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 Lester Weber. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lester Weber. Show all posts
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Weber Gets Four Years
Lester Weber, the former curator of the Mariners' Museum who entered guilty pleas in June to charges of theft, mail fraud, and filing false tax returns, has been sentenced to four years in prison, the Newport News Daily Press reported yesterday. Weber admitted to stealing more than 3,500 documents and other items from the museum and selling them on eBay.
Weber's wife, Lori Childs, also entered a guilty plea related to the case in September (for filing a false tax return) - she was sentenced on Friday to a 15-month prison term.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith told Weber "You broke the trust of the public," adding "'What stands out about this case,' was not only the 'surreptitious and dishonest' manner of the crime, but also the repetitive nature of it over a long period of time. 'You did this ... because of your greed and furthering your own pocketbook,' Smith said."
Smith's sentence of 48 months is greater than the 33-41 months called for in federal sentencing guidelines ... it's nice to see a judge putting Travis' favorite phrase, "upward departure," to good use. Weber was also ordered to return the $172,357 he made on the eBay transactions. He and Childs have been ordered to report to prison within 45 days, the Daily Press notes.
The most unfortunate element of this case is that very few of the items stolen by Weber and sold have been recovered. But I have to say I'm delighted that Judge Smith handed down such a strong sentence.
Weber's wife, Lori Childs, also entered a guilty plea related to the case in September (for filing a false tax return) - she was sentenced on Friday to a 15-month prison term.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith told Weber "You broke the trust of the public," adding "'What stands out about this case,' was not only the 'surreptitious and dishonest' manner of the crime, but also the repetitive nature of it over a long period of time. 'You did this ... because of your greed and furthering your own pocketbook,' Smith said."
Smith's sentence of 48 months is greater than the 33-41 months called for in federal sentencing guidelines ... it's nice to see a judge putting Travis' favorite phrase, "upward departure," to good use. Weber was also ordered to return the $172,357 he made on the eBay transactions. He and Childs have been ordered to report to prison within 45 days, the Daily Press notes.
The most unfortunate element of this case is that very few of the items stolen by Weber and sold have been recovered. But I have to say I'm delighted that Judge Smith handed down such a strong sentence.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Hayes Library Thefts (Plus Updates)
- First, there's a new theft case to report. The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center (Fremont, OH) was hit by book thieves earlier this summer, losing two early books of Northwest Territory laws: Laws of the Territory of the United States North West of the Ohio, (published in 1796, this is known as the Maxwell Code), and Laws of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio, (published in 1798, and known as the Freeman Code). These volumes, both early Cincinnati imprints (the Maxwell code is considered the first book printed in what would become Ohio), are quite rare, and together are valued at c. $130,000.
This was a remarkably brazen theft (or actually, pair of thefts). On 27 June, Joshua T. McCarty, 31, and Angela K. Bays, 19, (both of Columbus, OH) visited the library and requested the books (which were boxed together). Somehow McCarty managed to get the books into the women's bathroom (?), which he was seen exiting. A library staffer confronted McCarty and thought that he had recovered the items, only to discover later (in early September, in fact) that the text block of the Freeman code had been removed from its "cover" and was missing.
Here's where it gets weird. On 25 August, Zachary A. Scranton, 21, (of Marysville, OH) entered the library and requested to view the Maxwell Code. According to the Columbus Dispatch report, "He was unable to provide identification, but he agreed to turn over his backpack as collateral. When library staffers were distracted by other business, Scranton fled with the book. The backpack was found to be stuffed with paper towels." Investigators say McCarty paid Scranton $300 to steal the item.
According to court documents, cell-phone records show a call from Scranton to McCarty on the day the Maxwell Code was stolen. McCarty says that he sold the Freeman Code "to a collector in England for $35,000 through a rare-book dealer in Philadelphia." The Toledo Blade reports that the Maxwell Code was recovered in Columbus this week.
Each member of the trio has been charged with charged "with stealing from a museum an 'object of cultural significance' more than 100 years old or valued at more than $100,000." They'll be arraigned in federal court next week: "McCarty and Bays are scheduled to appear Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Toledo. Scranton is scheduled to appear Wednesday. Bays and Scranton were released on bond, but McCarty remained in jail in Toledo yesterday," says the Dispatch.
McCarty's got quite a rap sheet already. He was arrested in 2007 for the theft of more than $20,000 worth of maps from Canaday Old and Rare Books in Harrisburg, PA, as Tony Campbell notes (no word on the disposition of that case) and the Dispatch adds that he was just indicted (4 September) "on charges of forgery, receiving stolen property and possessing criminal tools. The indictment alleges that McCarty obtained a check stolen from bookseller TextbooksRus and used it to forge a check for $562 in December. He has not made a court appearance on the charges."
It's unclear just how tough prosecutors will be on the two accomplices, but they certainly ought to take the opportunity to throw the book at McCarty, who is clearly exhibiting a pattern of brazenly illegal behavior here. The maximum punishment for the charges filed so far is a ten-year prison term and a $250,000 fine, although it seems possible that conspiracy charges could also be filed. Stay tuned on this one.
