- Daniel J. Leab, publisher of American Book Prices Current, editor, professor, and historian, died this week at the age of 80. As John Overholt wrote on the RBMS list, "The Leabs’ vision and commitment in establishing the Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibitions Awards has enriched the professional lives of the RBMS community in wide-ranging and innumerable ways since its inception. He will be deeply missed." My sincere condolences to his family.
- Now on display at the Folger Shakespeare Library, all eighteen copies (plus understudy) of the First Folio that have been traveling around the country this year. This is the largest-ever public display of First Folios at a single venue. The show will be up until 22 January.
- Original electrotype blocks used for the illustrations in Alice and Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass will be sold at Christie's on 1 December.
- ILAB has posted an interview with new ILAB president Gonzalo Pontes.
- The oldest-known version of the Ten Commandments on a stone tablet (dated to 300–500 CE), previously in the collections of the Living Torah Museum, sold at auction this week for $850,000 at Heritage Auctions; the sale came with a provision that the tablet must be put on public display.
- Arthur Fournier gets the "Bright Young Booksellers" treatment at FB&C.
- Matt Gallatin writes for the Michigan Daily about Motte & Bailey Booksellers of Ann Arbor.
- Sammy Hudes reports for the Star on the Leonard Cohen archives, housed at the University of Toronto's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.
Reviews
- James Stourton's Kenneth Clark; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- Ruth Scurr's John Aubrey, My Own Life; review by Jeffrey Collins in the WSJ.
Upcoming Auctions
- Rare Books at Ketterer Kunst, 21–22 November
- The Chicago World's Fair, Columbian Exposition 1893 at Gray's, 21 November
- Rare Books, Autographs, Maps & Photographs (including books from the Library of the Explorers Club) at Doyle New York, 22 November
- Music and Continental Books & Manuscripts at Sotheby's London, 29 November
- The Giancarlo Beltrame Collection of Scientific Books, Part II at Christie's London, 30 November
- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Chiswick Auctions, 30 November
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Links & Reviews
- From Jason Rhody, "How to Fight for Federal Support of Cultural Research and Why It Matters."
- Another round of sales from Pierre Bergé's library was held in Paris on 8–9 November, resulting in total sales of €4.8 million. A Flaubert travel diary attracted much pre-sale attention, including coverage in the Guardian (it sold for nearly €540,000).
- November's Rare Book Monthly articles include a profile of map dealer Barry Ruderman, a tribute to Bob Fleck, and a report on the guilty verdict in Michael Danaher's trial for the murder of bookseller Adrian Greenwood. More on the latter from the BBC.
- Wayne Wiegand writes for Inside Higher Ed about how contemporary LIS "research" has shortchanged libraries.
- Some important job searches: AAS is hiring an Associate Librarian, UVA seeks an Associate University Librarian for Special Collections & Archives, and the BPL is looking for a Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarian.
- Newly launched, EMoBookTrade, which looks quite interesting indeed.
- A task force at MIT has issued a preliminary "Future of Libraries" report, which "contains general recommendations intended to develop 'a global library for a global university,' while strengthening the library system’s relationship with the local academic community and public sphere."
- Vic Zoschak looks back at this year's Boston Book Fair.
- The ABAA's Women in Bookselling Initiative launched in Boston during the fair.
- Rick Russack offers a review of the events around the book fair for Antiques and the Arts Weekly.
- The University of Chicago has digitized 68 Biblical manuscripts from the Edgar J. Goodspeed Manuscript Collection.
- Several major US and UK institutions have agreed to cooperate in the digitization of the papers of George III.
- Watch a talk by Tom Mole, "Scott in Stone: The Scott Monument in the Victorian Pantheon," delivered to the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club.
- A first edition of the first Harry Potter book sold for £35,000 this week.
