Lots to cover once again. Here goes:
- The Bavarian government has returned more than 500 books stolen from the Girolamini and other Italian libraries. The books were seized from the Munich auction house Zisska & Schauer in 2012.
- The recovery of some of the Doves Type, noted in December, is the subject of several more complete accounts now, including a long piece in the Creative Review by Rachael Steven and a report from Justin Quirk in The Sunday Times.
- Nick Basbanes writes for the Fine Books Blog about recent attacks against books and libraries in Iraq.
- UPenn has received a $7 million gift to create a digital humanities lab.
- Jennifer Howard has launched a new project, "Books in the Wild," to document visually how we interact with books.
- Fairly surprising place for it, but there's a piece on historical bibliography (and Bible typos) in the Washington Post's Style blog.
- The Harvard magazine reports on "Cold Storage," a new documentary about the Harvard Depository.
- The Philadelphia Inquirer has a new report on the ongoing feud between the Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia and the estate of Maurice Sendak.
- The Library of Congress has acquired the papers of composer Marvin Hamlisch.
- Materials related to the codebreaking efforts at Bletchley Park, including several unique Banbury sheets, have been found in the rafters of buildings at the site during renovations.
- From the BPL Collections of Distinction blog, a look at some excellent volvelles in Apian's Cosmographica.
- The Warburg Institute and the University of London have reached a "binding agreement" through mediation about the future management of the Institute.
- In the LA Review of Books, Matthew Kirschenbaum asks "What is an @uthor?"
- Bernard Bailyn talked to The Junto about his new book, Sometimes an Art: Nine Essays on History.
- The NYTimes ran a story on the aftermath of the big Brooklyn warehouse fire was destroyed thousands of pages of archival records.
- The Boston Globe highlights the BPL's recent digitization initiatives.
- Michael Hoinski reports for the NYTimes on Gaylord Schanilec's new work, Lac des Pleurs.
- The manuscript of Don McLean's "American Pie" is set to be sold at Christie's in April, with an estimate of up to $1.5 million. McLean claims that the manuscript will "divulge all that there is to divulge" about the meaning of the song's lyrics.
- Over at The Collation, a neat find on the endpapers of a quarto Henry VI.
- From Stefan Fatsis at Slate, what should a dictionary look like in the 21st century?
- Alison Flood reports for the Guardian on the sale of a first edition of Aristotle's Masterpiece at last weekend's California International Antiquarian Book Fair.
- Beinecke Library curator Timothy Young has posted ten reasons why the physical book still matters.
- An Elmira, NY man has been charged with the theft of a plaque from Mark Twain's grave.
- The folks at Bookfinder have released their list of the most-sought out-of-print books of 2014.
- Pradeep Sebastian profiles London book-runners Martin Stone and Driff in his "Endpaper" column.
- The BBC Magazine ran a feature on maps, drawn from the recently-published Times History of the World in Maps.
- A copy of the Magna Carta from 1300 has been found in a scrapbook in Sandwich, England. This copy is just the seventh of this version known to exist.
- Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature have announced the planned launch of Literary Hub on 8 April. Just what this new site will do is pretty opaque, but it seems worth watching. More from the WSJ.
- The Cambridge University Library has mounted an exhibition to mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Aldus Manutius. More of these are coming, including what promises to be a fantastic one at the Grolier Club in New York.
- From Eric Kwakkel, a look at "medieval books on the go."
- Scholium Group has posted earnings warnings and spun off two companies (South Kensington Books and Ultimate Library). Is it just me, or is it really weird to read press releases like this about books?
- Manuscript Road Trip visits Rhode Island this week.
- A collection of 19th-century dust jackets, most from the 1870s-1890s, is up for grabs from South Carolina book dealer Books Tell You Why. Rebecca Rego Barry highlights the collection at Fine Books Blog.
Reviews
- "Decoding the Renaissance," the current Folger exhibition; review by William Grimes in the NYTimes.
- Peter Gay's Why the Romantics Matter; review by Peter Swaab in the Telegraph.
- Andrew Levy's Huck Finn's America; review by Parul Seghal in the NYTimes.
- Martha Hodes' Mourning Lincoln and Richard Wightman Fox's Lincoln's Body; review by Jill Lepore in the NYTimes.
- Richard Marsh's The Beetle; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- Robert Middlekauff's Washington's Revolution; review by Daniel Shribman in the Boston Globe.
- Michael Rosen's Alphabetical; review by Carlos Lozada in the WaPo.
- Richard Brookhiser's Founders' Son; review by Drew Gilpin Faust in the NYTimes.
- Ruth Guildings' Owning the Past; review by Nigel Spivey in the TLS.
- Mary Pilon's The Monopolists; review by Jen Doll in TNR.
- Cornelia H. Dayton and Sharon V. Salinger's Robert Love's Warnings; review by Kristin O'Brassill-Kulfan at Reviews in History.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Wednesday, February 04, 2015
Two Young Bibliophiles Visit Monticello
Two hundred years ago today, on 4 February 1815, two young Massachusetts bibliophiles arrived at Monticello to visit Thomas Jefferson. George Ticknor and Francis Calley Gray spent the better part of three days with Jefferson, and much of that time was spent viewing Jefferson's books, which would shortly make their way to Washington to reconstitute the Library of Congress. Both Ticknor and Gray wrote about the experience (Ticknor in a letter to his father, Gray in his journal), and Ticknor would go on to engage in a lengthy correspondence with Jefferson through the rest of the former president's life. I'm working on editing a small collection of their letters for the Ticknor Society (the Boston bibliophilic society named for Ticknor and his daughter Anna), and since I've already made preliminary transcriptions of the two accounts of the visit to Monticello, I thought I'd post them here to mark the bicentennial of their visit.
I should note, too, that John Adams's letter of introduction to Jefferson on Ticknor's behalf is one of my favorites: it contains the great line "As
you are all Heluones Librorum [gluttons for books] I think you ought to have a sympathy
for each other."
George
Ticknor to Elisha Ticknor, 7 February 1815
Charlottesville,
February 7, 1815.
We
left Charlottesville on Saturday morning, the 4th of February, for
Mr. Jefferson's. He lives, you know, on a mountain, which he has
named Monticello, and which, perhaps, you do not know, is a synonym
for Carter's mountain. The ascent of this steep, savage hill, was as
pensive and slow as Satan's ascent to Paradise. We were obliged to
wind two-thirds round its sides before we reached the artificial lawn
on which the house stands; and, when we had arrived there, we were
about six hundred feet, I understand, above the stream which flows at
its foot. It is an abrupt mountain. The fine growth of ancient
forest-trees conceals its sides and shades part of its summit. The
prospect is admirable. ... The lawn on the top, as I hinted, was
artificially formed by cutting down the peak of the height. In its
centre, and facing the south-east, Mr. Jefferson has placed his
house, which is of brick, two stories high in the wings, with a
piazza in front of a receding centre. It is built, I suppose, in the
French style. You enter, by a glass folding-door, into a hall, which
reminds you of Fielding's "Man of the Mountain," by the
strange furniture of its walls. On one side hang the hand and horns
of an elk, a deer, and a buffalo; another is covered with curiosities
which Lewis and Clarke found in their wild and perilous expedition.
On the third, among many other striking matters, was the head of a
mammoth, or, as Cuvier calls it, a mastodon, containing the only os
frontis,
Mr. Jefferson tells me, that has yet been found. On the fourth side,
in odd union with a fine painting of the Repentance of St. Peter, is
an Indian map on leather, of the southern waters of the Missouri, and
an Indian representation of a bloody battle, handed down in their
traditions.
Through this hall—or rather museum—we
passed to the dining-room, and sent our letters to Mr. Jefferson, who
was of course in his study. Here again we found ourselves surrounded
with paintings that seemed good.
We had hardly time to glance at the
pictures before Mr. Jefferson entered; and if I was astonished to
find Mr. Madison short and somewhat awkward, I was doubly astonished
to find Mr. Jefferson, whom I had always supposed to be a short man,
more than six feet high, with dignity in his appearance, and ease and
graciousness in his manners. ... He rang, and sent to Charlottesville
for our baggage, and, as dinner approached, took us to the
drawing-room,—a large and rather elegant room, twenty or thirty
feet high,—which, with the hall I have described, composed the
whole centre of the house, from top to bottom. The floor of this room
is tessellated. It is formed of alternate diamonds of cherry and
beech, and kept polished as highly as if it were of fine mahogany.
Here are the best pictures of the
collection. Over the fireplace is the Laughing and Weeping
Philosophers, diving the world between them; on its right, the
earliest navigators to America,—Columbus, Americus Vespuccius,
Magellan, etc.,—copied, Mr. Jefferson said, from originals in the
Florence Gallery. Farther round, Mr. Madison in the plain,
Quaker-like dress of his youth, Lafayette in his Revolutionary
uniform, and Franklin in the dress in which we always see him. There
were other pictures, and a copy of Raphael's Transfiguration.
We conversed on various subjects until
dinner-time, and at dinner were introduced to the grown members of
his family. These are his only remaining child, Mrs. Randolph, her
husband, Colonel Randolph, and the two oldest of their unmarried
children, Thomas Jefferson and Ellen; and I assure you I have seldom
met a pleasanter party.
The evening passed away pleasantly in
general conversation, of which Mr. Jefferson was necessarily the
leader. I shall probably surprise you by saying that, in
conversation, he reminded me of Dr. Freeman. He has the same
discursive manner and love of paradox, with the same appearance of
sobriety and cool reason. He seems equally fond of American
antiquities, and especially the antiquities of his native State, and
talks of them with freedom and, I suppose, accuracy. He has, too, the
appearance of that fairness and simplicity which Dr. Freeman has;
and, if the parallel holds no further here, they will again meet on
the ground of their love of old books and young society.
On Sunday morning, after breakfast, Mr.
Jefferson asked me into his library, and there I spent the forenoon
of that day as I had that of yesterday. This collection of books, now
so much talked about, consists of about seven thousand volumes,
contained in a suite of fine rooms, and is arranged in the catalogue,
and on the shelves, according to the divisions and subdivisions of
human learning by Lord Bacon. In so short a time I could not, of
course, estimate its value, even if I had been competent to do so.