Before I move on, though, a word about the Hayes library's security procedures (or severe lack thereof). The media reports about this case note that "the library ... now requires a photo ID from anyone reviewing rare books. Such requests were previously left to the discretion of staff members." After all the thefts we've seen in the last few years, any library which has rare books/manuscripts in its collections and is not taking even minimal precautions like checking photo IDs, keeping permanent records of visits and items examined, keeping a staff member in the room with visitors at all times (how did McCarty get the book into the bathroom?!) and not allowing outside materials into the reading room (Scranton's backpack should have been taken away as a matter of course) frankly has no business being responsible for such materials.
- Now, on to other recent theft news. You'll remember Lester Weber, the former curator of the Mariners' Museum who pleaded guilty in June to charges of theft, mail fraud, and filing false tax returns (his sentencing is set for 7 November). Weber's wife, Lori Childs, has now also entered a guilty plea, the Daily Press reports. She admitted Wednesday to filing a false tax return for 2005, and will face up to three years in prison when sentenced on 15 December. The U.S. Attorney's office prosecuting the case says "Weber and Childs filed U.S. individual income tax returns, which failed to list any of the receipts earned through the sale of items on the eBay Web site. For the tax year 2005, Weber and Childs failed to report approximately $50,307.02 in proceeds made to the eBay sales, and identified total income of $40,800 on their joint U.S. income tax return."
- And there's news on yet another of the theft cases we've been following this year: James Brubaker, whose guilty plea on charges of interstate transportation of stolen property plus possession and sale of same, was finalized in late June, will be sentenced tomorrow, the Great Falls Tribune notes (remember, Travis has predicted a 15-21 month sentence, although I hope he's really lowballed that). The Tribune story (which has good background on the case) quotes a police investigator as saying that about 800 of the 1000 books recovered from Brubaker's home back in December have been identified as the property of about 100 specific libraries; authorities plan to begin returning those materials after Brubaker's sentence is handed down.
So that's where we are today. I'll have more on Brubaker's sentence tomorrow as soon as I hear something, and will continue to follow the McCarty case as it moves forward.
This was a remarkably brazen theft (or actually, pair of thefts). On 27 June, Joshua T. McCarty, 31, and Angela K. Bays, 19, (both of Columbus, OH) visited the library and requested the books (which were boxed together). Somehow McCarty managed to get the books into the women's bathroom (?), which he was seen exiting. A library staffer confronted McCarty and thought that he had recovered the items, only to discover later (in early September, in fact) that the text block of the Freeman code had been removed from its "cover" and was missing.
Here's where it gets weird. On 25 August, Zachary A. Scranton, 21, (of Marysville, OH) entered the library and requested to view the Maxwell Code. According to the Columbus Dispatch report, "He was unable to provide identification, but he agreed to turn over his backpack as collateral. When library staffers were distracted by other business, Scranton fled with the book. The backpack was found to be stuffed with paper towels." Investigators say McCarty paid Scranton $300 to steal the item.
According to court documents, cell-phone records show a call from Scranton to McCarty on the day the Maxwell Code was stolen. McCarty says that he sold the Freeman Code "to a collector in England for $35,000 through a rare-book dealer in Philadelphia." The Toledo Blade reports that the Maxwell Code was recovered in Columbus this week.
Each member of the trio has been charged with charged "with stealing from a museum an 'object of cultural significance' more than 100 years old or valued at more than $100,000." They'll be arraigned in federal court next week: "McCarty and Bays are scheduled to appear Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Toledo. Scranton is scheduled to appear Wednesday. Bays and Scranton were released on bond, but McCarty remained in jail in Toledo yesterday," says the Dispatch.
McCarty's got quite a rap sheet already. He was arrested in 2007 for the theft of more than $20,000 worth of maps from Canaday Old and Rare Books in Harrisburg, PA, as Tony Campbell notes (no word on the disposition of that case) and the Dispatch adds that he was just indicted (4 September) "on charges of forgery, receiving stolen property and possessing criminal tools. The indictment alleges that McCarty obtained a check stolen from bookseller TextbooksRus and used it to forge a check for $562 in December. He has not made a court appearance on the charges."
It's unclear just how tough prosecutors will be on the two accomplices, but they certainly ought to take the opportunity to throw the book at McCarty, who is clearly exhibiting a pattern of brazenly illegal behavior here. The maximum punishment for the charges filed so far is a ten-year prison term and a $250,000 fine, although it seems possible that conspiracy charges could also be filed. Stay tuned on this one.
Before I move on, though, a word about the Hayes library's security procedures (or severe lack thereof). The media reports about this case note that "the library ... now requires a photo ID from anyone reviewing rare books. Such requests were previously left to the discretion of staff members." After all the thefts we've seen in the last few years, any library which has rare books/manuscripts in its collections and is not taking even minimal precautions like checking photo IDs, keeping permanent records of visits and items examined, keeping a staff member in the room with visitors at all times (how did McCarty get the book into the bathroom?!) and not allowing outside materials into the reading room (Scranton's backpack should have been taken away as a matter of course) frankly has no business being responsible for such materials.
- Now, on to other recent theft news. You'll remember Lester Weber, the former curator of the Mariners' Museum who pleaded guilty in June to charges of theft, mail fraud, and filing false tax returns (his sentencing is set for 7 November). Weber's wife, Lori Childs, has now also entered a guilty plea, the Daily Press reports. She admitted Wednesday to filing a false tax return for 2005, and will face up to three years in prison when sentenced on 15 December. The U.S. Attorney's office prosecuting the case says "Weber and Childs filed U.S. individual income tax returns, which failed to list any of the receipts earned through the sale of items on the eBay Web site. For the tax year 2005, Weber and Childs failed to report approximately $50,307.02 in proceeds made to the eBay sales, and identified total income of $40,800 on their joint U.S. income tax return."
