As 2009 makes its arrival (in a bone-chilling way here in Boston: it's currently 6 degrees, with a wind chill making it feel like -13), The Guardian looks back at 2008 in books, an interesting compilation of last year's biblio-news.
Concerning other matters of interest (presumably) to you all, dear readers, here are some of the highlights and lowlights (mostly the latter, unfortunately) from 2008 in book crime. The hyperlinks on each person's name will take you to previous posts related to their crimes. Following the chronology is a list of thefts from this year which remain unsolved.
- The Transy Four failed in their bid to obtain reduced prison sentences when a three-judge panel on the Court of Appeals ruled that they should have received more prison time rather than less. (February) Unfortunately their trial judge ignored the appeals court and let her original sentences stand. (October)
- Eight books stolen from a Slovakian library in December 2007 were recovered in a Bupadest bookshop. (February)
- Jay Miller was sentenced to an eighteen-month prison term for the theft of rare books and antiques from the estate of retired Harvard professor William Ernest Hocking. (March) He was released from prison after only seven months. (November)
- Oliver Fallon, who stole materials from the Scottish Catholic Archive in Edinburgh, was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and ordered to pay a fine of £16,000. (May)
- Peter Joseph Bellwood was sentenced to one year in prison, to be followed by five years' expulsion from Denmark, and ordered to pay a 324,000 kroner ($67,000) fine for the theft of maps from the collections of the Danish Royal Library. (May) Bellwood is currently serving a 4.5-year prison term in Britain for thefts from the National Library of Wales.
- William Simon Jacques, suspected of stealing books from the Royal Horticultural Society in London, skipped bail and is believed to remain at large. (May)
- Raymond Scott, an eccentric British book dealer, was arrested after the recovery of Durham University's First Folio, which Scott took to the Folger Library for authentication. (July) Scott filed suit against the university claiming it's not their Folio (October), but was was later re-arrested in the First Folio case, and then again for stealing books from a Waterstone's shop (November)
- In the case of César Gómez Rivero, Spanish paper El Pais reported that two South American associates of Rivero had been identified, and that investigations continue. (August)
- Richard Delaney, who stole £89,000 worth of rare books and maps from Birmingham University, was sentenced to a one-year prison term (which the judge ordered suspended for eighteen months). (August)
- Eugene Zollman was indicted on charges that he stole Jefferson Davis materials from Transylvania University in 1994. The case was assigned to judge Jennifer Coffman, the same judge who ruled in the Transy Four case. Zollman's case is pending. (August)
- James Brubaker was sentenced to 30 months and prison and ordered to pay $200,000 in restitution to more than 100 libraries from which he stole more than 1000 items. (September)
- Edward Renehan, former head of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, was sentenced to an eighteen-month prison term, plus two years of supervised release and the forfeiture of $86,700 (which he'd received for the sale of letters he stole from the TRA's collections). (September)
- Several books stolen from a Vienna bookshop in October 2007 were recovered in Toronto, but the suspects in the case were not expected to face charges. Other books from the heist had been recovered earlier in Europe. (October)
- Joshua McCarty and two associates (Zachary Scranton and Angela Bays) were arrested in relation to the theft of two rare Ohio law books from the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center (September). McCarty and Scranton were later indicted (October). The case is still pending, so far as I can tell.
- Daniel Lorello, a former employee at the New York State Archives who stole items from the State Library, was sentenced to 2-6 years in prison (which I still think is an awfully wide range), ordered to pay $129,500 in restitution, to be divided among people who unknowingly bought stolen property, and agreed to forfeit his personal collection of historic artifacts and documents, valued at approximately $80,000, to the New York State Library and Archives. (October)
- Denning McTague, who stole Civil War documents from the National Archives in Philadelphia while working there as an intern, was released from prison after serving twelve months of a fifteen-month term. (October)
- Book collector Farhad Hakimzadeh was arrested on charges that he defaced more than 150 books at several British libraries in order to "improve his personal collection" with the illustrations and maps. (November) He'll be sentenced this month.
- Laessio Rodrigues de Oliveira was sentenced to five years in prison for the theft of several rare books from the Institute for Research Botanical Garden in Rio de Janeiro. (December)
- Lester Weber, former curator of the Mariners' Museum, was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to theft, mail fraud and filing false tax returns. Weber stole more than 3,500 documents from the museum and sold them on eBay (most have not been recovered). Weber's wife, Lori Childs, was sentenced to a fifteen-month prison term for filing a false tax return. (December)
The following thefts from 2008 remain unsolved (as far as I know):
- A large collection of maps and atlases, stolen from a London collector's office in December.
- A number of rare books stolen from a display case at Boston's Old South Church in September.
- A Mark Twain letter, reported missing after the Denver Book Fair in August.
- Four manuscript diaries from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, stolen at Boston's South Station in March.
Updates or additions always appreciated.
Showing posts with label Jay Miller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jay Miller. Show all posts
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Links & Reviews
Back from Maine; a good week of relaxing porch-sitting and ocean-watching. And I even got through almost all of the books I took up with me; I'll have reviews of those over the course of the next few days. I even managed to get a very weak wireless signal from the deck yesterday and was able to sift through the 775 items in my Google Reader (I had another 54 when I got home this morning). Of course those included some goodies:
- On the Durham First Folio recovery, see Paul Collins' Slate piece "Why Shakespeare is the World's Worst Stolen Treasure", which outlines some of the distinctive characteristics of the Durham copy I mentioned here. Also see Paul's Weekend Stubble post about the column, Thursday's Washington Post profile of accused thief Raymond Scott, and a trio of Travis posts about the case (here, here and here). In the first, he rightly takes issue with Collins' categorical statement that a stolen First Folio isn't saleable - it is, of course, just not on the open market; in the second he points out what seems to be an interesting book-thievery coincidence. [Update: Can't miss this one: the Sunday Mail profiles Raymond Scott's Cuban fiancee, and reports that Scott's "Cuban contact," the one who supposedly gave him the Folio (that would be Danny Leon Perez) says he only gave Scott "an old, battered copy of Shakespeare's play The Tempest."]