Perhaps
the most curious single specimen—or, at least, the most
characteristic of the man and expressive of his hatred of royalty—was
a collection which he had bound up in six volumes, and lettered "The
Book of Kings," consisting of the "Mémoires de la
Princesse de Bareith," two volumes; "Les Mémoires de la
Comtesse de la Motte," two volumes; the "Trial of the Duke
of York," one volume; and "The
Book,"
one volume. These documents of regal scandal seemed to be favourites
with the philosopher, who pointed them out to me with a satisfaction
somewhat inconsistent with the measured gravity he claims in relation
to such subjects generally.
On Monday morning I spent a couple of hours
with him in his study. He gave me there an account of the manner in
which he passed the portion of his time in Europe which he could
rescue from public business; told me that while he was in France he
had formed a plan of going to Italy, Sicily, and Greece, and that he
should have executed it if he had not left Europe in the full
conviction that he should immediately return there, and find a better
opportunity. He spoke of my intention to go, and, without my even
hinting any purpose to ask him for letters, told me that he was now
seventy-two years old, and that most of his friends and
correspondents in Europe had died in the course of the twenty-seven
years since he left France, but that he would gladly furnish me with
the means of becoming acquainted with some of the remainder, if I
would give him a month's notice, and regretted that their number was
so reduced.
The afternoon and evening passed as on the
two days previous; for everything is done with such regularity, that
when you know how one day is filled, I suppose you know how it is
with the others. At eight o'clock the first bell is rung in the great
hall, and at nine the second summons you to the breakfast room, where
you find everything ready. After breakfast every one goes, as
inclination leads him, to his chamber, the drawing-room, or the
library. The children retire to their school-room with their mother,
Mr. Jefferson rides to his mils on the Rivanna, and returns at about
twelve. At half-past three the great bell rings, and those who are
disposed resort to the drawing-room, and the rest go to the
dining-room at the second call of the bell, which is at four o'clock.
The dinner was always choice, and served in the French style; but no
wine was set on the table till the cloth was removed. The ladies sat
until about six, then retired, but returned with the tea-tray a
little before seven, and spent the evening with the gentlemen; which
was always pleasant, for they are obviously accustomed to join in the
conversation, however high the topic may be. At about half-past ten,
which seemed to be their usual hour of retiring, I went to my
chamber, found there a fire, candle, and a servant in waiting to
receive my orders for the morning, and in the morning was waked by
his return to build the fire.
To-day, Tuesday, we told Mr. Jefferson that
we should leave Monticello in the afternoon. He seemed much
surprised, and said as much as politeness would permit on the badness
of the roads and the prospect of bad weather, to induce us to remain
longer. It was evident, I thought, that they had calculated on our
staying a week. At dinner, Mr. Jefferson again urged us to stay, not
in an oppressive way, but with kind politeness; and when the horses
were at the door, asked if he should not send them away; but, as he
found us resolved on going, he bade us farewell in the heartiest
style of Southern hospitality, after thrice reminding me that I must
write to him for letters to his friends in Europe. I came away almost
regretting that the coach returned so soon, and thinking, with
General Hamilton, that he was a perfect gentleman in his own house.
Two little incidents which occurred while
we were at Monticello should not be passed by. The night before we
left, young Randolph came up late from Charlottesville and brought
the astounding news that the English had been defeated before New
Orleans by General Jackson. Mr. Jefferson had made up his mind that
the city would fall, and told me that the English would hold it
permanently—or for some time—by a force of Sepoys from the East
Indies. He had gone to bed, like the rest of us; but of course his
grandson went to his chamber with the paper containing the news. But
the old philosopher refused to open his door, saying he could wait
till the morning; and when we met at breakfast I found he had not yet
seen it.
One morning, when he came back from his
ride, he told Mr. Randolph, very quietly, that the dam had been
carried away the night before. From his manner, I supposed it an
affair of small consequence, but at Charlottesville, on my way to
Richmond, I found the country ringing with it. Mr. Jefferson's great
dam was gone, and it would cost $30,000 to rebuild it.
There is a breathing of national philosophy
in Mr. Jefferson,—in his dress, his house, his conversation. His
setness, for instance, in wearing very sharp-toed shoes, corduroy
small-clothes, and red plush waistcoat, which have been laughed at
till he might perhaps wisely have dismissed them.
So,
though he told me he thought Charron, "De la Sagesse," the
best treatise on moral philosophy ever written, and an obscure Review
of Montesquieu, by Dupont de Nemours, the best political work that
had been printed for fifty years,—though he talked very freely of
the natural impossibility that one generation should bind another to
pay a public debt, and of the expediency of vesting all the
legislative authority of a State in one branch, and the executive
authority in another, and leaving them to govern it by joint
discretion,—I considered such opinions simply as curious indicia
of an extraordinary character.
Francis
Calley Gray Journal, February 1815
[...] On Saturday [4 February] it rained &
at twelve o'clock we went from our tavern in a hack to Monticello,
three miles east of Charlottesville on the same road we had passed on
the day before. Our road passed between Monticello & the S.W.
mountain which is much higher & along whose side runs the narrow
path which led us between these hills to the gate on the S.E. side of
Monticello. The sides of both these hills & the valley between
them are covered with a noble forest of oaks in all stages of growth
& of decay. Their trunks straight & tall put forth no
branches till they reach a height almost equal to the summits of our
loftiest trees in New England. Those which were rooted in the valley,
in the richest soil overtopped many which sprung from spots far above
them on the side of the mountain. The forest had evidently been
abandoned to nature; some of the trees were decaying from age, some
were blasted, some uprooted by the wind & some appeared even to
have been twisted from their trunks by the violence of a hurricane.
They rendered the approach to the house even at this season of the
year extremely grand & imposing. On reaching the house we found
no bell nor knocker & entering through the hall in the parlour,
saw a gentleman (Col. Randolph), who took our letters to Mr.
Jefferson.
Mr. Jefferson soon made his appearance. He
is quite tall, 6 feet, one or two inches, face streaked &
speckled with red, light gray eyes, white hair, dressed in shoes of
very thin soft leather with pointed toes and heels ascending in a
peak behind, with very short quarters, grey worsted stockings,
corduroy small clothes, blue waistcoat & coat, of stiff thick
cloth made of the wool of his own merinoes & badly manufactured,
the buttons of his coat & small clothes of horn, & an under
waistcoat flannel bound with red velvet — His figure bony, long and
with broad shoulders, a true Virginian. He begged he might put up our
carriage, send for our baggage & keep us with him some time. We
assented & he left the room to give the necessary directions,
sending as we requested the carriage back to Charlottesville. On
looking round the room in which we sat the first thing which
attracted our attention was the state of the chairs. They had leather
bottoms stuffed with hair, but the bottoms were completely worn
through & the hair sticking out in all directions; on the
mantel-piece which was large & of marble were many books of all
kinds: Livy, Orosius, Edinburg Review, 1 vol. of Edgeworth's Moral
Tales, &c. &c. There were many miserable prints & some
fine pictures hung round the room, among them two plans for the
completion of the Capitol at Washington, one of them very elegant. A
harpsichord stood in one corner of the room. There were four double
windows from the wall to the floor of fine large glass & a recess
in one side of the apartment. This was the breakfasting room. After
half an hour's conversation with Mr. Jeff. & Col. Randolph, we
were invited into the parlour where a fire was just kindled & a
servant occupied in substituting a wooden pannel for a square of
glass, which had been broken in one of the folding doors opening on
the lawn. Mr. J. had procured the glass for his house in Bohemia,
where the price is so much the square foot whatever be the size of
the glass purchased, and these panes were so large that, unable to
replace the square in this part of the country, he had been obliged
to send to Boston to have some glass made of sufficient size to
replace that broken, & this had not yet been received.
We passed the whole forenoon, which was
rainy, in conversation with Mr. Jeff and Mr. Randolph & at 4
o'clock toddy was brought us, which neither of us took, and which was
never handed again, & we were ushered back into the breakfast
room to dinner, where we were introduced to Mrs. Randolph, Miss
Randolph, & Mr. T. J. Randolph. The rest of the family were Mrs.
Marks, a sister of Mr. Jefferson & 2 other daughters of Col.
Randolph. The drinking cups were of silver marked G. W. to T. J.—
the table liquors were beer & cider & after dinner wine. In
the same room we took tea & at ten in the evening retired. Fires
were lighted in our bedrooms and again in the morning before we rose
— the beds were all in recesses.
At
15 minutes after 8, we heard the first breakfast bell & at 9, the
second, whose sound assembled us in the breakfast room. We sat an
hour after breakfast chatting with the ladies & then adjourned to
the parlour. Mr. Jefferson gave us the catalogue of his books to
examine & soon after conducted us to his library, & passed an
hour there in pointing out to us its principal treasures. His
collection of ancient classics was complete as to the authors, but
very careless in the editions. They were generally interleaved with
the best English Translations. The Ancient English authors are also
all here & some very rare editions of them: a black letter
Chaucer and the first of Milton's Paradise Lost, divided into ten
books, were the most remarkable. A considerable number of books
valuable to the Biblical critic were here, & various ancient
editions of all the genuine & apocryphal books, Erasmus' edition,
&c. Many of the most valuable works on the civil and maritime law
& on diplomacy, together with a complete collection of the laws
of the different states, those of Virginia in manuscript, & all
the old elementary writers & reporters of England formed the
legal library. The ancient and most distinguished modern historians
render this department nearly complete, & the histories &
descriptions of the Kingdoms of Asia were remarkably numerous. Rapin
was here in French, though very rare in that language. Mr. Jeff. said
that after all it was still the best history of England, for Hume's
tory principles are to him insupportable. The best mode of
counteracting their effect is, he thinks, to publish an edition of
Hume expunging all those reflections & reasonings whose influence
is so injurious. This has been attempted by Baxter, but he has
injured the work by making other material abridgments. D'Avila was
there in Italian, in Mr. J's opinion, one of the most entertaining
books he ever read. I was surprised to find here two little volumes
on Chronology by Count Potocki of St. Petersburg. Mr. J. has also a
fine collection of Saxon & mœso
Gothic books, among them Alfred's translations of Orosius and
Boethius—& shewed us some attempts he had made at facilitating
the study of this language. He thought the singularity of the letters
one of the greatest difficulties & proposed publishing the Saxon
books in four columns, the first to contain the Saxon, the second the
same in Roman characters, the third a strictly verbal translation &
the fourth a free one. Mr. J. said the French Dicty
of Trévoux was better than that of the Academy, thought Charron's
"de la Sagesse" an excellent work & brought us a
commentary & review on Montesquieu published by Duane the
translator from the French M.S. which he called the best book on
politics which had been published for a century & agreed with its
author in his opinion of Montesquieu.