- And there's news on yet another of the theft cases we've been following this year: James Brubaker, whose guilty plea on charges of interstate transportation of stolen property plus possession and sale of same, was finalized in late June, will be sentenced tomorrow, the Great Falls Tribune notes (remember, Travis has predicted a 15-21 month sentence, although I hope he's really lowballed that). The Tribune story (which has good background on the case) quotes a police investigator as saying that about 800 of the 1000 books recovered from Brubaker's home back in December have been identified as the property of about 100 specific libraries; authorities plan to begin returning those materials after Brubaker's sentence is handed down.
So that's where we are today. I'll have more on Brubaker's sentence tomorrow as soon as I hear something, and will continue to follow the McCarty case as it moves forward.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Weber Pleads
As expected, Lester Weber has entered a guilty plea. The Daily Press reports that Weber admitted to the significant thefts from the Mariners' Museum (he stole almost 1,500 items and sold them on eBay for more than $160,000), mail fraud, and filing a false tax return (all felonies). He'll be sentenced on 7 November, until which time he's free on bond. "Weber's wife, Lori Childs, attempted to plead guilty to the same charges last month, but [U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach] Smith ordered a psychiatric evaluation to determine her competency to enter the plea."
A spokesperson for the Newport News prosecutor's office told the paper that some of the items stolen from the museum, including nearly a hundred artifacts from the Titanic, have been recovered and will be returned.
Hopefully Travis will chime in soon on what the sentence should look like.
[Update: Travis has indeed chimed in, here. He notes that the theft charge could be sentenced under the guidelines covering Theft of, Damage to, or Destruction of, Cultural Heritage Resources (which would add time to the sentence compared to a regular old Theft).]
A spokesperson for the Newport News prosecutor's office told the paper that some of the items stolen from the museum, including nearly a hundred artifacts from the Titanic, have been recovered and will be returned.
Hopefully Travis will chime in soon on what the sentence should look like.
[Update: Travis has indeed chimed in, here. He notes that the theft charge could be sentenced under the guidelines covering Theft of, Damage to, or Destruction of, Cultural Heritage Resources (which would add time to the sentence compared to a regular old Theft).]
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Links & Reviews
- Matthew Bruccoli, the noted bibliographer, literary biographer and leading scholar of F. Scott Fitzgerald, died on Wednesday. He was 76. Coverage from: NYTimes, The State, Fine Books Blog.
- Travis reports that Lester Weber will be entering a guilty plea. Add him to Renehan and Brubaker, Travis notes, and you've got the "book thief triple crown." Also from Travis, word that the case against Mrs. Brubaker have been dismissed, and that Mr. Brubaker will be in court on 23 June to formalize his guilty plea.
- From BibliOdyssey, a grand selection of engravings from Maria Sibylla Merian's Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium (1705). More images and background here.
- LISNews points out that librarians at the University of Michigan are engaged in "determining the copyright status of works typically presumed to be in copyright. For now, we're focusing on US monographic imprints (books, that is) published between 1923 and 1963, but plan to turn our attention to non-US publications in the future." This will be a very useful project in many respects, and I wish them all the best of luck with it.
- Book Dragon linked to the bizarre but hilarious blog Garfield Minus Garfield, which shows what that comic strip would look like ... without the cat.
- From the Times Higher Education Supplement, a fascinating article by Alistair McCleery on copyright law and literary estates.
- The New York Mercantile Library, founded in 1820, is looking to relocate from its current building at 17 East 47th Street, where it has been housed since 1932. The library will be renamed the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction, and administrators are seeking new digs in "SoHo, TriBeCa or near the New Museum, the contemporary art museum in the Bowery."
- Everybody's talking about the cover of the current New Yorker. It's a classic.
- Brigham Young University has received a copy of the second edition of the Bible printed in Iceland (1643-44). The book was donated by Thor Leifson, the honorary consul of Iceland emeritus.
- This fall, Houghton Mifflin will be re-releasing a selection of some of J.R.R. Tolkien's minor works as Tales from the Perilous Realm.
Reviews
- Michael Dirda reviews Renee Winegarten's Germaine de Staël and Benjamin Constant: A Dual Biography (just out from Yale) in the Washington Post.
- Benjamin Wallace's The Billionaire's Vinegar is reviewed by Bruce Schoenfeld, also in the Washington Post.
- Travis reports that Lester Weber will be entering a guilty plea. Add him to Renehan and Brubaker, Travis notes, and you've got the "book thief triple crown." Also from Travis, word that the case against Mrs. Brubaker have been dismissed, and that Mr. Brubaker will be in court on 23 June to formalize his guilty plea.
- From BibliOdyssey, a grand selection of engravings from Maria Sibylla Merian's Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium (1705). More images and background here.
- LISNews points out that librarians at the University of Michigan are engaged in "determining the copyright status of works typically presumed to be in copyright. For now, we're focusing on US monographic imprints (books, that is) published between 1923 and 1963, but plan to turn our attention to non-US publications in the future." This will be a very useful project in many respects, and I wish them all the best of luck with it.