- Based on some fairly tangled legal reasoning, a Connecticut judge ordered that 252 disputed books from Maurice Sendak's estate will go to the author's estate, with another 88 going to the Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Both sides may appeal. More coverage from Smithsonian and the NYTimes.
- Author Philip Roth is donating his 4,000-volume library to the Newark Public Library.
- Damage to a nearby building from a massive earthquake has closed the National Library of New Zealand for the time being.
- Tom Brokaw's papers and archive will go to the University of Iowa.
- At The Taper, Brandon Butler posts about the recent goings-on at the Copyright Office.
- The Portland Press Herald interviews Don Lindgren of Rabelais.
- One of 145 manuscripts stolen in 1985 from the Biblioteca Passerini-Landi in Piacenza was recovered after being spotted for sale online. More than half of the other manuscripts have also been recovered over the years. More from the BBC.
- Book scout Martin Stone has died. More from Bookride.
- Chicago's Lutheran School of Theology has returned a 9th-century New Testament to the Greek Orthodox Church.
- From Stephanie Kingsley in Perspectives, a "quick study" on book history.
- Rob Koehler writes for the JHIBlog on novel-reading in the early republic.
- Watch a time-lapse video of 52,000 books being reshelved in the NYPL's Rose Main Reading Room.
- Seven volumes missing from the London Library since the 1950s were recently returned after being found during an estate appraisal.
- The Watkinson Library has acquired an 1839 Audubon letter to Robert Havell.
- Stephanie Jamieson writes for the NLS blog about identifying platinotype photographs.
- Bookseller Ken Karmiole has given $100,000 to the Book Club of California to endow a lecture series in the history of the book trade in California and the West.
- Éditions des Saints Pères is publishing a limited facsimile edition of the manuscript of Jane Eyre, with illustrations by Edmund Garrett.
- Gregory Schneider reports for the WaPo about the State Library of Virginia's efforts to collect and scan Civil War documents from family collections across the commonwealth. Wonderful story.
- The director of Moscow's Library of Ukrainian Literature has been put on trial for "inciting ethnic hatred against Russians" (i.e. "disseminating banned literature classed as extremist"). Natalia Sharina is also charged with embezzling library funds; she maintains that all charges are politically motivated.
- The OUP blog features an essay by New Oxford Shakespeare editor Gary Taylor on Shakespeare's collaborators.
- National Geographic reports on Robert Berlo's important collection of more than 12,000 road maps.
- The second part of Gordon Hollis' "Book Collecting in the United States" series is up on the ABAA blog. Part One.
- Joel Fry, curator at Bartram's Garden, is seeking information on copies of the first edition of John Bartram's Travels (Philadelphia, 1791) for an ongoing census.
- The DPLA's Archival Description Working Group has released a new whitepaper on aggregating and representing archival collections.
- One of the most amusing library blog posts in a long time: "A Raven Named Sir Nevermore?"
Reviews
- The Morgan Library's Charlotte Brontë exhibition; review by Francine Prose in the NYRB.
- Anne Trubek's The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting; review by Lucy Ferriss at Lingua Franca.
- Frances Wilson's Guilty Thing; review by John Sutherland in the NYTimes.
- David Skal's Something in the Blood; review by Jason Zinoman in the NYTimes.
- John Crowley's new edition of The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz: A Romance in Eight Days by Johann Valentin Andreae; review by Peter Bebergal for the New Yorker's Page-Turner blog.
- John Simpson's The Word Detective and John McWhorter's Words on the Move; review by Lynne Truss in the NYTimes.
- Colin Dickey's Ghostland; review by Rachel Monroe in the LARB.
- Another round of sales from Pierre Bergé's library was held in Paris on 8–9 November, resulting in total sales of €4.8 million. A Flaubert travel diary attracted much pre-sale attention, including coverage in the Guardian (it sold for nearly €540,000).
- November's Rare Book Monthly articles include a profile of map dealer Barry Ruderman, a tribute to Bob Fleck, and a report on the guilty verdict in Michael Danaher's trial for the murder of bookseller Adrian Greenwood. More on the latter from the BBC.