Of all branches of learning however that
relating to the History of North & South America is the most
perfectly displayed in this library. The collection on this subject
is without a question the most valuable in the world. Here are the
works of all the Spanish travellers in America & the great work
of De Brie in which he has collected latin translations of the
smaller works published by the earliest visitors of America whose
original publications are now lost. It is finely printed &
adorned with many plates. Here also is a copy of the letters of
Fernando Cortes in Spanish, one of a small edition, & the copy
retained by the Editor the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo for himself,
but given by him to the American Consul for Mr. Jefferson. This work
contains the official letters of Cortes to his court, his maps of the
country & plates representing the dress, armour & other
contents of the treasury of the Mexican Sovereigns. We saw here also
some beautiful modern M.S.S., one of [a] work which had been
suppressed in France, most of the Greek Romances. — Mr. Jeff took
us from his library into his bed chamber where, on a table before the
fire, stood a polygraph with which he said he always wrote.
Mr. Jefferson took his accustomed ride
before dinner & on his return told us that the ice was crowded &
thick on the banks of the Rivanna & had carried away 30 feet of
his mill-dam; this was all he said on the subject, & from his
manner I supposed his loss was probably about one or two hundred
dollars, but on our ride back to Richmond we heard it everywhere
spoken of as a serious loss & the countrymen, some of them, even
estimated it at $30,000. This to be sure must [have been] a most
wonderful miscalculation, but no doubt the loss was serious.
Ticknor's letter is published in The Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor. Boston: J.R. Osgood, 1876. I:34-37. Gray's journal is published in Francis Calley Gray, Thomas Jefferson in 1814: Being an account of a visit to Monticello, Virginia (ed. Henry S. Rowe and T. Jefferson Coolidge, Jr.). Boston: The Club of Odd Volumes, 1924, pp. 65-74. Also published in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series 8:232-236. The manuscript of Gray's journal is at Duke University.
Ticknor's letter is published in The Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor. Boston: J.R. Osgood, 1876. I:34-37. Gray's journal is published in Francis Calley Gray, Thomas Jefferson in 1814: Being an account of a visit to Monticello, Virginia (ed. Henry S. Rowe and T. Jefferson Coolidge, Jr.). Boston: The Club of Odd Volumes, 1924, pp. 65-74. Also published in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series 8:232-236. The manuscript of Gray's journal is at Duke University.
Sunday, February 01, 2015
Links & Reviews
Lots to get to, so I'll dig right in:
- The Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences (Inion), one of Russia's largest university libraries, was destroyed by fire on Friday. More than a million historic documents, some 15% of the collection, are believed lost. More here.
- More than 250 firefighters fought a seven-alarm blaze at a Brooklyn warehouse housing state and city government records on Saturday. The building has been called a "total loss." Among the agencies with records stored in the building were New York state courts and New York City Administration for Children's Services, the Health and Hospitals Corporation, and the Greater New York Hospital Association.
- Electrician José Manuel Fernández Castineiras has gone on trial for the 2011 theft of the Codex Calixtinus from the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The Codex, plus other items and cash stolen from the cathedral, were recovered a year later in Castineiras' garage. Castineiras faces up to 15 years in jail and a large fine; his lawyers argue that a confession and video showing him stuffing cash into his pockets should be suppressed. The electrician said Tuesday that he doesn't remember confessing to the theft.
- A coffin bearing the initials "M.C." has been found during a search for the remains of Miguel de Cervantes. The decaying casket was discovered in a crypt at the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians, where Cervantes is known to have been buried. The AP reports that identifying the bones as those of Cervantes may be possible, given battle wounds he is known to have suffered.
- The University of Pennsylvania has acquired more than fifty occult and alchemical manuscripts from the collection of Ralph George Algernon Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland (1728–1809).
- Scholars are making (very slow) progress on reading carbonized Herculaneum papyrus scrolls using non-destructive techniques.
- The AP ports that ISIL militants sacked libraries in the Iraqi city of Mosul last month, seizing more than 2,000 "infidel" books at the city's Central Library and burning hundreds at the University of Mosul. Archives at the Latin Church and Monastery of the Dominican Fathers, the Mosul Museum, and other institutions were also reportedly ransacked.
- The University of Edinburgh's Centre for the History of the Book blog has begun a series highlighting useful books and online resources for book history students.
- The NEH and the Mellon Foundation are partnering to create open-access electronic editions of out-of-print humanities books.
- In the Jan/Feb issue of LCM, the magazine of the Library of Congress, LC archivist Cheryl Fox and Paper Conservation Section Head Holly Krueger note the long tradition of LC assisting other institutions in preserving their collections after disasters. [Warning: contains a very sad image of the New York State Library's Audubon elephant folio after the 1911 fire]
- Cornell University's hip-hop collection is going digital, Molly Karr reports for the Cornell Sun.
- In the 26 January New Yorker, Jill Lepore asks "Can the Internet be archived?"
- The Brontë Society at Haworth has acquired the mahogany writing table used by the siblings for £580,000, with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
- The Grolier Club's current exhibition on important children's literature was featured on "CBS Sunday Morning" today. Video.
- Americana Exchange has been renamed Rare Book Hub, and its monthly newsletter will now be called Rare Book Monthly.
- The woman who found the Cassady-Kerouac letter has now sued both estates and the Profiles in History auction house, seeking to quiet title to the document. Jean Spinosa maintains that her father rescued the letter, along with other materials from Golden Goose Press, when the press' proprietor closed up shop.
- The Isaiah Thomas Broadside Ballads Project has launched, featuring some 300 digitized ballads, a number of contextual essays, and more.
- BPL president Amy Ryan has been appointed the new chair of the DPLA Board of Directors.
- Sarah Hovde provides a very useful introduction to RDA at The Collation.
- New from the Pine Tree Foundation of New York, Manuscript Cookbooks Survey, a database of pre-1865 manuscript cookbooks in English. They're just getting started, but this promises to be a fascinating resource.
- The Voynich Manuscript has its day over at Manuscript Road Trip (speaking of which, the Voynich itself is currently on a road trip: it's on display at the Folger Shakespeare Library until the end of the month).
- Glenn Lafantasie writes for Salon about certain restrictions placed on papers of Robert E. Lee and his family members by their descendants.
- Catalogers in the Library of Congress Law Library recently identified a volume from Thomas Jefferson's library, long thought lost.
- New at UVA's Special Collections library, "William Blake, Visionary / Envisioning William Blake," an exhibition curated by David Whitesell.
- The new Peter Harrington Catalogue 107 includes preview videos for many of the items. [h/t John Overholt]
- Scientists are working on recovering papyrus fragments from low-quality mummy masks, Owen Jarus reports for LiveScience. Bits found so far include what may be the oldest known fragment from the Gospel of Mark, among other things. But the technique being used means that the mummy masks are destroyed in the process (and is thus somewhat controversial). The first volume of texts obtained will be published this year.
- Barbara Basbanes Richter highlights the Codex Gigas for the Fine Books Blog.
- The Grolier Club has digitized its Transactions and Gazette.
- The Bookplate Society is holding a web auction of several thousand bookplates and other items, many from the Stephanie and Brian Schofield collection of ladies' bookplates.
- Over at The Junto, Sara Georgini interviews Jeff McClurken about reviewing digital history for the JAH. Sara also interviews Richard S. Dunn about his book A Tale of Two Plantations.
- Johnson Publishing, the publisher of Ebony, is looking to sell its archive of more than five million photographs.
- Robert Pirie, well-known collector of 16th- and 17th-century English literature, died on 15 January. The NYTimes ran an obituary on 28 January.
- Sotheby's announced last week that as of 1 February buyers will pay more in premiums: now 25% on the first $200,000 of a hammer price.
- The Guardian reports on a new theory about the identify of the dedicatee of Shakespeare's Sonnets, WH: Geoffrey Caveney suggests that perhaps he can be identified as William Holme, a recently-deceased associate of the publisher.
- The Institute for English Studies has received a reprieve.
- Megan Gannon reports for LiveScience on the Sappho fragments hailed last year: Oxford papyrologist Dirk Obbink has revealed more about the provenance of the fragments in a recent paper.
- Laura Putre writes for Slate about the shortage of Pioneer Girl, a new annotated edition of Laura Ingalls Wilder's autobiography. The South Dakota State Historical Society Press initially printed 15,000 copies, but that and a second printing were exhausted almost immediately. A third print run is expected in March. Copies are selling for $50 and up on Amazon at the moment.
- From the "Oh for Pete's Sake" Department: the city of Shreveport, LA has shut down a Little Free Library, with zoning authorities saying that it is considered a commercial enterprise.
Book Reviews
- Jenny Uglow's In These Times; review by Leo Damrosch in the NYTimes.
- Benjamin Olshin's The Marco Polo Maps; review by Richard Walker in the Spectator (in which Walks asks how the University of Chicago Press could publish such a work).
- Eric Foner's Gateway to Freedom; reviews by Kevin Baker in the NYTimes and Elizabeth R. Varon in the WaPo.
- New editions of Lovecraft by Leslie Klinger and S.T. Joshi; review by Michael Dirda in the TLS.
- Molly Guptill Manning's When Books Went to War; review by Maureen Corrigan in the WaPo.
- The Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences (Inion), one of Russia's largest university libraries, was destroyed by fire on Friday. More than a million historic documents, some 15% of the collection, are believed lost. More here.
- More than 250 firefighters fought a seven-alarm blaze at a Brooklyn warehouse housing state and city government records on Saturday. The building has been called a "total loss." Among the agencies with records stored in the building were New York state courts and New York City Administration for Children's Services, the Health and Hospitals Corporation, and the Greater New York Hospital Association.
