Links & Reviews

My goodness, you all have been very busy. Missed a week (I was at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair last weekend) and just look at all the links that piled up!

- Two missing/theft reports: one 1734 cookbook that has gone missing in transit, and two works by Poe and Dickens reported stolen through credit card fraud.

- Missed this from when I was traveling: a judge blocked the sale of a volume of Rhode Island colonial court records on eBay.

- Ben Breen writes about one of my favorite characters for Public Domain Review: good old George Psalmanazar, the "False Formosan."

- Robert Darnton talked to Publishers Weekly about his new book A Literary Tour de France and the current state of the publishing industry.

- You can now submit paper proposals for the APS' "Past, Present, and Future of Libraries" conference, coming up in late September. Deadline is 15 May.

- Now on display at the BL, while the Lindisfarne Gospels has gone off public display for a rest until the autumn, "A Bible fit for a king."

- At Connexion, a report on the French government's blocking the sale of a 12th-century Mont-Saint-Michel manuscript.

- The Library of Congress has released a digital version of its collection of Benjamin Franklin's papers.

- Also from LC, the Japanese Censorship Collection, comprising more than a thousand "marked-up copies of monographs and galley proofs censored by the Japanese government in the 1920s and 1930s."

- Over at Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, a bit more on a Cistercian Missal once owned by Otto Ege.

- A New Zealand bookseller has inherited a collection of some 6,000 mountaineering adventure books from a Massachusetts collector; Bill Nye of Adventure Books plans to build an exhibition and research area for the collection in his shop.

- Richard Ovenden writes for the Financial Times: "The Windrush scandal reminds us of the value of archives."

- Simon Beattie highlights what certainly seems to be an 18th-century dust-wrapper (and possibly the earliest documented example?), used to protect a set of unbound plates.

- Alison Flood writes for the Guardian about the discovery of the first known example of a palimpsest text in which a Coptic text of Deuteronomy appears beneath a Qur'an text. It sold at Christie's on Thursday for £596,750.

- For Penn Today, Peter Stallybrass talks about five books that shaped his teaching.

- Richard Davies from AbeBooks has launched a podcast, "Behind the Bookshelves."

- Over on the Trinity College Dublin blog, "The Fascination of Fore-Edges," by Helen McGinley.

- Kate Bolick writes for the NYTimes Material Culture column on "Who Bought Sylvia Plath's Stuff?" See also Peter Steinberg's post on his experience with the Plath sale.

- There's an update on the very fascinating Prize Papers Project on the National Archives (UK) blog.

- Andrew Keener writes for the HRC magazine about his work there as a research fellow working on bilingual and multilingual works printed in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

- Sarah Hovde surveys a few of the items in the Folger's collection attributed to Shakespeare's spirit.

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, a look at what may be the oldest English writing in the BL's collections.

- The Providence Athenaeum has received a $100,000 anonymous gift to develop the library's special collections.

- Ina Kok has been awarded the 17th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography.

- Rebecca Rego Barry notes the 25 April sale at Doyle of items from the estate of Dr. Leo Hershkowitz, well known as an "archival scavenger." The Ratzer Map sold for $150,000.

- From Laura Kolb at The Collation, "The itemized life: John Kay's notebook."

- Stephen Mielke writes for the HRC magazine on "The archivist's archive: Visions of the future past."

- Barron's previews the 14 June Birds of America sale at Christie's.

- Pradeep Sebastian writes about bibliomysteries in The Hindu.

- A. N. Devers notes on the Fine Books Blog the acquisition by London bookshop Any Amount of Books a large number of file copies from Orion Books.

- Two men have pleaded guilty in Moscow to carrying out a series of rare book thefts from 2001 to 2008.

- Hester Blum quibbles about AMC's "The Terror" for Avidly.

Reviews

- The Multigraph Collective's Interacting with Print; review by Abigail Williams in THE.

- Alex Johnson's Book of Book Lists, Stuart Kells' The Library, and Alberto Manguel's Packing my Library; review by Sarah Laskow at Atlas Obscura.

- Margit J. Smith's The Medieval Girdle Book; review by Nicholas Yeager in The Bonefolder.

- Benjamin Park's American Nationalisms; review by Skye Montgomery at The Junto.

- Alexander Bevilacqua's The Arabic Republic of Letters; review by Jacob Soll in TNR.

- Lynne Murphy's The Prodigal Tongue; review by Lionel Shriver in the TLS.