- Wayne Wiegand writes for Inside Higher Ed about how contemporary LIS "research" has shortchanged libraries.
- Some important job searches: AAS is hiring an Associate Librarian, UVA seeks an Associate University Librarian for Special Collections & Archives, and the BPL is looking for a Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarian.
- Newly launched, EMoBookTrade, which looks quite interesting indeed.
- A task force at MIT has issued a preliminary "Future of Libraries" report, which "contains general recommendations intended to develop 'a global library for a global university,' while strengthening the library system’s relationship with the local academic community and public sphere."
- Vic Zoschak looks back at this year's Boston Book Fair.
- The ABAA's Women in Bookselling Initiative launched in Boston during the fair.
- Rick Russack offers a review of the events around the book fair for Antiques and the Arts Weekly.
- The University of Chicago has digitized 68 Biblical manuscripts from the Edgar J. Goodspeed Manuscript Collection.
- Several major US and UK institutions have agreed to cooperate in the digitization of the papers of George III.
- Watch a talk by Tom Mole, "Scott in Stone: The Scott Monument in the Victorian Pantheon," delivered to the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club.
- A first edition of the first Harry Potter book sold for £35,000 this week.
- Based on some fairly tangled legal reasoning, a Connecticut judge ordered that 252 disputed books from Maurice Sendak's estate will go to the author's estate, with another 88 going to the Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Both sides may appeal. More coverage from Smithsonian and the NYTimes.
- Author Philip Roth is donating his 4,000-volume library to the Newark Public Library.
- Damage to a nearby building from a massive earthquake has closed the National Library of New Zealand for the time being.
- Tom Brokaw's papers and archive will go to the University of Iowa.
- At The Taper, Brandon Butler posts about the recent goings-on at the Copyright Office.
- The Portland Press Herald interviews Don Lindgren of Rabelais.
- One of 145 manuscripts stolen in 1985 from the Biblioteca Passerini-Landi in Piacenza was recovered after being spotted for sale online. More than half of the other manuscripts have also been recovered over the years. More from the BBC.
- Book scout Martin Stone has died. More from Bookride.
- Chicago's Lutheran School of Theology has returned a 9th-century New Testament to the Greek Orthodox Church.
- From Stephanie Kingsley in Perspectives, a "quick study" on book history.
- Rob Koehler writes for the JHIBlog on novel-reading in the early republic.
- Watch a time-lapse video of 52,000 books being reshelved in the NYPL's Rose Main Reading Room.
- Seven volumes missing from the London Library since the 1950s were recently returned after being found during an estate appraisal.
- The Watkinson Library has acquired an 1839 Audubon letter to Robert Havell.
- Stephanie Jamieson writes for the NLS blog about identifying platinotype photographs.
- Bookseller Ken Karmiole has given $100,000 to the Book Club of California to endow a lecture series in the history of the book trade in California and the West.
- Éditions des Saints Pères is publishing a limited facsimile edition of the manuscript of Jane Eyre, with illustrations by Edmund Garrett.
- Gregory Schneider reports for the WaPo about the State Library of Virginia's efforts to collect and scan Civil War documents from family collections across the commonwealth. Wonderful story.
- The director of Moscow's Library of Ukrainian Literature has been put on trial for "inciting ethnic hatred against Russians" (i.e. "disseminating banned literature classed as extremist"). Natalia Sharina is also charged with embezzling library funds; she maintains that all charges are politically motivated.
- The OUP blog features an essay by New Oxford Shakespeare editor Gary Taylor on Shakespeare's collaborators.
- National Geographic reports on Robert Berlo's important collection of more than 12,000 road maps.
- The second part of Gordon Hollis' "Book Collecting in the United States" series is up on the ABAA blog. Part One.