- Travis also notes that Jay Miller is set for release from prison on 13 November.
- All the attention being paid to the First Folio prompted this Buffalo News story about the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library's copy of the book, which came to the library under some fascinating circumstances.
- Cokie Roberts discusses her new book, Ladies of Liberty, on NPR.
- The Guardian's book blog profiled the Legacy Libraries. Tim has some comments on their post here.
- Book Patrol (among others) points us to Power Moby-Dick, an online annotated text of the novel. Pretty impressive.
Reviews
- In The Telegraph, Helen Castor reviews A Daughter's Love: Thomas and Margaret More by John Guy, Allan Massie reviews Richard Holmes' Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius, and Marcus Nevitt reviews Burghley: William Cecil at the Court of Elizabeth I by Stephen Alford.
- Elizabeth Kolbert reviews and comments on Andrew Jackson Downing's 1841 Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening in The New Yorker.
- Over in the Washington Post, Daniel Stashower reviews Edward Dolnick's The Forger's Spell.
- On the Durham First Folio recovery, see Paul Collins' Slate piece "Why Shakespeare is the World's Worst Stolen Treasure", which outlines some of the distinctive characteristics of the Durham copy I mentioned here. Also see Paul's Weekend Stubble post about the column, Thursday's Washington Post profile of accused thief Raymond Scott, and a trio of Travis posts about the case (here, here and here). In the first, he rightly takes issue with Collins' categorical statement that a stolen First Folio isn't saleable - it is, of course, just not on the open market; in the second he points out what seems to be an interesting book-thievery coincidence. [Update: Can't miss this one: the Sunday Mail profiles Raymond Scott's Cuban fiancee, and reports that Scott's "Cuban contact," the one who supposedly gave him the Folio (that would be Danny Leon Perez) says he only gave Scott "an old, battered copy of Shakespeare's play The Tempest."]
- Travis also notes that Jay Miller is set for release from prison on 13 November.
- All the attention being paid to the First Folio prompted this Buffalo News story about the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library's copy of the book, which came to the library under some fascinating circumstances.
- Cokie Roberts discusses her new book, Ladies of Liberty, on NPR.
- The Guardian's book blog profiled the Legacy Libraries. Tim has some comments on their post here.
- Book Patrol (among others) points us to Power Moby-Dick, an online annotated text of the novel. Pretty impressive.
Reviews
- In The Telegraph, Helen Castor reviews A Daughter's Love: Thomas and Margaret More by John Guy, Allan Massie reviews Richard Holmes' Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius, and Marcus Nevitt reviews Burghley: William Cecil at the Court of Elizabeth I by Stephen Alford.
- Elizabeth Kolbert reviews and comments on Andrew Jackson Downing's 1841 Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening in The New Yorker.
- Over in the Washington Post, Daniel Stashower reviews Edward Dolnick's The Forger's Spell.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Links & Reviews
This was a good week for links.
- In the most recent Audubon magazine, there's an "Archives" piece republished from the November 1988 issue: it's an essay by Frank Graham, Jr. called "Of Dreams and Dread," about the surreal nature of the fog along the coast of Maine. Having experienced this fog during my family's regular week there each July, I knew exactly what Graham meant when he writes "... in what it clothes, and in what it reveals, fog transforms our world, gilds it in gray, makes the poet in each of us wonder again at the variety of masks that nature puts on and off to enchant us." A delightful piece.
- I missed posting this on the appropriate day, but a commenter points out in my review of At Midnight on the Thirty-First of March that the Internet Archive has made a 31 March 1943 Author's Playhouse radio adaptation of the work available in mp3 format.
- Leon Voet's two-volume The Golden Compasses: A History and Evolution of the Printing and Publishing Activities of the Officina Plantiniana at Antwerp (1967) is now online, hosted by the DBNL.
- Martin has a post on the SI blog about the completion of Smithson's library at LT.
- Penn State has acquired the "Charles L. Blockson Collection of African-Americana and the African Diaspora, an important assemblage of some 10,000 volumes relating to African-American, African, Latin American and Caribbean history and culture." The collection will open to the public on 18 April. This is Blockson's second major donation: his Afro-American History Collection was given to Temple in 1984.
- Travis notes that Jay Miller is due for release on 21 October. Sigh. He also notes that Lester Weber has filed a "motion to suppress statements" regarding the confession he made. Shocking.
- NPR hosted a discussion this week with Michael Farquhar, author of the new book A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans (Penguin).
- In the NYTimes this week, Susan Dominus commented on the dangers ebook readers pose to that time-honored subway tradition of checking out what your commute-neighbors are reading. [h/t LISNews]
- The Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC, the Maryland Institute of Technology in the Humanities, the British Library, the Huntington Library, and the Scottish National Library are partnering to mount a digital library of all 75 pre-1641 quarto editions of Shakespeare online. Dan Cohen notes that the MITH is looking for a full-time programmer to work on the project.
- On the Guardian book blog, Shirley Dent comments on links between graphs and novels, saying in part "Change is the engine of both the modern graph and the modern novel. The graph and the novel are modern narrative forms, almost inconceivable before the industrial revolution and age of enlightenment had brought about a shift in our relationship with time and history. Put simply, in the 18th century, the world and history stopped being things that happened to us or around us: we become agents in our own history."
