Google and its partners in the great Google Books Settlement have been granted an extension in filing their revised settlement, Publishers Weekly reports. Judge Denny Chin agreed to allow the parties to file their revisions "no later than this Friday, November 13." (The original submission deadline was Monday, 9 November).
In their letter requesting the extension Google & Co. indicated that they "have been in discussions with the Department of Justice both prior to and since the October 7 status conference. We met with the Department as recently as this past Friday, November 6."
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Monday, November 09, 2009
Book Review: "The Political Philosophy of Thomas Paine"
Jack Fruchtman, Jr. has, in The Political Philosophy of Thomas Paine (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009) written the most concise and useful synopsis to date of Paine's political, religious, and economic philosophies. While Paine can "defy categorization," Fruchtman suggests, "by illuminating his thought, we can discover who he was and how he figured ideologically in the revolutionary mood of the late eighteenth century" (p. 4). Paine may have been "consistently convinced that he was always right and that anyone who opposed him was patently wrong and badly uninformed" (p. 3-4) - the more things change, &c. - he was, Fruchtman argues, remarkably consistent in developing a series of arguments for social change based around a set of major themes.
The themes Fruchtman sees in Paine's works, and which he examines in turn for the purposes of this study, are outlined on pp. 7-8, but can be summarized as: faith in God as benevolent deity; hatred of rank, privilege, corruption, injustice; democratic republics with written constitutions (and universal male suffrage); trust in civic-mindedness of citizens; strong commercialized society with a social welfare system; a strong navy, just taxation, and a fair banking system. Fruchtman adds a seventh theme - a belief in the transformative power of revolutions - but with the necessary caveat that Paine's views on this shifted after he was tossed into prison when things went sour in the years after the French Revolution.
Fruchtman notes that because Paine was writing not for the educated elite, but for "the people," and not to educate necessarily but to persuade, he "was often not particularly rigorous in his argumentation, frequently using sneering ridicule, personal invective, and entertaining humor to score points at the expense of those whom he thought were scoundrels and mountebanks. He certainly used hard evidence and sound theoretical principles, but only when he thought they played to his advantage. If the facts failed to fit his argument, he often discounted or ignored them. If a theory proved him wrong, he simply rejected it or even denied its existence as a rational principle" (p. 14). But, for all this, Fruchtman maintains, Paine was "the era's preeminent philosopher of political and social transformation" (p. 14).
In a series of six chapters, each of about thirty pages (the entire book is just 165 pages), Fruchtman delves into the themes outlined above, tracking Paine's life through his writings (offering both biographical details and a close reading of the works). The fifth chapter was the one I found most interesting, as Fruchtman makes the case for Paine's similarities with Alexander Hamilton on the question of economic policies (to a great extent they agreed on the means, but their vision of the ends were near-polar opposites). The first chapter, dealing with Paine's religious beliefs, was also quite intriguing, as was Fruchtman's depiction of his social welfare ideas on p. 125 (calling these "extraordinary" seems strikingly apt).
Fruchtman lets Paine do the summing up, quoting from an 1806 letter in which the great polemicist writes "My motive and object in all my political works, beginning with Common Sense, ... have been to rescue man from tyranny and false systems and false principles of government and enable him to be free, and establish government for himself" (p. 151).
I should also note the excellent notes which Fruchtman has provided, which would allow anyone interested in the aspects of Paine's writings outlined here to dig as deeply as they liked into the existing scholarship on the questions. They're a delight. The book as object is also noteworthy, being very well designed and printed in a very crisp, nice font.
Lucid and succinct. A good book indeed.
The themes Fruchtman sees in Paine's works, and which he examines in turn for the purposes of this study, are outlined on pp. 7-8, but can be summarized as: faith in God as benevolent deity; hatred of rank, privilege, corruption, injustice; democratic republics with written constitutions (and universal male suffrage); trust in civic-mindedness of citizens; strong commercialized society with a social welfare system; a strong navy, just taxation, and a fair banking system. Fruchtman adds a seventh theme - a belief in the transformative power of revolutions - but with the necessary caveat that Paine's views on this shifted after he was tossed into prison when things went sour in the years after the French Revolution.
Fruchtman notes that because Paine was writing not for the educated elite, but for "the people," and not to educate necessarily but to persuade, he "was often not particularly rigorous in his argumentation, frequently using sneering ridicule, personal invective, and entertaining humor to score points at the expense of those whom he thought were scoundrels and mountebanks. He certainly used hard evidence and sound theoretical principles, but only when he thought they played to his advantage. If the facts failed to fit his argument, he often discounted or ignored them. If a theory proved him wrong, he simply rejected it or even denied its existence as a rational principle" (p. 14). But, for all this, Fruchtman maintains, Paine was "the era's preeminent philosopher of political and social transformation" (p. 14).
In a series of six chapters, each of about thirty pages (the entire book is just 165 pages), Fruchtman delves into the themes outlined above, tracking Paine's life through his writings (offering both biographical details and a close reading of the works). The fifth chapter was the one I found most interesting, as Fruchtman makes the case for Paine's similarities with Alexander Hamilton on the question of economic policies (to a great extent they agreed on the means, but their vision of the ends were near-polar opposites). The first chapter, dealing with Paine's religious beliefs, was also quite intriguing, as was Fruchtman's depiction of his social welfare ideas on p. 125 (calling these "extraordinary" seems strikingly apt).