- Joel Fry, curator at Bartram's Garden, is seeking information on copies of the first edition of John Bartram's Travels (Philadelphia, 1791) for an ongoing census.
- The DPLA's Archival Description Working Group has released a new whitepaper on aggregating and representing archival collections.
- One of the most amusing library blog posts in a long time: "A Raven Named Sir Nevermore?"
Reviews
- The Morgan Library's Charlotte Brontë exhibition; review by Francine Prose in the NYRB.
- Anne Trubek's The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting; review by Lucy Ferriss at Lingua Franca.
- Frances Wilson's Guilty Thing; review by John Sutherland in the NYTimes.
- David Skal's Something in the Blood; review by Jason Zinoman in the NYTimes.
- John Crowley's new edition of The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz: A Romance in Eight Days by Johann Valentin Andreae; review by Peter Bebergal for the New Yorker's Page-Turner blog.
- John Simpson's The Word Detective and John McWhorter's Words on the Move; review by Lynne Truss in the NYTimes.
- Colin Dickey's Ghostland; review by Rachel Monroe in the LARB.
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Links & Reviews
- The American Antiquarian Society has unveiled plans for a three-story, 7,000-square foot addition to Antiquarian Hall. See the September Almanac for details.
- Over on the OUP blog, Cóilín Parsons writes on "Big data in the nineteenth century."
- At The New Antiquarian, an "In Memoriam" post for bookseller David Holmes, and Rich Rennicks offers up "Ten Reasons to Attend the Boston Book Fair."
- From Mark Oppenheimer on the New Yorker's Page Turner blog, "The Lost Virtue of Cursive."
- Rare Books Digest offers an analysis of the second- and third-quarter book auctions.
- Alison Flood reports for the Guardian about a House of Lords debate this week in which numerous peers criticized the Government for cuts to libraries over the last several years.
- It's that time again: Megan Rosenbloom writes about anthropodermic bindings for Lapham's Quarterly.
- Hay-on-Wye, perhaps the most famous "book town" in the world, could lose its public library, the BBC reports.
- Florence Fearrington has given $5 million to the Wilson Special Collections Library at UNC Chapel Hill.
- Phoenix Alexander writes for the Beinecke's blog about an apparently unrecorded pamphlet found during cataloging of a large collection of slavery tracts.
- I'm not at all just how newsy this is, but the Washington Post reported this week on analyses of the manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence which suggest that twentieth-century conservation efforts may have caused damage to the manuscript.
- The Museum of London has acquired a manuscript account of a January 1667 report to the House of Commons by Sir Robert Brooks, chairman of the committee charged with investigating the origins of the Great Fire of London.
- Book collector Howard Knohl, a selection from whose collection will be sold at Sotheby's this week, is profiled in the Orange County Times.
Reviews
- Richard Holmes' This Long Pursuit; review by Daisy Hay in the Guardian.
- Ronald C. White's American Ulysses; review by T.J. Stiles in the NYTimes.
- Over on the OUP blog, Cóilín Parsons writes on "Big data in the nineteenth century."
- At The New Antiquarian, an "In Memoriam" post for bookseller David Holmes, and Rich Rennicks offers up "Ten Reasons to Attend the Boston Book Fair."
- From Mark Oppenheimer on the New Yorker's Page Turner blog, "The Lost Virtue of Cursive."
- Rare Books Digest offers an analysis of the second- and third-quarter book auctions.
- Alison Flood reports for the Guardian about a House of Lords debate this week in which numerous peers criticized the Government for cuts to libraries over the last several years.
- It's that time again: Megan Rosenbloom writes about anthropodermic bindings for Lapham's Quarterly.
- Hay-on-Wye, perhaps the most famous "book town" in the world, could lose its public library, the BBC reports.
- Florence Fearrington has given $5 million to the Wilson Special Collections Library at UNC Chapel Hill.
- Phoenix Alexander writes for the Beinecke's blog about an apparently unrecorded pamphlet found during cataloging of a large collection of slavery tracts.
