This evening (Monday, 19 November) at 7 p.m., there will be a public reading of selected letters from My Dearest Friend, the newly-published collection of John and Abigail Adams correspondence. The event will be at Boston's Faneuil Hall, and will feature Governor and Mrs. Patrick, Senator and Mrs. Kennedy, and former Governor and Mrs. Dukakis as readers. It's free and open to the public, so do join us for what promises to be an exciting time.
The event is co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Historical Society and Harvard University Press.
The entire John-Abigail correspondence is also available on the MHS website (here).
Monday, November 19, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Links & Reviews
Sorry this is late - the major biblio-activities in Boston kept me busy this weekend. After the auction this morning I spent the afternoon at the Hynes fair again until closing time. I made my one small purchase (more on which later) and enjoyed some more chatting-time with various dealers and other folks. A pretty exhausting weekend, but a good one for sure.
- The Free Library of Philadelphia's Rare Book Department has mounted an exhibition titled "Wonders of the Invisible World: The Spiritual Life of a Young Nation." The show "traces the growth and development of religion and spirituality in the United States from colonial times through the Civil War using imprints and manuscripts from several of the Rare Book Department's collections, along with significant texts and images from the collections of various other departments throughout the Library." Exhibit hours are 9-5 M-F, and it runs through 28 March, 2008.
- In The Times, Ben Macintyre has an essay on some false etymologies (etymytholgies), including crapper, "rule of thumb" and kangaroo. Very much worth reading.
- Paul Collins notes a Guardian report about the ridiculously low percentages of translated fiction in English-language bookshops. Really sad, actually.
- Michael Lieberman comments on the London Library. Also this week, Michael interviewed Jenny Hamilton, co-owner of Rogue Book Exchange.
- John reports that his Edward Gibbon exhibit at Houghton rated a piece in the Harvard University Gazette; I've still got to get out there and see that - after this week for sure.
- Travis' take on the TransyThieves Vanity Fair debut is here.
- News has finally broken about David McCullough's newest book project: he'll be writing about Americans in Paris.
- Tim fired another salvo in the book-site wars this week, presenting exhaustive evidence of a Shelfari astroturfing campaign (where an employee posts positive comments about the site on other blogs/&c. without disclosing the connection). Shelfari blames this on an overzealous intern.
Reviews
- Joseph Ellis' American Creation is reviewed by Randy Dotinga in the Christian Science Monitor.
- Kate Mosse's new novel Sepulchre is 'reviewed' by John Crace in the Guardian.
- Over in the Washington Post, Pauline Maier reviews Woody Holton's Unruly Americans.
- John Gray reviews George McKenna's The Puritan Origins of American Puritanism in the Financial Times.
- The Free Library of Philadelphia's Rare Book Department has mounted an exhibition titled "Wonders of the Invisible World: The Spiritual Life of a Young Nation." The show "traces the growth and development of religion and spirituality in the United States from colonial times through the Civil War using imprints and manuscripts from several of the Rare Book Department's collections, along with significant texts and images from the collections of various other departments throughout the Library." Exhibit hours are 9-5 M-F, and it runs through 28 March, 2008.
- In The Times, Ben Macintyre has an essay on some false etymologies (etymytholgies), including crapper, "rule of thumb" and kangaroo. Very much worth reading.
- Paul Collins notes a Guardian report about the ridiculously low percentages of translated fiction in English-language bookshops. Really sad, actually.
- Michael Lieberman comments on the London Library. Also this week, Michael interviewed Jenny Hamilton, co-owner of Rogue Book Exchange.
- John reports that his Edward Gibbon exhibit at Houghton rated a piece in the Harvard University Gazette; I've still got to get out there and see that - after this week for sure.
- Travis' take on the TransyThieves Vanity Fair debut is here.
- News has finally broken about David McCullough's newest book project: he'll be writing about Americans in Paris.
- Tim fired another salvo in the book-site wars this week, presenting exhaustive evidence of a Shelfari astroturfing campaign (where an employee posts positive comments about the site on other blogs/&c. without disclosing the connection). Shelfari blames this on an overzealous intern.
Reviews
- Joseph Ellis' American Creation is reviewed by Randy Dotinga in the Christian Science Monitor.
- Kate Mosse's new novel Sepulchre is 'reviewed' by John Crace in the Guardian.
- Over in the Washington Post, Pauline Maier reviews Woody Holton's Unruly Americans.
- John Gray reviews George McKenna's The Puritan Origins of American Puritanism in the Financial Times.
Declaration Sells Big at Skinner
A hush fell over the room at today's Skinner auction in Boston when Lot 11 came up - that was the early Boston-printed Declaration of Independence broadside I mentioned here on Friday. Presale estimates on the broadside were $70,000-90,000, but those quickly fell by the wayside as a flurry of bids from the floor and the phones drove the price up rapidly ... and they kept coming. Most of us were occupied with just looking around trying to see who was bidding in the room, totally dizzied by the numbers we heard.
When the hammer finally fell, the price was $625,000 before premium (Update: Skinner's saying the total was $693,500). The buyer was Seth Kaller, Inc. out of White Plains, NY - before the end of the day the broadside was in their booth at the Hynes fair, marked "sold." I asked who the client was and they told me they'd purchased it for an individual, not an institution. That will, I believe, make this the only known copy of the imprint in private hands [correct me if I'm wrong].
Once the bidding ended most of the spectators clapped, many went up and congratulated Mr. Kaller, and the auctioneer - Stuart Whitehurst - quipped "Okay, let's all go get a drink. We're buying." It was quite a thing to see.
The Boston Herald ran a short piece on the auction today with a bit more background on the selling organization, which is described as "a central Massachusetts historical society." The article notes that the society has owned the broadside since the late 1800s, but felt that due to the risk of theft, it was more a liability than an asset. Whitehurst told the paper "They realized they couldn’t display it because of how expensive it was. So it’s being sold to benefit a trust fund for a historical society. But it was a tough decision for them, I imagine."
Whitehurst bobbled a bit when introducing the item, first saying it was being sold to benefit "the Massachusetts Historical Society," then adding "no, no a Massachusetts historical society, not the Massachusetts Historical Society."
If I find out any more information I'll be sure to pass it along.
When the hammer finally fell, the price was $625,000 before premium (Update: Skinner's saying the total was $693,500). The buyer was Seth Kaller, Inc. out of White Plains, NY - before the end of the day the broadside was in their booth at the Hynes fair, marked "sold." I asked who the client was and they told me they'd purchased it for an individual, not an institution. That will, I believe, make this the only known copy of the imprint in private hands [correct me if I'm wrong].
Once the bidding ended most of the spectators clapped, many went up and congratulated Mr. Kaller, and the auctioneer - Stuart Whitehurst - quipped "Okay, let's all go get a drink. We're buying." It was quite a thing to see.
The Boston Herald ran a short piece on the auction today with a bit more background on the selling organization, which is described as "a central Massachusetts historical society." The article notes that the society has owned the broadside since the late 1800s, but felt that due to the risk of theft, it was more a liability than an asset. Whitehurst told the paper "They realized they couldn’t display it because of how expensive it was. So it’s being sold to benefit a trust fund for a historical society. But it was a tough decision for them, I imagine."
Whitehurst bobbled a bit when introducing the item, first saying it was being sold to benefit "the Massachusetts Historical Society," then adding "no, no a Massachusetts historical society, not the Massachusetts Historical Society."
If I find out any more information I'll be sure to pass it along.
Book Weekend Update
My apologies for not posting more regular dispatches from the front this weekend, but better late than never, right?
Things got started on Friday night with the Big Show; we got there just after opening (so we wouldn't have to wait in line) and I was there until close at 9. The crowd was impressive, and for a while it was tricky to browse in some booths. The stock was great, some really interesting little items scattered throughout.
Bill Reese had some of the great New England history high spots and a first edition of The Power of Sympathy, generally considered the "first" American novel (and a bit out of my price range at $10,000); one of the science dealers had a case of fake eyeballs that were quite an attraction. A gorgeous five-volume English translation of Bayle's Dictionary also caught my eye (but again, slightly out of reach). Oh well, it's fun to look.
Friday tends to be the browse/chat night so it was nice to walk around and talk with the dealers and the other fair-goers. I made a small purchase; the Brattle had Barry Moser Bibles for $20 so I grabbed one of those (I gave one as a gift last Christmas and liked it so much I almost couldn't part with it). I've got my eye on a couple other things but we'll see if they're still there this afternoon.
Yesterday morning (Saturday) I headed out to the Radisson show at 9, joining the throng of book dealers waiting to get through the doors when they opened. The space was a little cramped there during the first rush, but I took my time and browsed through pretty carefully. Again, some good things, but also quite a bit of stuff that didn't seem show-worthy. Ian's booth (which he's blogged about, with some pics) looked amazing, and I was glad to have a few minutes to chat with him. A new outfit I'm really impressed by is Robert McDowell Antiquarian Books out of Concord - he had some really neat items.
I had a break for lunch and then headed off to the Hynes again, where I circulated until 2:30 (spending some time with the good folks from the Ticknor Society, discussing career-related-things with Terry Belanger from Rare Book School and doing a bit more browsing). From 2:30-5 I manned the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section table over in Cultural Row, answering questions and distributing pamphlets.
Today it's off to the Skinner sale in a little while to watch the first few lots sell, then I'll go back to the fair for the afternoon. Tim and Abby from LT are going to be there today so I'll try to run into them and finish up the visiting (and we'll see if the books I've been watching are still there waiting for me).
You've still got time to hit the fair - 12-5 today, so come by and enjoy the atmosphere. I'll do a full wrap later and finish up this weekend's links and reviews.
Things got started on Friday night with the Big Show; we got there just after opening (so we wouldn't have to wait in line) and I was there until close at 9. The crowd was impressive, and for a while it was tricky to browse in some booths. The stock was great, some really interesting little items scattered throughout.
Bill Reese had some of the great New England history high spots and a first edition of The Power of Sympathy, generally considered the "first" American novel (and a bit out of my price range at $10,000); one of the science dealers had a case of fake eyeballs that were quite an attraction. A gorgeous five-volume English translation of Bayle's Dictionary also caught my eye (but again, slightly out of reach). Oh well, it's fun to look.
Friday tends to be the browse/chat night so it was nice to walk around and talk with the dealers and the other fair-goers. I made a small purchase; the Brattle had Barry Moser Bibles for $20 so I grabbed one of those (I gave one as a gift last Christmas and liked it so much I almost couldn't part with it). I've got my eye on a couple other things but we'll see if they're still there this afternoon.
Yesterday morning (Saturday) I headed out to the Radisson show at 9, joining the throng of book dealers waiting to get through the doors when they opened. The space was a little cramped there during the first rush, but I took my time and browsed through pretty carefully. Again, some good things, but also quite a bit of stuff that didn't seem show-worthy. Ian's booth (which he's blogged about, with some pics) looked amazing, and I was glad to have a few minutes to chat with him. A new outfit I'm really impressed by is Robert McDowell Antiquarian Books out of Concord - he had some really neat items.
I had a break for lunch and then headed off to the Hynes again, where I circulated until 2:30 (spending some time with the good folks from the Ticknor Society, discussing career-related-things with Terry Belanger from Rare Book School and doing a bit more browsing). From 2:30-5 I manned the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section table over in Cultural Row, answering questions and distributing pamphlets.
Today it's off to the Skinner sale in a little while to watch the first few lots sell, then I'll go back to the fair for the afternoon. Tim and Abby from LT are going to be there today so I'll try to run into them and finish up the visiting (and we'll see if the books I've been watching are still there waiting for me).
You've still got time to hit the fair - 12-5 today, so come by and enjoy the atmosphere. I'll do a full wrap later and finish up this weekend's links and reviews.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Skinner Sale Highlights
A few of the many interesting pieces from Sunday's auction at Skinner Galleries in Boston:
- Lot 11: An early broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence. Boston: Printed by John Gill, and Powars and Willis, in Queen-Street (believed to have been printed around 12-16 July 1776). Very few copies of this broadside exist (one bibliography lists just three, although there are apparently at least four, since I've confirmed this is not one of the three). Estimate: $70,000-90,000.
- Lot 20: A letter from Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Pinckney (Ambassador to Great Britain), informing the latter of Jefferson's resignation as Secretary of State. Philadelphia, 3 January, 1794. Written four days after Jefferson had informed President Washington of his decision to resign. Estimate: $70,000-100,000.
- Lot 51: A much-damaged page from the diary of Dr. /Major General Joseph Warren, dated 24 January, 1771. The page lists Warren's medical appointments for the day. Estimate: $1,500-2,000.
- Lot 336: Second edition of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (London: W. Tatlor, 1719). Estimate: $2,000-4,000.
- Lot 519: A complete collection of eleven Thoreau first editions. Estimate: $18,000-25,000.
Many other goodies too - I might have to swing by for part of the sale.
- Lot 11: An early broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence. Boston: Printed by John Gill, and Powars and Willis, in Queen-Street (believed to have been printed around 12-16 July 1776). Very few copies of this broadside exist (one bibliography lists just three, although there are apparently at least four, since I've confirmed this is not one of the three). Estimate: $70,000-90,000.
- Lot 20: A letter from Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Pinckney (Ambassador to Great Britain), informing the latter of Jefferson's resignation as Secretary of State. Philadelphia, 3 January, 1794. Written four days after Jefferson had informed President Washington of his decision to resign. Estimate: $70,000-100,000.