Fruchtman lets Paine do the summing up, quoting from an 1806 letter in which the great polemicist writes "My motive and object in all my political works, beginning with Common Sense, ... have been to rescue man from tyranny and false systems and false principles of government and enable him to be free, and establish government for himself" (p. 151).
I should also note the excellent notes which Fruchtman has provided, which would allow anyone interested in the aspects of Paine's writings outlined here to dig as deeply as they liked into the existing scholarship on the questions. They're a delight. The book as object is also noteworthy, being very well designed and printed in a very crisp, nice font.
Lucid and succinct. A good book indeed.
Auction Report: PBA & Upcoming
At the PBA Galleries Americana, Cartography, and Travel & Exploration of 5 November, the highlight was a copy of the first English edition of Patrick Gass' A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery ... (London, 1808), which sold for $7,800. The nine volumes of the fourth and fifth series of Peter Force's American Archives (1837-1848), including a flawed copy of the folding Declaration of Independence (est. $20,000-30,000) did not sell, and the clipped signature of Billy the Kid (est. $10,000-15,000) was withdrawn.
Don't forget the Skinner sale in Boston on 15 November.
Some upcoming auctions at Christie's London:
- On 23 November they'll sell Fine Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Traditional Sports. Notable items from among the 314 lots include include two of Sigmund Freud's walking sticks (lot 139, $3800-5300); Leo Africanus's rare description of Africa, De Totius Africae descriptione, 1556, of which only two copies have sold at auction since 1975 (lot 235, $4600-7500); the first edition of Gervase Markham's important book on horsemanship, Cavelarice, or The English Horseman, 1607 (lot 54: est. $3100-4500); a selection of books by H.G. Wells with interesting original drawings by the author (including lot 74, $1600-2300; and lot 75, $910-1400; a nice presentation copy of Evelyn Waugh's Mr Loveday's Little Outing, 1937, inscribed by Waugh to the daughter of Earl Beauchamp who served as model for Lord Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited (lot 107, $1100-1500), and quite a few interesting Russian items including some very interesting Nabokov titles.
- On 24 November, Christie's will sell Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books. Designed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, this sale comprises 81 lots, including some lovely Darwiniana. Lot 46 is a copy of the four-volume Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle (London: 1839), estimated at $29,898-41,525; lot 47 is one of just 15 copies of Darwin's On the Connexion of Certain Volcanic Phenomena in South America (a paper delivered at the Geological Society in 1838 and published the following year, est. $19,932-29,898). Lot 48 is a beautiful copy of the first edition of Origin, estimated at $66,440-99,660.
But the expected high spots of this auction lie among the non-Darwin items. A 1547 illuminated manuscript of Olivier de la Marche's Le Chevalier délibéré (Lot 7, est. $581,350-830,500) with very interesting provenance is sure to be extremely interesting, as is Lot 5, a c. 1470 illuminated manuscript on vellum of Petrarch's Il Canzoniere and I Trionfi and related works (est. $498,300-664,400). A lovely colored Blaeu atlas (1649-55), lot 43, is estimated at $215,930-298,980. This is a small sale, but it's got some real gems.
Don't forget the Skinner sale in Boston on 15 November.
Some upcoming auctions at Christie's London:
- On 23 November they'll sell Fine Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Traditional Sports. Notable items from among the 314 lots include include two of Sigmund Freud's walking sticks (lot 139, $3800-5300); Leo Africanus's rare description of Africa, De Totius Africae descriptione, 1556, of which only two copies have sold at auction since 1975 (lot 235, $4600-7500); the first edition of Gervase Markham's important book on horsemanship, Cavelarice, or The English Horseman, 1607 (lot 54: est. $3100-4500); a selection of books by H.G. Wells with interesting original drawings by the author (including lot 74, $1600-2300; and lot 75, $910-1400; a nice presentation copy of Evelyn Waugh's Mr Loveday's Little Outing, 1937, inscribed by Waugh to the daughter of Earl Beauchamp who served as model for Lord Marchmain in Brideshead Revisited (lot 107, $1100-1500), and quite a few interesting Russian items including some very interesting Nabokov titles.
- On 24 November, Christie's will sell Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books. Designed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, this sale comprises 81 lots, including some lovely Darwiniana. Lot 46 is a copy of the four-volume Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle (London: 1839), estimated at $29,898-41,525; lot 47 is one of just 15 copies of Darwin's On the Connexion of Certain Volcanic Phenomena in South America (a paper delivered at the Geological Society in 1838 and published the following year, est. $19,932-29,898). Lot 48 is a beautiful copy of the first edition of Origin, estimated at $66,440-99,660.
But the expected high spots of this auction lie among the non-Darwin items. A 1547 illuminated manuscript of Olivier de la Marche's Le Chevalier délibéré (Lot 7, est. $581,350-830,500) with very interesting provenance is sure to be extremely interesting, as is Lot 5, a c. 1470 illuminated manuscript on vellum of Petrarch's Il Canzoniere and I Trionfi and related works (est. $498,300-664,400). A lovely colored Blaeu atlas (1649-55), lot 43, is estimated at $215,930-298,980. This is a small sale, but it's got some real gems.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Links & Reviews
- Over at The Little Professor, Miriam Burstein engages in a very useful "thought experiment" about what a "bookless library" might look like (she's responding to this). It's a good start, that's for sure.