- I'm not at all just how newsy this is, but the Washington Post reported this week on analyses of the manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence which suggest that twentieth-century conservation efforts may have caused damage to the manuscript.
- The Museum of London has acquired a manuscript account of a January 1667 report to the House of Commons by Sir Robert Brooks, chairman of the committee charged with investigating the origins of the Great Fire of London.
- Book collector Howard Knohl, a selection from whose collection will be sold at Sotheby's this week, is profiled in the Orange County Times.
Reviews
- Richard Holmes' This Long Pursuit; review by Daisy Hay in the Guardian.
- Ronald C. White's American Ulysses; review by T.J. Stiles in the NYTimes.
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Links & Reviews
- Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending my first Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair (and given the weather reports, it sounds like they picked the right weekend for it!). Kate Mitas has a writeup for the Tavistock Books blog. Good venue, decent crowds, and as always a real delight to be among friends from around the biblio-community.
- As Boston approaches, Rich Rennicks has a posted on the ABAA blog offering advice on attending your first book fair.
- Speaking of Boston, the ABAA-RBS seminar series on Thursday, 27 October (right before the fair) still has some spaces available. If you'll be in the area and are interested in a concentrated day of bookish seminars, please join us!
- I missed this announcement in early August: the Berger-Cloonan collection of decorated papers has been acquired by Texas A&M.
- Gavriel Hundiashvili has been charged with the theft of two rare books from the PRPH Books in Manhattan, and has reportedly confessed both to the theft and to mailing the books to the police in September.
- See also, from the NYTimes, Sarah Maslin Nir's piece on rare book theft and booksellers' efforts to combat it.
- The BL and BNF are working on a joint project to digitized some 800 manuscripts from before 1200 CE. Please see Dot Porter's response to this announcement.
- Conservators Frank Mowery and Sonja Jordan-Mowery are profiled in the Lakeland Ledger.
- New letters by Sir Peyton Skipwith at William & Mary's Swem Library include one in which Skipwith mentions his wife Jean's "small, but well-chosen library." (See the library here).
- Matthew Carter will deliver APHA's Lieberman Lecture on 3 December at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, MA.
- Items from the collection of the Great Evanion (Harry Evans) will go on display at the British Library this week.
- PBA Galleries will sell an extensive archive of Civil War letters this week.
- The NYPL is digitizing its collection of New York city directories from 1786 through 1922/3. Good background and context on the project in the linked post.
- Arizona State University has acquired the Robert A. Lawler collection of sixteenth-century English literature.
- New from Cambridge: Fleuron: A Database of Eighteenth-Century Printers' Ornaments.
- There's a new exhibition on rare book provenance at the University of Adelaide.
- Michael Danaher is currently on trial in Oxford Crown Court for the April murder of rare book dealer Adrian Greenwood. Prosecutors claim the murder was "part of an attempt" to steal a first edition of The Wind in the Willows. The book was found in Danaher's house, along with lists of "people of means" the defendant allegedly planned to kidnap or rob.
- Jonathon Green's Dictionary of Slang is now available online.
- Over at The Collation, Abbie Weinberg and Elizabeth DeBold take a look at the "other" First Folio (Jonson's Workes), published four hundred years ago.
- Ben Cort writes for the Harvard Crimson about a project to digitize Native American petitions in the collections of the Massachusetts State Archives.
- Atlas Obscura visits the hidden apartments inside the NYPL's branch libraries.
- The National Library of Israel has acquired a collection of manuscripts related to the Silk Road.
- From Bookhunter on Safari, a profile of Clara Millard, "the most successful book-huntress in the world."
- More Rare Books of Instagram on the Fine Books Blog.
- Google and Monotype have launched Noto, an open-source typeface family designed to be used for any language.
- Sotheby's will sell the Bible collection of Charles Ryrie in December.