- Also the Guardian, Carol Rumens declares Oliver Wendell Holmes' "Dorothy Q" the "Poem of the Week," and writes of its author "Perhaps Browning is the English poet to whom he comes closest in style, though Wendell Holmes has a lighter touch, if less originality. American poetry, through Whitman, Pound, and others, would take a very different route into the twentieth century. But it's still possible to savour the fresh, natural, unpretentious quality in the diction, and sensibility, of the doctor-poet. I first met him in Richard Ellmann's New Oxford Book of American Verse (1976), and I've always intended to get to know him better. Perhaps the 200th anniversary of his birth next year will prompt some timely re-issue?"
I walk by the portrait referenced "Dorothy Q" almost every day; it hangs in a second-floor hallway at the MHS.
Reviews
- In this week's TLS, Ferdinand Mount has a lengthy review essay of the aptronymic John Styles' The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England.
- Alberto Manguel's The Library at Night is reviewed by Michael Dirda in the Washington Post and by Richard Cox at Reading Archives. This one's up next for me, as soon as I finish some class projects.
- Elizabeth Hand reviews James Morrow's The Philosopher's Apprentice in the Washington Post.
- In the most recent Audubon magazine, there's an "Archives" piece republished from the November 1988 issue: it's an essay by Frank Graham, Jr. called "Of Dreams and Dread," about the surreal nature of the fog along the coast of Maine. Having experienced this fog during my family's regular week there each July, I knew exactly what Graham meant when he writes "... in what it clothes, and in what it reveals, fog transforms our world, gilds it in gray, makes the poet in each of us wonder again at the variety of masks that nature puts on and off to enchant us." A delightful piece.
- I missed posting this on the appropriate day, but a commenter points out in my review of At Midnight on the Thirty-First of March that the Internet Archive has made a 31 March 1943 Author's Playhouse radio adaptation of the work available in mp3 format.
- Leon Voet's two-volume The Golden Compasses: A History and Evolution of the Printing and Publishing Activities of the Officina Plantiniana at Antwerp (1967) is now online, hosted by the DBNL.
- Martin has a post on the SI blog about the completion of Smithson's library at LT.
- Penn State has acquired the "Charles L. Blockson Collection of African-Americana and the African Diaspora, an important assemblage of some 10,000 volumes relating to African-American, African, Latin American and Caribbean history and culture." The collection will open to the public on 18 April. This is Blockson's second major donation: his Afro-American History Collection was given to Temple in 1984.
- Travis notes that Jay Miller is due for release on 21 October. Sigh. He also notes that Lester Weber has filed a "motion to suppress statements" regarding the confession he made. Shocking.
- NPR hosted a discussion this week with Michael Farquhar, author of the new book A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans (Penguin).
- In the NYTimes this week, Susan Dominus commented on the dangers ebook readers pose to that time-honored subway tradition of checking out what your commute-neighbors are reading. [h/t LISNews]
- The Bodleian Library at Oxford, the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC, the Maryland Institute of Technology in the Humanities, the British Library, the Huntington Library, and the Scottish National Library are partnering to mount a digital library of all 75 pre-1641 quarto editions of Shakespeare online. Dan Cohen notes that the MITH is looking for a full-time programmer to work on the project.
- On the Guardian book blog, Shirley Dent comments on links between graphs and novels, saying in part "Change is the engine of both the modern graph and the modern novel. The graph and the novel are modern narrative forms, almost inconceivable before the industrial revolution and age of enlightenment had brought about a shift in our relationship with time and history. Put simply, in the 18th century, the world and history stopped being things that happened to us or around us: we become agents in our own history."
- Also the Guardian, Carol Rumens declares Oliver Wendell Holmes' "Dorothy Q" the "Poem of the Week," and writes of its author "Perhaps Browning is the English poet to whom he comes closest in style, though Wendell Holmes has a lighter touch, if less originality. American poetry, through Whitman, Pound, and others, would take a very different route into the twentieth century. But it's still possible to savour the fresh, natural, unpretentious quality in the diction, and sensibility, of the doctor-poet. I first met him in Richard Ellmann's New Oxford Book of American Verse (1976), and I've always intended to get to know him better. Perhaps the 200th anniversary of his birth next year will prompt some timely re-issue?"
I walk by the portrait referenced "Dorothy Q" almost every day; it hangs in a second-floor hallway at the MHS.
Reviews
- In this week's TLS, Ferdinand Mount has a lengthy review essay of the aptronymic John Styles' The Dress of the People: Everyday Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England.
- Alberto Manguel's The Library at Night is reviewed by Michael Dirda in the Washington Post and by Richard Cox at Reading Archives. This one's up next for me, as soon as I finish some class projects.
- Elizabeth Hand reviews James Morrow's The Philosopher's Apprentice in the Washington Post.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Miller Gets 18 Months
Travis reports that Jay Miller was sentenced on Friday to 18 months in prison, the exact sentence sought by the prosecution (the defense had requested 8 months). Travis adds "all things considered, not a horrible sentence. Since he’s been in jail for almost a year now, I think we can expect him to be out in six months. At that point he’s got three years of supervised release." He was also ordered to pay more than $10,000 in restitution.
Should have been more time, but 18 months is better than nothing.
Should have been more time, but 18 months is better than nothing.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Miller (Probably) Gets Wrist-Slap
Jay Miller, our most recent cross-country book thief, is set to be sentenced on Friday, and Travis has the skinny on the prosecution's sentencing recommendation: "The government is recommending 18 months. And we haven’t even heard from the defense yet. Unless there’s some rogue, super strict federal judge - in the Northern District of California - don’t expect any more than that." Travis runs through the sentencing guidelines to show how that number was reached, and also lays out what should have happened.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Miller Sentencing Postponed
Travis reports over at Upward Departure that Jay Miller, who pleaded guilty in late November to one count of "Interstate Transport of Stolen Goods," will now be sentenced on 7 March, rather than 8 February. The reason for the delay is that "the probation officer has not finished compiling the pre-sentence report."