- Book Dragon linked to the bizarre but hilarious blog Garfield Minus Garfield, which shows what that comic strip would look like ... without the cat.
- From the Times Higher Education Supplement, a fascinating article by Alistair McCleery on copyright law and literary estates.
- The New York Mercantile Library, founded in 1820, is looking to relocate from its current building at 17 East 47th Street, where it has been housed since 1932. The library will be renamed the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction, and administrators are seeking new digs in "SoHo, TriBeCa or near the New Museum, the contemporary art museum in the Bowery."
- Everybody's talking about the cover of the current New Yorker. It's a classic.
- Brigham Young University has received a copy of the second edition of the Bible printed in Iceland (1643-44). The book was donated by Thor Leifson, the honorary consul of Iceland emeritus.
- This fall, Houghton Mifflin will be re-releasing a selection of some of J.R.R. Tolkien's minor works as Tales from the Perilous Realm.
Reviews
- Michael Dirda reviews Renee Winegarten's Germaine de Staël and Benjamin Constant: A Dual Biography (just out from Yale) in the Washington Post.
- Benjamin Wallace's The Billionaire's Vinegar is reviewed by Bruce Schoenfeld, also in the Washington Post.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
More Theft Updates
Travis had a two important theft-case updates yesterday:
- Lester Weber's motion to suppress statements was denied. As it should have been. So this one moves forward.
- On the Brubaker front, Travis notes that James Brubaker's trial date has now been moved back to 15 July, to coincide with that of his wife Caroline (arraigned last week). Travis adds "That’s nice. Maybe they can get adjoining cells."
- Lester Weber's motion to suppress statements was denied. As it should have been. So this one moves forward.
- On the Brubaker front, Travis notes that James Brubaker's trial date has now been moved back to 15 July, to coincide with that of his wife Caroline (arraigned last week). Travis adds "That’s nice. Maybe they can get adjoining cells."
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Extra Links
- C18-L has released Selected Readings 97, a selective bibliography of recent works on the long eighteenth century. The list is particularly (and blessedly) strong in biblio-things, so I encourage you to read through at least that section (I've taken down a whole bunch of the citations which I look forward to enjoying at the earliest opportunity).
- A new issue of The Bonefolder is now available here - useful articles on bookbinding and book-artistry.
- Tulane University recently posted an update on the state of post-Katrina recovery at their Howard-Tilton Memorial Library.
- The Open Content Alliance is seeking an Executive Director. [h/t Dan Cohen]
- More than 1,000 Passover haggadahs from the collections of the Chabad-Lubavitch Library in New York are now available online, according to a press release. [h/t RBN]
- Travis has the latest Lester Weber update. Sometimes I have a hard time believing this case is for real, but I guess truth really is stranger than fiction.
- David McCullough and "John Adams" director Tom Hooper were on NPR for a 40-minute interview this week.
- Michael Lieberman has an essay on technology in the book trade. Worth reading, and on target.
- Rare Book Review reports "A mid-15th century Book of Hours set a Dutch record when it sold for €316.051 (estimate €40.000-80.000) at a Van Gendt Book Auctions in the Netherlands."
- From BibliOdyssey, images from the Chronicles of Saxony (1492).
- A new issue of The Bonefolder is now available here - useful articles on bookbinding and book-artistry.
- Tulane University recently posted an update on the state of post-Katrina recovery at their Howard-Tilton Memorial Library.
- The Open Content Alliance is seeking an Executive Director. [h/t Dan Cohen]
- More than 1,000 Passover haggadahs from the collections of the Chabad-Lubavitch Library in New York are now available online, according to a press release. [h/t RBN]
- Travis has the latest Lester Weber update. Sometimes I have a hard time believing this case is for real, but I guess truth really is stranger than fiction.
- David McCullough and "John Adams" director Tom Hooper were on NPR for a 40-minute interview this week.
- Michael Lieberman has an essay on technology in the book trade. Worth reading, and on target.
- Rare Book Review reports "A mid-15th century Book of Hours set a Dutch record when it sold for €316.051 (estimate €40.000-80.000) at a Van Gendt Book Auctions in the Netherlands."
- From BibliOdyssey, images from the Chronicles of Saxony (1492).
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Links & Reviews
Some weeks are full of noteworthy biblio-news. This was one.
- Ed Koster, the owner of David's Books (Ann Arbor, MI) has been charged along with three other men in a "book-selling scheme that involved hundreds of stolen textbooks from a nearby store." Police say Koster provided a "shopping list" of medical textbooks to be nabbed from Ulrich's Bookstore and several other local shops near the University of Michigan; the three suspects then allegedly stole the books and sold them to Koster "for cash to feed a heroin habit.""Koster, an Ann Arbor resident, faces up to 10 years in prison and/or a $25,000 fine if convicted. The others face the same potential sentences, along with a possible five-year prison sentence and/or $10,000 fine for the retail fraud charges." (h/t Shelf:Life)
- Travis comments on the charges brought against Mariners' Museum curator Lester Weber and his wife, Lori Child. Two posts: here and here.