- Along the same vein, the Open Content Alliance released their "baseline requirements" for what they'd accept from the revised Google Books Settlement, due to be released on Monday.
- A 1477 Ptolemy map printed at Bologna set a record auction price this week, selling for 210,000 Euros ($312,000).
- Author Annie Proulx has donated her papers to the New York Public Library.
- Some historical/government action this week: a Senate hearing was held on several bills relating to national parks in/near Boston: one would change the name of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow House to "Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarter’s National Historic Site." Another bill expands the boundaries of the Adams National Historical Park to include the Quincy Homestead.
- The Siegfried Sassoon archive is likely to stay in the UK, after the National Heritage Memorial Fund announced that it would grant £550,000 to Cambridge University toward the purchase of the materials. The final £110,000 will probably be obtained.
- The NYPL was profiled in Friday's NYTimes; this is a fun piece, noting the "cabinet of curiosities," the first book lent out, the oldest/heaviest items in the collections, &c.
- Rare archival materials by Leonardo da Vinci are on display at the Bibliotheca Ambrosiana in Milan, through December.
- The November Fine Books Notes is up: it includes some biblio-gift guides, including a book list by Nick Basbanes; and an interview with Robert Darnton.
- Over at Schott's Vocab, readers take a stab at reorganizing the library; this weekend they're changed with making up some "before & after" clues, composite individuals.
- Over at Schott's Vocab, readers take a stab at reorganizing the library; this weekend they're changed with making up some "before & after" clues, composite individuals.
- From McSweeney's, "The Police Blotter Shakespeare."
- For the NYT's Paper Cuts blog, Woody Holton answers some questions about his normal day, writing on a laptop (he's looking for one he can use outside) and what he's reading and working on now.
- Marjorie Kehe asks can't bookstores, libraries and Kindles co-exist peacefully? Meanwhile, over at Bookride, the downsides of e-books.
- Allison Hoover Bartlett answers questions about The Man Who Loved Books Too Much in the Boston Globe.
- In Monday's Globe, David Mehegan has an essay about the future of the printed codex, asking "Why do we keep books?" He writes "Reading and having books is like wearing clothes. Much of the year, we could go around naked, if we could think of where to keep our keys. But that would not seem quite natural. I would feel abandoned, almost defenseless, without my books. Do others remember, as I do, where they were when they read certain books that changed everything? In a strange way, if I keep the book, I keep that memory. And if I know, or knew, the writer, it’s like keeping a friend nearby."
- Among the many cool images in the BibliOdyssey Image Dump is a very cool and previously unknown drawing of a dodo, which recently sold at Christie's for £44,500.
Reviews
- Jonathan Yardley reviews Kirk Savage's Monument Wars in the Washington Post.
- In Monday's Globe, David Mehegan has an essay about the future of the printed codex, asking "Why do we keep books?" He writes "Reading and having books is like wearing clothes. Much of the year, we could go around naked, if we could think of where to keep our keys. But that would not seem quite natural. I would feel abandoned, almost defenseless, without my books. Do others remember, as I do, where they were when they read certain books that changed everything? In a strange way, if I keep the book, I keep that memory. And if I know, or knew, the writer, it’s like keeping a friend nearby."
- Among the many cool images in the BibliOdyssey Image Dump is a very cool and previously unknown drawing of a dodo, which recently sold at Christie's for £44,500.
Reviews
- Jonathan Yardley reviews Kirk Savage's Monument Wars in the Washington Post.
- In the New Yorker, Jill Lepore reviews several new histories of murder with a lengthy essay on the strange question of just what makes American culture so much more "murderous" than other affluent societies. In a followup Book Bench post, Lepore discusses Edmund Lester Pearson, who wrote true crime stories for the New Yorker in the 1930s and was also responsible for the hoax that led to the name of this blog.
- Christopher Howse reviews Dan Cruickshank's The Secret History of Georgian London in the Telegraph.
- Woody Holton's Abigail Adams is reviewed by Diana Raabe in the In Denver Times.
- Christopher Howse reviews Dan Cruickshank's The Secret History of Georgian London in the Telegraph.
- Woody Holton's Abigail Adams is reviewed by Diana Raabe in the In Denver Times.
- Liesl Schillinger reviews Barbara Kingsolver's Lacuna in the NYTimes, as do Ron Charles for the Washington Post and Kai Maristead in the LATimes.
- Robert Merry's A Country of Vast Designs is reviewed by Aram Bakshian, Jr. in the WSJ.
- Michael Dirda reviews Michael Slater's Charles Dickens in the Washington Post.
- Allison Hoover Bartlett's The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is reviewed by Carmela Ciuraru in the LATimes.
- Also in the NYTimes, Harold Bloom reviews David Nokes' Samuel Johnson.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Book Recommendation: "Abigail Adams"
As I wrote earlier in the week, I've been completely enjoying Woody Holton's Abigail Adams. I finished it this morning, and can only reiterate my earlier comments. It's one of the best biographies I've ever had the privilege to read, being at once pleasantly readable and also carefully researched. It breaks much new ground in pointing out the important role Abigail's financial prowess played in creating the family's fiscal stability: "it may be that if [John Adams'] financial records had survived the ravages of time as well as his correspondence did," Holton writes on p. 277, "they would show his wife making a larger contribution to the family's wealth than he did." A remarkable statement, perhaps, but not if you know Abigail as Holton reveals her.