Last February, Miller stole more than 400 rare books and antiques from the New Hampshire estate of retired Harvard professor William Ernest Hocking and took them to California. He was arrested there in July.
Last February, Miller stole more than 400 rare books and antiques from the New Hampshire estate of retired Harvard professor William Ernest Hocking and took them to California. He was arrested there in July.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Miller Pleads Guilty
Travis reports that Jay Miller, arrested back in August for the theft of rare books from the estate of retired Harvard professor William Ernest Hocking, has pleaded guilty to "one count of Interstate Transport of Stolen Goods." He'll be sentenced on 8 February, 2008. Travis provides some details on what happens between now and then.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Links & Reviews
[Lots of goodies this week - enjoy!]
- From today's Times (UK), William Sutton examines translations of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The Turkish version of the final book (Harry Potter ve Ölüm Yadigarlar) was just released last week, second only to the Ukrainian translation (Harry Potter i Smertelni Relikviyi). The French translator won't be finished until February, and in Italy "irate Potter fans have organised Operation Feather, deluging the publisher Salani with feathers to demand earlier publication, in the manner of Hogwarts' messenger owls." Sutton also discusses the many "unofficial" translations cropping up in various parts of the world, as well as the difficulties inherent in translating some of Rowling's names and ideas (Dumbledore in Norwegian? Humlesnurr, formed by combining the words for 'bee' and 'spin'). Voldemort's full name in French (to preserve the anagram)? Tom Elvis Jedusor.
- At Bookride, the first part of a two-part post on Boccaccio's Decameron. Always some interesting anecdotes here.
- Tom Pazzo posts an auction report over at Bookshop Blog. He doesn't say where the auction was, but he does report that a first edition of Hobbes' Leviathan went for $4600.
- Travis reports that Jay Miller "has [finally] been charged in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California with Interstate Transportation of Stolen Goods. He has pleaded not guilty." Another court appearance soon.
- Ed's got the latest dispatches from the Poe Wars battlefield.
- Michael Lieberman notes that police in Essex, England are on the lookout for four "Mini-Bookshop" vending machines stolen last month. "The machines, worth £10,000 each, were in a trailer attached to a lorry parked at PN Computer Services on High Street, Elsenham near Bishop's Stortford." A £2,000 reward is offered for their return.
- Over at Drawger, a gallery of endpapers.
- The Association of Research Libraries has published Celebrating Research: Rare and Special Collections from the Membership of the Association of Research Libraries. The book "includes 118 collection profiles, each from a different ARL member library. Each profile is illustrated with color photographs and tells a story of a single collection, recounting how the resources were acquired and developed. The compilation is rich with examples of how research libraries are engaging different communities to deliver library services and encourage the use of such distinctive collections." Nicholas Barker contributed the introduction. A companion website has also been released.
- Scott Brown at FB&C highlights their upcoming collection of Nicholas Basbanes essays, Editions & Impressions, and also passes along an Anne Trubek piece about collecting 'hypermoderns' (books published within the last two decades or so).
- Back in February I noted the discovery of book with Rousseau provenance at Cincinnati's [fixed, not Chicago's] Lloyd Library; they've now mounted an exhibit, "In Rousseau's Own Hand: His Book, His Notes, His Botany", complete with images of the annotations, other botany-related books used by Rousseau, &c.
- Last weekend's Paul Collins posts: comments on the Archimedes Palimpsest, and a link to a review of a recent book, Fopdoodle And Salmagundi: Words and Meanings From Dr Johnson's Dictionary That Time Forgot. Paul includes a web edition of a small portion of Edward Vaughn Kenealy's "epic and epically bonkers play A New Pantomime."
- From BibliOdyssey, images from an anonymous, undated and spectacular Arabic manuscript showing some sort of water-moving machine, a fun miscellany, and a collection of costume plates from Dutch artist Caspar Luyken (1703).
- Richard Cox examines the new book Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible from an archival perspective. Perceptive and relevant, as usual.
- Over at Galleycat, they spent some time this week wondering what's the oldest library in America (here and here). As usual, it's complicated.
Reviews:
Marcus Rediker's The Slave Ship: A Human History - by Colin Woodard in the Christian Science Monitor. I heard Rediker speak on this book at Northeastern this week, and am very much looking forward to reading it. His talk was riveting and excellent. Woodard says Rediker "has drawn the slave ship out of the shadows, creating a history that is elegant, readable, and entirely horrifying. It is, as Rediker warns at the outset, a painful book to read, and one the reader won't soon forget."
Eve LaPlante's Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewell - by Marjorie Kehe in the Christian Science Monitor.
John Kukla's Mr. Jefferson's Women - by Stacy Schiff in the New York Times. Schiff's verdict: "Generally, Kukla is working with a thin historical record; the perhapses pile up. More disturbingly, the evidence seems honed to fit an argument. ... Kukla contrasts Jefferson unfavorably with Benjamin Rush and the Marquis de Condorcet, progressive thinkers whose ideas about women were especially advanced. If, however, the charge that Jefferson 'did nothing whatsoever to improve the legal or social condition of women in American society' holds, his entire generation stands convicted. It seems as unfair to tar him with that brush as it does to accuse him of selfishness, behavior that would hardly distinguish Jefferson, or most of the rest of us, in any century."