- Simon Charles of the EEBO Text Creation Partnership reports that the partnership (between the Universities of Oxford and Michigan) is "is planning to extend its existing work to transcribe another 50,000 texts to add to the 25,000 full, searchable texts that will be online by next year." He writes: " In order to develop funding applications, the Oxford team of the EEBO-TCP is putting together a body of evidence to present to various funding bodies in the UK to demonstrate the importance of the full-text resource to the academic community. If you would like to show your support for these funding applications, please tell us whether you think the availability of additional texts would benefit the research community. Have you found the full texts useful in your work, in teaching or in research? Have you used them for any publications or projects? We are interested in how the EEBO full texts enrich the learning and research experience and would like to hear the views of users of the texts at all stages of study." Statements can be submitted here.
- At long last, Google Books has announced a feature by which users can flag unreadable pages. Dan Abbe reports "You'll now find a link next to all book pages on Google Book Search which allows you to submit an unreadable page to our team for review. There's no need to fill anything out – when you click this link, we'll detect the issue with the page you're looking at and get on the case." (h/t Dan Cohen)
- fade theory reports that Wayne Wiegand has received a fellowship to write A People’s History of the American Public Library, 1850-2000. Excellent news: good works on library history are few and far between.
- The Chicago Tribune notes that a "6-foot-high, 150-pound contemporary sculpture" known as Umanita (which has been in place outside the Newberry Library since 2005) was stolen last weekend. Police are investigating. (h/t NIUSC&RB)
- Scott Brown notes that Tim Toone's collection of 553 Harry Potter books (including translations into 63 languages) will sell in several lots at Bloomsbury on 28 February. More on Toone's collection here. Scott also has some thoughts on Ken Karmiole's shop in Santa Monica, CA, which he got to visit while in LA for the fair there. Ken's one of my favorite dealers to visit with at the Boston fair every year: great to talk to, excellent stock - a credit to the book-world. Scott also requests help in identifying a childrens' book artist, so contact him if you recognize the illustrations here.
- And one more Scott Brown bulletin: he has word that Quill and Brush has released a catalog [PDF] of some of the Rolland Comstock books they acquired after the collector's murder (which remains unsolved). The catalog includes an introduction by Nick Basbanes, who calls Comstock "easily one of the most unforgettable bibliophiles I have ever had the good fortune to meet."
- A copy of the death warrant for Mary, Queen of Scots will remain in England after the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace mustered up £72,485 in grants and donations to prevent its export. A private buyer had applied for permission to export the document in November, but was blocked by the government. Lambeth Palace librarian Richard Palmer said "The library is delighted to have played its part in saving this document for the nation. The warrant is now reunited with the papers with which it belongs and accessible for the benefit of all."
- Fragments of what is believed to be the "earliest dated Christian literary manuscript have been found at Deir al-Surian, an ancient monastery in the Egyptian desert," The Art Newspaper reports. The pieces are from the final page of "a codex written in Syriac (an Eastern Aramaic language) which was acquired by the British Museum library in the 19th century [ADD 12-150]." The document is a list of early Christian martyrs in Persia, and was written by a scribe in Edessa (in what is now Turkey). These new fragments were discovered along with hundreds of others "under a collapsed floor of a ninth-century tower." Much more background here. The Independent also wrote up the find this week, calling the fragments "the world's oldest missing page."
- The Philadelphia Bulletin profiles Katy Rawdon, archivist at the Barnes Foundation, which was founded in 1922 to "promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts."
- Rick Ring made a fabulous find in the stacks this week, discovering some volumes of Romeyn Beck Hough's The American Woods, a thirteen-volume compilation "designed to contain specimens (in transverse, radial, and tangential sections) of all the native and naturalized species of woods in the united States and Canada." He also links to a digital version of Hough's work hosted by North Carolina State University.
- Ian Kahn has a first dispatch and a second dispatch from the Greenwich Village Book Fair ... more to come, surely.
- The Guardian profiles Colin St. John Wilson, the architect of the new British Library building, who died last year. (h/t Iconic Books)
- Edinburgh-based publisher Itchy Coo (how about that for a name?) wants to translate the Harry Potter canon into the Scots dialect, according to a report in The Scotsman. J.K. Rowling "has not yet been approached for the go-ahead."
- The Times prints an extract from Frances Wilson's The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth, to be published in the UK by Faber & Faber in March.
- Staff at the the New York Public Library have started a blog. I've added a link. (h/t Jessamyn West)
Reviews
- In the TLS Kelly Grovier reviews a new edition of an 1821 edition of Goethe's Faust, published anonymously but now attributed to Samuel Taylor Coleridge by scholars Frederick Burwick and James C. McKusick (building off a case begun by Paul Zall in the 1970s). A fascinating backstory to this one.
- In the Boston Globe, Michael Kenney has a joint review of Edward Lengel's new edition of This Glorious Struggle: George Washington's Revolutionary War Letters and Mark Puls' Henry Knox: Visionary General of the American Revolution. J.L. Bell add his comments to Kenney's review here. I'm anxious to read both of these books.
- Richard Cox comments on another new title I'm keen to read as well: Bill Hayes' The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy. Cox writes "Those interested in archives will be interested in the book because of the author’s exploration into the modest amount of material left behind by Gray contrasted with the extraordinary evidence about Gray in the extensive pile of letters and diaries provided by [H.V.] Carter [Gray's illustrator]. As it turns out, Carter’s archives have been little tapped by historians of medicine and other scholars, and Hayes provides considerable commentary on his observations about the nature of diary writing."