A fine book, which I heartily recommend to all.
A fine book, which I heartily recommend to all.
This Week's Acquisitions
Here's what arrived this week:
- A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation by Catherine Allgor (Henry Holt, 2006). Harvard Bookstore.
- Revolution Downeast: War for American Independence in Maine by James S. Leamon (University of Massachusetts Press, 1993). Raven.
- The Political Philosophy of Thomas Paine by Jack Fruchtman, Jr. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). Publisher.
- Abigail Adams by Woody Holton (Free Press, 2009). Work.
- Modern Chivalry by Hugh Henry Brackenridge; edited by Ed White (Hackett, 2009). Publisher.
- An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson by Andro Linklater (Walker & Company, 2009). Publisher.
- The Maine Woods: A Fully Annotated Edition by Henry D. Thoreau; edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer (Yale University Press, 2009). Publisher.
- A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation by Catherine Allgor (Henry Holt, 2006). Harvard Bookstore.
- Revolution Downeast: War for American Independence in Maine by James S. Leamon (University of Massachusetts Press, 1993). Raven.
- The Political Philosophy of Thomas Paine by Jack Fruchtman, Jr. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). Publisher.
- Abigail Adams by Woody Holton (Free Press, 2009). Work.
- Modern Chivalry by Hugh Henry Brackenridge; edited by Ed White (Hackett, 2009). Publisher.
- An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson by Andro Linklater (Walker & Company, 2009). Publisher.
- The Maine Woods: A Fully Annotated Edition by Henry D. Thoreau; edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer (Yale University Press, 2009). Publisher.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Recent Print Articles
Some articles in various print publications I've read and enjoyed recently:
- Hannah Farber, "The Rise and Fall of the Province of Lygonia, 1643-1658." The New England Quarterly LXXXII:3 (September 2009), pp. 490-513. A fascinating look at a failed colony in southern Maine.
- James S. Leamon, "The Parson, the Parson's Wife, and the Coming of the Revolution to Pownalborough, Maine." The New England Quarterly LXXXII:3 (September 2009), pp. 514-528. Another Maine piece, this one on Anglican minister Jacob Bailey's run-ins with the forces of revolution in the early 1770s (including his refusal to read the Declaration of Independence from his pulpit as ordered).
- Hannah Farber, "The Rise and Fall of the Province of Lygonia, 1643-1658." The New England Quarterly LXXXII:3 (September 2009), pp. 490-513. A fascinating look at a failed colony in southern Maine.
- James S. Leamon, "The Parson, the Parson's Wife, and the Coming of the Revolution to Pownalborough, Maine." The New England Quarterly LXXXII:3 (September 2009), pp. 514-528. Another Maine piece, this one on Anglican minister Jacob Bailey's run-ins with the forces of revolution in the early 1770s (including his refusal to read the Declaration of Independence from his pulpit as ordered).
- Philip Ranlet, "A Safe Haven for Witches? Colonial New York's Politics and Relations with New England in the 1690s." New York History 90:1/2 (Winter/Spring 2009), pp. 37-57. An examination of why accused MA and CT witches sought and received refuge in New York; Ranlet also offers up a medical explanation for NY Governor Lord Bellomont's erratic behavior during his tenure.
- Maureen E. Mulvihill, "Literary Property Changing Hands: The Peyraud Auction (New York City, 6 May 2009)." Eighteenth-Century Studies 43:1 (2009), pp. 151-163. A discussion of the sale of Paula Peyraud's collection, the "largest collection in private hands of books, manuscripts, and images associated with the Georgian period," including much related to the "literary ladies" of the time, plus Samuel Johnson, Pope, Burke and others. Mulvihill recaps the sale, and includes information on buyers where known, and much background on the collection. [Update: Since I read it, the article has become available online, here (PDF)].
- Maureen E. Mulvihill, "Literary Property Changing Hands: The Peyraud Auction (New York City, 6 May 2009)." Eighteenth-Century Studies 43:1 (2009), pp. 151-163. A discussion of the sale of Paula Peyraud's collection, the "largest collection in private hands of books, manuscripts, and images associated with the Georgian period," including much related to the "literary ladies" of the time, plus Samuel Johnson, Pope, Burke and others. Mulvihill recaps the sale, and includes information on buyers where known, and much background on the collection. [Update: Since I read it, the article has become available online, here (PDF)].
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Reading Abigail
Just a quick note on why things are so quiet around here: I'm totally absorbed in Woody Holton's new biography, Abigail Adams (Free Press, 2009). It's as good a biography as any I've ever read; a really excellent and very new interpretation of the total Abigail Adams: businesswoman, political strategist, savvy manager, mother, wife, friend, the whole shebang. It's commanded every spare moment, as a good book should. While I can't provide a full review (being acknowledged in the volume) I will say it's truly a delight to read, and its portrait will, I suspect, surprise and delight more than a few people.
Holton will be at MHS this coming Monday evening, 9 November, for the official launch of Abigail Adams. More info here; do join us if you can.