- Electrician José Manuel Fernández Castineiras has gone on trial for the 2011 theft of the Codex Calixtinus from the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The Codex, plus other items and cash stolen from the cathedral, were recovered a year later in Castineiras' garage. Castineiras faces up to 15 years in jail and a large fine; his lawyers argue that a confession and video showing him stuffing cash into his pockets should be suppressed. The electrician said Tuesday that he doesn't remember confessing to the theft.
- A coffin bearing the initials "M.C." has been found during a search for the remains of Miguel de Cervantes. The decaying casket was discovered in a crypt at the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians, where Cervantes is known to have been buried. The AP reports that identifying the bones as those of Cervantes may be possible, given battle wounds he is known to have suffered.
- The University of Pennsylvania has acquired more than fifty occult and alchemical manuscripts from the collection of Ralph George Algernon Percy, 12th Duke of Northumberland (1728–1809).
- Scholars are making (very slow) progress on reading carbonized Herculaneum papyrus scrolls using non-destructive techniques.
- The AP ports that ISIL militants sacked libraries in the Iraqi city of Mosul last month, seizing more than 2,000 "infidel" books at the city's Central Library and burning hundreds at the University of Mosul. Archives at the Latin Church and Monastery of the Dominican Fathers, the Mosul Museum, and other institutions were also reportedly ransacked.
- The University of Edinburgh's Centre for the History of the Book blog has begun a series highlighting useful books and online resources for book history students.
- The NEH and the Mellon Foundation are partnering to create open-access electronic editions of out-of-print humanities books.
- In the Jan/Feb issue of LCM, the magazine of the Library of Congress, LC archivist Cheryl Fox and Paper Conservation Section Head Holly Krueger note the long tradition of LC assisting other institutions in preserving their collections after disasters. [Warning: contains a very sad image of the New York State Library's Audubon elephant folio after the 1911 fire]
- Cornell University's hip-hop collection is going digital, Molly Karr reports for the Cornell Sun.
- In the 26 January New Yorker, Jill Lepore asks "Can the Internet be archived?"
- The Brontë Society at Haworth has acquired the mahogany writing table used by the siblings for £580,000, with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
- The Grolier Club's current exhibition on important children's literature was featured on "CBS Sunday Morning" today. Video.
- Americana Exchange has been renamed Rare Book Hub, and its monthly newsletter will now be called Rare Book Monthly.
- The woman who found the Cassady-Kerouac letter has now sued both estates and the Profiles in History auction house, seeking to quiet title to the document. Jean Spinosa maintains that her father rescued the letter, along with other materials from Golden Goose Press, when the press' proprietor closed up shop.
- The Isaiah Thomas Broadside Ballads Project has launched, featuring some 300 digitized ballads, a number of contextual essays, and more.
- BPL president Amy Ryan has been appointed the new chair of the DPLA Board of Directors.
- Sarah Hovde provides a very useful introduction to RDA at The Collation.
- New from the Pine Tree Foundation of New York, Manuscript Cookbooks Survey, a database of pre-1865 manuscript cookbooks in English. They're just getting started, but this promises to be a fascinating resource.
- The Voynich Manuscript has its day over at Manuscript Road Trip (speaking of which, the Voynich itself is currently on a road trip: it's on display at the Folger Shakespeare Library until the end of the month).
- Glenn Lafantasie writes for Salon about certain restrictions placed on papers of Robert E. Lee and his family members by their descendants.
- Catalogers in the Library of Congress Law Library recently identified a volume from Thomas Jefferson's library, long thought lost.
- New at UVA's Special Collections library, "William Blake, Visionary / Envisioning William Blake," an exhibition curated by David Whitesell.
- The new Peter Harrington Catalogue 107 includes preview videos for many of the items. [h/t John Overholt]
- Scientists are working on recovering papyrus fragments from low-quality mummy masks, Owen Jarus reports for LiveScience. Bits found so far include what may be the oldest known fragment from the Gospel of Mark, among other things. But the technique being used means that the mummy masks are destroyed in the process (and is thus somewhat controversial). The first volume of texts obtained will be published this year.
- Barbara Basbanes Richter highlights the Codex Gigas for the Fine Books Blog.
- The Grolier Club has digitized its Transactions and Gazette.
- The Bookplate Society is holding a web auction of several thousand bookplates and other items, many from the Stephanie and Brian Schofield collection of ladies' bookplates.
- Over at The Junto, Sara Georgini interviews Jeff McClurken about reviewing digital history for the JAH. Sara also interviews Richard S. Dunn about his book A Tale of Two Plantations.
- Johnson Publishing, the publisher of Ebony, is looking to sell its archive of more than five million photographs.
- Robert Pirie, well-known collector of 16th- and 17th-century English literature, died on 15 January. The NYTimes ran an obituary on 28 January.
- Sotheby's announced last week that as of 1 February buyers will pay more in premiums: now 25% on the first $200,000 of a hammer price.
- The Guardian reports on a new theory about the identify of the dedicatee of Shakespeare's Sonnets, WH: Geoffrey Caveney suggests that perhaps he can be identified as William Holme, a recently-deceased associate of the publisher.
- The Institute for English Studies has received a reprieve.
- Megan Gannon reports for LiveScience on the Sappho fragments hailed last year: Oxford papyrologist Dirk Obbink has revealed more about the provenance of the fragments in a recent paper.
- Laura Putre writes for Slate about the shortage of Pioneer Girl, a new annotated edition of Laura Ingalls Wilder's autobiography. The South Dakota State Historical Society Press initially printed 15,000 copies, but that and a second printing were exhausted almost immediately. A third print run is expected in March. Copies are selling for $50 and up on Amazon at the moment.
- From the "Oh for Pete's Sake" Department: the city of Shreveport, LA has shut down a Little Free Library, with zoning authorities saying that it is considered a commercial enterprise.
Book Reviews
- Jenny Uglow's In These Times; review by Leo Damrosch in the NYTimes.
- Benjamin Olshin's The Marco Polo Maps; review by Richard Walker in the Spectator (in which Walks asks how the University of Chicago Press could publish such a work).
- Eric Foner's Gateway to Freedom; reviews by Kevin Baker in the NYTimes and Elizabeth R. Varon in the WaPo.
- New editions of Lovecraft by Leslie Klinger and S.T. Joshi; review by Michael Dirda in the TLS.
- Molly Guptill Manning's When Books Went to War; review by Maureen Corrigan in the WaPo.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Links & Reviews
- Max Kutner reports for Smithsonian about a new "rapid-capture" digitization process being used at the National Museum of American History.
- Andrea Cawelti blogs about an 1842 music score printed on (very!) glossy paper she found while cataloging a collection of social dance scores at the Houghton Library.
- Goucher College is raising funds to mount an open-access digital surrogate of the 1816 Philadelphia edition of Jane Austen's Emma and "add contextual materials to create an interactive online experience centered on this exceptional edition." See the project website for more.
- UVA professor Karen Parshall volunteered to process an archival collection and has blogged about the experience for Notes from Under Grounds.
- Jennifer Schuessler reports for the NYTimes on the archival find that prompted Eric Foner's forthcoming book, Gateway to Freedom.
- From Heather Wolfe at The Collation, a nifty early modern color guide found in a manuscript heraldic miscellany.
- The surviving children of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are squabbling over ownership of the civil rights leader's personal Bible and Nobel Peace Prize medal. The NYTimes ran a long piece on the dispute this week, and MSNBC has a followup after the judge declined to issue a ruling this week. A trial could begin as early as 16 February.
- The Harvard Library staff news covers James Capobianco's recent Harvard Libraries staff talk about the history of Harvard call numbers. James' slides are also available.
- Paul Collins talked to Nate Pedersen for a Fine Books & Collections interview about his Duel with the Devil (and offers some hope for us Collins Library fans that perhaps more volumes might be forthcoming!)
- The anonymous Edinburgh book sculptor talked with BBC Scotland about her work.
- At the Hakluyt Society blog, Claire Jowett offers a progress report on her efforts to produce a new scholarly edition of Hakluyt's Principal Navigation.
- The annual conference of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand will be held 26-27 November 2015, and will focus on "Bibliographical Innovation and the Legacy of Aldus Manutius." They are currently inviting paper proposals for the conference.
- The Boston Globe highlights the BPL's Digital Commonwealth initiative, which assists public libraries with digitization efforts.
- Christopher Cook's note in The Library on a 1650 book order from an Oxford bookseller's wife is now available online.
Reviews
- Phyllis Lee Levin's The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams; review by Steve Donoghue in the Washington Post.
- James Morrow's Galápagos Regained; review by Ron Charles in the Washington Post.
- Eric Nelson's The Royalist Revolution; review by Michael Hattem at The Junto.
- Andrea Cawelti blogs about an 1842 music score printed on (very!) glossy paper she found while cataloging a collection of social dance scores at the Houghton Library.
- Goucher College is raising funds to mount an open-access digital surrogate of the 1816 Philadelphia edition of Jane Austen's Emma and "add contextual materials to create an interactive online experience centered on this exceptional edition." See the project website for more.
- UVA professor Karen Parshall volunteered to process an archival collection and has blogged about the experience for Notes from Under Grounds.
- Jennifer Schuessler reports for the NYTimes on the archival find that prompted Eric Foner's forthcoming book, Gateway to Freedom.
- From Heather Wolfe at The Collation, a nifty early modern color guide found in a manuscript heraldic miscellany.
- The surviving children of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are squabbling over ownership of the civil rights leader's personal Bible and Nobel Peace Prize medal. The NYTimes ran a long piece on the dispute this week, and MSNBC has a followup after the judge declined to issue a ruling this week. A trial could begin as early as 16 February.
- The Harvard Library staff news covers James Capobianco's recent Harvard Libraries staff talk about the history of Harvard call numbers. James' slides are also available.
- Paul Collins talked to Nate Pedersen for a Fine Books & Collections interview about his Duel with the Devil (and offers some hope for us Collins Library fans that perhaps more volumes might be forthcoming!)
- The anonymous Edinburgh book sculptor talked with BBC Scotland about her work.
- At the Hakluyt Society blog, Claire Jowett offers a progress report on her efforts to produce a new scholarly edition of Hakluyt's Principal Navigation.
- The annual conference of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand will be held 26-27 November 2015, and will focus on "Bibliographical Innovation and the Legacy of Aldus Manutius." They are currently inviting paper proposals for the conference.