- Lucy Worsley's Cavalier: A Tale of Chivalry, Passion, and Great Houses - by Judith Flanders in the New York Times. Flanders says this unconventional biography of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne doesn't quite measure up: elements "fail to cohere" and the book "sometimes reads like a historical novel. ... "The description of Newcastle’s father’s deathbed is 'extrapolated,' an endnote tells us, from 'similar scenes' in contemporary sources, including paintings. In the text, the reader is straightforwardly told that certain people are present, but the endnotes amend these assertions, revealing that documents 'do not place' these people 'in the house on the day,' although 'their presence seems likely.'” This is not history. It is fiction." Quite so, and yet another indictment of editors and publishers who allow authors to get away with blurring if not outright fudging facts. For shame.
- Angus Hawkins' The Forgotten Prime Minister: The 14th Earl of Derby (Volume I: Ascent, 1799-1851) - by Andrew Roberts in the Times. Of the subject, Roberts writes "Although he formed three ministries, was the longest-serving party leader in modern British political history and abolished slavery throughout the British Empire, Derby is not today remembered at all, even in the Tory party that he led between 1846 and 1868." Of the book: "With its genealogical tables, chapter headings based on Derby’s Iliad translation and deeply learned expositions on the minutiae of parliamentary manoeuvrings, this book hails from the elitist high-politics school of history and is (rightly) proud of it."
- Woody Holton's Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution - by Terry Shulman in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "Holton's sour view of the framers' motivations might have been tempered by an acknowledgment of how much more democratic the Constitution has become since its ratification. This, too, can be attributed to the framers. The author gives short shrift to any higher agenda (in the fashion of most revisionists) and fails to focus the reader's attention on the Constitution's ingrained powers of reinvention. ... But Holton's book is groundbreaking in that it enlarges exponentially our understanding of the people's role in the formation of American government. Unruly they might have been, but they were canny enough to see the extent to which they were being taken advantage of by their state governments and capable enough to bring about the grass-roots upheavals that led to the drafting of the Constitution." My copy of Unruly Americans arrived this week, and is another one I'm really looking forward to.
- From today's Times (UK), William Sutton examines translations of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The Turkish version of the final book (Harry Potter ve Ölüm Yadigarlar) was just released last week, second only to the Ukrainian translation (Harry Potter i Smertelni Relikviyi). The French translator won't be finished until February, and in Italy "irate Potter fans have organised Operation Feather, deluging the publisher Salani with feathers to demand earlier publication, in the manner of Hogwarts' messenger owls." Sutton also discusses the many "unofficial" translations cropping up in various parts of the world, as well as the difficulties inherent in translating some of Rowling's names and ideas (Dumbledore in Norwegian? Humlesnurr, formed by combining the words for 'bee' and 'spin'). Voldemort's full name in French (to preserve the anagram)? Tom Elvis Jedusor.
- At Bookride, the first part of a two-part post on Boccaccio's Decameron. Always some interesting anecdotes here.
- Tom Pazzo posts an auction report over at Bookshop Blog. He doesn't say where the auction was, but he does report that a first edition of Hobbes' Leviathan went for $4600.
- Travis reports that Jay Miller "has [finally] been charged in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California with Interstate Transportation of Stolen Goods. He has pleaded not guilty." Another court appearance soon.
- Ed's got the latest dispatches from the Poe Wars battlefield.
- Michael Lieberman notes that police in Essex, England are on the lookout for four "Mini-Bookshop" vending machines stolen last month. "The machines, worth £10,000 each, were in a trailer attached to a lorry parked at PN Computer Services on High Street, Elsenham near Bishop's Stortford." A £2,000 reward is offered for their return.
- Over at Drawger, a gallery of endpapers.
- The Association of Research Libraries has published Celebrating Research: Rare and Special Collections from the Membership of the Association of Research Libraries. The book "includes 118 collection profiles, each from a different ARL member library. Each profile is illustrated with color photographs and tells a story of a single collection, recounting how the resources were acquired and developed. The compilation is rich with examples of how research libraries are engaging different communities to deliver library services and encourage the use of such distinctive collections." Nicholas Barker contributed the introduction. A companion website has also been released.
- Scott Brown at FB&C highlights their upcoming collection of Nicholas Basbanes essays, Editions & Impressions, and also passes along an Anne Trubek piece about collecting 'hypermoderns' (books published within the last two decades or so).
- Back in February I noted the discovery of book with Rousseau provenance at Cincinnati's [fixed, not Chicago's] Lloyd Library; they've now mounted an exhibit, "In Rousseau's Own Hand: His Book, His Notes, His Botany", complete with images of the annotations, other botany-related books used by Rousseau, &c.
- Last weekend's Paul Collins posts: comments on the Archimedes Palimpsest, and a link to a review of a recent book, Fopdoodle And Salmagundi: Words and Meanings From Dr Johnson's Dictionary That Time Forgot. Paul includes a web edition of a small portion of Edward Vaughn Kenealy's "epic and epically bonkers play A New Pantomime."
- From BibliOdyssey, images from an anonymous, undated and spectacular Arabic manuscript showing some sort of water-moving machine, a fun miscellany, and a collection of costume plates from Dutch artist Caspar Luyken (1703).
- Richard Cox examines the new book Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible from an archival perspective. Perceptive and relevant, as usual.
- Over at Galleycat, they spent some time this week wondering what's the oldest library in America (here and here). As usual, it's complicated.
Reviews:
Marcus Rediker's The Slave Ship: A Human History - by Colin Woodard in the Christian Science Monitor. I heard Rediker speak on this book at Northeastern this week, and am very much looking forward to reading it. His talk was riveting and excellent. Woodard says Rediker "has drawn the slave ship out of the shadows, creating a history that is elegant, readable, and entirely horrifying. It is, as Rediker warns at the outset, a painful book to read, and one the reader won't soon forget."