Holton will be at MHS this coming Monday evening, 9 November, for the official launch of Abigail Adams. More info here; do join us if you can.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
MA Gov Suggests State Library May Close
Offered up straight from the State Library of Massachusetts blog:
"At a press conference on Thursday, October 29, the Governor's Office announced that Governor Patrick is considering closing the State Library of Massachusetts as a cost-saving measure. This closure will have a monumental impact on the cultural heritage of the Commonwealth. Open to the public since 1826, the State Library has developed comprehensive collections in the areas of government documents, law, Massachusetts history, and public and current affairs. From the Bradford manuscript "Of Plimoth Plantation" to the ever-expanding digital repository, the State Library has collected items of crucial importance to the record of Massachusetts' historical wealth. Please sign the petition to ensure that Massachusetts' heritage continues to remain freely accessible to all members of the public. To contact the Governor's Office directly, please visit http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov3&U=Agov3_contact_us. If you would like to make a donation, please visit the Friends of the State Library page at www.mass.gov/lib."
"At a press conference on Thursday, October 29, the Governor's Office announced that Governor Patrick is considering closing the State Library of Massachusetts as a cost-saving measure. This closure will have a monumental impact on the cultural heritage of the Commonwealth. Open to the public since 1826, the State Library has developed comprehensive collections in the areas of government documents, law, Massachusetts history, and public and current affairs. From the Bradford manuscript "Of Plimoth Plantation" to the ever-expanding digital repository, the State Library has collected items of crucial importance to the record of Massachusetts' historical wealth. Please sign the petition to ensure that Massachusetts' heritage continues to remain freely accessible to all members of the public. To contact the Governor's Office directly, please visit http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov3&U=Agov3_contact_us. If you would like to make a donation, please visit the Friends of the State Library page at www.mass.gov/lib."
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Books Stolen by Brubaker Returned
James Brubaker was sentenced to 30 months in prison last September after pleading guilty in relation to the theft of thousands of dollars' worth of books from libraries across the American and Canadian west. Now Pocatello ID t.v. station KPVI is reporting that some of the books stolen by Brubaker are slowly being returned to the libraries he snatched them from, including some two dozen to Idaho State University. Authorities there suspect Brubaker may have gotten up to 200 books from their collections. "Now the school is waiting to hear about more than one hundred other books that are still unaccounted [for]."
An Original Review of "The Wizard of Oz"
From the Times Archives Blog, a glimpse at the original London Times review of the film version of "The Wizard of Oz," published 29 January 1940. Ouch!
Monday, November 02, 2009
Book Review: "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym"
I'm not sure I ought to even call this a review, since it's really more just some scattered thoughts on Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (Oxford World's Classics edition). It's a bizarre little novel, filled with strange incongruities, fantastic happenings, and an ending that baffles more than satisfies. Is this Poe at his best, skilfully limning the limits of narrative fiction and brilliantly parodying the travel narratives, hoax stories and unbelievable adventure tales of his day? Or is it him at his scattered, disorganized worst, tossing motifs in hither and yon in an attempt to make a short story into a longer work?
I have to say I'm not sure. I'm not sure Poe was sure, either, about what he wanted to do with this work. There's a little bit of everything here: spiritualism and deliverance, a bit of cryptography, perhaps some racial allegory, a splash of zoological and botanical exploration, cannibalism and hardship narrative, &c. &c. &c., all colored by the possibility that some of all of the narrative is entirely the product of Mr. Pym's imagination, and that the reader then and now ought to be careful.
I'm intrigued by the journey, and by Poe's inclusion of the search for the mysterious Aurora Islands in the story. It would make rather a cool Google Map to track the voyage, wouldn't it? [Update: Decided it would make a nifty Google Map, so I mapped it].
I have to say I'm not sure. I'm not sure Poe was sure, either, about what he wanted to do with this work. There's a little bit of everything here: spiritualism and deliverance, a bit of cryptography, perhaps some racial allegory, a splash of zoological and botanical exploration, cannibalism and hardship narrative, &c. &c. &c., all colored by the possibility that some of all of the narrative is entirely the product of Mr. Pym's imagination, and that the reader then and now ought to be careful.
I'm intrigued by the journey, and by Poe's inclusion of the search for the mysterious Aurora Islands in the story. It would make rather a cool Google Map to track the voyage, wouldn't it? [Update: Decided it would make a nifty Google Map, so I mapped it].
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Book Review: "The Case for Books"
Robert Darnton's The Case for Books (PublicAffairs, 2009) collects eleven of the author's essays, reviews, and talks relating to the history of the book and book culture, organized in three sections "running backward from speculations about the world of books that will exist in five or ten years to polemics about issues in the here-and-now and reflections on older information ages with communication systems of their own" (p. xii). In the introduction Darnton calls the collection "an unashamed apology for the printed word, past, present, and future," but notes that his goal is to "explore the possibilities of aligning [electronic modes of communication] with the power that Johannes Gutenberg unleashed more than five centuries ago." He offers a brief synopsis of his own career as a reporter, professor, historian, author, and now the head of the Harvard University Libraries system - through all of which he has been engaged with books and their cultural importance.
Darnton is one of the most talented, most important, and most useful writers on books and book history on today's stage. His enthusiasm for books of all forms, including a potential future form as a many-layered electronic ur-text, is infectious, making this collection a must-read for bibliophiles and anyone interested in the past, present, or future of books, libraries, and the republic of letters.