- Lot 51: A much-damaged page from the diary of Dr. /Major General Joseph Warren, dated 24 January, 1771. The page lists Warren's medical appointments for the day. Estimate: $1,500-2,000.
- Lot 336: Second edition of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (London: W. Tatlor, 1719). Estimate: $2,000-4,000.
- Lot 519: A complete collection of eleven Thoreau first editions. Estimate: $18,000-25,000.
Many other goodies too - I might have to swing by for part of the sale.
Spain's Foreign Ministry Library Hit by Thefts
Hot on the heels of the recent thefts at Madrid's Biblioteca Nacional comes word this week that the library of Spain's Foreign Ministry has also been targeted by thieves in recent years. A recent inventory revealed that nearly 300 "highly valued" books are missing from the collections of the library, which is open only to scholars or specialist researchers. "Among the missing items are several maps from the late 16th century, a number of large-format books, as well as a valuable collection of 18th-century maps of the coastline of northern Europe."
Most of the losses are believed to have occurred within the last four years. "Police sources say that thieves have taken advantage of poor security at the 17th-century Ministry building in Madrid that houses the collection," and authorities are investigating possible insider involvement: "One hypothesis being explored is that a Ministry employee has taken advantage of the poor security in the building to systematically steal books to sell them on the black market."
[h/t Everett Wilkie, ExLibris]
Most of the losses are believed to have occurred within the last four years. "Police sources say that thieves have taken advantage of poor security at the 17th-century Ministry building in Madrid that houses the collection," and authorities are investigating possible insider involvement: "One hypothesis being explored is that a Ministry employee has taken advantage of the poor security in the building to systematically steal books to sell them on the black market."
[h/t Everett Wilkie, ExLibris]
RCP's Linneaus Makes £180,500
Back on 2 November I noted the impending sale of the Edinburgh Royal College of Physicians' copy of Linnaeus' Systema Naturae; the auction took place on Wednesday, and the book fetched £180,500 (not quite reaching the high estimate of £200,000).
The Scotsman reports that the buyer was not identified.
The Scotsman reports that the buyer was not identified.
On the Trail of a Lost Manuscript
This is a literary all points bulletin.
The Hampstead & Highgate Express reports on one man's search for a lost manuscript, an unpublished work about artist Robert Seymour, who is best known for illustrating several serial installments of Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers. The 350-page document by Rowland Morewood was last mentioned in a 1927 magazine article. It was then known to be housed in a deedbox.
Stephen Jarvis, in the process of writing a biography of Seymour, says of the missing work "I have little doubt that overall this is the most important archive of material relating to Seymour in the world. I have been trying to track it down for about two years now. The deedbox really is the Holy Grail for my research."
This seems a terrific longshot, but I suppose it's possible that this document has survived out there somewhere. If you know of it, I suspect Mr. Jarvis would be eternally grateful if you'd contact him. His email address is at the end of the article.
[h/t: Shelf:Life]
[Update: See Mr. Jarvis' comment below, which is important.]
The Hampstead & Highgate Express reports on one man's search for a lost manuscript, an unpublished work about artist Robert Seymour, who is best known for illustrating several serial installments of Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers. The 350-page document by Rowland Morewood was last mentioned in a 1927 magazine article. It was then known to be housed in a deedbox.
Stephen Jarvis, in the process of writing a biography of Seymour, says of the missing work "I have little doubt that overall this is the most important archive of material relating to Seymour in the world. I have been trying to track it down for about two years now. The deedbox really is the Holy Grail for my research."
This seems a terrific longshot, but I suppose it's possible that this document has survived out there somewhere. If you know of it, I suspect Mr. Jarvis would be eternally grateful if you'd contact him. His email address is at the end of the article.
[h/t: Shelf:Life]
[Update: See Mr. Jarvis' comment below, which is important.]
Thursday, November 15, 2007
A Boston Biblio-Weekend
It's that time again ... big book-doings around Boston this weekend.
The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (ABAA) runs 5-9 p.m. on Friday night, noon-7 p.m. on Saturday and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday, at the Hynes Convention Center. A few highlights have been posted here. Even beyond the impressive exhibitor list there will be a few seminars and tables from some other book-related organizations. I'll be manning the RBMS table on Saturday afternoon, and will be roaming around the fair on Friday night and Sunday.
But that's just the beginning. Over at the Radisson the Boston Books, Print & Ephemera Show will run from 9-4 on Saturday; I'll probably stop in there before the ABAA fair opens that day.
And Skinner's annual Fine Books & Manuscripts Sale kicks off on Sunday at 11 a.m. More on that at some point today or tomorrow, I'll preview some of the interesting lots.
It promises to be a fun, exciting weekend of book and book people (and as of right now, it doesn't even look like it's going to rain or snow).
The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (ABAA) runs 5-9 p.m. on Friday night, noon-7 p.m. on Saturday and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday, at the Hynes Convention Center. A few highlights have been posted here. Even beyond the impressive exhibitor list there will be a few seminars and tables from some other book-related organizations. I'll be manning the RBMS table on Saturday afternoon, and will be roaming around the fair on Friday night and Sunday.
But that's just the beginning. Over at the Radisson the Boston Books, Print & Ephemera Show will run from 9-4 on Saturday; I'll probably stop in there before the ABAA fair opens that day.
And Skinner's annual Fine Books & Manuscripts Sale kicks off on Sunday at 11 a.m. More on that at some point today or tomorrow, I'll preview some of the interesting lots.
It promises to be a fun, exciting weekend of book and book people (and as of right now, it doesn't even look like it's going to rain or snow).
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Christie's Pulls Letters from Auction
Bloomberg notes that Christie's has "removed two lots from its Nov. 29 London auction of Russian books and manuscripts after a cultural watchdog agency said they were stolen from the Russian State Military Archives in Moscow." One of the lots included forty letters signed by Marshall Georgi Zhukov, a top Soviet commander in WWII; the letters had been estimated to sell for up to $16,000.
The Federal Agency for Mass Media and Cultural Heritage Protection (RosokhranKultura) asked Christie's to remove the two lots, and the auction house responded "Christie's will not sell any work of art that we know or have reason to believe does not have good title. In regard to the items in question, Christie's is cooperating fully with Russian authorities."
More on this story as necessary.
[h/t Shelf:Life]
The Federal Agency for Mass Media and Cultural Heritage Protection (RosokhranKultura) asked Christie's to remove the two lots, and the auction house responded "Christie's will not sell any work of art that we know or have reason to believe does not have good title. In regard to the items in question, Christie's is cooperating fully with Russian authorities."
More on this story as necessary.
[h/t Shelf:Life]
BPL Having a Rough Week
Whoever's in charge of PR at the Boston Public Library is undoubtedly having a not-very-fun week at work.
On Monday night, Boston's CBS affiliate broadcast this report (video available at the link) on violence in and around the BPL's main branch at Copley Square. They note that for the past three years, police calls to the area have averaged 270 annually, and the story features some police reports of items being stolen inside the library, people fighting or refusing to leave, &c. "The library prides itself on being a true public building open to all. It's a sad sign of the times, but more and more homeless people are finding it to be their last refuge during the day," correspondent Joe Shortsleeves said in the broadcast ... The mission of a treasured landmark is getting lost."
Kathy LaFrazia, the director of St. Francis House - one of the only daytime homeless shelters in Boston - said "These are people that doors are shut to them constantly, and they stay few minutes at a McDonalds but they are moved along, moved along. People get desperate, people get angry." Of course people need a place to go during the day, where they can be warm and safe and left alone. Should that place be the Boston Public Library? In most cases, probably not. There's a much larger issue here that does not involve adding more security at the BPL, or excluding people, but providing adequate space for people who need it.
This story clearly wasn't handled well by the BPL (whether that's their fault or the t.v. station's is unclear). No library official appears on camera in the piece, only a man identified as "an employee," who commented "It's a big concern. Loitering and people hanging out. Run of the mill disruptive behavior sometimes." Mayor Menino told Shortsleeves that the issue has never before been brought to his attention (which, if true, is absolutely unbelievable).
The timing of the story was most interesting, as it came just hours before the library's board of trustees met and voted 7-2 not to renew the contract of BPL president Bernie Margolis. Margolis is not going to go quietly; in a front-page Globe interview today he lambastes Menino for interfering with library operations and not providing adequate funding for library operations. He accused the mayor of running Boston as an "authoritarian state," telling the paper "I didn't think this was Venezuela."
Menino responded by saying "I'm not getting involved in 'he said, she said,'" but his chief of staff, Judith Kurland, fired right back at Margolis. "It's hubris and entitlement, thinking that he owns the job. Nobody owns the job," she told the paper.
Margolis accused the mayor's administration of neglecting services at the city's branch libraries, including a rejecting of a plan to have the branches open on Saturdays in an attempt to help combat youth violence. At a meeting about the proposal earlier this year, Margolis says, the mayor "'dismissed it in the 'the most casual, offhanded way,' saying, 'Oh, those kids just want to be at the beach.'" Ironically, aides to the mayor have made the same charge against Margolis, that he's been "fixated" on the Copley Square facility while neglecting the branches.
I can't speak to the branch libraries, but if the current state of the Copley Square branch is what ten years of "fixation" has resulted in, I'm really worried about the state of things. I barely even use the BPL anymore because service and facilities are so poor - photocopiers are rarely working, the books I request from the closed stacks often cannot be found, and the place really is pretty grungy. Margolis says Menino didn't like that he went around telling people that the library doesn't have enough money, but anyone who walks through the doors ought to be able to see that's the case.
The Globe story reports that while library use has been up in recent years, the budget has increased just .26% per year since 2000, and full-time staff positions have been cut from 603 in 2002 to 483 in 2007.
Anybody who's crazy enough to take Margolis' job is obviously going to have some major issues to deal with, and they're definitely going to have to be tough enough to stand up to Menino's administration in an effective way and push for increased funding at attention at all levels. The BPL's collections and facilities are a crumbling treasure, and something must be done soon, before it's too late.
On Monday night, Boston's CBS affiliate broadcast this report (video available at the link) on violence in and around the BPL's main branch at Copley Square. They note that for the past three years, police calls to the area have averaged 270 annually, and the story features some police reports of items being stolen inside the library, people fighting or refusing to leave, &c. "The library prides itself on being a true public building open to all. It's a sad sign of the times, but more and more homeless people are finding it to be their last refuge during the day," correspondent Joe Shortsleeves said in the broadcast ... The mission of a treasured landmark is getting lost."
Kathy LaFrazia, the director of St. Francis House - one of the only daytime homeless shelters in Boston - said "These are people that doors are shut to them constantly, and they stay few minutes at a McDonalds but they are moved along, moved along. People get desperate, people get angry." Of course people need a place to go during the day, where they can be warm and safe and left alone. Should that place be the Boston Public Library? In most cases, probably not. There's a much larger issue here that does not involve adding more security at the BPL, or excluding people, but providing adequate space for people who need it.
This story clearly wasn't handled well by the BPL (whether that's their fault or the t.v. station's is unclear). No library official appears on camera in the piece, only a man identified as "an employee," who commented "It's a big concern. Loitering and people hanging out. Run of the mill disruptive behavior sometimes." Mayor Menino told Shortsleeves that the issue has never before been brought to his attention (which, if true, is absolutely unbelievable).
The timing of the story was most interesting, as it came just hours before the library's board of trustees met and voted 7-2 not to renew the contract of BPL president Bernie Margolis. Margolis is not going to go quietly; in a front-page Globe interview today he lambastes Menino for interfering with library operations and not providing adequate funding for library operations. He accused the mayor of running Boston as an "authoritarian state," telling the paper "I didn't think this was Venezuela."
Menino responded by saying "I'm not getting involved in 'he said, she said,'" but his chief of staff, Judith Kurland, fired right back at Margolis. "It's hubris and entitlement, thinking that he owns the job. Nobody owns the job," she told the paper.
Margolis accused the mayor's administration of neglecting services at the city's branch libraries, including a rejecting of a plan to have the branches open on Saturdays in an attempt to help combat youth violence. At a meeting about the proposal earlier this year, Margolis says, the mayor "'dismissed it in the 'the most casual, offhanded way,' saying, 'Oh, those kids just want to be at the beach.'" Ironically, aides to the mayor have made the same charge against Margolis, that he's been "fixated" on the Copley Square facility while neglecting the branches.
I can't speak to the branch libraries, but if the current state of the Copley Square branch is what ten years of "fixation" has resulted in, I'm really worried about the state of things. I barely even use the BPL anymore because service and facilities are so poor - photocopiers are rarely working, the books I request from the closed stacks often cannot be found, and the place really is pretty grungy. Margolis says Menino didn't like that he went around telling people that the library doesn't have enough money, but anyone who walks through the doors ought to be able to see that's the case.
The Globe story reports that while library use has been up in recent years, the budget has increased just .26% per year since 2000, and full-time staff positions have been cut from 603 in 2002 to 483 in 2007.
Anybody who's crazy enough to take Margolis' job is obviously going to have some major issues to deal with, and they're definitely going to have to be tough enough to stand up to Menino's administration in an effective way and push for increased funding at attention at all levels. The BPL's collections and facilities are a crumbling treasure, and something must be done soon, before it's too late.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Wuthering Heights Soars at Auction
A first edition of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights sold for £114,000 (including tax and premium) at Bonhams yesterday, fetching more than twice the presale estimate. The winning bidder was book dealer Robert Kirkman, "on behalf of a an unnamed British client who is a keen collector of Brontë works."
The book - one of just three copies of the first edition at auction in the last thirty years - had been in the previous owner's family for four generations.