Eve LaPlante's Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewell - by Marjorie Kehe in the Christian Science Monitor.
John Kukla's Mr. Jefferson's Women - by Stacy Schiff in the New York Times. Schiff's verdict: "Generally, Kukla is working with a thin historical record; the perhapses pile up. More disturbingly, the evidence seems honed to fit an argument. ... Kukla contrasts Jefferson unfavorably with Benjamin Rush and the Marquis de Condorcet, progressive thinkers whose ideas about women were especially advanced. If, however, the charge that Jefferson 'did nothing whatsoever to improve the legal or social condition of women in American society' holds, his entire generation stands convicted. It seems as unfair to tar him with that brush as it does to accuse him of selfishness, behavior that would hardly distinguish Jefferson, or most of the rest of us, in any century."
- Lucy Worsley's Cavalier: A Tale of Chivalry, Passion, and Great Houses - by Judith Flanders in the New York Times. Flanders says this unconventional biography of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne doesn't quite measure up: elements "fail to cohere" and the book "sometimes reads like a historical novel. ... "The description of Newcastle’s father’s deathbed is 'extrapolated,' an endnote tells us, from 'similar scenes' in contemporary sources, including paintings. In the text, the reader is straightforwardly told that certain people are present, but the endnotes amend these assertions, revealing that documents 'do not place' these people 'in the house on the day,' although 'their presence seems likely.'” This is not history. It is fiction." Quite so, and yet another indictment of editors and publishers who allow authors to get away with blurring if not outright fudging facts. For shame.
- Angus Hawkins' The Forgotten Prime Minister: The 14th Earl of Derby (Volume I: Ascent, 1799-1851) - by Andrew Roberts in the Times. Of the subject, Roberts writes "Although he formed three ministries, was the longest-serving party leader in modern British political history and abolished slavery throughout the British Empire, Derby is not today remembered at all, even in the Tory party that he led between 1846 and 1868." Of the book: "With its genealogical tables, chapter headings based on Derby’s Iliad translation and deeply learned expositions on the minutiae of parliamentary manoeuvrings, this book hails from the elitist high-politics school of history and is (rightly) proud of it."
- Woody Holton's Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution - by Terry Shulman in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "Holton's sour view of the framers' motivations might have been tempered by an acknowledgment of how much more democratic the Constitution has become since its ratification. This, too, can be attributed to the framers. The author gives short shrift to any higher agenda (in the fashion of most revisionists) and fails to focus the reader's attention on the Constitution's ingrained powers of reinvention. ... But Holton's book is groundbreaking in that it enlarges exponentially our understanding of the people's role in the formation of American government. Unruly they might have been, but they were canny enough to see the extent to which they were being taken advantage of by their state governments and capable enough to bring about the grass-roots upheavals that led to the drafting of the Constitution." My copy of Unruly Americans arrived this week, and is another one I'm really looking forward to.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Links & Reviews
A belated selection of links and reviews this week, which also seems a bit short for some reason.
- John Overholt found a 1909 Samuel Johnson-themed calendar amongst the Hyde Collection goodies at Harvard.
- Paul Collins, his wife Jennifer and their son Morgan are the subject of a fascinating interview on NPR's "Speaking of Faith", Paul notes at Weekend Stubble. Morgan, who is autistic, is the subject of Paul's book Not Even Wrong. Paul writes: "Both the hour-long show and the unedited two hour raw footage of the entire interview (and I mean entire, right down to a long sound check) are at their website. They've done a beautiful job with the site, including both my own 2005 Times piece on Prozac and autism, Stephen Jay Gould's wonderful essay on his autistic son, and Morgan's own selection of his favorite Youtube videos."
- Joseph Ellis reviews Jay Winik's The Great Upheaval in this weekend's NYTimes Book Review.
- Travis updates us on the Jay Miller case, which has been postponed now until (at least) 11 October. "Apparently the US Attorney in New Hampshire is waiting on the US Attorney in California to send some stuff that, in turn, will allow the US Attorney in New Hampshire to send some stuff back."
- Scott Brown passes along a New Yorker piece on the Strand's books-by-the-foot program, which was used for set-decoration in the upcoming Indiana Jones movie.
- Colophon has a new list of books on books (No. 166) for your perusal. Some wonderful stuff, as always.
- John Overholt found a 1909 Samuel Johnson-themed calendar amongst the Hyde Collection goodies at Harvard.
- Paul Collins, his wife Jennifer and their son Morgan are the subject of a fascinating interview on NPR's "Speaking of Faith", Paul notes at Weekend Stubble. Morgan, who is autistic, is the subject of Paul's book Not Even Wrong. Paul writes: "Both the hour-long show and the unedited two hour raw footage of the entire interview (and I mean entire, right down to a long sound check) are at their website. They've done a beautiful job with the site, including both my own 2005 Times piece on Prozac and autism, Stephen Jay Gould's wonderful essay on his autistic son, and Morgan's own selection of his favorite Youtube videos."
- Joseph Ellis reviews Jay Winik's The Great Upheaval in this weekend's NYTimes Book Review.
- Travis updates us on the Jay Miller case, which has been postponed now until (at least) 11 October. "Apparently the US Attorney in New Hampshire is waiting on the US Attorney in California to send some stuff that, in turn, will allow the US Attorney in New Hampshire to send some stuff back."
- Scott Brown passes along a New Yorker piece on the Strand's books-by-the-foot program, which was used for set-decoration in the upcoming Indiana Jones movie.