I have already reviewed / responded at some length to the first two of these essays, which appeared in the New York Review of Books on 12 February 2009 ("The Library and the New Age") and 12 June 2008 ("Google & the Future of Books"). In reading over the comments I made then, I find that my thinking remains the same, so I will simply point to my posts of 24 February 2009 and 4 June 2008. In the third piece included here, a speech delivered at the Frankfort Book Fair on 17 October 2009, Darnton outlines what he sees as the future of research libraries, including how whatever becomes of the Google Books Settlement will shape that future (even presuming it is approved in some form, he suggests, libraries should and must play a key role in future digitization projects). Further, he suggests, the world's major research libraries should continue pushing for open access, should explore collaboration with partner institutions, and should concentrate on special collections with an eye toward digitizing those materials and making them available to the world as circumstances permit.
The fourth chapter, "Lost and Found in Cyberspace," appeared as a 1999 Chronicle of Higher Education essay; in it Darnton describes the ideal electronic book, one with "many layers arranged in the shape of a pyramid," with supplementary essays and digitized materials complementing the narrative structure. Readers, he suggests, should "find their own paths through [the subject], reading horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, wherever the electronic links may lead" (p. 61-2). I've heard Darnton discuss this vision before, and I think if he could make it work it would be fabulous - here's hoping!
In the fifth and sixth pieces included here, Darnton describes his involvement with the American Historical Association's (and Columbia University Press') Gutenberg-e project, an early effort to present scholarly monographs in an electronic format. This is quite a fascinating look inside the project as it was envisioned and how it worked in "real life." Next Darnton offers a short essay he published in the Harvard Crimson in February 2008, just before the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences agreed to support an open-access policy for faculty publications.
Three of the final four chapters are NYRB review essays, in which Darnton examines Nicholson Baker's Double Fold, the bibliographic works of Don McKenzie, and Kevin Sharpe's Reading Revolutions. The first is a fair critique of a book which was anything but to the subjects and people it covered; Darnton acknowledges some of Baker's good points while rightly deploring the rhetorical tactics and demagoguery used by Baker to lob his grenades. The ninth chapter, covering McKenzie's works, focuses on the importance of bibliography to the study of book history, and the review of Sharpe's work touches on the question of just what histories of reading can tell us (given their often very personal nature) can contribute to the field.
Finally, Darnton provides his seminal essay in the book history field, the 1982 piece "What Is the History of Books?" This call to arms, which I've read and attempted to incorporate into much of my own work, lays out the usefulness of a book history approach, and offers a model of the communication process (diagram on p. 182) as a sort of circuit. Although it's easy to get sucked into esoteric examinations of the minutia of books, he suggests, we must at least try to see the forest for the trees: "Neither history nor literature nor economics nor sociology nor bibliography can do justice to all aspects of the life of a book. By its very nature, therefore, the history of books must be international in scale and interdisciplinary in method. But it need not lack conceptual coherence, because books belong to circuits of communication that operate in consistent patterns, however complex they may be. By unearthing those circuits, historians can show that books do not merely recount history; they make it" (p. 206).
Darnton is one of the most talented, most important, and most useful writers on books and book history on today's stage. His enthusiasm for books of all forms, including a potential future form as a many-layered electronic ur-text, is infectious, making this collection a must-read for bibliophiles and anyone interested in the past, present, or future of books, libraries, and the republic of letters.
Mancall to Write Oxford Volume
I'm thrilled to report (slightly belatedly - apologies) that Peter C. Mancall, Professor of History and Anthropology at the University of Southern California, will be writing the first volume in the Oxford History of the United States series. According to Mancall's faculty website, the book will be called American Origins, and will cover the history of American through c. 1680 (the second volume, Imperial America, is being written by Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton, and is expected around 2013).
I learned this from the 4 September podcast of "New Books in History," which I just listened to this morning.
Extra Links
I always forget to check the things I've starred in Twitter that week when I'm writing up my links and reviews. Here's what's been lurking there:
- In Library Journal, Gwen Glazer looks at footnotes in fiction. [via @LibraryJournal]
- Susan Spano, writing in the LATimes, tracks Adams and Jefferson's 1786 travels in England. [via @TJMonticello]
- In the Harvard Crimson, Bonnie Kavousi and Esther Yi discuss a task force examining the state and future prospects of Harvard's libraries. Library director Robert Darnton said that "the libraries are being bled to death" by the rising cost of acquisitions, among other things. [via @Jurretta]
- A white paper by SirsiDynix VP Stephen Abram regarding open access and what it means for libraries has stirred up quite a debate; Library Journal summarizes the discussion. [via @dwig and @LibraryJournal]
Links & Reviews
- Some excellent news: Libraries & the Cultural Record, along with its predecessor journals Libraries & Culture and the Journal of Library History, will be digitized and added to JSTOR by mid-2010. Editor David Gracy II reports "L&CR was cited as a key publication in the disciplines of library and information science, bibliography, and history. According to JSTOR, L&CR was included for its 'unique historical perspective,' 'rigorous review process,' 'encouragement of interdisciplinary work,' and international subject matter.
- In Saturday's NYTimes Travel section, Geraldine Fabrikent profiles a number of rare book libraries around the country.