Wuthering Heights was first published in three volumes at London by Thomas Cautley Newby in 1847. Brontë's pseudonym, Ellis Bell, appears on the title page.
The book - one of just three copies of the first edition at auction in the last thirty years - had been in the previous owner's family for four generations.
Wuthering Heights was first published in three volumes at London by Thomas Cautley Newby in 1847. Brontë's pseudonym, Ellis Bell, appears on the title page.
Spain Map Thefts Update
The AP reported yesterday that ten of the fifteen maps stolen from Spain's Biblioteca Nacional this summer have been returned to the library's control. Eight of the maps were found in Buenos Aires with the accused thief, César Gómez Rivero. Two others were recovered from the United States. An eleventh map, now in Australia, will be returned once a thirty-day authorization period passes. Four additional maps - at least - remain unaccounted for.
New library director Milagros del Corral announced this week that a "major audit" of the collections will begin in January. "I can't discount that we'll find more unpleasant surprises," he said, adding that the last such audit was in 1988.
New library director Milagros del Corral announced this week that a "major audit" of the collections will begin in January. "I can't discount that we'll find more unpleasant surprises," he said, adding that the last such audit was in 1988.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Brattlers Beware
If you've got some money burning a hole in your pocket (or if, in my case, you wish you did), this is a good week to stop by Boston's venerable Brattle Book Shop, since their third-floor (i.e. rarer) stock is 50% off through Friday (when the Boston Book Fair starts at 5 p.m. - and yes, the excitement is already mounting). I visited this morning and found a few goodies, including a 1766 Charles Bathurst printing of Jonathan Swift's Tale of a Tub and Battle of the Books, as well as a very nice 1808 four-volume edition of The Works of Laurence Sterne. My other acquisitions were A.S.W. Rosenbach's bibliomystery collection The Unpublishable Memoirs and G.H. Powell's Excursions in Libraria.
They're my reward for finishing the thesis draft. Yeah, that's it.
They're my reward for finishing the thesis draft. Yeah, that's it.
Transylvania Thieves Talk
Delano Massey reports in today's Lexington Herald-Leader that three of the four "men" convicted of assaulting a librarian and stealing rare books from Transylvania University three years ago have been interviewed for a December Vanity Fair article, "Majoring in Crime." That article isn't available online, but Massey provides a summary and some very noteworthy outside comments.
Eric Borsuk, Warren Lipka and Spencer Reinhard, all serving seven-year sentences at the Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, KY agreed to be interviewed; Charles Allen did not. A lawyer for Borsuk said he had advised his client not to talk to reporters, at least until after a scheduled appeal before the 6th Circuit (the men are trying to get their sentences reduced). Fred Peters told Massey "if he [Borsuk] did grant them an interview, it would be against my objection. He shouldn't do anything until the appeal is over. A judge could see the story and make a different ruling." He added that he "can't imagine it helping" Borsuk's case.
But the interviews were granted, and I hope the judge reads the resulting article: Massey reports that the thugs "express no regret for the crime, except for harming [B.J.] Gooch, the librarian." Gooch was stunned, blindfolded and "hogtied" while the thieves snatched rare books, including volumes of Audubon's Birds of America. A spokesperson for the university said she was interested to read the article, and that she is "concerned about inaccuracies and embellishments."
The scheme, which Massey describes as "hatched in a haze of marijuana smoke, with inspiration from popular heist flicks" was motivated by "a desire to escape the 'mundane, nickel-and-dime existence' of suburbia," according to one of the felons. Borsuk tells Falk if they'd pulled it off [a ludicrous idea, really], "they would have lived a 'crazy life thinking we were Ocean's 11 types.'" Lipka adds "In a few years we'll be released. We'll all be ... still young. We will be stronger, better, wiser for going through this together, the three of us. Before, in college, growing up, we were being funneled into this mundane, nickel-and-dime existence. Now we can't ever go back there. Even if we wanted to, they won't let us."
These guys are doing their level best to glamorize their story and make themselves into some kind of counter-cultural super-thieves. How long do you think it'll be before the movie deal's announced? Ridiculous. Here it is, simply put: these are four small-time suburbanite potheads who violently assaulted a librarian and stole major cultural treasures. That's nothing to be proud of. I do hope the judges who hear their appeal read both Massey's and Falk's articles, because it's clear to me that these twerps need every minute of jail time they can get.
Eric Borsuk, Warren Lipka and Spencer Reinhard, all serving seven-year sentences at the Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, KY agreed to be interviewed; Charles Allen did not. A lawyer for Borsuk said he had advised his client not to talk to reporters, at least until after a scheduled appeal before the 6th Circuit (the men are trying to get their sentences reduced). Fred Peters told Massey "if he [Borsuk] did grant them an interview, it would be against my objection. He shouldn't do anything until the appeal is over. A judge could see the story and make a different ruling." He added that he "can't imagine it helping" Borsuk's case.
But the interviews were granted, and I hope the judge reads the resulting article: Massey reports that the thugs "express no regret for the crime, except for harming [B.J.] Gooch, the librarian." Gooch was stunned, blindfolded and "hogtied" while the thieves snatched rare books, including volumes of Audubon's Birds of America. A spokesperson for the university said she was interested to read the article, and that she is "concerned about inaccuracies and embellishments."
The scheme, which Massey describes as "hatched in a haze of marijuana smoke, with inspiration from popular heist flicks" was motivated by "a desire to escape the 'mundane, nickel-and-dime existence' of suburbia," according to one of the felons. Borsuk tells Falk if they'd pulled it off [a ludicrous idea, really], "they would have lived a 'crazy life thinking we were Ocean's 11 types.'" Lipka adds "In a few years we'll be released. We'll all be ... still young. We will be stronger, better, wiser for going through this together, the three of us. Before, in college, growing up, we were being funneled into this mundane, nickel-and-dime existence. Now we can't ever go back there. Even if we wanted to, they won't let us."
These guys are doing their level best to glamorize their story and make themselves into some kind of counter-cultural super-thieves. How long do you think it'll be before the movie deal's announced? Ridiculous. Here it is, simply put: these are four small-time suburbanite potheads who violently assaulted a librarian and stole major cultural treasures. That's nothing to be proud of. I do hope the judges who hear their appeal read both Massey's and Falk's articles, because it's clear to me that these twerps need every minute of jail time they can get.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Links & Reviews
[Breaks radio silence]
I've emerged, after just about two full days of writing. The full thesis draft and appendices are all done, and I'm pretty (okay, really) sick of looking at the computer so as soon as I'm finished with this post I'm going to go sit and read for a while.
- Travis comments on the Rebecca Streeter-Chen sentence: "... [L]leaving this serious crime in the hands of Rockland County was clearly a mistake. Unless absolutely forced into it by statute, there seems to be a pathetic unwillingness on the part of the judiciary to take these crimes seriously. Does anyone think that if she stole $60,000 dollars in cash from the historical society she’d have gotten probation?"
- The NYPost reports today on a recent fairly imaginative marriage proposal at New York's Strand Bookstore.
- John Overholt announced the opening of a new exhibit at the Houghton Library, "Edward Gibbon: The Luminous Historian." That runs through 22 December, which means I've still got some time to get out there and see it. John's included a few highlights in his post.
- Over at Reading Archives, Richard Cox has comments on two recent books, Letter-Writing Manuals and Instruction from Antiquity to the Present: Historical and Bibliographic Studies (here) and Putting ‘America’ on the Map: The Story of the Most Important Graphic Document in the History of the United States (here).
- Tim points out a scholarly take on LibraryThing tagging, Tiffany Smith's Cataloging and You: Measuring the Efficacy of a Folksonomy for Subject Analysis [doc]. Also on the LT front this week, Tim fired a book-site-war-broadside with a blistering compilation of blog-posts excoriating Shelfari for its nasty spamming campaign.
- Over at Paper Cuts, Dwight Garners features Bizarre Books, an anthology of books with unlikely titles. Very amusing.
- Texas A&M University has acquired a copy of George Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio (1844), in honor of alumnus Dr. Mavis Kelsey.
- BibliOdyssey's got some natural history and maritime illustrations from the diary of Carl Johan Gethe, a cartographer for the Swedish East India Company (1746-1749).
Reviews
- For the NYTimes, Richard Brookhiser reviews Christopher Hitchens' Thomas Paine's 'Rights of Man': A Biography.
- Also in the Times, Jon Meacham examines Joe Ellis' American Creation. Ellis was on NPR this week to discuss the new book; you can listen here.
- Over in the Philly Inq, Steve Weinberg reviews Marcus Rediker's The Slave Ship.
I've emerged, after just about two full days of writing. The full thesis draft and appendices are all done, and I'm pretty (okay, really) sick of looking at the computer so as soon as I'm finished with this post I'm going to go sit and read for a while.
- Travis comments on the Rebecca Streeter-Chen sentence: "... [L]leaving this serious crime in the hands of Rockland County was clearly a mistake. Unless absolutely forced into it by statute, there seems to be a pathetic unwillingness on the part of the judiciary to take these crimes seriously. Does anyone think that if she stole $60,000 dollars in cash from the historical society she’d have gotten probation?"
- The NYPost reports today on a recent fairly imaginative marriage proposal at New York's Strand Bookstore.
- John Overholt announced the opening of a new exhibit at the Houghton Library, "Edward Gibbon: The Luminous Historian." That runs through 22 December, which means I've still got some time to get out there and see it. John's included a few highlights in his post.
- Over at Reading Archives, Richard Cox has comments on two recent books, Letter-Writing Manuals and Instruction from Antiquity to the Present: Historical and Bibliographic Studies (here) and Putting ‘America’ on the Map: The Story of the Most Important Graphic Document in the History of the United States (here).
- Tim points out a scholarly take on LibraryThing tagging, Tiffany Smith's Cataloging and You: Measuring the Efficacy of a Folksonomy for Subject Analysis [doc]. Also on the LT front this week, Tim fired a book-site-war-broadside with a blistering compilation of blog-posts excoriating Shelfari for its nasty spamming campaign.
- Over at Paper Cuts, Dwight Garners features Bizarre Books, an anthology of books with unlikely titles. Very amusing.
- Texas A&M University has acquired a copy of George Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio (1844), in honor of alumnus Dr. Mavis Kelsey.
- BibliOdyssey's got some natural history and maritime illustrations from the diary of Carl Johan Gethe, a cartographer for the Swedish East India Company (1746-1749).
Reviews
- For the NYTimes, Richard Brookhiser reviews Christopher Hitchens' Thomas Paine's 'Rights of Man': A Biography.
- Also in the Times, Jon Meacham examines Joe Ellis' American Creation. Ellis was on NPR this week to discuss the new book; you can listen here.
- Over in the Philly Inq, Steve Weinberg reviews Marcus Rediker's The Slave Ship.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Brief Blackout
I'm entering radio silence this morning to write the final chapter of my thesis; I hope to emerge (unscathed) sometime tomorrow, and will resume regularly-scheduled programming then. The good news is, it'll be a fun chapter to write (it's about 19th-century marginalia in library books). So wish me luck, and I'll see you on the flip side.
Friday, November 09, 2007
Eskander at the BPL
Dr. Saad Eskander, the head of Iraq's National Library, spoke at the Boston Public Library last night as part of a two-week American tour. Much of his discussion, "Rising From the Ashes: The Story of the Iraq National Library and Archive," is covered in David Mehegan's excellent Boston Globe article and follow-up post, but I did want to add a few of my own impressions. Eskander struck me as one of the most down-to-earth, humble and pleasant people I've ever met, and it was incredibly inspiring to hear what he and his staff have accomplished given the ongoing turmoil in the area around the library and the constant threats they continue to face.
Eskander began his talk by providing a short history of the National Library as it existed under Saddam's regime: he noted that official censorship meant that the collections were very conservative, and that the "destruction of cultural heritage" began during Saddam's rule as Baathists plundered the library to smuggle rare books and other items out of the country. He reported that in the pre-war years, all air-handling/ventilation systems were removed from the library building, and that librarians were being paid the equivalent of $6-7 per month (which led to rampant corruption and bribery).
After showing some cringe-inducing pictures of the library after the looting occurred in April of 2003, Eskander made clear that he rejects the theory that American forces intentionally allowed the library to be destroyed, but that they did allow it to happen and should be held responsible for the losses (60% of the archival material, 90% of the rare books, nearly all of the photographs and microfilm collections) caused by looters, thieves, and arsonists.
The major portion of the speech centered on the changes to the library that Eskander has engineered since 2003. He spoke of the new staff (an ethnically, religiously diverse group from across Iraq), new procedures and new technological equipment and systems that they've been able to put in place, including a conservation lab, a microfilm room (both funded by the Czech government) and an IT department (funded by the Italian and Japanese governments). He continued by discussing plans for expanding the archives and creating a Library of Pioneers, which he said would be designed "to create a common cultural identity for all Iraqis." A cooperative digital library project is in the works with the Library of Congress.
Eskander concluded by noting some of the continued challenges, which he said include excessive bureaucracy and widespread corruption at the Culture, Planning and Finance ministries. To combat this and increase the authority of the library's director, he's attempting to
remove the institution from the purview of the Ministry of Culture and link it directly to either the executive or to the parliament. He said the legislation governing archives in Iraq needs to be liberalized to reflect the shift from authoritarianism to democracy, and that the library requires funding to expand and modernize services. A major continuing dilemma, he said, is that coalition forces removed massive amounts of government archives from Iraq during the invasion and have transferred those to America; Eskander stressed that these documents are necessary for Iraqis to study and learn about the old regime so that they can move on and embrace the future.
