of one of just three known copies of a 1932 poster for The Mummy starring Boris Karloff ends on 31 October.

- The Adventure & Exploration Library of Steve Fossett, Part I at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on 31 October.

- Autographed Documents, Manuscripts, Photos, Books & Relics at University Archives on 31 October.

- The Joel Harris Collection of Original Illustration Art and Illustrated Books (with additions) at PBA Galleries on 1 November.

- Rare Books & the Harrison Forman Archive at Addison & Sarova on 3 November.

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Links & Reviews

Back in the saddle this week with lots of backlogged news to pass along. It was great to be back at the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair last weekend (and the city provided a few days of absolutely stunningly lovely weather, too). Coming up next is the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (16–18 November), accompanied of course by the Boston Book, Print, and Ephemera Fair on Saturday, 17 November.

- There was an update in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on 12 October on the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library thefts case; the story includes some embedded documents. Other reports indicate that both Priore and Schulman will be going to trial, and that arraignment has been scheduled for 29 November.

- Sarah Lindebaum writes on the Houghton Library blog about "Looking Beyond the Text in Frances Wolfreston's Books."

- Video of the recent conference at the American Philosophical Society, "Past, Present, and Future of Libraries," is now available.

- An article I've been watching for for a while is now up: "Passing the Book: Cultures of Reading in the Winthrop Family, 1580–1730."

- Over at Notabilia, a great new Princeton acquisition is highlighted: a textbook signed by several Revolutionary-era students.

- Coming up on 6 November, Heather O'Donnell will deliver the Van Sinderen lecture at Yale's Beinecke Library: "Scouts, Spies, and Surveyors: Collectors of the Future."

- The Adams Papers team at MHS have released transcriptions of John Quincy Adams' diaries from 1821 through February 1825.

- The Library of Congress has digitized its collection of Theodore Roosevelt's papers.

- Book collector and philanthropist Jay Kislak died on 3 October; see his obituary in the Miami Herald or Rebecca Rego Barry's post on the Fine Books Blog.

- William Helfand also passed away earlier this month: Neil Genzlinger wrote the NYTimes obituary.

- Reading Copy has a good background post on forger Lee Israel, as the new movie based on her book Can You Ever Forgive Me? (starring Melissa McCarthy) hits theaters.

- Police in Stranraer, Scotland are looking for information about the June theft of a 1549 "Treacle Bible" from the Old Kirk, outside Drummore village.

- A great highlight from Edward O'Reilly on the N-YHS blog: a manuscript facsimile of a rare 1725 Benjamin Franklin imprint.

- The Lilly Library is featured in the IU Magazine.

- Margaret Atwood writes for the Guardian about Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.

- On the JHI Blog, "Norse Fantasies and American Foundings," by Derek Kane O'Leary.

- "The Importance of Language in Rare Books" at Rare Books Digest.

- Susan Orlean's new book The Library Book was featured on NPR's "Weekend Edition" last weekend.

- Trinity College Dublin has launched a digital version of its Oscar Wilde collection.

- Also newly digitized, from the BL, more than two hundred Anglo-Saxon manuscripts from before 1100.

- The Guardian reports on the return of the Behemoth Bible (Codex Amiatinus) to the BL from Italy for the library's exhibition on things Anglo-Saxon.

- A complete Egyptian Book of the Dead on papyrus sold for more than 1.3 million Euros at auction in Monaco.

Reviews

- Susan Orlean's The Library Book; reviews by Michael Lewis in the NYTimes, Ron Charles in the WaPo, and by Jennifer Szilai in the NYTimes.

- David Blight's Frederick Douglass; review by Jennifer Szilai in the NYTimes.

- Maryanne Wolf's Reader, Come Home; review by Jennifer Howard in the WaPo.

- Jill Lepore's These Truths; review by Alex Carp in the NYRB.

Upcoming Auctions

Libros y Documentos at Morton Subastas in Mexico City on 23 October.

- Lettres et Manuscrits Autographes at Ader on 23 October.

- Some books and manuscripts in the Arts of the Islamic World sale at Sotheby's London on 24 October.

- The Sporting Sale at Bonhams Edinburgh on 24 October.

- Rare and Important Travel Posters at Swann Galleries on 25 October.

- Books and Works on Paper (online) at Forum Auctions on 25 October.

- Historical Manuscripts at Heritage Auctions on 25 October.

Sunday, October 07, 2018

Links & Auctions

Pardon an abbreviated post this week: just back from Oak Knoll Fest (wonderful, as usual) and I'm tired. And there won't be a post next weekend, as I'll be at the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair.

- Over on the ABAA blog, meet this year's winners of the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest.

- From Aaron Pratt for the Ransom Center blog, "Printing Manuscripts."

- Sian Cain calls bookselling "the most over-romanticized job in the world" in the Guardian.

- Rebecca Rego Barry highlights the recent sale of the lavish illuminated manuscript known as the "Wedding Hours."

- Elizabeth DeBold examines "hex marks" in books from the Folger's collections.

- From Kate Ozment at Sammelband, "Teaching Book History Alongside Literary Theory."

- Video of the recent symposium "The Vinland Map Rediscovered" is now available on YouTube.

Upcoming Auctions

Bibliothèque R. & B. L. VII, XIXe siècle (1840–1898)First editions – Reviews – Autograph Letters and Manuscripts at Sotheby's Paris on 9 October.

- Autographs & Memorabilia at Chiswick Auctions on 10 October.

- Rare Golf Books & Memorabilia at PBA Galleries on 11 October.