- The November Americana Exchange Monthly is out: it includes Bruce McKinney's proposal for a Library Book Exchange (which would facilitate, in theory, material swaps between institutions) and a recap of Terry Belanger's recent talk on deaccessioning; and a preview of the 3 December Bloomsbury NY sale of some early works on American exploration collected by McKinney (he writes "The sale will be unusual in one respect. Information on source, date purchased and price paid is included. Auctions, in the modern era, are almost always silent on purchase history. This sale will be among the most transparent on record, certainly the most transparent in modern times. As well, for anyone interested in how auctions work this sale will present an extraordinary view, the chance to observe how a collection does as an investment over more than ten years.").
- In Saturday's NYTimes Travel section, Geraldine Fabrikent profiles a number of rare book libraries around the country.
- A new exhibit at the BL is "Points of View, Capturing the 19th Century in Photographs." The show runs through March 2010.
- Caleb Crain writes on John Keats' speech patterns in the NYTimes "On Language" column, and he's got a follow-up blog post on the subject.
- The Millions has begun a series on "Difficult Books." The first installment covers works by Robert Burton, John Milton, and Jonathan Swift.
- Part of the parlor ceiling at Emily Dickinson's house in Amherst, MA fell down last Sunday.
- J.L. Bell notes the very awesome Papers of the War Department, 1784-1800 database, which seeks to digitally reconstitute - to the extent possible - the War Department archive destroyed by an 1800 fire.
- Mark Godburn's early dust-jacket research is now in blog form, at Nineteenth Century Dust Jackets. I've added a link on the sidebar.
- Cornell University Library has published Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums by Peter Hirtle, Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon. Published as as open-access text, the book is available for download here or for purchase here.
- Chris has a report from the floor on the Golden Gate Book Fair, held last weekend.
- Here's a poem for today by Spencer Reece, from The New Yorker: "My Great-Grandmother's Bible."
- Cornell University Library has published Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums by Peter Hirtle, Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon. Published as as open-access text, the book is available for download here or for purchase here.
- Chris has a report from the floor on the Golden Gate Book Fair, held last weekend.
- Here's a poem for today by Spencer Reece, from The New Yorker: "My Great-Grandmother's Bible."
- If you're interested, James Fallows provides a detailed comparison of Amazon's Kindle and the B&N Nook.
- Haaretz reports that the "German Museum of Modern Literature Thursday rejected a demand from Israel's National Library that it return the manuscript of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial, saying it acquired the manuscript legally." The museum claims that it bought the manuscript at public auction; Israeli authorities claim it was illegally sold by Esther Hoffe, former assistant to Kafka's friend Max Brod. [h/t Shelf:Life]
- Spencer Abel in the Boston Globe highlights the Hemingway Collection at the JFK Library.
- At A Summary View, Monticello's Anna Berkes reports that the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia (their super-cool wiki of all things Jefferson) is beginning to make some headway in Google, knocking some of the random bad Internet data out of the top results. Good going!
Reviews
- John Keegan's The Civil War: A Military History is reviewed by Hugh Brogan in The Telegraph.
- Haaretz reports that the "German Museum of Modern Literature Thursday rejected a demand from Israel's National Library that it return the manuscript of Franz Kafka's novel The Trial, saying it acquired the manuscript legally." The museum claims that it bought the manuscript at public auction; Israeli authorities claim it was illegally sold by Esther Hoffe, former assistant to Kafka's friend Max Brod. [h/t Shelf:Life]
- Spencer Abel in the Boston Globe highlights the Hemingway Collection at the JFK Library.
- At A Summary View, Monticello's Anna Berkes reports that the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia (their super-cool wiki of all things Jefferson) is beginning to make some headway in Google, knocking some of the random bad Internet data out of the top results. Good going!
Reviews
- John Keegan's The Civil War: A Military History is reviewed by Hugh Brogan in The Telegraph.
- Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall is reviewed by Christopher Benfey n the NYTimes.
- Dennis Drabelle offers a short review of Robert Darnton's The Case for Books in the Washington Post.
- Peter Ackroyd's The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein is reviewed by Terrence Rafferty in the NYTimes, and by Thane Rosenbaum in the LATimes.
- Allison Hoover Bartlett's The Man Who Loved Books Too Much is reviewed by Velma Daniels in the Winter Haven News Chief.
- In the NYTimes, Tony Horwitz reviews Timothy Egan's The Big Burn.
- Also in the Globe, Michael Washburn reviews Toby Lester's The Fourth Part of the World, about the Waldseemüller map.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Auction Report: Upcoming
- PBA Galleries will sell Americana, Cartography, and Travel & Exploration on 5 November. Highlights include the nine volumes of the fourth and fifth series of Peter Force's American Archives (1837-1848), including a flawed copy of the folding Declaration of Independence (est. $20,000-30,000); a clipped signature of Billy the Kid (est. $10,000-15,000); and some Lewis & Clarkiana.
- The annual Skinner Fine Books & Manuscripts sale catalog [PDF] is up; the auction will be held on Sunday 15 November at 11 a.m. in Boston. A bunch of autograph/manuscript items leads off the sale, including Lot 17 (a lock of the hair of John Brown, est. $5,000-7,000, picture on p. 11 of the catalog); Lots 40-41 (George Armstrong Custer letters, est. $5,000-7,000 and $8,000-10,000); Lot 96 (a David Hume letter regarding Rousseau's letters to him, est. $10,000-15,000); Lot 131 (a fantastic Martin Luther letter, est. $15,000-25,000); Lot 151 (an Isaac Newton manuscript on ancient European history, est. 10,000-15,000); Lot 184 (a Peter Stuyvesant letter, est. $20,000-30,000); Lot 187 (two manuscript pages of Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers, est. $4,000-6,000).