Following his formal discussion, Eskander patiently answered questions for almost 45 minutes. He had to keep repeating the point that it is vital for the library to be open and available, saying that it remains necessary to make clear "We are here, we're working, and it's important to resist the attempt ... to paralyze life in Baghdad." Asked what the contingency plan was for if the library is attacked again, he noted that they are targeted in some way nearly every day, and that he has taken steps to hire as many 24/7 guards as he can to protect the collections and keep the building secure. Nonetheless, he said, the danger keeps many patrons away - right now the average number of visitors hovers around 400 per month.
Explaining the success of his efforts to have an integrated and diverse staff, Eskander praised his workers and noted "the problem is not at the bottom, it's at the top," adding that leaders of the major religious parties see it as their advantage to "motivate hate for their own ends."
The question that I'm sure most people had - about Eskander's view of whether American forces should be withdrawn from Iraq - wasn't asked until the end, and he prefaced his answer by saying that many in the crowd probably would not agree with it. He said that he has no doubt that the withdrawal of American troops would increase instability in Iraq: "You cannot just leave Iraq after you make a mess." He added that the first people to be targeted after an American pullout would be the liberals and secular leaders, and said that the country must be made more stable and the armed forces made strong enough to protect its institutions before a full pullout could occur. No one likes to see an occupying power in their cities, he said, calling himself "not unpatriotic, just realistic," but he fears that the loss of American protection could easily prove disastrous for the progress that has been made.
A fascinating discussion by a man who is I think one of the greatest unsung heroes of our time.
Eskander began his talk by providing a short history of the National Library as it existed under Saddam's regime: he noted that official censorship meant that the collections were very conservative, and that the "destruction of cultural heritage" began during Saddam's rule as Baathists plundered the library to smuggle rare books and other items out of the country. He reported that in the pre-war years, all air-handling/ventilation systems were removed from the library building, and that librarians were being paid the equivalent of $6-7 per month (which led to rampant corruption and bribery).
After showing some cringe-inducing pictures of the library after the looting occurred in April of 2003, Eskander made clear that he rejects the theory that American forces intentionally allowed the library to be destroyed, but that they did allow it to happen and should be held responsible for the losses (60% of the archival material, 90% of the rare books, nearly all of the photographs and microfilm collections) caused by looters, thieves, and arsonists.
The major portion of the speech centered on the changes to the library that Eskander has engineered since 2003. He spoke of the new staff (an ethnically, religiously diverse group from across Iraq), new procedures and new technological equipment and systems that they've been able to put in place, including a conservation lab, a microfilm room (both funded by the Czech government) and an IT department (funded by the Italian and Japanese governments). He continued by discussing plans for expanding the archives and creating a Library of Pioneers, which he said would be designed "to create a common cultural identity for all Iraqis." A cooperative digital library project is in the works with the Library of Congress.
Eskander concluded by noting some of the continued challenges, which he said include excessive bureaucracy and widespread corruption at the Culture, Planning and Finance ministries. To combat this and increase the authority of the library's director, he's attempting to
remove the institution from the purview of the Ministry of Culture and link it directly to either the executive or to the parliament. He said the legislation governing archives in Iraq needs to be liberalized to reflect the shift from authoritarianism to democracy, and that the library requires funding to expand and modernize services. A major continuing dilemma, he said, is that coalition forces removed massive amounts of government archives from Iraq during the invasion and have transferred those to America; Eskander stressed that these documents are necessary for Iraqis to study and learn about the old regime so that they can move on and embrace the future.
Following his formal discussion, Eskander patiently answered questions for almost 45 minutes. He had to keep repeating the point that it is vital for the library to be open and available, saying that it remains necessary to make clear "We are here, we're working, and it's important to resist the attempt ... to paralyze life in Baghdad." Asked what the contingency plan was for if the library is attacked again, he noted that they are targeted in some way nearly every day, and that he has taken steps to hire as many 24/7 guards as he can to protect the collections and keep the building secure. Nonetheless, he said, the danger keeps many patrons away - right now the average number of visitors hovers around 400 per month.
Explaining the success of his efforts to have an integrated and diverse staff, Eskander praised his workers and noted "the problem is not at the bottom, it's at the top," adding that leaders of the major religious parties see it as their advantage to "motivate hate for their own ends."
The question that I'm sure most people had - about Eskander's view of whether American forces should be withdrawn from Iraq - wasn't asked until the end, and he prefaced his answer by saying that many in the crowd probably would not agree with it. He said that he has no doubt that the withdrawal of American troops would increase instability in Iraq: "You cannot just leave Iraq after you make a mess." He added that the first people to be targeted after an American pullout would be the liberals and secular leaders, and said that the country must be made more stable and the armed forces made strong enough to protect its institutions before a full pullout could occur. No one likes to see an occupying power in their cities, he said, calling himself "not unpatriotic, just realistic," but he fears that the loss of American protection could easily prove disastrous for the progress that has been made.
A fascinating discussion by a man who is I think one of the greatest unsung heroes of our time.
Streeter-Chen Wrist-Slapped
Rebecca Streeter-Chen, a former curator who stole an 1823 Tanner atlas from the Rockland Historical Society and then attempted to sell it, was sentenced yesterday to five years' probation and 24 weekends of community service with the county Sheriff's Department, Steve Lieberman reports for the Journal News.
County court judge Victor Alfieri rejected prosecutors' requests for a 1-3 year prison term when Streeter-Chen pleaded guilty, saying in August that he was inclined to sentence Streeter-Chen to six months in jail plus supervised probation. But yesterday he didn't even go that far, accepting calls for leniency from Streeter-Chen's lawyers who said that Ms. Streeter-Chen was "the mainstay of the family" and "needed at home to raise and support two children."
I'm sorry, but in my view she really should have thought about that before she stole the atlas. Life is choices, and Ms. Streeter-Chen chose to steal that atlas, she chose to try and sell it, and she chose to put her children at risk by doing so. Probation combined with 48 days of trash-pickup (or whatever onerous community service she gets assigned) is simply not a serious punishment for the theft of a rare book. Utterly absurd.
But hey, what else is new?
I'm sure Travis will weigh in on the sentence over at Upward Departure today, so do check in to see what he thinks of it. I'll post the link when it's up. Hopefully he'll renew his call for cases like this to be handled at the federal level, as this one clearly should have been.
County court judge Victor Alfieri rejected prosecutors' requests for a 1-3 year prison term when Streeter-Chen pleaded guilty, saying in August that he was inclined to sentence Streeter-Chen to six months in jail plus supervised probation. But yesterday he didn't even go that far, accepting calls for leniency from Streeter-Chen's lawyers who said that Ms. Streeter-Chen was "the mainstay of the family" and "needed at home to raise and support two children."
I'm sorry, but in my view she really should have thought about that before she stole the atlas. Life is choices, and Ms. Streeter-Chen chose to steal that atlas, she chose to try and sell it, and she chose to put her children at risk by doing so. Probation combined with 48 days of trash-pickup (or whatever onerous community service she gets assigned) is simply not a serious punishment for the theft of a rare book. Utterly absurd.
But hey, what else is new?
I'm sure Travis will weigh in on the sentence over at Upward Departure today, so do check in to see what he thinks of it. I'll post the link when it's up. Hopefully he'll renew his call for cases like this to be handled at the federal level, as this one clearly should have been.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
NARA IG Investigating Major Security Breaches at Reagan Library
The LATimes reports that National Archives Inspector General Paul Brachfeld has opened an investigation into allegations that a former employee stole artifacts from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Brachfeld told the paper that his efforts have been stymied by a record-keeping failure, what he called a "near universal security breakdown."
A former archivist at the Reagan Library was reportedly fired about six months ago for stealing items from the collections; an audit of the collections by the IG's office was begun at that time, and revealed that "the library was unable to properly account for more than 80,000 artifacts out of its collection of some 100,000 such items, and 'may have experienced loss or pilferage the scope of which will likely never be known.'" The report blamed management lapses and poor storage practices, which included "artworks stacked on top of one another, and sculptures and vases unwrapped and lying on their sides on open shelves - in an area prone to earthquakes."
Once again, it's clear that at least some of the problems here are caused by insufficient funding and staffing - the fact that volunteers had to be called in to help catalog artifacts after the problem emerged should be a major clue that more resources should be allocated to these facilities.
More on this as it comes in. I'm sure we haven't heard the last of it.
A former archivist at the Reagan Library was reportedly fired about six months ago for stealing items from the collections; an audit of the collections by the IG's office was begun at that time, and revealed that "the library was unable to properly account for more than 80,000 artifacts out of its collection of some 100,000 such items, and 'may have experienced loss or pilferage the scope of which will likely never be known.'" The report blamed management lapses and poor storage practices, which included "artworks stacked on top of one another, and sculptures and vases unwrapped and lying on their sides on open shelves - in an area prone to earthquakes."
Once again, it's clear that at least some of the problems here are caused by insufficient funding and staffing - the fact that volunteers had to be called in to help catalog artifacts after the problem emerged should be a major clue that more resources should be allocated to these facilities.
More on this as it comes in. I'm sure we haven't heard the last of it.
Grants, Acquisitions &c.
- The Archives and Rare Books Library at the University of Cincinnati has received a $200,000 grant from the Marge and Charles J. Schott Foundation. The funds will be used for "facility and furnishing upgrades."
- The University of Calgary has purchased a collection of four early texts of Biblical scholarship by Nicholas of Lyra, which the university librarian called "probably the most famous early comment on the Bible." The library paid $45,000 for the collection.
- Hamilton College was awarded the Outstanding Project for 2007 prize from the Communal Societies Association for its "digitization of the Shaker periodical, variously titled The Shaker, Shaker and Shakeress, The Shaker Manifesto and The Manifesto. This publication ran from 1871 until 1899 and shared religious and political opinions between Shaker communities from Maine to Kentucky."
- An 8-centimeter fragment of a parchment Bible, the "1087-year-old Aleppo Codex[,] will be given to a representative of the Ben Zvi Institute in Jerusalem on Thursday, following 18 years during which Israeli scholars tried to retrieve it from businessman Sam Sabbagh," Haaretz reports. The small fragment was saved from a burning synagogue in 1947. Much more background on the text at the linked article.
- British fashion mogul Tom Tar Singh has donated 'to the Indian nation' a collection of Gandhi letters he purchased at Sotheby's earlier this year (for more than $90,000). The transfer was made on Monday "at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), which became [the collection's] official recipients. The manuscripts, which include a series of articles, postcards and letters by Gandhi, were received by Dr Karan Singh, Chairman of the Executive Council, NMML."
- Two leather-bound photo albums showing art looted by the Nazis as they ravaged Europe during the early years of World War II have been given to the U.S. National Archives. The albums "contain photos from which Hitler and his curators could choose art for the Fuhrer's art museum in Linz." Archivist of the United States Alan Weinstein said the albums could help researchers locate looted works of art which are still missing. They "were found in the attic of the heirs of a US soldier who was stationed in the Berchtesgarden area of Germany at the end of the war in 1945," and were donated to the Archives by Robert Edsel, president of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art.
- The University of Calgary has purchased a collection of four early texts of Biblical scholarship by Nicholas of Lyra, which the university librarian called "probably the most famous early comment on the Bible." The library paid $45,000 for the collection.
- Hamilton College was awarded the Outstanding Project for 2007 prize from the Communal Societies Association for its "digitization of the Shaker periodical, variously titled The Shaker, Shaker and Shakeress, The Shaker Manifesto and The Manifesto. This publication ran from 1871 until 1899 and shared religious and political opinions between Shaker communities from Maine to Kentucky."
- An 8-centimeter fragment of a parchment Bible, the "1087-year-old Aleppo Codex[,] will be given to a representative of the Ben Zvi Institute in Jerusalem on Thursday, following 18 years during which Israeli scholars tried to retrieve it from businessman Sam Sabbagh," Haaretz reports. The small fragment was saved from a burning synagogue in 1947. Much more background on the text at the linked article.
- British fashion mogul Tom Tar Singh has donated 'to the Indian nation' a collection of Gandhi letters he purchased at Sotheby's earlier this year (for more than $90,000). The transfer was made on Monday "at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), which became [the collection's] official recipients. The manuscripts, which include a series of articles, postcards and letters by Gandhi, were received by Dr Karan Singh, Chairman of the Executive Council, NMML."
- Two leather-bound photo albums showing art looted by the Nazis as they ravaged Europe during the early years of World War II have been given to the U.S. National Archives. The albums "contain photos from which Hitler and his curators could choose art for the Fuhrer's art museum in Linz." Archivist of the United States Alan Weinstein said the albums could help researchers locate looted works of art which are still missing. They "were found in the attic of the heirs of a US soldier who was stationed in the Berchtesgarden area of Germany at the end of the war in 1945," and were donated to the Archives by Robert Edsel, president of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art.
UH Library Damaged (Again)
Three years after a major flood, the University of Hawaii's Hamilton Library is dealing with more water damage after heavy rains last weekend. The library's roof, which is scheduled to be replaced next summer, began leaking in several places, so librarians had to move many books off the third floor. "'Our main concern was to get the books out of the area with all the water. You have high humidity, any moisture, all the books are just going to suck it up,' conservation technician Kyle Hamada said."
"Buckets sit on shelves where books used to be in an area where librarians keep the expensive and rare books. ... While initially staffers thought the problem was limited to one area, more leaks developed as the days wore on. Workers could not keep up. Large plastic canopies cover much of the shelves and make shiftdrains are helping to collect the water."