- The Boston Globe highlights the BPL's Digital Commonwealth initiative, which assists public libraries with digitization efforts.
- Christopher Cook's note in The Library on a 1650 book order from an Oxford bookseller's wife is now available online.
Reviews
- Phyllis Lee Levin's The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams; review by Steve Donoghue in the Washington Post.
- James Morrow's Galápagos Regained; review by Ron Charles in the Washington Post.
- Eric Nelson's The Royalist Revolution; review by Michael Hattem at The Junto.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Links & Reviews
- Bibliography Week is coming up in New York! There's a schedule of events here, and Bob McCamant has announced the speakers for the APHA meeting.
- The DPLA has published its strategic plan for the next three years.
- FB&C revisits Laura Massey, now of Alembic Books, for their Bright Young Booksellers series.
- There's a pretty excellent new acquisition at UVA's special collections library: an unrecorded copy of the 1701 edition of Michael Wigglesworth's Day of Doom, bound with the 1689 edition of Meat out of the eater. David Whitesell writes about the bibliographical significance of this copy, and about the conservation treatments required to make it ready for use by researchers.
- The Authors Guild has dropped its suit against HathiTrust.
- Literary forger Lee Israel died on 24 December at the age of 75. The NYTimes ran an obituary.
- Richard Adams spoke with Alison Flood of the Guardian about his writing career.
- The MHS has announced a book prize to honor Rev. Peter Gomes.
- UNC Press has received a $988,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to support a platform for the production of digital monographs by university presses.
- Anne Kingston writes for Maclean's about the continued drama at Libraries and Archives Canada. She highlights a new report by the Royal Society of Canada, "The Future Now: Canada's Libraries, Archives, and Public Memory."
- Jeffrey J. Williams writes for the Chronicle about "The New Modesty in Literary Criticism."
- Don't miss Robert Darnton's NYRB post from this week, "Laughter and Terror."
- There's a piece in the Sunday Times about the recovery of some of the Doves Press type (unfortunately the article is behind a paywall). The search team has also posted a short video shot during the search.
Reviews
- Marilyn Johnson's Lives in Ruins; review by John Glassie in the NYTimes.
- Sven Beckert's Empire of Cotton; review by Daniel Walker Howe in the WaPo.
- John Oller's American Queen; review by Amanda Vaill in the NYTimes.
- Anita Anand's Sophia; review by Carolyn Kellogg in the LATimes.
- Robert Tombs' The English and Their History; review by Linda Colley in the TLS.
- The DPLA has published its strategic plan for the next three years.
- FB&C revisits Laura Massey, now of Alembic Books, for their Bright Young Booksellers series.
- There's a pretty excellent new acquisition at UVA's special collections library: an unrecorded copy of the 1701 edition of Michael Wigglesworth's Day of Doom, bound with the 1689 edition of Meat out of the eater. David Whitesell writes about the bibliographical significance of this copy, and about the conservation treatments required to make it ready for use by researchers.
- The Authors Guild has dropped its suit against HathiTrust.
- Literary forger Lee Israel died on 24 December at the age of 75. The NYTimes ran an obituary.
- Richard Adams spoke with Alison Flood of the Guardian about his writing career.
- The MHS has announced a book prize to honor Rev. Peter Gomes.
- UNC Press has received a $988,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to support a platform for the production of digital monographs by university presses.
- Anne Kingston writes for Maclean's about the continued drama at Libraries and Archives Canada. She highlights a new report by the Royal Society of Canada, "The Future Now: Canada's Libraries, Archives, and Public Memory."
- Jeffrey J. Williams writes for the Chronicle about "The New Modesty in Literary Criticism."
- Don't miss Robert Darnton's NYRB post from this week, "Laughter and Terror."
- There's a piece in the Sunday Times about the recovery of some of the Doves Press type (unfortunately the article is behind a paywall). The search team has also posted a short video shot during the search.
Reviews
- Marilyn Johnson's Lives in Ruins; review by John Glassie in the NYTimes.
- Sven Beckert's Empire of Cotton; review by Daniel Walker Howe in the WaPo.
- John Oller's American Queen; review by Amanda Vaill in the NYTimes.
- Anita Anand's Sophia; review by Carolyn Kellogg in the LATimes.
- Robert Tombs' The English and Their History; review by Linda Colley in the TLS.
Sunday, January 04, 2015
Links & Reviews
- Americana Exchange has posted their list of the top 500 auction prices paid for books and manuscripts in 2014.
- More details are emerging from the Rosenbach's lawsuit over Maurice Sendak's estate; the value and categorization of some of Sendak's rare books (all supposed to go to the Rosenbach based on his will) is being hotly contested.
- A new book alleges that the Israeli National Library engaged in some decidedly unsavory acquisition practices, according to a report in Haaretz.
- From Sarah Werner, "being a reader, again and still," a lovely personal essay on reading.
- The LATimes reports on contemporary challenges facing bookbinding businesses.
- The first 25,000 texts transcribed as part of the EEBO-TCP Partnership Phase I were released into the public domain in 1 January.
- Danny Heitman writes about E.B. White for the Jan/Feb issue of Humanities.
- John Windle writes for the ABAA blog about a pretty remarkable biblio-find (what he calls a "bibliophilic miracle").
- Over at the AAS blog, a new list of recent publications by AAS members and fellows.
- Also from AAS, Vince Golden writes on the challenges facing would-be printers of Chinese-language newspapers.
Reviews
- Phyllis Lee Levin's The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams; review by Julia M. Klein in the Boston Globe.
- Sven Beckert's Empire of Cotton; review by Thomas Bender in the NYTimes.
- John Merriman's Massacre; review by Mary McAuliffe in the WaPo.
- Heather Cox Richardson's To Make Men Free; review by Jonathan Rauch in the NYTimes.
- Richard S. Dunn's A Tale of Two Plantations; review by Greg Gandon in the NYTimes.
- More details are emerging from the Rosenbach's lawsuit over Maurice Sendak's estate; the value and categorization of some of Sendak's rare books (all supposed to go to the Rosenbach based on his will) is being hotly contested.
- A new book alleges that the Israeli National Library engaged in some decidedly unsavory acquisition practices, according to a report in Haaretz.
- From Sarah Werner, "being a reader, again and still," a lovely personal essay on reading.
- The LATimes reports on contemporary challenges facing bookbinding businesses.
- The first 25,000 texts transcribed as part of the EEBO-TCP Partnership Phase I were released into the public domain in 1 January.
- Danny Heitman writes about E.B. White for the Jan/Feb issue of Humanities.
- John Windle writes for the ABAA blog about a pretty remarkable biblio-find (what he calls a "bibliophilic miracle").
- Over at the AAS blog, a new list of recent publications by AAS members and fellows.
- Also from AAS, Vince Golden writes on the challenges facing would-be printers of Chinese-language newspapers.
Reviews
- Phyllis Lee Levin's The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams; review by Julia M. Klein in the Boston Globe.
- Sven Beckert's Empire of Cotton; review by Thomas Bender in the NYTimes.
- John Merriman's Massacre; review by Mary McAuliffe in the WaPo.
- Heather Cox Richardson's To Make Men Free; review by Jonathan Rauch in the NYTimes.
- Richard S. Dunn's A Tale of Two Plantations; review by Greg Gandon in the NYTimes.
Thursday, January 01, 2015
Literary Anniversaries 2015
A few (obviously selected) literary anniversaries coming up in 2015.
50 years ago (1965):
- J.K. Rowling born, 31 July.
- T.S. Eliot dies, 4 January.
- Thornton W. Burgess dies, 5 June.
- W. Somerset Maugham dies, 16 December.
- Frank Herbert's Dune published.
- John le Carré's The Looking-Glass War published.
- Sylvia Plath's Ariel published.
100 years ago (1915):
- Saul Bellow born, 10 June.
- Arthur Miller born, 17 October.
- Rupert Brooke dies, 23 April.
- Widener Library (Harvard) dedicated.
- Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis published.
- John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps published.
- Arthur Conan Doyle's The Valley of Fear published.
- T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock published.
- Alfred A. Knopf publishing house founded.
150 years ago (1865):
- W.B. Yeats born, 13 June.
- Rudyard Kipling born, 30 December.
- Isabella Beeton dies, 6 February.
- Lydia Sigourney dies, 10 June.
- Elizabeth Gaskell dies, 12 November.
- Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland published.
200 years ago (1815):
- Anthony Trollope born, 24 April.
- Ada Lovelace born, 10 December.
- North American Review begins publication.
- Jane Austen's Emma published.
250 years ago (1765):
- Edward Young dies, 5 April.
- Diderot's Encyclopédie completed.
- Johnson and Steevens' edition of Shakespeare's Works published.
- William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England published.
300 years ago (1715):
- John Hawkesworth born (approx.)
- Gilbert Burnet dies, 17 March.
- Nahum Tate dies, 30 July.
- Joseph Addison's Free-Holder published.
350 years ago (1665):
- Jacques Lelong born, 19 April.
- Kenelm Digby dies, 11 June.
- Journal des sçavans and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society begin publication.
- Robert Hooke's Micrographia published.
400 years ago (1615):
- Giambattista della Porta dies, 4 February.
- Part 2 of Cervantes' Don Quixote published.
450 years ago (1565):
- William Rastell dies, 27 August.
500 years ago (1515):
- Roger Ascham born.
- Aldus Manutius dies, 6 February.
50 years ago (1965):
- J.K. Rowling born, 31 July.
- T.S. Eliot dies, 4 January.
- Thornton W. Burgess dies, 5 June.
- W. Somerset Maugham dies, 16 December.
- Frank Herbert's Dune published.
- John le Carré's The Looking-Glass War published.
- Sylvia Plath's Ariel published.
100 years ago (1915):
- Saul Bellow born, 10 June.
- Arthur Miller born, 17 October.
- Rupert Brooke dies, 23 April.
- Widener Library (Harvard) dedicated.
- Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis published.
- John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps published.
- Arthur Conan Doyle's The Valley of Fear published.
- T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock published.
- Alfred A. Knopf publishing house founded.
150 years ago (1865):
- W.B. Yeats born, 13 June.
- Rudyard Kipling born, 30 December.
- Isabella Beeton dies, 6 February.
- Lydia Sigourney dies, 10 June.