- Colophon has a new list of books on books (No. 166) for your perusal. Some wonderful stuff, as always.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Links & Reviews
- The week's must-read is Jill Lepore's excellent and provocative New Yorker review essay of Edward Larson's A Magnificent Catastrophe, a new book out on the election of 1800.
- From the NYTimes, an essay by David Oshinsky on gleanings from the "rejection files" at the Knopf archive at the University of Texas.
- Paul Collins points out his latest New Scientist article, which he calls "the most disturbing article I think I've ever written." "In perhaps the least-known American medical scandal of the 20th century, tens of thousands of woman in the 1920s through 1940s -- and the number might even reach into the 6 figures -- received X-ray radiation to their faces and arms" for the purpose of removing unwanted hair. "By 1970, US researchers were attributing over one-third of radiation-induced cancers in women to X-ray hair removal."
- The BBC covers a new bright-light technology that might allow scholars to 'read' unrolled scrolls or other works too fragile to open.
- BibliOdyssey sends roses, by Pierre-Joseph Redouté.
- Lew Jaffe's got a bookplate tale for us.
- Travis has more on the Transylvania thefts, pointing out that "masterminds" doesn't quite describe the thugs who carried out that heist. He also offers a brief update on the Jay Miller case; he suspects there's a plea deal in the works.
- Ed comments - aptly - on the latest effort to claim Shakespeare didn't write the plays.
- From The Scotsman, a celebration of the five-hundredth anniversary of printing in Scotland, and a column by Stuart Kelly on the recent flood at the National Library, "an accident that acts on the bibliophile part of my brain like salt on a slug."
- Michael at Book Patrol has some really neat images by Briony Morrow-Cribbs, and also offers a sneak peek at the design for Prague's National Library of the Czech Republic (which looks like something out of "SpongeBob Squarepants" to me).
- In The Guardian, Andrew Lycett draws on recently-available letters by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to piece together a long-unclear "marital dilemma."
- Megan Marshall gives Linda Colley's The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh a quite-positive review in the NYTimes.
- From the NYTimes, an essay by David Oshinsky on gleanings from the "rejection files" at the Knopf archive at the University of Texas.
- Paul Collins points out his latest New Scientist article, which he calls "the most disturbing article I think I've ever written." "In perhaps the least-known American medical scandal of the 20th century, tens of thousands of woman in the 1920s through 1940s -- and the number might even reach into the 6 figures -- received X-ray radiation to their faces and arms" for the purpose of removing unwanted hair. "By 1970, US researchers were attributing over one-third of radiation-induced cancers in women to X-ray hair removal."
- The BBC covers a new bright-light technology that might allow scholars to 'read' unrolled scrolls or other works too fragile to open.
- BibliOdyssey sends roses, by Pierre-Joseph Redouté.
- Lew Jaffe's got a bookplate tale for us.
- Travis has more on the Transylvania thefts, pointing out that "masterminds" doesn't quite describe the thugs who carried out that heist. He also offers a brief update on the Jay Miller case; he suspects there's a plea deal in the works.
- Ed comments - aptly - on the latest effort to claim Shakespeare didn't write the plays.
- From The Scotsman, a celebration of the five-hundredth anniversary of printing in Scotland, and a column by Stuart Kelly on the recent flood at the National Library, "an accident that acts on the bibliophile part of my brain like salt on a slug."
- Michael at Book Patrol has some really neat images by Briony Morrow-Cribbs, and also offers a sneak peek at the design for Prague's National Library of the Czech Republic (which looks like something out of "SpongeBob Squarepants" to me).
- In The Guardian, Andrew Lycett draws on recently-available letters by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to piece together a long-unclear "marital dilemma."
- Megan Marshall gives Linda Colley's The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh a quite-positive review in the NYTimes.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Links & Reviews
I'm still working on getting my house put back together after the Great Book Move; putting a few hundred books into something resembling order is taking longer than expected. I'll have more to say about book-organization shortly, but in the meantime, here are some goodies from the week:
- Via StarDotStar, a site to rank book search sites, largely from a sellers' perspective.
- Ed at Bibliothecary notes that a British man attacked a Joshua Reynolds portrait of Samuel Johnson at London's National Portrait Gallery on 8 August, smashing the covering glass and beating Johnson with a hammer. The damage has been estimated at more than £10,000.
- Louis Menand has a review essay in The New Yorker about several recent books on the crafting of biographies.
- Joyce has a guest post by Judith Murphy, Conservator for Special Collections at the Center for Southwest Research in Albuquerque on terms for paper degradation.
- Travis adds some more details to the Jay Miller thefts, filling in some of the details about when and how the thefts were carried out.
- BibliOdyssey has some gripping and graphic images from John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative of a Five Years' Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America, from the year 1772 to 1777.
- Paul Collins goes deep on the most difficult aspects of biographical writing: "reductionism and the deterministic interpretation of source material."
- Over at Boston 1775 (a great Boston history blog), J.L. Bell comments on Thomas Paine; he's right on the mark about why Paine's not typically included in the pantheon of iconic American founders. Reading this reminded me of a little tidbit I came across in an early almanac once (I've got a copy somewhere, I'll try to find the full citation), Tom Paine's epitaph:
Here lies Tom Paine, who wrote in Liberty's defense,
But in his Age of Reason lost his Common Sense.
Back to shelving.
- Via StarDotStar, a site to rank book search sites, largely from a sellers' perspective.
- Ed at Bibliothecary notes that a British man attacked a Joshua Reynolds portrait of Samuel Johnson at London's National Portrait Gallery on 8 August, smashing the covering glass and beating Johnson with a hammer. The damage has been estimated at more than £10,000.
- Louis Menand has a review essay in The New Yorker about several recent books on the crafting of biographies.
- Joyce has a guest post by Judith Murphy, Conservator for Special Collections at the Center for Southwest Research in Albuquerque on terms for paper degradation.