- Michael Dirda surveys some classic and contemporary creepy tales. This one definitely added a few to my reading list.

Upcoming Auctions

- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on 1 May.

- Rare Book & Collectors' Sale at Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers on 2 May.

- Graphic Design at Swann Galleries on 3 May.

- Fine Literature: The Fred Bennett Collection (with additions) at PBA Galleries on 3 May.

- The Original Working Manuscript for the Alcoholics Anonymous 'Big Book' at Profiles in History on 5 May.

Links & Reviews

- The Morgan Library & Museum has acquired a manuscript leaf by the Master of Catherine of Cleves.

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge's coffin was recently identified in a crypt at St. Michael's Church in Highgate.

- Meaghan Brown highlights some free (and very handy) digital resources for early modern historical and literary research.

- Megan Hahn Fraser interviews Tom Knoles for Past is Present. The March 2018 AAS Almanac is also available.

- Rebecca Rego Barry rounds up some recently-published books on books.

- Kate Ozment has been compiling a Google Spreadsheet of women bibliographers, and continues to welcome contributions.

- Francis Wahlgren has joined Leslie Hindman Auctioneers as an exclusive consultant for its fine books and manuscripts department.

- Honglan Huang writes for the Yale Book History blog about Mary Serjant's seventeenth-century copybook.

- Sarah Laskow profiles "book towns" for Atlas Obscura.

- New from Oak Knoll and the Clements Library, The Pioneer Americanists: Early Collectors, Dealers, and Bibliographers.

- David Levy reports for the HRC blog about a T.J. Wise "sophistication" he found while researching Hoyle at the Ransom Center.

- The Chicago Botanic Garden has received an NEH grant to conserve and digitize its collection of rare books and manuscripts.

- Over on the Houghton Library blog, they've posted a few unidentified film stills; if you can help puzzle out the subjects, please do!

- Radio New Zealand reports on worries that the University of Auckland may literally incinerate thousands of books as it closes several libraries.

- David Whitesell writes for Notes from Under Grounds about the winners of the 52nd UVA student book collecting contest.

- A movie based on a 2004 Transylvania University special collections theft, "American Animals," opens in theaters on 1 June. Troubling, frankly, that anybody will be profiting off this attack, which left a librarian injured.

Reviews

- Jack Hartnell's Medieval Bodies; review by PD Smith in the Guardian.

- Alberto Manguel's Packing my Library; review by Claire Armitstead in the Guardian.

- Richard Powers' The Overstory; review by Barbara Kingsolver in the NYTimes.

- Jenny Uglow's Mr. Lear; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.

Upcoming Auctions

- The Knowing Eye: Photographs & Photobooks at Swann Galleries on 19 April.

- Livres Anciens & Manuscrits at Aguttes on 19 April.

- Illustrated & Children's Books - Fine Printing - Art & Photography - Books about Books at PBA Galleries on 19 April.

- Books and Documents at Australian Book Auctions on 23 April.

- Rare Books, Autographs & Maps at Doyle New York on 25 April.

- Fine Illustrated Books & Graphics at Swann Galleries on 26 April.

- Spring Magic Auction at Potter & Potter on 28 April.

Links & Reviews

Another Virginia Antiquarian Book Fair is "in the books," and most of the booksellers seemed very pleased with the results. It was very nice to catch up with many friends there over the course of the weekend.

- Heritage Auctions will sell Conan Doyle's manuscript for "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" on 18 April.

- The Economist's Prospero column focuses on the typesetting competitions of the late nineteenth century.

- Erin Blake explains this month's Collation Crocodile mystery in "Drawing for photographic reproduction."

- Paul Lewis and Sandra Hughes have an update on their efforts to turn the Old Corner Bookstore into a museum, in the New England Review of Books.

- The UNC Libraries have launched a Mellon-funded "Archivist in a Backpack" project to promote community-driven archives.

- The Society of Antiquaries has launched a crowdsourced transcription project for the card index to their collection of seal casts and matrices.

- Rudolf Schonegger, convicted of stealing a signed Harry Potter book, avoided jail time, receiving a 26-week suspended sentence.

- Nate Pedersen profiles Ryan Place for the "Bright Young Collectors" series.

- Michael Dirda writes for the WaPo on "Why the literature of antiquity still matters."

- More from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the thefts recently announced from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

Reviews

- Carlos Magdalena's The Plant Messiah; review by Willy Blackmore in the LATimes.