- Elizabeth Gaskell dies, 12 November.
- Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland published.
200 years ago (1815):
- Anthony Trollope born, 24 April.
- Ada Lovelace born, 10 December.
- North American Review begins publication.
- Jane Austen's Emma published.
250 years ago (1765):
- Edward Young dies, 5 April.
- Diderot's Encyclopédie completed.
- Johnson and Steevens' edition of Shakespeare's Works published.
- William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England published.
300 years ago (1715):
- John Hawkesworth born (approx.)
- Gilbert Burnet dies, 17 March.
- Nahum Tate dies, 30 July.
- Joseph Addison's Free-Holder published.
350 years ago (1665):
- Jacques Lelong born, 19 April.
- Kenelm Digby dies, 11 June.
- Journal des sçavans and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society begin publication.
- Robert Hooke's Micrographia published.
400 years ago (1615):
- Giambattista della Porta dies, 4 February.
- Part 2 of Cervantes' Don Quixote published.
450 years ago (1565):
- William Rastell dies, 27 August.
500 years ago (1515):
- Roger Ascham born.
- Aldus Manutius dies, 6 February.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Year-End Reading Report 2014
Another year draws to a close, if you can believe it. I got rather more reading done than last year, partly due to a big push to "read and weed" books I had on the shelves and wanted to read, but knew I wouldn't keep once I'd done so. In both January and December those books made up a good portion of what I read (and will again in January, too).
As I have for the past several years, I took part in the 75 Books Challenge for 2014 group at LibraryThing (see my group thread), and enjoyed that part of the reading process as well.
In 2014 I finished 196 books, the most I've read since I've been keeping track, for an average of one every 1.86 days. Total page count for books was 67,551. Again due to "read and weed" I read more non-fiction this year than I often do: 128 non-fiction titles this year, and 68 fiction. Among those were 120 hardcovers, 57 paperbacks, and 19 ARCs. Full way more statistical geekery, see this post.
And now, my favorite five fiction and non-fiction reads for 2014 (in no particular order within the lists):
Fiction
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Non-Fiction
Religio Medici and Urne-Buriall by Sir Thomas Browne
Before the Storm and Nixonland by Rick Perlstein
The Map Thief by Michael Blanding
A Feathered River Across the Sky by Joel Greenberg
The Meaning of Human Existence by E.O. Wilson
Happy New Year to you all, and good reading!
Previous year's reports: 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.
As I have for the past several years, I took part in the 75 Books Challenge for 2014 group at LibraryThing (see my group thread), and enjoyed that part of the reading process as well.
In 2014 I finished 196 books, the most I've read since I've been keeping track, for an average of one every 1.86 days. Total page count for books was 67,551. Again due to "read and weed" I read more non-fiction this year than I often do: 128 non-fiction titles this year, and 68 fiction. Among those were 120 hardcovers, 57 paperbacks, and 19 ARCs. Full way more statistical geekery, see this post.
And now, my favorite five fiction and non-fiction reads for 2014 (in no particular order within the lists):
Fiction
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness
Ship Fever by Andrea Barrett
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Non-Fiction
Religio Medici and Urne-Buriall by Sir Thomas Browne
Before the Storm and Nixonland by Rick Perlstein
The Map Thief by Michael Blanding
A Feathered River Across the Sky by Joel Greenberg
The Meaning of Human Existence by E.O. Wilson
Happy New Year to you all, and good reading!
Previous year's reports: 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Links & Reviews
- Vincent Noce has a report for The Art Newspaper about the ongoing investigation into Gérard Lhéritier's alleged manuscripts Ponzi scheme.
- A Library Company of Philadelphia press release has more information on the identification of nature printing blocks used in Franklin's shop.
- Duke University will return a 10th-century Byzantine manuscript to Greece. The manuscript, like another returned last year by the Getty, was stolen from a Greek monastery in the 1960s.
- The BL has posted 46 newly-digitized Greek manuscripts.
- The Guardian reports that Navajo officials successfully purchased seven tribal masks at a French auction, which the U.S. government and tribal leaders had tried to stop going forward. Hopi leaders declined to bid, saying they viewed the sale as "sacrilege."
- Speaking of the BL, as of 5 January you will be able to photograph materials in certain reading rooms; this service will be extended in March to include the Manuscripts and Rare Books reading rooms.
- Several recently-funded provenance and marginalia projects are highlighted in the NYTimes (second section of article).
- The University of Illinois has received a $498,942 grant to catalog the Cavagna Collection of rare Italian books.
- John Overholt noted a neat column in the October 1876 Atlantic Monthly, "A Librarian's Work."
- Heather Wolfe writes about "Hard hands and strange words" (or, the trials and tribulations of paleographers) at The Collation.
- The schedule for the AAS's Digital Antiquarian conference (29-30 May 2015) is now available.
- Jonathan Kearns will open his own rare books and curiosities shop in the new year.
- Videos from the Case Western colloquium on the future of special collections are now available online.
- FB&C profiles Eric Johnson for their Bright Young Librarians series.
- There's an interview with Phillips Library director Sid Berger about his new book for ALA Editions, Rare Books and Special Collections.
- Yale researchers have identified Samson Occom as the author of a 1776 manuscript account of a young Mohegan woman's deathbed words (there's much more to this story: read the whole report).
- The MHS has completed digitization of six Civil War photograph collections.
- Manuscript Road Trip visits New Jersey, covering manuscripts at Princeton and Rutgers.
- Simon Beattie highlights the Russian edition of Dickens' No Thoroughfare, published in London for Christmas 1867 and passed by the imperial censor in Russia on 3 January 1868. Simon notes that this speed of transmission seems extraordinarily fast.
- The NYTimes has a piece on the renovation of the nave at Yale's Sterling Library.
- Ellen Terrell has a very neat post on the LC's Inside Adams blog about researching the Scrooge & Marley firm.
- A Havard Medical School study suggests that e-reading in bed may be bad for your health.
- Researchers have found that J.R.R. Tolkien, sent home from the WWI front with trench fever, barely escaped a massive German bombardment of his unit's position.
Reviews
- Jill Lepore's The Secret History of Wonder Woman; review by Helen Brown in The Telegraph.
- Adam Nicolson's Why Homer Matters; review by Bryan Doerries in the NYTimes.
- E.O. Wilson's The Meaning of Human Existence; review by Richard Di Dio in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
- Nick Bunker's An Empire on the Edge; review by J.L. Bell at Boston 1775.
- Kathryn Harrison's Joan of Arc; review by Sarah Dunant in the NYTimes.
- Janice Hadlow's A Royal Experiment; review by Andrea Wulf in the NYTimes.
- Molly Guptil Manning's When Books Went to War; reviews by Janet Maslin in the NYTimes and Emily Cataneo in the CSM.
- Jeffrey Richards' The Golden Age of Pantomine and Linda Simon's The Greatest Shows on Earth; review by Jacqueline Banerjee in the TLS.
- Bradford Morrow's The Forgers; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- A Library Company of Philadelphia press release has more information on the identification of nature printing blocks used in Franklin's shop.
- Duke University will return a 10th-century Byzantine manuscript to Greece. The manuscript, like another returned last year by the Getty, was stolen from a Greek monastery in the 1960s.
- The BL has posted 46 newly-digitized Greek manuscripts.
- The Guardian reports that Navajo officials successfully purchased seven tribal masks at a French auction, which the U.S. government and tribal leaders had tried to stop going forward. Hopi leaders declined to bid, saying they viewed the sale as "sacrilege."
- Speaking of the BL, as of 5 January you will be able to photograph materials in certain reading rooms; this service will be extended in March to include the Manuscripts and Rare Books reading rooms.
- Several recently-funded provenance and marginalia projects are highlighted in the NYTimes (second section of article).
- The University of Illinois has received a $498,942 grant to catalog the Cavagna Collection of rare Italian books.
- John Overholt noted a neat column in the October 1876 Atlantic Monthly, "A Librarian's Work."
- Heather Wolfe writes about "Hard hands and strange words" (or, the trials and tribulations of paleographers) at The Collation.
- The schedule for the AAS's Digital Antiquarian conference (29-30 May 2015) is now available.
- Jonathan Kearns will open his own rare books and curiosities shop in the new year.
- Videos from the Case Western colloquium on the future of special collections are now available online.
- FB&C profiles Eric Johnson for their Bright Young Librarians series.
- There's an interview with Phillips Library director Sid Berger about his new book for ALA Editions, Rare Books and Special Collections.
- Yale researchers have identified Samson Occom as the author of a 1776 manuscript account of a young Mohegan woman's deathbed words (there's much more to this story: read the whole report).
- The MHS has completed digitization of six Civil War photograph collections.
- Manuscript Road Trip visits New Jersey, covering manuscripts at Princeton and Rutgers.
- Simon Beattie highlights the Russian edition of Dickens' No Thoroughfare, published in London for Christmas 1867 and passed by the imperial censor in Russia on 3 January 1868. Simon notes that this speed of transmission seems extraordinarily fast.
- The NYTimes has a piece on the renovation of the nave at Yale's Sterling Library.
- Ellen Terrell has a very neat post on the LC's Inside Adams blog about researching the Scrooge & Marley firm.
- A Havard Medical School study suggests that e-reading in bed may be bad for your health.
- Researchers have found that J.R.R. Tolkien, sent home from the WWI front with trench fever, barely escaped a massive German bombardment of his unit's position.
Reviews
- Jill Lepore's The Secret History of Wonder Woman; review by Helen Brown in The Telegraph.
- Adam Nicolson's Why Homer Matters; review by Bryan Doerries in the NYTimes.
- E.O. Wilson's The Meaning of Human Existence; review by Richard Di Dio in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
- Nick Bunker's An Empire on the Edge; review by J.L. Bell at Boston 1775.
- Kathryn Harrison's Joan of Arc; review by Sarah Dunant in the NYTimes.
- Janice Hadlow's A Royal Experiment; review by Andrea Wulf in the NYTimes.
- Molly Guptil Manning's When Books Went to War; reviews by Janet Maslin in the NYTimes and Emily Cataneo in the CSM.
- Jeffrey Richards' The Golden Age of Pantomine and Linda Simon's The Greatest Shows on Earth; review by Jacqueline Banerjee in the TLS.