- Stacy Schiff reviews Jerome Charyn's Johnny One-Eye for the New York Times, concluding "Charyn hasn’t woven a taut narrative from a lurching plot. What he has done is to create a rollicking tale in which — true to the dictates of the genre [the picaresque] — our hapless rogue makes good."
- In the Washington Post, Thomas Ryan reviews How the South Could Have Won the Civil War, a new alternative history by Bevin Alexander. From the review, this sounds more like a paean to Stonewall Jackson than anything else, and this sentence is enough to keep me away from the book: "Alexander's opinions are firmly stated, but his assertions are not always well documented."
- Also in the Post, Stephen Budiansky reviews Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering, which has become a minor sensation as a scholarly book which seems to be selling well.
- For the Boston Glode, Matthew Price reviews Joseph Wheelan's Mr. Adams' Last Crusade, about JQA's post-presidential career in the House.
- Nick Basbanes' new collection of essays, Editions and Impressions, is reviewed by Martin Rubin in the LATimes. Rubin enjoyed the book: "The essays are radiant with [Basbanes'] joy in discovering and exploring the byways of the book world. And what a world it is, full of fascinating characters and interesting tales, which Basbanes, with his experience covering 'every imaginable kind of story as a newspaper reporter,' is perfectly fitted to evoke."
- In The Scotsman, Emma Crichton-Miller reviews Peter Ackroyd's Poe: A Life Cut Short.
- Marjorie Kehe reviews Thomas DeWolf's Inheriting the Trade for the Christian Science Monitor. DeWolf's relative James was "the head of the most successful slave-trading family in American history," and features prominently in Marcus Rediker's recent The Slave Ship. DeWolf's book complements a recent documentary film, "Tracing the Trade," made by another family member.
- Ed Koster, the owner of David's Books (Ann Arbor, MI) has been charged along with three other men in a "book-selling scheme that involved hundreds of stolen textbooks from a nearby store." Police say Koster provided a "shopping list" of medical textbooks to be nabbed from Ulrich's Bookstore and several other local shops near the University of Michigan; the three suspects then allegedly stole the books and sold them to Koster "for cash to feed a heroin habit.""Koster, an Ann Arbor resident, faces up to 10 years in prison and/or a $25,000 fine if convicted. The others face the same potential sentences, along with a possible five-year prison sentence and/or $10,000 fine for the retail fraud charges." (h/t Shelf:Life)
- Travis comments on the charges brought against Mariners' Museum curator Lester Weber and his wife, Lori Child. Two posts: here and here.
- Simon Charles of the EEBO Text Creation Partnership reports that the partnership (between the Universities of Oxford and Michigan) is "is planning to extend its existing work to transcribe another 50,000 texts to add to the 25,000 full, searchable texts that will be online by next year." He writes: " In order to develop funding applications, the Oxford team of the EEBO-TCP is putting together a body of evidence to present to various funding bodies in the UK to demonstrate the importance of the full-text resource to the academic community. If you would like to show your support for these funding applications, please tell us whether you think the availability of additional texts would benefit the research community. Have you found the full texts useful in your work, in teaching or in research? Have you used them for any publications or projects? We are interested in how the EEBO full texts enrich the learning and research experience and would like to hear the views of users of the texts at all stages of study." Statements can be submitted here.
- At long last, Google Books has announced a feature by which users can flag unreadable pages. Dan Abbe reports "You'll now find a link next to all book pages on Google Book Search which allows you to submit an unreadable page to our team for review. There's no need to fill anything out – when you click this link, we'll detect the issue with the page you're looking at and get on the case." (h/t Dan Cohen)
- fade theory reports that Wayne Wiegand has received a fellowship to write A People’s History of the American Public Library, 1850-2000. Excellent news: good works on library history are few and far between.
- The Chicago Tribune notes that a "6-foot-high, 150-pound contemporary sculpture" known as Umanita (which has been in place outside the Newberry Library since 2005) was stolen last weekend. Police are investigating. (h/t NIUSC&RB)
- Scott Brown notes that Tim Toone's collection of 553 Harry Potter books (including translations into 63 languages) will sell in several lots at Bloomsbury on 28 February. More on Toone's collection here. Scott also has some thoughts on Ken Karmiole's shop in Santa Monica, CA, which he got to visit while in LA for the fair there. Ken's one of my favorite dealers to visit with at the Boston fair every year: great to talk to, excellent stock - a credit to the book-world. Scott also requests help in identifying a childrens' book artist, so contact him if you recognize the illustrations here.
- And one more Scott Brown bulletin: he has word that Quill and Brush has released a catalog [PDF] of some of the Rolland Comstock books they acquired after the collector's murder (which remains unsolved). The catalog includes an introduction by Nick Basbanes, who calls Comstock "easily one of the most unforgettable bibliophiles I have ever had the good fortune to meet."
- A copy of the death warrant for Mary, Queen of Scots will remain in England after the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace mustered up £72,485 in grants and donations to prevent its export. A private buyer had applied for permission to export the document in November, but was blocked by the government. Lambeth Palace librarian Richard Palmer said "The library is delighted to have played its part in saving this document for the nation. The warrant is now reunited with the papers with which it belongs and accessible for the benefit of all."