- John Pipkin writes for Lithub about bookseller James Lackington and his Temple of the Muses bookshop.
Reviews
- Zara Anishanslin's Portrait of a Woman in Silk; review by Alyssa Zuercher Reichardt at The Junto.
- Shakespeare & Company, Paris (edited by Krista Halverson); review by Frances Spalding in the Guardian.
- Corey Mead's Angelic Music; review by Eugenia Zukerman in the WaPo.
- Alan Taylor's American Revolutions; review by Louisa Thomas in the WaPo.
- Colin Dickey's Ghostland; review by Tom Zoellner in the LATimes.
- The current Grolier Club exhibition, "The Centaur Turns One Hundred"; review by Allison Meier at Hyperallergic.
- As Boston approaches, Rich Rennicks has a posted on the ABAA blog offering advice on attending your first book fair.
- Speaking of Boston, the ABAA-RBS seminar series on Thursday, 27 October (right before the fair) still has some spaces available. If you'll be in the area and are interested in a concentrated day of bookish seminars, please join us!
- I missed this announcement in early August: the Berger-Cloonan collection of decorated papers has been acquired by Texas A&M.
- Gavriel Hundiashvili has been charged with the theft of two rare books from the PRPH Books in Manhattan, and has reportedly confessed both to the theft and to mailing the books to the police in September.
- See also, from the NYTimes, Sarah Maslin Nir's piece on rare book theft and booksellers' efforts to combat it.
- The BL and BNF are working on a joint project to digitized some 800 manuscripts from before 1200 CE. Please see Dot Porter's response to this announcement.
- Conservators Frank Mowery and Sonja Jordan-Mowery are profiled in the Lakeland Ledger.
- New letters by Sir Peyton Skipwith at William & Mary's Swem Library include one in which Skipwith mentions his wife Jean's "small, but well-chosen library." (See the library here).
- Matthew Carter will deliver APHA's Lieberman Lecture on 3 December at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, MA.
- Items from the collection of the Great Evanion (Harry Evans) will go on display at the British Library this week.
- PBA Galleries will sell an extensive archive of Civil War letters this week.
- The NYPL is digitizing its collection of New York city directories from 1786 through 1922/3. Good background and context on the project in the linked post.
- Arizona State University has acquired the Robert A. Lawler collection of sixteenth-century English literature.
- New from Cambridge: Fleuron: A Database of Eighteenth-Century Printers' Ornaments.
- There's a new exhibition on rare book provenance at the University of Adelaide.
- Michael Danaher is currently on trial in Oxford Crown Court for the April murder of rare book dealer Adrian Greenwood. Prosecutors claim the murder was "part of an attempt" to steal a first edition of The Wind in the Willows. The book was found in Danaher's house, along with lists of "people of means" the defendant allegedly planned to kidnap or rob.
- Jonathon Green's Dictionary of Slang is now available online.
- Over at The Collation, Abbie Weinberg and Elizabeth DeBold take a look at the "other" First Folio (Jonson's Workes), published four hundred years ago.
- Ben Cort writes for the Harvard Crimson about a project to digitize Native American petitions in the collections of the Massachusetts State Archives.
- Atlas Obscura visits the hidden apartments inside the NYPL's branch libraries.
- The National Library of Israel has acquired a collection of manuscripts related to the Silk Road.
- From Bookhunter on Safari, a profile of Clara Millard, "the most successful book-huntress in the world."
- More Rare Books of Instagram on the Fine Books Blog.
- Google and Monotype have launched Noto, an open-source typeface family designed to be used for any language.
- Sotheby's will sell the Bible collection of Charles Ryrie in December.
- John Pipkin writes for Lithub about bookseller James Lackington and his Temple of the Muses bookshop.
Reviews
- Zara Anishanslin's Portrait of a Woman in Silk; review by Alyssa Zuercher Reichardt at The Junto.