- Bradford Morrow's The Forgers; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
"I hope and trust all will be well"
I've been spending some time while at home for Christmas organizing a number of family papers, and one caught my eye that I thought I'd share. This is from William Brooks (my maternal great-great-great-grandfather) to Ann Eliza Mortimer. He's writing from the farm he had purchased a few years prior (which my uncle still operates as a dairy farm) near South New Berlin, NY, to Ann in Cincinnatus. I've included a photo of the first page of the letter, and an unedited transcription. Beneath the transcription is, as they say, "the rest of the story."
Wednesday Eve Dec. 18/.61
My Dear Ann,
I salute you forty miles away. It is with deep regret that the prospects are so unfair for me to be with you next sunday ne,r to be separated. I have not had any news from you no answer from my letter last week so as to get your advice or council. I think it will be impossible for me to come as soon as we arranged it, and I will give you some of the reasons. 1st I am afraid to start in a waggon this time of year, for fear of getting snowed up, if we should get forty or fifty miles from home, it may snow in one night so that I could not get the waggon home in all winter, without a great deal of trouble.
2nd my cows gives considerable of milk, & I dont want to stop milking as long as the weather is open.
3d I have not butchered my hogs yet & I dont want to, till the weather is colder so as to keep the meat fresh.
4th Prince is lame (your pony you know) ha ha [these circled with dotted lines]. I dont know what the matter is but I hope he will get well in a few days. I cant come out there without him (that so) 5th. It is an excellent time to work, as the old saying is, I want to make hay while the sun shines. My dear, be of good cheer. hope on hope ever. all is well that ends well. and I hope and trust all will be well. I know you will be disappointed, and provoked, & even mad, and I shan,t blame you a bit. I was in such a hurry, so impatient, and now you are ready first. I have been very uneasy and watched the clouds for the last two weeks and dont see any more signs of snow than there was last July. every o'[?] body is in a fever for sleighing. Now I will say to you. have evry thing all ready for the first sleighing. or we may come before, I will keep you posted by writing often. Jane is with me now, after an absence of nine days what do you think of that! in this land where women is so plenty and no boys. The young folks around here has all been down to the Donation tonight, they are just going past home now 10. O.clock. Mr Amsden has traded his house and shop for a farm in Pittsfield about three miles from New Berlin nice farm 133 acres keep 20 cows. Mrs Amsden is quite well she thinks of naming her baby Anna.
I have had an application tonight to board a young lady for her work and go to school this winter a girl in our neighborhood. What do you think about it, I did not say much to her nor I shan,t, till I see and hear from you. Jane & I are going to write a letter to England she has wrote hers tonight Mother is going to send her likeness in it to Aunt Martha. Mother was here to day & made a good visit drove her own horse. We had some Oysters tonight I got a keg supposed to be spoiled, but proved to be good, we feasted I can tell you. All that was lacking as Ann E Mortimer of Cincinnatus. Bless her little heart. May it never be grieved.
Please write long & often I shall be happy to hear from you evry day.
Believe me ever true and faithful
Yours With Love
Wm. Brooks
So, what happened? Well, it snowed! William and Ann were married just eight days after this letter was written, on 26 December 1861. And thankfully the oysters did prove to be good, or that might have been an early end to things.
And now, back to the organizing. Happy Holidays to you all!
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Links & Reviews
- Yale has received a $3 million grant from the Goizueta Foundation to fund a digital humanities laboratory at Sterling Memorial Library.
- Researcher Jessica Linker has identified one of the printing blocks used by Benjamin Franklin to make "leaf prints" as an anti-counterfeiting measure. The block is in the collections of the Delaware County Institute of Science, but will soon be on display at the Library Company of Philadelphia.
- Paul Dingman recaps the first Transcribathon, held at Penn and sponsored by the Folger as part of their Early Modern Manuscripts Online project. I'm looking forward to the planned one at UVA this spring.
- Winchester Cathedral has put out a public call in an attempt to find eight illuminations missing from the Winchester Bible.
- Still waiting for more information about this, but type designer Robert Green, in association with a salvage team from the Port of London Authority, has reportedly recovered a "small quantity" of the type used by the Doves Press (and later dumped over Hammersmith Bridge by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson).
- The Harry Ransom Center refused to release the purchase price for the Gabriel Garcia Marquez archive after an AP request.
- Eric Rasmussen writes about the recent identification of a new First Folio, and about several long-missing copies which he'd like to find.
- The MHS has launched a new digital collection of material related to the Boston Massacre.
- The Torquay Museum plans to sell an unpublished Jane Austen letter to her sister Cassandra.
- The sale of a Neal Cassady letter to Jack Kerouac has been canceled (well, "indefinitely suspended," anyway) after the estates of both Cassady and Kerouac claimed ownership of the letter.
- Paul Romaine summarizes what looks to have been an excellent APHA panel on Early Renaissance Paper, featuring Angela Campbell and Tim Barrett.
- The DPLA announced the winners of its first "GIF IT UP" competition.
- New research at the University of York and Trinity College Dublin is exploring parchment genetics, with implications for agricultural history as well as bibliography.
- NARA launched a new online catalog, which includes transcription functionality. They've also added a public read-write API.
- A bit more has emerged on the five books from Oscar Wilde's library identified at the KB.
- Atlas Obscura covers the launch of a new series of videos highlighting the collections of the American Museum of Natural History.
- At The Collation, Erin Blake takes a close look at mezzotints.
- A new interim issue of Common-place is out.
- Simon Beattie highlights Edmund Harold's imitations of Ossian poems, published in English and German editions at Dusseldorf in 1787.
- Lauren Collins writes for the New Yorker about the Oxford University Marginalia Facebook group.
- More on "marginalia's moment" from Laura Miller at Salon.
- Over at the ABAA blog, Simon Beattie explores deckle-fetishism.
- Just a year after its grand opening, the Library of Birmingham is set to slash hours by nearly half and see some 100 layoffs due to budget cuts.
- Gerald Cloud has been appointed Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Curator of Early Modern Books and Manuscripts at the Harry Ransom Center. Congratulations to Gerald!
- John Schulman of Caliban Books has posted a guide to buying rare books as gifts, over at the ABAA blog.
Reviews
- Patricia Jane Roylance's Eclipse of Empires; review by Lindsay DiCuirci at Common-place.
- A.N. Wilson's Victoria: A Life; review by Leah Price in the NYTimes.
- John Merriman's Massacre; review by Wendy Smith in the LATimes.
- Kristina Milnor's Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii; review by Emily Gowers in the TLS.
- Jules Witcover's The American Vice Presidency; review by Ellen Fitzpatrick in the WaPo.
- Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy's The Men Who Lost America; review by Eric Hinderaker at Common-place.
- David Nokes' Samuel Johnson: A Life; review by Jonathan Bate in the Telegraph.
- Meredith Neuman's Jeremiah's Scribes; review by Wendy Roberts at Common-place.
- Alex Christie's Gutenberg's Apprentice; review by Bruce Holsinger in the WaPo.
- Marilyn Johnson's Lives in Ruins; review by Wendy Smith in the WaPo.
- Jill Lepore's The Secret History of Wonder Woman; review by Carla Kaplan in the NYTimes.
- Thomas Foster's Sex and the Founding Fathers; review by Kelly Ryan at Common-place.
- Researcher Jessica Linker has identified one of the printing blocks used by Benjamin Franklin to make "leaf prints" as an anti-counterfeiting measure. The block is in the collections of the Delaware County Institute of Science, but will soon be on display at the Library Company of Philadelphia.
- Paul Dingman recaps the first Transcribathon, held at Penn and sponsored by the Folger as part of their Early Modern Manuscripts Online project. I'm looking forward to the planned one at UVA this spring.
- Winchester Cathedral has put out a public call in an attempt to find eight illuminations missing from the Winchester Bible.
- Still waiting for more information about this, but type designer Robert Green, in association with a salvage team from the Port of London Authority, has reportedly recovered a "small quantity" of the type used by the Doves Press (and later dumped over Hammersmith Bridge by T.J. Cobden-Sanderson).
- The Harry Ransom Center refused to release the purchase price for the Gabriel Garcia Marquez archive after an AP request.
- Eric Rasmussen writes about the recent identification of a new First Folio, and about several long-missing copies which he'd like to find.
- The MHS has launched a new digital collection of material related to the Boston Massacre.
- The Torquay Museum plans to sell an unpublished Jane Austen letter to her sister Cassandra.
- The sale of a Neal Cassady letter to Jack Kerouac has been canceled (well, "indefinitely suspended," anyway) after the estates of both Cassady and Kerouac claimed ownership of the letter.
- Paul Romaine summarizes what looks to have been an excellent APHA panel on Early Renaissance Paper, featuring Angela Campbell and Tim Barrett.
- The DPLA announced the winners of its first "GIF IT UP" competition.
- New research at the University of York and Trinity College Dublin is exploring parchment genetics, with implications for agricultural history as well as bibliography.
- NARA launched a new online catalog, which includes transcription functionality. They've also added a public read-write API.
- A bit more has emerged on the five books from Oscar Wilde's library identified at the KB.
- Atlas Obscura covers the launch of a new series of videos highlighting the collections of the American Museum of Natural History.
- At The Collation, Erin Blake takes a close look at mezzotints.
- A new interim issue of Common-place is out.
- Simon Beattie highlights Edmund Harold's imitations of Ossian poems, published in English and German editions at Dusseldorf in 1787.
- Lauren Collins writes for the New Yorker about the Oxford University Marginalia Facebook group.
- More on "marginalia's moment" from Laura Miller at Salon.
- Over at the ABAA blog, Simon Beattie explores deckle-fetishism.
- Just a year after its grand opening, the Library of Birmingham is set to slash hours by nearly half and see some 100 layoffs due to budget cuts.
- Gerald Cloud has been appointed Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Curator of Early Modern Books and Manuscripts at the Harry Ransom Center. Congratulations to Gerald!
- John Schulman of Caliban Books has posted a guide to buying rare books as gifts, over at the ABAA blog.
Reviews
- Patricia Jane Roylance's Eclipse of Empires; review by Lindsay DiCuirci at Common-place.
- A.N. Wilson's Victoria: A Life; review by Leah Price in the NYTimes.
- John Merriman's Massacre; review by Wendy Smith in the LATimes.