The high spot of this section is expected to be Lot 179, a large collection of material relating to Albert Schweitzer (est. $35,000-55,000).
Among the books, highlights include Lot 252 (Barton's 1817 Vegetable Materia Medica of the United States, a presentation copy to Commodore William Bainbridge, est. $6,000-8,000); Lots 276-295 (a number of Conrad titles, including several signed/inscribed copies); Lot 331 (a set of early printings of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland works, bound uniformly, est. $3,500-4,500); Lot 359 (a five-volume set of Gould's Birds of Great Britain, est. $60,000-80,000); Lot 363 (a book from the library of Nathaniel Hawthorne, est. $2,000-3,000); and Lot 397A (a first English edition of Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, est. $20,000-30,000).
A copy of my very favorite of Audubon's Birds, the Carolina Parakeet, will be Lot 575 (est. $25,000-35,000). Other interesting things in the final section include Lot 601 (a 1574 Sebastian Munster world atlas, est. $10,000-12,000) and Lot 602 (a 1705 Visscher atlas, est. $10,000-15,000); and Lot 617 (a famous and excellent 1755 map of North America, est. $15,000-20,000).
- The annual Skinner Fine Books & Manuscripts sale catalog [PDF] is up; the auction will be held on Sunday 15 November at 11 a.m. in Boston. A bunch of autograph/manuscript items leads off the sale, including Lot 17 (a lock of the hair of John Brown, est. $5,000-7,000, picture on p. 11 of the catalog); Lots 40-41 (George Armstrong Custer letters, est. $5,000-7,000 and $8,000-10,000); Lot 96 (a David Hume letter regarding Rousseau's letters to him, est. $10,000-15,000); Lot 131 (a fantastic Martin Luther letter, est. $15,000-25,000); Lot 151 (an Isaac Newton manuscript on ancient European history, est. 10,000-15,000); Lot 184 (a Peter Stuyvesant letter, est. $20,000-30,000); Lot 187 (two manuscript pages of Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers, est. $4,000-6,000).
The high spot of this section is expected to be Lot 179, a large collection of material relating to Albert Schweitzer (est. $35,000-55,000).
Among the books, highlights include Lot 252 (Barton's 1817 Vegetable Materia Medica of the United States, a presentation copy to Commodore William Bainbridge, est. $6,000-8,000); Lots 276-295 (a number of Conrad titles, including several signed/inscribed copies); Lot 331 (a set of early printings of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland works, bound uniformly, est. $3,500-4,500); Lot 359 (a five-volume set of Gould's Birds of Great Britain, est. $60,000-80,000); Lot 363 (a book from the library of Nathaniel Hawthorne, est. $2,000-3,000); and Lot 397A (a first English edition of Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, est. $20,000-30,000).
A copy of my very favorite of Audubon's Birds, the Carolina Parakeet, will be Lot 575 (est. $25,000-35,000). Other interesting things in the final section include Lot 601 (a 1574 Sebastian Munster world atlas, est. $10,000-12,000) and Lot 602 (a 1705 Visscher atlas, est. $10,000-15,000); and Lot 617 (a famous and excellent 1755 map of North America, est. $15,000-20,000).
This Week's Acquisitions
Just one new arrival this week:
- The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness by Harlow Giles Unger (Da Capo, 2009). Publisher.
- The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness by Harlow Giles Unger (Da Capo, 2009). Publisher.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Listen (& Panic) Tonight
Tonight at 8 p.m. you can listen to a live streaming version of the 1938 broadcast of Orson Welles' adaptation of H.G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds," which alarmed some listeners when it first aired, 71 years ago tonight.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Auction Report: Byron Letters Set Record, Other Prices High
Today's Sotheby's London sale of Books and Manuscripts from the English Library of the 5th Earl of Rosebery, went very well. The total take was £1,522,303. The big story was that trove of Byron letters to his friend Francis Hodgson (lot 19, estimated at £150,000-180,000); that sold for a whopping £277,250 ($459,000), a record for letters or manuscripts by a British Romantic poet. More on this at Jacket Copy.
Some other items which sold well were John Speed's The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain (1676) (lot 107, estimated at £50,000-60,000), which made £69,650; Christopher Saxton's 1579 atlas of England and Wales (lot 99, estimated at £40,000-60,000 and sold for £73,250); and for a real surprise, John Rocque's 1763 Set of Plans and Forts in America (lot 95, estimated at £7,000-10,000). That more than quadrupled its estimate, fetching £46,850.
Lot 1, a manuscript copy of James Abercromby's An Examination of the Acts of Parliament relative to the trade and the government of the American Colonies, also did very well; it was estimated at £6,000-8,000 and sold for £49,250. A nice association copy of Bligh's narrative (lot 10) also made £49,250, better than tripling its estimate. A four-volume collection of broadsides and tracts relating to the English Civil War (lot 46) sold for £58,850 (estimated at £8,000-12,000). Sir William Hamilton's work on the volcanos of Sicily (lot 54) made £94,850, almost doubling its estimate.
Finally, John Dee's copy of John Hardyng's Chronicle (lot 56) made £55,250, doing much better than its £10,000-15,000 estimate.
Quite a day over there!
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