- Shakespeare & Company, Paris (edited by Krista Halverson); review by Frances Spalding in the Guardian.
- Corey Mead's Angelic Music; review by Eugenia Zukerman in the WaPo.
- Alan Taylor's American Revolutions; review by Louisa Thomas in the WaPo.
- Colin Dickey's Ghostland; review by Tom Zoellner in the LATimes.
- The current Grolier Club exhibition, "The Centaur Turns One Hundred"; review by Allison Meier at Hyperallergic.
Monday, October 03, 2016
Links & Reviews
A warning: timing on these posts may be wonky for the next month or so, as I've got a heavy travel schedule; I'll try to keep up with things and will post when I can.
- Oak Knoll Fest XIX this past weekend seemed a grand success: excellent panel discussions and lectures, a very well-attended fine press showcase, and some unbeatable sales at Oak Knoll Books. I know I'm not alone in looking forward to the next one!
- The Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair is coming up this weekend, and the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair will be held from 28 to 30 October.
- The ABAA reports the theft of "a number of maps and prints focused on Arctic Exploration, Ethnography, and Circumpolar Navigation" from Juneau, Alaska.
- Christopher de Hamel's Guardian piece about the potential identification of a psalter as once belonging to St. Thomas Becket is a must-read.
- From Eureka Books, a good rundown of the consequences of a new California law governing the sale of autographed books and artwork.
- Jay Moschella writes for the BPL's Collections of Distinction blog about a forged Shakespeare signature. Also see his previous post on the 1598 Richard II quarto.
- From Don Skemer at Princeton, an overview of the library's holdings of William Henry Ireland's Shakespeare forgeries.
- John Lancaster posted on ExLibris on behalf of Elly Cockx-Indestege, who is looking for books from the collection of the 8th Duke of Arenberg. See the post for images of the relevant provenance marks.
- There's a survey (open until 1 November) asking "What I Did Not Learn in Library School" - if it applies, you might consider helping out the researchers. See this post for more details.
- A new exhibition at Trinity College's Watkinson Library celebrates the library's 150th anniversary.
- The catalog of Yale Law Library's current exhibition, "Representing the Law in the Most Serene Republic: Images of Authority from Renaissance Venice" is now available as a PDF, and a selection of photos from the show are up on Flickr.
- Sotheby's posts about a Lewis Carroll manuscript coming up for sale later this month which includes a list of friends the author intended to receive copies of his 1890 work The Nursery of Alice.
- October's Rare Books Monthly articles are up: they include a profile of bookseller Kurt Sanftleben.
- Lew Jaffe has posted a number of interesting bookplates he's willing to exchange for others not currently represented in his collection.
- AbeBooks.com has introduced a new "Collections" section, themed lists curated by member booksellers.
- See a video about the University of Iowa Center for the Book's attempt to make 2,000 sheets of chancery paper in a single day
- Rich Rennicks posts for The New Antiquarian about the "wordless novels" of Lynd Ward.
- Over at The Junto, Joe Adelman proposes a massive but very useful resource on how the Bible was used and interpreted in early America.
- A major Poe exhibition opens this week at John Hopkins' Peabody Library.
- Sarah Werner posts on "researching while unaffiliated."
- Heywood Hill is running a Library Lifetime Prize Draw: tell them the book that has meant the most to you, and you could win a book a month, for life!
- Christie's profiles Glenn Horowitz.
- Christopher Minty talks to Carolle Morini of the Boston Athenaeum at The Junto.
- For their "Mystery Monday" post, the folks at the Provenance Online Project have a monogram bookplate for us to puzzle out.
- Lisa Fagin Davis posts on Manuscript Road Trip about the ongoing Beyond Words exhibition in Boston. More on this on the Fine Books Blog.
- There's a Vandercook SP-20 that could be yours ... and Josef Beery has developed a new tabletop letterpress, the Book Beetle (see the video).
- A new exhibition at the V&A explores David Garrick as a book collector.