- Kristina Milnor's Graffiti and the Literary Landscape in Roman Pompeii; review by Emily Gowers in the TLS.
- Jules Witcover's The American Vice Presidency; review by Ellen Fitzpatrick in the WaPo.
- Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy's The Men Who Lost America; review by Eric Hinderaker at Common-place.
- David Nokes' Samuel Johnson: A Life; review by Jonathan Bate in the Telegraph.
- Meredith Neuman's Jeremiah's Scribes; review by Wendy Roberts at Common-place.
- Alex Christie's Gutenberg's Apprentice; review by Bruce Holsinger in the WaPo.
- Marilyn Johnson's Lives in Ruins; review by Wendy Smith in the WaPo.
- Jill Lepore's The Secret History of Wonder Woman; review by Carla Kaplan in the NYTimes.
- Thomas Foster's Sex and the Founding Fathers; review by Kelly Ryan at Common-place.
Sunday, December 07, 2014
Links & Reviews
- The Center for Media and Social Impact has issued a "Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use of Orphan Works for Libraries & Archives."
- French scientists are working to date the Aztec manuscript known as the Codex Borbonicus.
- Jill Lepore writes on the theft of Justice Felix Frankfurter's papers from the Library of Congress, broadening that to discuss the state of the papers of all Supreme Court justices.
- Longtime friend of the blog Laura Massey has opened her own rare book business, Alembic Rare Books.
- The New York City Bar Association sale at Doyle New York on 24 November saw a very high total of $2,369,231, with all lots selling. I'll have more on this sale in the next FB&C.
- The NYTimes covers the ongoing dispute over the estate of Maurice Sendak, featuring the first interview with Sendak executor Lynn Caponera. There's more coverage and analysis of this case in the Connecticut Law Tribune.
- Molly Hardy discusses the NAIP and its possible uses in bibliometric analysis.
- From Atlas Obscura, "Lost Museums of New York."
- The Antikythera Mechanism has been determined to date from around 205 B.C., earlier than previously thought.
- Rachel Nuwer reports for Smithsonian on the digital reconstruction of Livingstone's diary.
- Terry Belanger's summary of the "Acknowledging the Past, Forging the Future" symposium, along with a PDF version of his full report, has been posted on the ABAA blog.
- A collector left a 13th-century Chinese scroll worth more than $1m on a Paris-to-Geneva train; the scroll remains missing.
- Jennifer Schuessler covered the "First Editions, Second Thoughts" auction at Christie's this week for the NYTimes. More coverage from The Guardian.
- The literary archive of Gabriel García Márquez will go to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
- The NYTimes reported on the launch of Digital Einstein, a digital repository of some 80,000 Einstein-related documents. Walter Isaacon wrote about the launch in a WSJ essay (which contains some misguided notions about what digitization means for scholars and viewing original documents).
- Andrea Cawelti posted on the Houghton Library blog about circulating libraries during Jane Austen's time.
- Johanna Drucker has published a new essay, "Distributed and Conditional Documents: Conceptualizing Bibliographical Alterities."
- Philip Pullman writes on William Blake in The Guardian.
- Jennifer Howard covers the "Failure in the Archives" conference for The Chronicle of Higher Ed.
- Newly-recognized unpublished Oscar Wilde materials, including a notebook from around 1880, a corrected typescript of Salome, and a partial draft of "The Ballad of Reading Gaol," will be displayed at the Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia beginning in late January.
- A letter thought to have inspired Kerouac's On the Road, long thought lost, has been found and will be sold by the auction house Profiles in History on 17 December.
- An unpublished libretto by Raymond Chandler has been identified at the Library of Congress.
- A UK court has declared that a ban on sending books to prisoners was not lawful.
- Adventures in Book Collecting highlights collector Estelle Doheney.
- Five books from Oscar Wilde's library have been identified at the National Library of the Netherlands (KB).
- A manuscript of George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation (which I had the good fortune to see displayed at the Boston Book Fair last month) has sold to a private collector for $8.4 million.
- The BPL has launched a special collections blog, Collections of Distinction.
- Candida Moss reports for The Daily Beast on the online trade in early manuscripts.
- Sotheby's London will sell The Felix Dennis Collection, including works by Eric Gill, on 9 December. A Dylan Thomas manuscript and E.H. Shepard illustrations are expected to sell well.
- The Library History Round Table has issued its annual call for papers for the Justin Winsor Library History Essay Award. Submissions are due by 31 January 2015.
- Tim Parks writes for the NYRB about reading with a pen in your hand.
- An 18th-century manuscript map of New Mexico has been acquired by the New Mexico History Museum.
- A Shakespeare First Folio has been discovered in the public library of the French town of Saint-Omer. More coverage from the NYTimes, Fine Books Blog, OUP Blog. Eric Rasmussen talked to USA Today about identifying the book.
- Daniel Akst connects today's e-book subscription services with the membership libraries begun in the 18th century.
- Eric Kwakkel writes on the uses of shelfmarks, catalogs, &c. in the medieval library.
Reviews
- Kate Williams' Ambition and Desire; review by Caroline Weber in the NYTimes.
- Margery Heffron's The Other Mrs. Adams; review by Muriel Dobbin in the Washington Times.
- Andrew Roberts' Napoleon Bonaparte; review by Michael F. Bishop in the WaPo.
- Kirstin Downey's Isabella: The Warrior Queen; review by Kathryn Harrison in the NYTimes.
- Cary Elwes' As You Wish; review by Neil Genzlinger in the NYTimes.
- Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography; reviews by Bich Minh Nguyen in the LATimes and Jennifer Maloney in the WSJ.
- Fredrik Sjoberg's The Fly Trap; review by Jennie Erin Smith in the TLS.
- French scientists are working to date the Aztec manuscript known as the Codex Borbonicus.
- Jill Lepore writes on the theft of Justice Felix Frankfurter's papers from the Library of Congress, broadening that to discuss the state of the papers of all Supreme Court justices.
- Longtime friend of the blog Laura Massey has opened her own rare book business, Alembic Rare Books.
- The New York City Bar Association sale at Doyle New York on 24 November saw a very high total of $2,369,231, with all lots selling. I'll have more on this sale in the next FB&C.
- The NYTimes covers the ongoing dispute over the estate of Maurice Sendak, featuring the first interview with Sendak executor Lynn Caponera. There's more coverage and analysis of this case in the Connecticut Law Tribune.
- Molly Hardy discusses the NAIP and its possible uses in bibliometric analysis.
- From Atlas Obscura, "Lost Museums of New York."
- The Antikythera Mechanism has been determined to date from around 205 B.C., earlier than previously thought.
- Rachel Nuwer reports for Smithsonian on the digital reconstruction of Livingstone's diary.
- Terry Belanger's summary of the "Acknowledging the Past, Forging the Future" symposium, along with a PDF version of his full report, has been posted on the ABAA blog.
- A collector left a 13th-century Chinese scroll worth more than $1m on a Paris-to-Geneva train; the scroll remains missing.
- Jennifer Schuessler covered the "First Editions, Second Thoughts" auction at Christie's this week for the NYTimes. More coverage from The Guardian.
- The literary archive of Gabriel García Márquez will go to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
- The NYTimes reported on the launch of Digital Einstein, a digital repository of some 80,000 Einstein-related documents. Walter Isaacon wrote about the launch in a WSJ essay (which contains some misguided notions about what digitization means for scholars and viewing original documents).
- Andrea Cawelti posted on the Houghton Library blog about circulating libraries during Jane Austen's time.
- Johanna Drucker has published a new essay, "Distributed and Conditional Documents: Conceptualizing Bibliographical Alterities."
- Philip Pullman writes on William Blake in The Guardian.
- Jennifer Howard covers the "Failure in the Archives" conference for The Chronicle of Higher Ed.
- Newly-recognized unpublished Oscar Wilde materials, including a notebook from around 1880, a corrected typescript of Salome, and a partial draft of "The Ballad of Reading Gaol," will be displayed at the Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia beginning in late January.
- A letter thought to have inspired Kerouac's On the Road, long thought lost, has been found and will be sold by the auction house Profiles in History on 17 December.
- An unpublished libretto by Raymond Chandler has been identified at the Library of Congress.
- A UK court has declared that a ban on sending books to prisoners was not lawful.
- Adventures in Book Collecting highlights collector Estelle Doheney.
- Five books from Oscar Wilde's library have been identified at the National Library of the Netherlands (KB).
- A manuscript of George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation (which I had the good fortune to see displayed at the Boston Book Fair last month) has sold to a private collector for $8.4 million.
- The BPL has launched a special collections blog, Collections of Distinction.
- Candida Moss reports for The Daily Beast on the online trade in early manuscripts.
- Sotheby's London will sell The Felix Dennis Collection, including works by Eric Gill, on 9 December. A Dylan Thomas manuscript and E.H. Shepard illustrations are expected to sell well.
- The Library History Round Table has issued its annual call for papers for the Justin Winsor Library History Essay Award. Submissions are due by 31 January 2015.
- Tim Parks writes for the NYRB about reading with a pen in your hand.
- An 18th-century manuscript map of New Mexico has been acquired by the New Mexico History Museum.
- A Shakespeare First Folio has been discovered in the public library of the French town of Saint-Omer. More coverage from the NYTimes, Fine Books Blog, OUP Blog. Eric Rasmussen talked to USA Today about identifying the book.
- Daniel Akst connects today's e-book subscription services with the membership libraries begun in the 18th century.
- Eric Kwakkel writes on the uses of shelfmarks, catalogs, &c. in the medieval library.
Reviews
- Kate Williams' Ambition and Desire; review by Caroline Weber in the NYTimes.
- Margery Heffron's The Other Mrs. Adams; review by Muriel Dobbin in the Washington Times.
- Andrew Roberts' Napoleon Bonaparte; review by Michael F. Bishop in the WaPo.
- Kirstin Downey's Isabella: The Warrior Queen; review by Kathryn Harrison in the NYTimes.
- Cary Elwes' As You Wish; review by Neil Genzlinger in the NYTimes.
- Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography; reviews by Bich Minh Nguyen in the LATimes and Jennifer Maloney in the WSJ.
- Fredrik Sjoberg's The Fly Trap; review by Jennie Erin Smith in the TLS.
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