- Anne Trubek's The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting and Patricia Lovett's The Art and History of Calligraphy; review by David Rundle in the TLS.

Upcoming Auctions

- Autographed Documents, Manuscripts, Photos, Books & Relics at University Archives on 10 April.

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 11 April.

- Printed & Manuscript Americana at Swann Galleries on 12 April.

- Rare Golf Books & Memorabilia From the Collection of John Burns and the Library of Ron Muszalski, with additions at PBA Galleries on 12 April.

Links & Reviews

Back, after a wonderful trip to Scotland and Iceland followed immediately by a move. I'm taking a break from unpacking (so, so much unpacking) to get caught up here, though I'm sure there are many things I completely lost track of while I was gone. Feel free to let me know what I missed!

- Next Friday and Saturday (6–7 April) will be the Virginia Antiquarian Book Fair, in Richmond. Do visit if you can!

- One of the bookshops I visited in Edinburgh, Golden Hare Books, is featured in the Guardian's "Browse a bookshop" column.

- Pittsburgh-area police are investigating thefts from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and request any assistance. See a PDF list of some items believed stolen. More from Michael Stillman for Rare Books Monthly and from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

- Video of the panel discussion at the New York Book Fair on women and collecting is now available via the ABAA blog.

- Quite a garage find, highlighted in the Fine Books Blog.

- From Francis Morrone in The Hopkins Review, "Bookshop Memories."

- Over at Reading Copy, an interview with Heather O'Donnell and Rebecca Romney. As a reminder, the second Honey & Wax Book Collecting Contest (open to women collectors under 30) is now accepting applications!

- The National Library of New Zealand has received a collection of twenty important books printed between 1472 and 1512.

- From the Princeton Graphic Arts collection blog, "How much did a wood engraving cost in 1862?"

- The Library of Congress is running a webinar series highlighting the Mesoamerican manuscripts in their collections.

- A bookseller has been convicted of stealing a signed copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire from Hatchards in December. He was recognized by staff since he had sold items to the shop in the past.

- The University of Edinburgh has acquired a much-annotated copy of Ben Jonson's works, after the UK government instituted an export ban.

- From the University of Rochester, "The myth—and memorabilia—of Seward's Folly."

- Blake Morrison asks in the Guardian, "should an author's dying wishes be obeyed?"

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Cracking a medieval code."

- At The Binder's Ticket, "Bookplates or book labels?"

- Daniel Richter posts for the Huntington Library blog on "John Ogilby's English Restoration Fantasy."

- A bit on Isaiah Thomas' library (now on LibraryThing) from yours truly as Past is Present.

- Isabel Planton is featured in the FB&C "Bright Young Librarians" series. Ditto Rebecca Baumann.

- Katarzyna Lecky writes for The Collation on "The Strange and Practical Beauty of Small-Format Herbals."

- Rich Rennicks has posted a number of links to coverage of this year's New York Antiquarian Book Fair. The NYTimes focused on fashion.

- Rebecca Romney covers book curses for Mental Floss.

- Kurt Zimmerman notes the publication of John R. Payne's Great Catalogues by Master Booksellers.

- The Guardian reported on the sale of various Sylvia Plath items at Bonhams last month. Peter Steinberg has a full rundown of the auction, and some additional analysis.

- The April Rare Book Monthly includes Bruce McKinney's "Enigma, Seeking a Eureka," about a tantalizing French manuscript (do help with that if you can!).

- At Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, another fascinating provenance hunt, this time with some cuttings from the collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

- From Adam Schachter, "Adventures of an Absent-Minded Treasure Hunter."

- The Guardian highlights some of the great Tolkien material on show as part of the major Bodleian exhibition.

- I missed the Clements Library post about "Battle Estrays" in February, so I'm grateful to J.L. Bell for noting it as he digs into one of the examples cited.

Reviews

- Lucy Mangan's Bookworm; review by Kathryn Hughes in the Guardian.

- Julia Miller's Meeting by Accident; review by Barbara Adams Hebard for BookArtsWeb.

- Jo Nesbø's Hogarth Shakespeare Macbeth; review by Alexander Larman in the Guardian.

- Daniel Kalder's The Infernal Library; review by Ernest Hilbert is in the WaPo.

Upcoming Auctions

- Antique Scientific Instruments, Globes and Cameras at Dorotheum on 4 April.

- Fine & Rare Books at PBA Galleries on 5 April.

- Entertainment Memorabilia at Potter & Potter on 7 April.