For the moment, the evacuated books have been taken to a cold storage unit to combat mold growth.
"Buckets sit on shelves where books used to be in an area where librarians keep the expensive and rare books. ... While initially staffers thought the problem was limited to one area, more leaks developed as the days wore on. Workers could not keep up. Large plastic canopies cover much of the shelves and make shiftdrains are helping to collect the water."
For the moment, the evacuated books have been taken to a cold storage unit to combat mold growth.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Book Review: "Quicksilver"
Sprawling. Epic. Doorstop. Clocking in at 927 pages, Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver (Morrow, 2003) is hardly for the faint of heart or weak in wrist. Especially as it's just the first volume of a trilogy in which the succeeding books are nearly as hefty themselves. It is a vastly complicated tale with what must be hundreds (but seems like millions) of characters - some historical, some entirely made up. Of course each character going by several different names at various points doesn't help much.
For all its dense vastness and complexities (and interminable length), Quicksilver is a fascinating and engaging work. The intertwined narratives are well told, and somehow Stephenson is able to keep everything and everybody straight even if we readers may get temporarily lost along the way. The book blends history and fiction quite nicely, providing bold descriptions of England during the Restoration and Glorious Revolution periods, the formation and early years of the Royal Society, and the political, scientific and religious intrigues of seventeenth-century Europe. Sure, there's some literary license, but hey, that's what historical fiction is for.
The characters range from the peripatetic pirate Jack Shaftoe (to whom Disney's Jack Sparrow bears a remarkable and uncanny resemblance at times) to Benjamin Waterhouse (courtier, natural philosopher, Puritan), Robert Hooke, Newton and Leibniz, William of Orange
and far, far beyond.
If you've got a spare month (in fact it took me rather a lot longer than that to read this, since I went through it just a couple chapters at a time before going to sleep at night), and if you enjoy a complicated story well told, I highly recommend suspending your disbelief and hefting Quicksilver onto your lap.
For all its dense vastness and complexities (and interminable length), Quicksilver is a fascinating and engaging work. The intertwined narratives are well told, and somehow Stephenson is able to keep everything and everybody straight even if we readers may get temporarily lost along the way. The book blends history and fiction quite nicely, providing bold descriptions of England during the Restoration and Glorious Revolution periods, the formation and early years of the Royal Society, and the political, scientific and religious intrigues of seventeenth-century Europe. Sure, there's some literary license, but hey, that's what historical fiction is for.
The characters range from the peripatetic pirate Jack Shaftoe (to whom Disney's Jack Sparrow bears a remarkable and uncanny resemblance at times) to Benjamin Waterhouse (courtier, natural philosopher, Puritan), Robert Hooke, Newton and Leibniz, William of Orange
and far, far beyond.
If you've got a spare month (in fact it took me rather a lot longer than that to read this, since I went through it just a couple chapters at a time before going to sleep at night), and if you enjoy a complicated story well told, I highly recommend suspending your disbelief and hefting Quicksilver onto your lap.
Chile Returns Library Books
The AP reports that Chile has returned 3,778 books its forces stole from Peru's national library ... in 1881. "The volumes, written in Greek, Latin, French and Spanish, some with full-page colonial-era maps, dated from the 16th to 19th centuries. Chile shipped the books, most in excellent condition, to Peru this week via DHL ..."
Chile's national director of libraries, archives and museums, Nivia Palma, called the action a "concrete expression of our deep commitment to building a relationship of brotherhood and cooperation between our countries."
The books were taken after the capture of Lima by Chilean forces during the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific.
Just for fun: if Peru's national library charged 10 cents a day for a late book, I think that works out to ... $17,375,022 (not taking inflation or currency into account).
Chile's national director of libraries, archives and museums, Nivia Palma, called the action a "concrete expression of our deep commitment to building a relationship of brotherhood and cooperation between our countries."
The books were taken after the capture of Lima by Chilean forces during the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific.
Just for fun: if Peru's national library charged 10 cents a day for a late book, I think that works out to ... $17,375,022 (not taking inflation or currency into account).
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
A Very Bad Idea
The Guardian reported yesterday that libraries in Essex, Somerset, Bromley, Leeds and Southend will begin inserting advertising fliers into books checked out by patrons. "The plan is being run by the direct marketing company Jackson Howse, whose business development director Mark Jackson said the company was 'very proud' of what he described as 'a brand new channel' for direct marketing."
Gag. If this is the best idea library managers could come up with to raise extra money, they'd better find another line of work.
Jackson told the paper that if 300,000 adverts were inserted per month, a library could expect to receive about £10,000 revenue.
Guy Daines, director of policy at the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals "said that such a scheme should be operated with 'caution' and suggested there would be 'numerous practical difficulties, perhaps the most important of which is that a high percentage of people would find it off-putting.'" Daines added "'Like any other public sector institution finding a new stream of income is incredibly important.' However, he claims, there is a risk that advertising could put libraries' place in the community at risk. 'Free access and impartiality are at the core of what libraries do,' he said, 'so any kind of scheme which seems to compromise that position of impartiality and trust has to be looked at very carefully.'"
As someone who doesn't particularly enjoy having anything inserted into the books I buy or check out of the library (anybody need a gigantic stash of unwanted bookmarks?), this proposal is irksome to say the least. We are all exposed to far too much latent advertising as it is, and we certainly don't need more direct exposure to adverts in any form, let alone staring at us from across the "date due" stamp.
Gag. If this is the best idea library managers could come up with to raise extra money, they'd better find another line of work.
Jackson told the paper that if 300,000 adverts were inserted per month, a library could expect to receive about £10,000 revenue.
Guy Daines, director of policy at the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals "said that such a scheme should be operated with 'caution' and suggested there would be 'numerous practical difficulties, perhaps the most important of which is that a high percentage of people would find it off-putting.'" Daines added "'Like any other public sector institution finding a new stream of income is incredibly important.' However, he claims, there is a risk that advertising could put libraries' place in the community at risk. 'Free access and impartiality are at the core of what libraries do,' he said, 'so any kind of scheme which seems to compromise that position of impartiality and trust has to be looked at very carefully.'"
As someone who doesn't particularly enjoy having anything inserted into the books I buy or check out of the library (anybody need a gigantic stash of unwanted bookmarks?), this proposal is irksome to say the least. We are all exposed to far too much latent advertising as it is, and we certainly don't need more direct exposure to adverts in any form, let alone staring at us from across the "date due" stamp.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Grafton on Digitization
Biblio-historian Anthony Grafton has an essay on digitization in the New Yorker which is today's required reading. I think he's got it just about right:
"Google’s projects, together with rival initiatives by Microsoft and Amazon, have elicited millenarian prophecies about the possibilities of digitized knowledge and the end of the book as we know it. ... Others have evoked even more utopian prospects, such as a universal archive that will contain not only all books and articles but all documents anywhere—the basis for a total history of the human race.
In fact, the Internet will not bring us a universal library, much less an encyclopedic record of human experience. None of the firms now engaged in digitization projects claim that it will create anything of the kind. The hype and rhetoric make it hard to grasp what Google and Microsoft and their partner libraries are actually doing. We have clearly reached a new point in the history of text production. On many fronts, traditional periodicals and books are making way for blogs and other electronic formats. But magazines and books still sell a lot of copies. The rush to digitize the written record is one of a number of critical moments in the long saga of our drive to accumulate, store, and retrieve information efficiently. It will result not in the infotopia that the prophets conjure up but in one in a long series of new information ecologies, all of them challenging, in which readers, writers, and producers of text have learned to survive."
Grafton provides a short history of 'information management', beginning with Mesopotamian tablet-cataloging and the Alexandrian scroll-copiers before discussing the changes wrought by the arrival of print technologies and those that have arrived since. He succinctly and accurately describes the shortcomings of all the current book digitization efforts - Google, Microsoft, Amazon, &c. - and also covers something that most who write on digitization leave out entirely: the place for non-Western books and collections in the grand plan. Grafton notes "Sixty million Britons have a hundred and sixteen million public-library books at their disposal, while more than 1.1 billion Indians have only thirty-six million. Poverty, in other words, is embodied in lack of print as well as in lack of food. The Internet will do much to redress this imbalance, by providing Western books for non-Western readers. What it will do for non-Western books is less clear."
Grafton calls the idea of a universal archive "distant." I'd go a step further and call it utterly ludicrous. "ArchivesUSA, a Web-based guide to American archives, lists five and a half thousand repositories and more than a hundred and sixty thousand collections of primary source material. The U.S. National Archives alone contain some nine billion items. It’s not likely that we’ll see the whole archives of the United States or any other developed nation online in the immediate future - much less those of poorer nations."
"The supposed universal library, then, will be not a seamless mass of books, easily linked and studied together, but a patchwork of interfaces and databases, some open to anyone with a computer and WiFi, others closed to those without access or money. The real challenge now is how to chart the tectonic plates of information that are crashing into one another and then to learn to navigate the new landscapes they are creating. Over time, as more of this material emerges from copyright protection, we’ll be able to learn things about our culture that we could never have known previously. Soon, the present will become overwhelmingly accessible, but a great deal of older material may never coalesce into a single database. Neither Google nor anyone else will fuse the proprietary databases of early books and the local systems created by individual archives into one accessible store of information. Though the distant past will be more available, in a technical sense, than ever before, once it is captured and preserved as a vast, disjointed mosaic it may recede ever more rapidly from our collective attention."
Grafton concludes on precisely the right note, in my admittedly biased view: "And yet we will still need our libraries and archives. ... Original documents reward us for taking the trouble to find them by telling us things that no image can. Duguid describes watching a fellow-historian systematically sniff two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old letters in an archive. By detecting the smell of vinegar - which had been sprinkled, in the eighteenth century, on letters from towns struck by cholera, in the hope of disinfecting them - he could trace the history of disease outbreaks. Historians of the book - a new and growing tribe - read books as scouts read trails. Bindings, usually custom-made in the early centuries of printing, can tell you who owned them and what level of society they belonged to. Marginal annotations, which abounded in the centuries when readers usually went through books with pen in hand, identify the often surprising messages that individuals have found as they read. ...
For now and for the foreseeable future, any serious reader will have to know how to travel down two very different roads simultaneously. No one should avoid the broad, smooth, and open road that leads through the screen. But if you want to know what one of Coleridge’s annotated books or an early “Spider-Man” comic really looks and feels like, or if you just want to read one of those millions of books which are being digitized, you still have to do it the old way, and you will have to for decades to come. ... If you want deeper, more local knowledge, you will have to take the narrower path that leads between the lions and up the stairs. There - as in great libraries around the world - you’ll use all the new sources, the library’s and those it buys from others, all the time. ... [T]hese streams of data, rich as they are, will illuminate, rather than eliminate, books and prints and manuscripts that only the library can put in front of you. The narrow path still leads, as it must, to crowded public rooms where the sunlight gleams on varnished tables, and knowledge is embodied in millions of dusty, crumbling, smelly, irreplaceable documents and books."
Illuminate, rather than eliminate. I like it.
"Google’s projects, together with rival initiatives by Microsoft and Amazon, have elicited millenarian prophecies about the possibilities of digitized knowledge and the end of the book as we know it. ... Others have evoked even more utopian prospects, such as a universal archive that will contain not only all books and articles but all documents anywhere—the basis for a total history of the human race.
In fact, the Internet will not bring us a universal library, much less an encyclopedic record of human experience. None of the firms now engaged in digitization projects claim that it will create anything of the kind. The hype and rhetoric make it hard to grasp what Google and Microsoft and their partner libraries are actually doing. We have clearly reached a new point in the history of text production. On many fronts, traditional periodicals and books are making way for blogs and other electronic formats. But magazines and books still sell a lot of copies. The rush to digitize the written record is one of a number of critical moments in the long saga of our drive to accumulate, store, and retrieve information efficiently. It will result not in the infotopia that the prophets conjure up but in one in a long series of new information ecologies, all of them challenging, in which readers, writers, and producers of text have learned to survive."
Grafton provides a short history of 'information management', beginning with Mesopotamian tablet-cataloging and the Alexandrian scroll-copiers before discussing the changes wrought by the arrival of print technologies and those that have arrived since. He succinctly and accurately describes the shortcomings of all the current book digitization efforts - Google, Microsoft, Amazon, &c. - and also covers something that most who write on digitization leave out entirely: the place for non-Western books and collections in the grand plan. Grafton notes "Sixty million Britons have a hundred and sixteen million public-library books at their disposal, while more than 1.1 billion Indians have only thirty-six million. Poverty, in other words, is embodied in lack of print as well as in lack of food. The Internet will do much to redress this imbalance, by providing Western books for non-Western readers. What it will do for non-Western books is less clear."
Grafton calls the idea of a universal archive "distant." I'd go a step further and call it utterly ludicrous. "ArchivesUSA, a Web-based guide to American archives, lists five and a half thousand repositories and more than a hundred and sixty thousand collections of primary source material. The U.S. National Archives alone contain some nine billion items. It’s not likely that we’ll see the whole archives of the United States or any other developed nation online in the immediate future - much less those of poorer nations."