- Fragments of what is believed to be the "earliest dated Christian literary manuscript have been found at Deir al-Surian, an ancient monastery in the Egyptian desert," The Art Newspaper reports. The pieces are from the final page of "a codex written in Syriac (an Eastern Aramaic language) which was acquired by the British Museum library in the 19th century [ADD 12-150]." The document is a list of early Christian martyrs in Persia, and was written by a scribe in Edessa (in what is now Turkey). These new fragments were discovered along with hundreds of others "under a collapsed floor of a ninth-century tower." Much more background here. The Independent also wrote up the find this week, calling the fragments "the world's oldest missing page."
- The Philadelphia Bulletin profiles Katy Rawdon, archivist at the Barnes Foundation, which was founded in 1922 to "promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts."
- Rick Ring made a fabulous find in the stacks this week, discovering some volumes of Romeyn Beck Hough's The American Woods, a thirteen-volume compilation "designed to contain specimens (in transverse, radial, and tangential sections) of all the native and naturalized species of woods in the united States and Canada." He also links to a digital version of Hough's work hosted by North Carolina State University.
- Ian Kahn has a first dispatch and a second dispatch from the Greenwich Village Book Fair ... more to come, surely.
- The Guardian profiles Colin St. John Wilson, the architect of the new British Library building, who died last year. (h/t Iconic Books)
- Edinburgh-based publisher Itchy Coo (how about that for a name?) wants to translate the Harry Potter canon into the Scots dialect, according to a report in The Scotsman. J.K. Rowling "has not yet been approached for the go-ahead."
- The Times prints an extract from Frances Wilson's The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth, to be published in the UK by Faber & Faber in March.
- Staff at the the New York Public Library have started a blog. I've added a link. (h/t Jessamyn West)
Reviews
- In the TLS Kelly Grovier reviews a new edition of an 1821 edition of Goethe's Faust, published anonymously but now attributed to Samuel Taylor Coleridge by scholars Frederick Burwick and James C. McKusick (building off a case begun by Paul Zall in the 1970s). A fascinating backstory to this one.
- In the Boston Globe, Michael Kenney has a joint review of Edward Lengel's new edition of This Glorious Struggle: George Washington's Revolutionary War Letters and Mark Puls' Henry Knox: Visionary General of the American Revolution. J.L. Bell add his comments to Kenney's review here. I'm anxious to read both of these books.
- Richard Cox comments on another new title I'm keen to read as well: Bill Hayes' The Anatomist: A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy. Cox writes "Those interested in archives will be interested in the book because of the author’s exploration into the modest amount of material left behind by Gray contrasted with the extraordinary evidence about Gray in the extensive pile of letters and diaries provided by [H.V.] Carter [Gray's illustrator]. As it turns out, Carter’s archives have been little tapped by historians of medicine and other scholars, and Hayes provides considerable commentary on his observations about the nature of diary writing."
- Stacy Schiff reviews Jerome Charyn's Johnny One-Eye for the New York Times, concluding "Charyn hasn’t woven a taut narrative from a lurching plot. What he has done is to create a rollicking tale in which — true to the dictates of the genre [the picaresque] — our hapless rogue makes good."
- In the Washington Post, Thomas Ryan reviews How the South Could Have Won the Civil War, a new alternative history by Bevin Alexander. From the review, this sounds more like a paean to Stonewall Jackson than anything else, and this sentence is enough to keep me away from the book: "Alexander's opinions are firmly stated, but his assertions are not always well documented."
- Also in the Post, Stephen Budiansky reviews Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering, which has become a minor sensation as a scholarly book which seems to be selling well.
- For the Boston Glode, Matthew Price reviews Joseph Wheelan's Mr. Adams' Last Crusade, about JQA's post-presidential career in the House.
- Nick Basbanes' new collection of essays, Editions and Impressions, is reviewed by Martin Rubin in the LATimes. Rubin enjoyed the book: "The essays are radiant with [Basbanes'] joy in discovering and exploring the byways of the book world. And what a world it is, full of fascinating characters and interesting tales, which Basbanes, with his experience covering 'every imaginable kind of story as a newspaper reporter,' is perfectly fitted to evoke."
- In The Scotsman, Emma Crichton-Miller reviews Peter Ackroyd's Poe: A Life Cut Short.
- Marjorie Kehe reviews Thomas DeWolf's Inheriting the Trade for the Christian Science Monitor. DeWolf's relative James was "the head of the most successful slave-trading family in American history," and features prominently in Marcus Rediker's recent The Slave Ship. DeWolf's book complements a recent documentary film, "Tracing the Trade," made by another family member.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Mariners' Museum Archivist Charged
Way back in May 2007 I noted a $1.35 million civil suit filed by the Mariners' Museum (Newport News, VA) against the museum's former archivist (Lester Weber) and his wife (Lori Childs). Weber and Childs have now been indicted by a federal grand jury, the Virginian-Pilot reports. Weber was charged with "26 counts of mail and wire fraud, theft and filing false tax returns. His wife was charged with 25 similar counts, excluding theft."
Weber and Childs made their first appearance in federal court yesterday after the indictment (made late last week) was unsealed. They were released on $5,000 bond each. "In four years and nine months, the couple sold nearly 1,500 items [on eBay], receiving $162,959 from buyers across the country, according to the indictment. They also are accused of failing to report income from those sales in four years of tax returns."