- Travis adds some more details to the Jay Miller thefts, filling in some of the details about when and how the thefts were carried out.
- BibliOdyssey has some gripping and graphic images from John Gabriel Stedman's Narrative of a Five Years' Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America, from the year 1772 to 1777.
- Paul Collins goes deep on the most difficult aspects of biographical writing: "reductionism and the deterministic interpretation of source material."
- Over at Boston 1775 (a great Boston history blog), J.L. Bell comments on Thomas Paine; he's right on the mark about why Paine's not typically included in the pantheon of iconic American founders. Reading this reminded me of a little tidbit I came across in an early almanac once (I've got a copy somewhere, I'll try to find the full citation), Tom Paine's epitaph:
Here lies Tom Paine, who wrote in Liberty's defense,
But in his Age of Reason lost his Common Sense.
Back to shelving.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
More on Miller
Over at Upward Departure, Travis has two posts containing more information and background on Jay Miller, arrested recently for the theft of rare books from the estate of William Ernest Hocking. Travis notes that Miller lived at one point with ------ ------ [name removed by request] (described as the niece of Hocking's granddaughter), and during that period had "stolen some of the books from the Hocking library and sold them to see how much he could get for them. The family never pressed charges or reported this to the police."
In his second post, Travis reports this isn't the first time Miller's found himself in trouble with the law: "he hasn’t confined himself to these gentle crimes; he’s the owner of two felony convictions for sex offense and a related violence charge. Yikes." He also reveals why Miller's bail request was denied: "the defendant had no stable residential history, no stable form of employment, had substance abuse, & the deft. was scheduled to fly back to Thailand."
Miller certainly sounds like a good candidate for some serious judicial book-throwing.
In his second post, Travis reports this isn't the first time Miller's found himself in trouble with the law: "he hasn’t confined himself to these gentle crimes; he’s the owner of two felony convictions for sex offense and a related violence charge. Yikes." He also reveals why Miller's bail request was denied: "the defendant had no stable residential history, no stable form of employment, had substance abuse, & the deft. was scheduled to fly back to Thailand."
Miller certainly sounds like a good candidate for some serious judicial book-throwing.
Friday, August 10, 2007
CA Man Arrested in Book Thefts
Back in late February I noted the theft of some 400 rare books (as well as some antiques) from the estate of retired Harvard professor William Ernest Hocking. Now, the AP reports the arrest of Jay Miller, a 36-year old resident of Berkeley, CA. Miller "was arrested last month at a storage facility in Richmond, CA, by local police and FBI agents in connection with the thefts. He was turned over to the FBI on a federal warrant for interstate transportation of stolen property. The state warrant was on burglary charges." He's currently in custody pending extradition to NH.
Some of the stolen items were apparently recovered at the storage facility, but "Madison Police Chief John Pickering said still missing are 175 books and the card catalog to the family library, as well as some statues and an antique clock." Pickering says they have some further leads which they're following up.
"Pickering said that Miller, who used to run a book business in California, had been an acquaintance of the family at the estate. 'He knew the comings and goings of the family during the winter and he took the opportunity to strike when nobody was there,' Pickering said. 'He was almost like part of the family at one point, many years ago.'"
Well, I guess now we'll get to see how New Hampshire metes out justice to book thieves. I'm glad so much has been recovered, and hope that more of the items will make their way home soon.
Some of the stolen items were apparently recovered at the storage facility, but "Madison Police Chief John Pickering said still missing are 175 books and the card catalog to the family library, as well as some statues and an antique clock." Pickering says they have some further leads which they're following up.
"Pickering said that Miller, who used to run a book business in California, had been an acquaintance of the family at the estate. 'He knew the comings and goings of the family during the winter and he took the opportunity to strike when nobody was there,' Pickering said. 'He was almost like part of the family at one point, many years ago.'"
Well, I guess now we'll get to see how New Hampshire metes out justice to book thieves. I'm glad so much has been recovered, and hope that more of the items will make their way home soon.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Most Stolen Hocking Books Recovered
A short AP notice from late last week escaped my notice until this morning, but it's good news to pass along: 443 books stolen from the home of the late Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking back in February have been recovered.
"[Madison, NH] Police Chief John Pickering says investigators were led to the 443 books, in Madison, by a tip last week. He said the recovery will not result in immediate arrests, though police have identified suspects and gotten some good clues from the discovery. The owner still is compiling a list to see if other books still are missing."
Excellent! Hopefully those "good clues" will pan out and those responsible will be brought to justice, or at least what passage for justice when it comes to book thefts in this country. Probably the "tipster" was the thief and will get a gold medal for good citizenship or something equally ridiculous.
[h/t Kurt Bodling, Ex-Libris]
"[Madison, NH] Police Chief John Pickering says investigators were led to the 443 books, in Madison, by a tip last week. He said the recovery will not result in immediate arrests, though police have identified suspects and gotten some good clues from the discovery. The owner still is compiling a list to see if other books still are missing."
Excellent! Hopefully those "good clues" will pan out and those responsible will be brought to justice, or at least what passage for justice when it comes to book thefts in this country. Probably the "tipster" was the thief and will get a gold medal for good citizenship or something equally ridiculous.
[h/t Kurt Bodling, Ex-Libris]
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
AP Grabs Book-Theft Story
The Associated Press has blurbed the major book theft that occurred recently in Northern New Hampshire, which I mentioned briefly on Sunday. Joyce at Bibliophile Bullpen has a list of some of the major philosophical works stolen from the estate of William Ernest Hocking. She's also got email addresses where you can send tips or information. Booksellers - and probably those in New England particularly - should be on the lookout for these items.
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