"The supposed universal library, then, will be not a seamless mass of books, easily linked and studied together, but a patchwork of interfaces and databases, some open to anyone with a computer and WiFi, others closed to those without access or money. The real challenge now is how to chart the tectonic plates of information that are crashing into one another and then to learn to navigate the new landscapes they are creating. Over time, as more of this material emerges from copyright protection, we’ll be able to learn things about our culture that we could never have known previously. Soon, the present will become overwhelmingly accessible, but a great deal of older material may never coalesce into a single database. Neither Google nor anyone else will fuse the proprietary databases of early books and the local systems created by individual archives into one accessible store of information. Though the distant past will be more available, in a technical sense, than ever before, once it is captured and preserved as a vast, disjointed mosaic it may recede ever more rapidly from our collective attention."
Grafton concludes on precisely the right note, in my admittedly biased view: "And yet we will still need our libraries and archives. ... Original documents reward us for taking the trouble to find them by telling us things that no image can. Duguid describes watching a fellow-historian systematically sniff two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old letters in an archive. By detecting the smell of vinegar - which had been sprinkled, in the eighteenth century, on letters from towns struck by cholera, in the hope of disinfecting them - he could trace the history of disease outbreaks. Historians of the book - a new and growing tribe - read books as scouts read trails. Bindings, usually custom-made in the early centuries of printing, can tell you who owned them and what level of society they belonged to. Marginal annotations, which abounded in the centuries when readers usually went through books with pen in hand, identify the often surprising messages that individuals have found as they read. ...
For now and for the foreseeable future, any serious reader will have to know how to travel down two very different roads simultaneously. No one should avoid the broad, smooth, and open road that leads through the screen. But if you want to know what one of Coleridge’s annotated books or an early “Spider-Man” comic really looks and feels like, or if you just want to read one of those millions of books which are being digitized, you still have to do it the old way, and you will have to for decades to come. ... If you want deeper, more local knowledge, you will have to take the narrower path that leads between the lions and up the stairs. There - as in great libraries around the world - you’ll use all the new sources, the library’s and those it buys from others, all the time. ... [T]hese streams of data, rich as they are, will illuminate, rather than eliminate, books and prints and manuscripts that only the library can put in front of you. The narrow path still leads, as it must, to crowded public rooms where the sunlight gleams on varnished tables, and knowledge is embodied in millions of dusty, crumbling, smelly, irreplaceable documents and books."
Illuminate, rather than eliminate. I like it.
Remember, Remember ...
Today marks the 402d anniversary of the (in)famous Gunpowder Plot, in which the Catholic Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the House of Lords and King James I by detonating barrels of gunpowder stored in the basements of the parliament building. England still celebrates the anniversary as Guy Fawkes Day with bonfires and other such revelry.
In Boston during the colonial period, the holiday became known as Pope's Day or Pope-Night, providing an excuse for cross-town rivalries, raucous parades and general chaos. J.L. Bell and the Bostonian Society have mounted a brand-new and well-researched website, 5th of November in Boston, which provides historical background on the holiday, images and other such goodies.
If you're in Boston today, there will also be a scholarly commemoration of Guy Fawkes Day: professors Brendan McConville and Cynthia Van Zandt will discuss "Bonfires, Effigies and Brawls: Colonial Boston Celebrates Guy Fawkes Day." That begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Old State House.
"Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot"
In Boston during the colonial period, the holiday became known as Pope's Day or Pope-Night, providing an excuse for cross-town rivalries, raucous parades and general chaos. J.L. Bell and the Bostonian Society have mounted a brand-new and well-researched website, 5th of November in Boston, which provides historical background on the holiday, images and other such goodies.
If you're in Boston today, there will also be a scholarly commemoration of Guy Fawkes Day: professors Brendan McConville and Cynthia Van Zandt will discuss "Bonfires, Effigies and Brawls: Colonial Boston Celebrates Guy Fawkes Day." That begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Old State House.
"Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot"
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Book Review: "Mr. Thundermug"
Continuing this weekend's streak of debut books dealing with "outsiders," I read Cornelius Medvei's novella Mr. Thundermug (HarperCollins) today. The jacket text just about says it all: "Mr Thundermug has a luxuriant mane of silvery hair. Mr Thundermug has an unsettling mastery of speech. Mr Thundermug is a baboon." Presented as a 'case study' written by an unnamed newspaper reporter, this short book treats the life and trials of one Mr. Thundermug, a baboon who has - entirely inexplicably - acquired the ability to speak perfect English and taken up residence with his family in an empty house.
Through his journalistic interlocutor, Medvei allegorically slices and dices the shortsightedness of human society, compiling a bizarre litany of bizarre, absurd, but somehow entirely believable baboon-human interactions: visits from Mr Forrest of the Housing Office, a requirement that Mr Thundermug's appropriately inarticulate children attend primary school (that does not turn out well), and finally the arrest and trial of Mr Thundermug for indecent exposure and cruelty to animals (i.e. his family, who, by choice, sleep in the bath).
Accompanied by odd, exquisite lithographs credited to Medvei himself, this short little book is intriguing and provocative. It is also quite funny, in that wry English sort of way. I'll certainly be on the lookout for the author's next creation.
Through his journalistic interlocutor, Medvei allegorically slices and dices the shortsightedness of human society, compiling a bizarre litany of bizarre, absurd, but somehow entirely believable baboon-human interactions: visits from Mr Forrest of the Housing Office, a requirement that Mr Thundermug's appropriately inarticulate children attend primary school (that does not turn out well), and finally the arrest and trial of Mr Thundermug for indecent exposure and cruelty to animals (i.e. his family, who, by choice, sleep in the bath).
Accompanied by odd, exquisite lithographs credited to Medvei himself, this short little book is intriguing and provocative. It is also quite funny, in that wry English sort of way. I'll certainly be on the lookout for the author's next creation.
Links & Reviews
- Big news from Boston today, the Globe reporting that the Boston Public Library's trustees will not renew the contract of Bernie Margolis, the library's president for the last decade. A spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas Menino told the Globe "While [Margolis] did a great job restoring the main branch in Copley, I believe the board is looking to expand their search for a new director, someone who would be interested in looking more at the branches. That's no slight at Bernie, because he did a great job. But with his contract up, it's the right time for someone new to come into the library and have a fresh approach." Margolis' contract expires on 30 June of next year.
- In Americana Exchange, Michael Stillman covers the September auction of a collection of Civil War documents which was the subject of a long legal battle between the collection's owner and the state of South Carolina. The state claimed ownership rights over the documents as official property, but a federal judge disagreed. Stillman comments on the case in general and also notes the low prices the items fetched at auction, citing the venue, lack of promotion, and other factors. (h/t Everett Wilkie)
- The "Devil's Bible", a thirteenth-century Bohemian manuscript copy of the Bible remarkable for its large portrait of the Devil, is now available digitally, here. The manuscript is also known as the Codex Gigas, as it is believed to be the largest surviving European manuscript. Beyond the scriptures, the codex also includes two works by Flavius Josephus, Cosmas of Prague's Chronicle of Bohemia, and several additional short texts. The digital exhibition website provides much more history, background and commentary, as well as excellent browsable images.
- From yesterday's NYTimes, a rather odd story about a Russian conductor's archive rescued from the trash and now the subject of an international legal tussle.
- I've long been meaning to add a link to Sylvia Plath Info, which is run by a slightly-Plath-obsessed friend of mine; it's a very useful site for all things Plath, and has some good posts from a recent multi-day symposium of Plath's life and works. Link now added.
- In a wide-ranging Times essay, Bee Wilson examines a new four-volume collection of primary documents, Eighteenth-Century Coffeehouse Culture, edited by Markman Ellis. Beyond the books, Wilson also comments on a recent documentary about coffee, "Black Gold."
- From BibliOdyssey, images from a late sixteenth-century Bavarian court dress and coats of arms book, and a selection of illustrations from swordplay manuals.
- Michael Lieberman notes that the recent San Jose earthquake resulted in a major reshelving project at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, where more than 300,000 books on the top four floors toppled from their perches as the building swayed with the quake.
- Rare Books Review reports that the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has acquired an extensive collection of the personal papers of Katharine Hepburn, which are being catalogued and will be available for public research early next year.
- The newest issue of Biblio Unbound is out, here.
- Jim Watts comments on the use of a robotic calligrapher to reproduce a copy of the Luther Bible, noting "This robot reproduces calligraphy because, despite five-and-a-half centuries of printing, careful hand calligraphy retains connotations of prestige and expense. Thus famous documents, like the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, are displayed and reproduced in calligraphic form, which is how they are popularly remembered, despite the fact that the originals were printed broadsheets. It was the secondary, anachronistic hand-written form that was given iconic status."
- Over at Campaign for the American Reader, Marshall looks at Jon Kukla's Mr. Jefferson's Women. It's always interesting to see how some books manage to attract gushing reviews from some readers (including some pretty important ones) while getting completely panned by others (see Stacy Schiff's NYT review, which I commented on here). I was particularly struck by the Library Journal excerpt, which begins "It is hard to dislike a book that, like this one, starts off with a discussion of how J. Peterman Company shirts are related to Thomas Jefferson." Personally I'd be more inclined to the opposite view, and I think Schiff's charge of conclusion-driven research is a damaging one, positive blurbs notwithstanding.
- Writing for Slate, Joshua Glenn claims to solve the mystery of the mysterious unnamed object produced in Woollett, Massachusetts, the subject of much speculation in Henry James' novel The Ambassadors.
- I missed Paul Collins' appearance on last weekend's Saturday Weekend Edition, but thankfully Ed caught it. Paul discusses scary stories and Halloween biblio-oddities with Scott Simon.
- Over at Boston 1775, J.L. Bell discusses Abigail Adams' investment strategies, bouncing off a Woody Holton article in the new William & Mary Quarterly.
Reviews:
- In the Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley reviews Joe Ellis' American Creation.
- From the NYTimes, Mary Beth Norton covers My Dearest Friend, the new collection of John and Abigail Adams' letters.
- Over at Rare Book Review, Lynn Glyn comments on a new six-volume collection of letters by Joseph Banks.
- The Boston Globe's Michael Kenney reviews Woody Holton's Unruly Americans, and submits a joint review of Eve LaPlante's Salem Witch Judge and Emerson Baker's The Devil of Great Island. David Mehegan also commented on Salem Witch Judge this week.
- In Americana Exchange, Michael Stillman covers the September auction of a collection of Civil War documents which was the subject of a long legal battle between the collection's owner and the state of South Carolina. The state claimed ownership rights over the documents as official property, but a federal judge disagreed. Stillman comments on the case in general and also notes the low prices the items fetched at auction, citing the venue, lack of promotion, and other factors. (h/t Everett Wilkie)
- The "Devil's Bible", a thirteenth-century Bohemian manuscript copy of the Bible remarkable for its large portrait of the Devil, is now available digitally, here. The manuscript is also known as the Codex Gigas, as it is believed to be the largest surviving European manuscript. Beyond the scriptures, the codex also includes two works by Flavius Josephus, Cosmas of Prague's Chronicle of Bohemia, and several additional short texts. The digital exhibition website provides much more history, background and commentary, as well as excellent browsable images.
- From yesterday's NYTimes, a rather odd story about a Russian conductor's archive rescued from the trash and now the subject of an international legal tussle.
- I've long been meaning to add a link to Sylvia Plath Info, which is run by a slightly-Plath-obsessed friend of mine; it's a very useful site for all things Plath, and has some good posts from a recent multi-day symposium of Plath's life and works. Link now added.
- In a wide-ranging Times essay, Bee Wilson examines a new four-volume collection of primary documents, Eighteenth-Century Coffeehouse Culture, edited by Markman Ellis. Beyond the books, Wilson also comments on a recent documentary about coffee, "Black Gold."
- From BibliOdyssey, images from a late sixteenth-century Bavarian court dress and coats of arms book, and a selection of illustrations from swordplay manuals.
- Michael Lieberman notes that the recent San Jose earthquake resulted in a major reshelving project at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, where more than 300,000 books on the top four floors toppled from their perches as the building swayed with the quake.
- Rare Books Review reports that the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has acquired an extensive collection of the personal papers of Katharine Hepburn, which are being catalogued and will be available for public research early next year.
- The newest issue of Biblio Unbound is out, here.
- Jim Watts comments on the use of a robotic calligrapher to reproduce a copy of the Luther Bible, noting "This robot reproduces calligraphy because, despite five-and-a-half centuries of printing, careful hand calligraphy retains connotations of prestige and expense. Thus famous documents, like the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, are displayed and reproduced in calligraphic form, which is how they are popularly remembered, despite the fact that the originals were printed broadsheets. It was the secondary, anachronistic hand-written form that was given iconic status."
- Over at Campaign for the American Reader, Marshall looks at Jon Kukla's Mr. Jefferson's Women. It's always interesting to see how some books manage to attract gushing reviews from some readers (including some pretty important ones) while getting completely panned by others (see Stacy Schiff's NYT review, which I commented on here). I was particularly struck by the Library Journal excerpt, which begins "It is hard to dislike a book that, like this one, starts off with a discussion of how J. Peterman Company shirts are related to Thomas Jefferson." Personally I'd be more inclined to the opposite view, and I think Schiff's charge of conclusion-driven research is a damaging one, positive blurbs notwithstanding.
- Writing for Slate, Joshua Glenn claims to solve the mystery of the mysterious unnamed object produced in Woollett, Massachusetts, the subject of much speculation in Henry James' novel The Ambassadors.
- I missed Paul Collins' appearance on last weekend's Saturday Weekend Edition, but thankfully Ed caught it. Paul discusses scary stories and Halloween biblio-oddities with Scott Simon.
- Over at Boston 1775, J.L. Bell discusses Abigail Adams' investment strategies, bouncing off a Woody Holton article in the new William & Mary Quarterly.