Among the items Weber is accused of stealing were materials from the museum's collection of Titanic memorabilia, including original photographs.
Weber began working at the museum in 2000, and was the head of the archives for the six months before he was fired on 25 September 2006. "That same day, Weber and his wife terminated all of their eBay auction listings, the indictment says."
The civil suit against Weber and Childs is still pending, authorities said. The museum issued a statement yesterday saying "We will have no comment on this matter while proceedings under the indictment are pending." Weber and Childs told the court yesterday that they are "broke, unemployed and that their house is in default. A federal magistrate granted their request for court-appointed lawyers." They'll be in court next on 27 February for arraignment.
I'm working on finding the indictment text, and will post a link if I do.
Weber and Childs made their first appearance in federal court yesterday after the indictment (made late last week) was unsealed. They were released on $5,000 bond each. "In four years and nine months, the couple sold nearly 1,500 items [on eBay], receiving $162,959 from buyers across the country, according to the indictment. They also are accused of failing to report income from those sales in four years of tax returns."
Among the items Weber is accused of stealing were materials from the museum's collection of Titanic memorabilia, including original photographs.
Weber began working at the museum in 2000, and was the head of the archives for the six months before he was fired on 25 September 2006. "That same day, Weber and his wife terminated all of their eBay auction listings, the indictment says."
The civil suit against Weber and Childs is still pending, authorities said. The museum issued a statement yesterday saying "We will have no comment on this matter while proceedings under the indictment are pending." Weber and Childs told the court yesterday that they are "broke, unemployed and that their house is in default. A federal magistrate granted their request for court-appointed lawyers." They'll be in court next on 27 February for arraignment.
I'm working on finding the indictment text, and will post a link if I do.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Mariner's Museum Archivist Sued for Thefts
The Mariner's Museum in Newport News, VA has filed a civil suit for $1.35 million against a former archivist, Lester Weber, and his wife Lori Childs. The five-count lawsuit alleges that Weber and Childs conspired to "remove an estimated $160,000 worth of property from The Mariners' Museum and then sell the goods" on eBay, according to the Daily Press.
"The couple is also accused of permanently altering historical documents belonging to the museum so that they could claim control of the property."
"The museum is seeking $250,000 in compensatory damages, $750,000 in three-fold damages and $350,000 in punitive damages." (Well, I guess if criminal charges won't result in any punishment, going after the checkbook might be a useful strategy). Under Virginia law, the paper notes, the museum "can sue Weber and Childs for three times the amount of damages it claims to have suffered by the couple's alleged conspiracy. It also can seek reimbursement of legal fees."
Weber worked at the Mariner's Museum from 2000 through last September, when he was "dismissed." Museum officials did not tell the paper what materials Weber reportedly stole or altered, but seemed to indicate that they may have been uncatalogued items.
The Newport News police department is also investigating the thefts, the Daily Press report notes. Federal authorities may also be involved.
WVEC's Mary Nelson also reported on the Weber case Friday; she spoke with both Weber and his wife, who denied the accusations leveled by the museum. Weber told Nelson "I would never have stolen, never would steal from an employer. I really enjoyed working at the place. I don't understand where this is coming from." Childs told Nelson she was included in the suit "Because I am the one who had the ebay account. It's my whole little pocket money."
Nelson adds: " We checked out eBay finding bluprints [sic] of naval ships ... not originals, but duplicates from originals. And because the lawsuit claims Weber and Childs 'permanently altered' archival items, we asked museum officials if they believe Weber and Childs duplicated museum documents and sold those on eBay, but we received no clear answer."
If the latter scenario is what this turns out to be, it could make this case a very notable one to watch. I'll keep my eye on it.
[h/t Everett Wilkie, Ex-Libris]
"The couple is also accused of permanently altering historical documents belonging to the museum so that they could claim control of the property."
"The museum is seeking $250,000 in compensatory damages, $750,000 in three-fold damages and $350,000 in punitive damages." (Well, I guess if criminal charges won't result in any punishment, going after the checkbook might be a useful strategy). Under Virginia law, the paper notes, the museum "can sue Weber and Childs for three times the amount of damages it claims to have suffered by the couple's alleged conspiracy. It also can seek reimbursement of legal fees."
Weber worked at the Mariner's Museum from 2000 through last September, when he was "dismissed." Museum officials did not tell the paper what materials Weber reportedly stole or altered, but seemed to indicate that they may have been uncatalogued items.
The Newport News police department is also investigating the thefts, the Daily Press report notes. Federal authorities may also be involved.
WVEC's Mary Nelson also reported on the Weber case Friday; she spoke with both Weber and his wife, who denied the accusations leveled by the museum. Weber told Nelson "I would never have stolen, never would steal from an employer. I really enjoyed working at the place. I don't understand where this is coming from." Childs told Nelson she was included in the suit "Because I am the one who had the ebay account. It's my whole little pocket money."
Nelson adds: " We checked out eBay finding bluprints [sic] of naval ships ... not originals, but duplicates from originals. And because the lawsuit claims Weber and Childs 'permanently altered' archival items, we asked museum officials if they believe Weber and Childs duplicated museum documents and sold those on eBay, but we received no clear answer."
If the latter scenario is what this turns out to be, it could make this case a very notable one to watch. I'll keep my eye on it.
[h/t Everett Wilkie, Ex-Libris]
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