Reviews:
- In the Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley reviews Joe Ellis' American Creation.
- From the NYTimes, Mary Beth Norton covers My Dearest Friend, the new collection of John and Abigail Adams' letters.
- Over at Rare Book Review, Lynn Glyn comments on a new six-volume collection of letters by Joseph Banks.
- The Boston Globe's Michael Kenney reviews Woody Holton's Unruly Americans, and submits a joint review of Eve LaPlante's Salem Witch Judge and Emerson Baker's The Devil of Great Island. David Mehegan also commented on Salem Witch Judge this week.
Book Review: "The Jewel Trader of Pegu"
Jeffrey Hantover's debut novel The Jewel Trader of Pegu (forthcoming from William Morrow) is a lavishly-described tale of late sixteenth-century southeast Asia (Pegu is a city in the southern part of Burma), told from the alternating perspectives of Venetian jewel broker Abraham and Mya, a young Burmese woman. Abraham's story is provided through letters written to his cousin Joseph back in Venice, while Mya narrates directly.
While the plot of Jewel Trader is fairly predictable once a few things become clear near the beginning of the book, it is well measured and effectively written. What is more special about this novel than the fairly conventional storyline is the emotionally-wrenching process Abraham undergoes as he comes to grips with Peguan culture, religion and societal norms. The contrasts he makes between his experiences as a foreigner in Pegu and as a Jew in Venice were the most interesting elements of the narrative to me, along with the rich depictions of the Peguan environment and natural world.
An enjoyable book.
While the plot of Jewel Trader is fairly predictable once a few things become clear near the beginning of the book, it is well measured and effectively written. What is more special about this novel than the fairly conventional storyline is the emotionally-wrenching process Abraham undergoes as he comes to grips with Peguan culture, religion and societal norms. The contrasts he makes between his experiences as a foreigner in Pegu and as a Jew in Venice were the most interesting elements of the narrative to me, along with the rich depictions of the Peguan environment and natural world.
An enjoyable book.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
LC Reacts to IG Report
I briefly mentioned a 24 October Washington Post article covering a Library of Congress inspector general's report on the misplacement of books in the Library of Congress. The coverage of the report seemed rather overhyped to me, and that does seem to be the case. Over at LCBlog, Matt Raymond posts the full text of an article from the internal LC Gazette which covers the library's rebuttal of the Post story and offers some insight into how LC administrators view their inventory control process.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Recent Acquisitions
- Eastern Mennonite University has received a 1539 German translation of Flavius Josephus' History of the Jews, courtesy of a Swiss man named Bruno Weber, who found the book in his home. This edition of Josephus' text, translated by Lutheran minister Caspar Hedio, was printed by Balthazar Beck at Strasbourg. (h/t RBN)
- Butler University's Irwin Library will house the rare book collection of Ed Goss, a retired insurance executive and trustee emeritus of the university. The collection comprises approximately 1,000 books, mainly in the areas of history, philosophy and creative literature.
- The Gemological Institute of America has received 37 boxes of "books, journals, awards, letters, and scrapbooks, as well as original watercolors and manuscripts," from the estate of John and Marge Sinkankas. John Sinkanas, who died in 2002, was a well-known author of books and articles on gems and minerals.
- Butler University's Irwin Library will house the rare book collection of Ed Goss, a retired insurance executive and trustee emeritus of the university. The collection comprises approximately 1,000 books, mainly in the areas of history, philosophy and creative literature.
- The Gemological Institute of America has received 37 boxes of "books, journals, awards, letters, and scrapbooks, as well as original watercolors and manuscripts," from the estate of John and Marge Sinkankas. John Sinkanas, who died in 2002, was a well-known author of books and articles on gems and minerals.
Linnaeus Book to be Sold
The Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh has decided to "kick-start" a fundraising drive (to pay for building renovations) by selling of its first edition copy of Linnaeus' Systema Naturae (1735), the Scotsman reports. The exceptionally fine, large-paper copy of the seven-leaf broadsheet pamphlet will be Lot 110 at Christie's Valuable Books and Manuscripts sale on 14 November.
Systema Naturae, in which Linnaeus outlines his biological classification scheme, is expected to fetch up to £200,000.
Attempting to justify the sale of such a spectacular piece from their collection, RCP librarian Iain Donaldson said "As a charity the college does not have the funds with which to meet its desire to develop further its collection for a wider audience. We therefore took great care in considering what historic items of high value, if any, could be sold from the collection which would further our aims and not deny access to users. In selecting the copy of Linnaeus we recognised that this was a high-value scientific item which was non-medical and which would not adversely affect our collection, particularly as there is another copy available to users, locally and nationally, in the University of Edinburgh library."
Systema Naturae, in which Linnaeus outlines his biological classification scheme, is expected to fetch up to £200,000.
Attempting to justify the sale of such a spectacular piece from their collection, RCP librarian Iain Donaldson said "As a charity the college does not have the funds with which to meet its desire to develop further its collection for a wider audience. We therefore took great care in considering what historic items of high value, if any, could be sold from the collection which would further our aims and not deny access to users. In selecting the copy of Linnaeus we recognised that this was a high-value scientific item which was non-medical and which would not adversely affect our collection, particularly as there is another copy available to users, locally and nationally, in the University of Edinburgh library."
Thursday, November 01, 2007
New Holy Grail for Potterheads
For all you maniacal Harry Potter collectors out there, that first edition of Philosopher's Stone might no longer be the most valuable Potter-related book: the Telegraph reports today that J.K. Rowling has penned a book of fairy tales to accompany the series, but that just seven copies have been made.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which features prominently in Deathly Hallows, features five tales from the days of wizard-yore. Rowling included the text of one of the tales in DH, but the other four are new. Each copy of the new book "is leather-bound and covered in crafted silver and jewels." Six of them have been given "to people who are 'most closely connected to the Harry Potter books'", but the seventh will reportedly be sold at Sotheby's in December, with proceeds going to charity. That's certainly going to be an auction to watch.
I find it difficult to imagine that these tales won't make it into wider circulation, whether through an eventual trade edition or by some other means. But these seven copies will almost certainly be among the most important and highest-value HP items.
Also on the HP front, see Scott Brown's post at FBB for an interesting look at colophon variations in the American edition of Deathly Hallows.
[Update: Here's the Sotheby's page for the 13 December auction, which includes some illustrations of the Rowling artwork and the starting price for the copy to be sold: a hefty $62,000]
[Further update: The Guardian has some photographs up]
[Final update: It sold! Boy did it sell. 13 December]
The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which features prominently in Deathly Hallows, features five tales from the days of wizard-yore. Rowling included the text of one of the tales in DH, but the other four are new. Each copy of the new book "is leather-bound and covered in crafted silver and jewels." Six of them have been given "to people who are 'most closely connected to the Harry Potter books'", but the seventh will reportedly be sold at Sotheby's in December, with proceeds going to charity. That's certainly going to be an auction to watch.
I find it difficult to imagine that these tales won't make it into wider circulation, whether through an eventual trade edition or by some other means. But these seven copies will almost certainly be among the most important and highest-value HP items.
Also on the HP front, see Scott Brown's post at FBB for an interesting look at colophon variations in the American edition of Deathly Hallows.
[Update: Here's the Sotheby's page for the 13 December auction, which includes some illustrations of the Rowling artwork and the starting price for the copy to be sold: a hefty $62,000]
[Further update: The Guardian has some photographs up]
[Final update: It sold! Boy did it sell. 13 December]
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Book Review: "The Slave Ship: A Human History"
Marcus Rediker's The Slave Ship: A Human History (Viking, 2007) explores the history of the transatlantic slave trade by concentrating on both the slave ship itself (which Rediker calls "a strange and potent combination of war machine, mobile prison, and factory") and also on the humans who populated the ships and paid for their voyages: the slaves themselves, the common sailors, the captains, and the bankrolling merchants. Rediker notes that while many histories of the slave trade have been written, the scholarship has been plagued by what novelist Stephen Unsworth termed the "violence of abstraction" - a reliance on numbers and statistics which serves to dehumanize slavery and those involved with its continuation.
At the end of his introduction, Rediker writes "[T]his has been a painful book to write, and if I have done any justice to the subject, it will be a painful book to read" (p. 13). He's right, but his following sentence is also correct: "There is no way around this, nor should there be." This is indeed a profoundly disturbing book, one which I had to put down for hours and in a couple cases even days at a time before I felt comfortable opening it again.
The first chapter is comprised of a series of vignettes showing some of the various gruesome, imaginative and horrifying ways slaves found to rebel on board the ships, or to take their own lives to end their suffering. Rediker goes on to provide a deep, thoughtful analysis of the ships used to haul human cargo, as well as one of the best overviews I've read of the origins of African slavery and an ethnographic look at the regions from which most slaves were 'obtained'.
Chapters in the middle of the book highlight three particular individuals: the slave Olaudah Equiano, sailor James Field Stanfield, and captain John Newton. This is also the best scholarly treatment of Newton I've read, as Rediker is able to cut through the myths about the man and examine his career in its totality. I had no idea, for example, that Newton was such a prolific writer while serving in the slave trade: Rediker suggests that between his letters, diaries and logbooks, Newton "may have written more from the decks of a slave ship - and more about what transpired on the decks of a slave ship - than has any other captain" (p. 158).
Following the targeted examples, Rediker takes captains, sailors and then slaves in a more general light, discussing the impact of merchants' orders on the way the captains carried our their missions, examining the terroristic nature of the captain's authority aboard ship (toward both sailors and slaves), and getting deep into the question of how the enslaved came to form a collective identity on the ships which in some cases prompted revolt or resistance.
Finally, Rediker briefly discusses the abolitionist movement as it emerged during the late 1790s, ably analyzing the spread of a particularly effective piece of propaganda, the image of the slave ship Brooks. He also works to remind readers of the important work done by leading abolitionist Thomas Clarkson (lately overshadowed by William Wilberforce and others), who spoke with hundreds of slave-trade sailors about their experiences on board the ships, working - Rediker argues - as an early sort of social historian.
Powerful, moving, and extremely well-written, Rediker's book should be read by anyone with an interest in human history. The range of sources and research is staggering, and the footnotes are both thorough and illuminating. With a minor reservation about some of the views expressed in the epilogue, I recommend this book very highly indeed.
At the end of his introduction, Rediker writes "[T]his has been a painful book to write, and if I have done any justice to the subject, it will be a painful book to read" (p. 13). He's right, but his following sentence is also correct: "There is no way around this, nor should there be." This is indeed a profoundly disturbing book, one which I had to put down for hours and in a couple cases even days at a time before I felt comfortable opening it again.
The first chapter is comprised of a series of vignettes showing some of the various gruesome, imaginative and horrifying ways slaves found to rebel on board the ships, or to take their own lives to end their suffering. Rediker goes on to provide a deep, thoughtful analysis of the ships used to haul human cargo, as well as one of the best overviews I've read of the origins of African slavery and an ethnographic look at the regions from which most slaves were 'obtained'.
Chapters in the middle of the book highlight three particular individuals: the slave Olaudah Equiano, sailor James Field Stanfield, and captain John Newton. This is also the best scholarly treatment of Newton I've read, as Rediker is able to cut through the myths about the man and examine his career in its totality. I had no idea, for example, that Newton was such a prolific writer while serving in the slave trade: Rediker suggests that between his letters, diaries and logbooks, Newton "may have written more from the decks of a slave ship - and more about what transpired on the decks of a slave ship - than has any other captain" (p. 158).
Following the targeted examples, Rediker takes captains, sailors and then slaves in a more general light, discussing the impact of merchants' orders on the way the captains carried our their missions, examining the terroristic nature of the captain's authority aboard ship (toward both sailors and slaves), and getting deep into the question of how the enslaved came to form a collective identity on the ships which in some cases prompted revolt or resistance.
Finally, Rediker briefly discusses the abolitionist movement as it emerged during the late 1790s, ably analyzing the spread of a particularly effective piece of propaganda, the image of the slave ship Brooks. He also works to remind readers of the important work done by leading abolitionist Thomas Clarkson (lately overshadowed by William Wilberforce and others), who spoke with hundreds of slave-trade sailors about their experiences on board the ships, working - Rediker argues - as an early sort of social historian.
Powerful, moving, and extremely well-written, Rediker's book should be read by anyone with an interest in human history. The range of sources and research is staggering, and the footnotes are both thorough and illuminating. With a minor reservation about some of the views expressed in the epilogue, I recommend this book very highly indeed.
Halloween Listening
- The Poe Wars go national today; Ed reports that NPR will air a segment on tonight's "All Things Considered" (should be available here by around 7 p.m.). [Update: It's here]
- Also, for the fans of Halloween traditions out there, the original Halloween creepy radio broadcast of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" (mp3).
[Update: Via Scott at Fine Books Blog, for the War of the Worlds-obsessed, here's a collection of 318 covers from different editions of the book. Nifty!]
- Also, for the fans of Halloween traditions out there, the original Halloween creepy radio broadcast of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" (mp3).
[Update: Via Scott at Fine Books Blog, for the War of the Worlds-obsessed, here's a collection of 318 covers from different editions of the book. Nifty!]
Yale Joins Microsoft Digitization Effort
One hundred thousand of Yale University's out-of-copyright books will be available by early next year through Microsoft Live Search; the titles are to be digitized by Kirtas Technologies. The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reports that the university "chose Kirtas for its innovative book-scanning technology, including its APT BookScan 2400, which can scan 2,400 pages per hour while guaranteeing an overall error rate of less than one per 10,000 pages."
Yale Librarian Alice Prochaska said of the project "This collaboration will allow the Yale Library to give international digital access to our rare and uniquely held materials. We have been extremely pleased by the work that Kirtas has done for us in the past, and we look forward to working with them again on this exciting project."
Yale Librarian Alice Prochaska said of the project "This collaboration will allow the Yale Library to give international digital access to our rare and uniquely held materials. We have been extremely pleased by the work that Kirtas has done for us in the past, and we look forward to working with them again on this exciting project."
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Need a New Word?
In today's Times, Alan Hamilton discusses Toujours Tingo, a new collection of "unlikely but useful words that other languages enjoy but English does not" compiled by Adam Jacot de Boinod. Judging from the comments to the article, it sounds like some of the included words may not be widely used even in their original tongues - but they are amusing, nonetheless.
Monday, October 29, 2007
LC and Xerox to Tackle Digital Image Format
AHA Today notes a press release from last week announcing a collaborative effort between Xerox and the Library of Congress to "develop new ways to store, preserve, and access digital images ... The two organizations are studying the potential of using the JPEG 2000 format in large repositories of digital cultural heritage materials such as those contained in the Library and other federal agencies."
As a trial run, Xerox will convert one million already-digitized images from LC's collections into JPEG 2000, a recently-developed format which supports the addition of metadata, "information on the provenance, intellectual property and technical data relating to the image itself."
Following the trial, Xerox will "turn over their findings and recommendations for best practices to the library" for use in future conversion projects.
With the growing reliance on digitization, a stable, useable and flexible format is going to have to be developed (and in fairly short order). Hopefully this project is a step in the right direction.
As a trial run, Xerox will convert one million already-digitized images from LC's collections into JPEG 2000, a recently-developed format which supports the addition of metadata, "information on the provenance, intellectual property and technical data relating to the image itself."
Following the trial, Xerox will "turn over their findings and recommendations for best practices to the library" for use in future conversion projects.
With the growing reliance on digitization, a stable, useable and flexible format is going to have to be developed (and in fairly short order). Hopefully this project is a step in the right direction.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Links & Reviews
- From BibliOdyssey, beautiful illuminations from Jan Długosz's Catalogus Archiepiscoporum Gnesnensium Vitae Episcoporum Cracoviensium (Catalogue of the Archbishops of Gniezno and Lives of the Bishops of Cracow), 1531-1535. The artist is Stanislaw Samostrzelnik.
- I've been meaning to include this one for a week or so now and keep forgetting: The Times' Ferdinand Mount comments on the Royal Academy of Art's current exhibit, "Making History: Antiquaries in Britain, 1707-2007" and the accompanying book. The show highlights the first three hundred years of the Royal Society of Antiquities; Mount calls it "full of charm," adding that "its catalogue burns with enthusiasm, more so than many a self-styled blockbuster that takes a period or style and smothers it in philistine commentary about the consumption patterns of a new leisured class."
- Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" is now available online in what can only be described as "extremely high definition," the BBC reports. The new 16-billion pixel image of the painting "will allow experts to examine details of the 15th century wall painting that they otherwise could not - including traces of drawings Leonardo put down before painting." I tested it out this morning, and although it does take some time to load, the clarity is remarkable.
- Paul Collins notes his article in the current New Scientist, "The Mutual Poisoning Society" [subscription required], about 19th-century food reformer Frederick Accum. Last weekend, Paul linked to Design Week's look at some renovations at the London Library.
- Michael Lieberman has a handy field guide to bookworms for us, courtesy of a 1951 Antiquarian Bookman chart.
- This year's Samuel Pepys Award, a biennial £2,000 prize from the Samuel Pepys Club "for a book that makes the greatest contribution to the understanding of Samuel Pepys, his times or his contemporaries" goes to John Adamson's The Noble Revolt: The Overthrow of Charles I. The Guardian reports notes that while Adamson's book doesn't even mention Pepys, award judges thought "the events described so influenced the environment in which he grew up, that the book greatly enhances our understanding of Samuel Pepys and his times."
- Jim Watts notes the sale of a 13th-century manuscript Qu'ran at Christie's last week; this copy is the earliest known complete, dated (1203) Qu'ran written in gold. It sold for $2.3 million, setting a new record for any Qu'ran - in fact any Islamic manuscript - at auction. Bidding was described as "fiercely competitive."
- John over at Hyde Collection Catablog liked this Thomas Rowlandson watercolor of a 19th-century book auction; it sold at Bloomsbury this week for $65,000, surpassing pre-sale estimates.
- Speaking of Bloomsbury, Rare Book Reviews reports that their next sale, on 31 October, will feature New Yorkiana. Highlights include a 1636 Dutch deed transferring land on Long Island to European possession, described as "one of the earliest colonial New York documents in private hands" (estimated to sell for up to $75,000).
- New blogs (to me, at least): Book Hunter's Holiday (by an online bookseller), and Now or Neverland (by author David King). Links have been added to the sidebar. (h/t to BiblioHistoria for the former)
Reviews:
- In the Boston Globe, H.W. Brands reviews Joe Ellis' newest, American Creation. Brands writes that Ellis "again strikes a balance between laudable achievement and blameworthy failure in America's founding." Calling Ellis "the reigning master of the episodic approach to history," Brands declares the author's style "discursively delightful," before noting that he could have pushed a bit further on the point that Ellis might have pursued further the point that "the Founders' very success tended to entrench their failures" (slavery, Indian policy).
- Ian Sansom writes for the The Guardian on Umberto Eco's Turning Back the Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism (just out from Harcourt in the US). Sansom begins "Come, reader, the game's afoot: another collection of nimble, teasing, brilliant and infuriating little essays and essaylets" from Eco. I didn't read further, because my copy of Turning Back the Clock is sitting in the corner of my desk, waiting impatiently for me to finish my thesis chapter so I can jump in.
- Charles Nicholl's The Lodger is reviewed by James Shapiro in The Guardian. To summarize, "Part biography, part detective story, Nicholl's latest work is a triumph and ranks among the finest books ever written about Shakespeare's life."
- Over in The Telegraph, Jane Stevenson covers a new biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Andrew Lycett's Conan Doyle: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes, and a collection of the man's letters edited by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley (Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters). Stevensons calls Lycett's book "competent if a little colourless," but criticizes the editors of the collection for light-handedness: "The brief linking passages of A Life in Letters fill in all manner of factual minutiae, but fail to weigh the value of the author's words."
- In the LATimes, Nick Basbanes reviews The Journal of Dora Damage, a recent novel told from the perspective of a female Victorian bookbinder. Basbanes notes in his review that the author of this book, Belinda Starling, died just weeks after submitting the manuscript of this - her first book - for publication. He writes "Starling did an enormous amount of research for her debut effort, and it shows. More impressive, she did not let her material get in the way of telling a richly atmospheric story that is fresh, complex and credible; it is an accomplished work that augured good things for the author." (h/t fade theory)
- Woody Holton's Unruly Americans is reviewed by Chuck Leddy in the Christian Science Monitor; Leddy concludes "The author's irreverent approach to the Framers, backed by his breathtaking amount of scholarly research on the debt crisis of the 1780s, should provoke much-needed discussion among historians about the economic background of the Constitution." Another one just waiting for me at home, and this one I have to read soon because Holton's going to be giving a lunch talk in Boston sometime in the next week or two.
- In the California Literary Review, Brett Woods examines John Ferling's Almost a Miracle. He says the prose can be a bit much at times (he uses the word "gushy"), but that the "scholarship is solid and displays a noteworthy attention to detail."
- From the Harvard Book Review, Samuel Bjork tackles Jeb Rubenfeld's The Interpretation of Murder, which I enjoyed last fall. Bjork writes that Rubenfeld's greatest gift as a writer is his "ability to provide a firm historical foundation to an otherwise fictional work," but he doesn't seem to have enjoyed the book all that much.
- I've been meaning to include this one for a week or so now and keep forgetting: The Times' Ferdinand Mount comments on the Royal Academy of Art's current exhibit, "Making History: Antiquaries in Britain, 1707-2007" and the accompanying book. The show highlights the first three hundred years of the Royal Society of Antiquities; Mount calls it "full of charm," adding that "its catalogue burns with enthusiasm, more so than many a self-styled blockbuster that takes a period or style and smothers it in philistine commentary about the consumption patterns of a new leisured class."
- Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" is now available online in what can only be described as "extremely high definition," the BBC reports. The new 16-billion pixel image of the painting "will allow experts to examine details of the 15th century wall painting that they otherwise could not - including traces of drawings Leonardo put down before painting." I tested it out this morning, and although it does take some time to load, the clarity is remarkable.
- Paul Collins notes his article in the current New Scientist, "The Mutual Poisoning Society" [subscription required], about 19th-century food reformer Frederick Accum. Last weekend, Paul linked to Design Week's look at some renovations at the London Library.
- Michael Lieberman has a handy field guide to bookworms for us, courtesy of a 1951 Antiquarian Bookman chart.
- This year's Samuel Pepys Award, a biennial £2,000 prize from the Samuel Pepys Club "for a book that makes the greatest contribution to the understanding of Samuel Pepys, his times or his contemporaries" goes to John Adamson's The Noble Revolt: The Overthrow of Charles I. The Guardian reports notes that while Adamson's book doesn't even mention Pepys, award judges thought "the events described so influenced the environment in which he grew up, that the book greatly enhances our understanding of Samuel Pepys and his times."
- Jim Watts notes the sale of a 13th-century manuscript Qu'ran at Christie's last week; this copy is the earliest known complete, dated (1203) Qu'ran written in gold. It sold for $2.3 million, setting a new record for any Qu'ran - in fact any Islamic manuscript - at auction. Bidding was described as "fiercely competitive."
- John over at Hyde Collection Catablog liked this Thomas Rowlandson watercolor of a 19th-century book auction; it sold at Bloomsbury this week for $65,000, surpassing pre-sale estimates.
- Speaking of Bloomsbury, Rare Book Reviews reports that their next sale, on 31 October, will feature New Yorkiana. Highlights include a 1636 Dutch deed transferring land on Long Island to European possession, described as "one of the earliest colonial New York documents in private hands" (estimated to sell for up to $75,000).
- New blogs (to me, at least): Book Hunter's Holiday (by an online bookseller), and Now or Neverland (by author David King). Links have been added to the sidebar. (h/t to BiblioHistoria for the former)
Reviews:
- In the Boston Globe, H.W. Brands reviews Joe Ellis' newest, American Creation. Brands writes that Ellis "again strikes a balance between laudable achievement and blameworthy failure in America's founding." Calling Ellis "the reigning master of the episodic approach to history," Brands declares the author's style "discursively delightful," before noting that he could have pushed a bit further on the point that Ellis might have pursued further the point that "the Founders' very success tended to entrench their failures" (slavery, Indian policy).
- Ian Sansom writes for the The Guardian on Umberto Eco's Turning Back the Clock: Hot Wars and Media Populism (just out from Harcourt in the US). Sansom begins "Come, reader, the game's afoot: another collection of nimble, teasing, brilliant and infuriating little essays and essaylets" from Eco. I didn't read further, because my copy of Turning Back the Clock is sitting in the corner of my desk, waiting impatiently for me to finish my thesis chapter so I can jump in.
- Charles Nicholl's The Lodger is reviewed by James Shapiro in The Guardian. To summarize, "Part biography, part detective story, Nicholl's latest work is a triumph and ranks among the finest books ever written about Shakespeare's life."
- Over in The Telegraph, Jane Stevenson covers a new biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Andrew Lycett's Conan Doyle: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes, and a collection of the man's letters edited by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley (Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters). Stevensons calls Lycett's book "competent if a little colourless," but criticizes the editors of the collection for light-handedness: "The brief linking passages of A Life in Letters fill in all manner of factual minutiae, but fail to weigh the value of the author's words."
- In the LATimes, Nick Basbanes reviews The Journal of Dora Damage, a recent novel told from the perspective of a female Victorian bookbinder. Basbanes notes in his review that the author of this book, Belinda Starling, died just weeks after submitting the manuscript of this - her first book - for publication. He writes "Starling did an enormous amount of research for her debut effort, and it shows. More impressive, she did not let her material get in the way of telling a richly atmospheric story that is fresh, complex and credible; it is an accomplished work that augured good things for the author." (h/t fade theory)
- Woody Holton's Unruly Americans is reviewed by Chuck Leddy in the Christian Science Monitor; Leddy concludes "The author's irreverent approach to the Framers, backed by his breathtaking amount of scholarly research on the debt crisis of the 1780s, should provoke much-needed discussion among historians about the economic background of the Constitution." Another one just waiting for me at home, and this one I have to read soon because Holton's going to be giving a lunch talk in Boston sometime in the next week or two.
- In the California Literary Review, Brett Woods examines John Ferling's Almost a Miracle. He says the prose can be a bit much at times (he uses the word "gushy"), but that the "scholarship is solid and displays a noteworthy attention to detail."
- From the Harvard Book Review, Samuel Bjork tackles Jeb Rubenfeld's The Interpretation of Murder, which I enjoyed last fall. Bjork writes that Rubenfeld's greatest gift as a writer is his "ability to provide a firm historical foundation to an otherwise fictional work," but he doesn't seem to have enjoyed the book all that much.
BBC Does Dracula
Ed (taking a brief breather from the Poe Wars) has some great listening suggestions for this week from BBC7, including productions of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and what I'm sure will be a spectacular seven-part version of "Dracula." Click on the Drama section here. You can listen live, or the programs will be archived for a week.
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