Reviews
- Krista Halverson's Shakespeare and Company, Paris; review in The Economist.
- Elizabeth Yale's Sociable Knowledge; review by Katherine Walker for the British Society for Literature and Science.
- Ruth Franklin's Shirley Jackson; reviews by Elaine Showalter in the WaPo and Scott Bradfield in the LATimes.
- Mark Kurlansky's Paper and Keith Houston's The Book; review by Dennis Duncan in the TLS.
- Oak Knoll Fest XIX this past weekend seemed a grand success: excellent panel discussions and lectures, a very well-attended fine press showcase, and some unbeatable sales at Oak Knoll Books. I know I'm not alone in looking forward to the next one!
- The Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair is coming up this weekend, and the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair will be held from 28 to 30 October.
- The ABAA reports the theft of "a number of maps and prints focused on Arctic Exploration, Ethnography, and Circumpolar Navigation" from Juneau, Alaska.
- Christopher de Hamel's Guardian piece about the potential identification of a psalter as once belonging to St. Thomas Becket is a must-read.
- From Eureka Books, a good rundown of the consequences of a new California law governing the sale of autographed books and artwork.
- Jay Moschella writes for the BPL's Collections of Distinction blog about a forged Shakespeare signature. Also see his previous post on the 1598 Richard II quarto.
- From Don Skemer at Princeton, an overview of the library's holdings of William Henry Ireland's Shakespeare forgeries.
- John Lancaster posted on ExLibris on behalf of Elly Cockx-Indestege, who is looking for books from the collection of the 8th Duke of Arenberg. See the post for images of the relevant provenance marks.
- There's a survey (open until 1 November) asking "What I Did Not Learn in Library School" - if it applies, you might consider helping out the researchers. See this post for more details.
- A new exhibition at Trinity College's Watkinson Library celebrates the library's 150th anniversary.
- The catalog of Yale Law Library's current exhibition, "Representing the Law in the Most Serene Republic: Images of Authority from Renaissance Venice" is now available as a PDF, and a selection of photos from the show are up on Flickr.
- Sotheby's posts about a Lewis Carroll manuscript coming up for sale later this month which includes a list of friends the author intended to receive copies of his 1890 work The Nursery of Alice.
- October's Rare Books Monthly articles are up: they include a profile of bookseller Kurt Sanftleben.
- Lew Jaffe has posted a number of interesting bookplates he's willing to exchange for others not currently represented in his collection.
- AbeBooks.com has introduced a new "Collections" section, themed lists curated by member booksellers.
- See a video about the University of Iowa Center for the Book's attempt to make 2,000 sheets of chancery paper in a single day
- Rich Rennicks posts for The New Antiquarian about the "wordless novels" of Lynd Ward.
- Over at The Junto, Joe Adelman proposes a massive but very useful resource on how the Bible was used and interpreted in early America.
- A major Poe exhibition opens this week at John Hopkins' Peabody Library.
- Sarah Werner posts on "researching while unaffiliated."
- Heywood Hill is running a Library Lifetime Prize Draw: tell them the book that has meant the most to you, and you could win a book a month, for life!
- Christie's profiles Glenn Horowitz.
- Christopher Minty talks to Carolle Morini of the Boston Athenaeum at The Junto.
- For their "Mystery Monday" post, the folks at the Provenance Online Project have a monogram bookplate for us to puzzle out.
- Lisa Fagin Davis posts on Manuscript Road Trip about the ongoing Beyond Words exhibition in Boston. More on this on the Fine Books Blog.
- There's a Vandercook SP-20 that could be yours ... and Josef Beery has developed a new tabletop letterpress, the Book Beetle (see the video).
- A new exhibition at the V&A explores David Garrick as a book collector.
Reviews
- Krista Halverson's Shakespeare and Company, Paris; review in The Economist.
- Elizabeth Yale's Sociable Knowledge; review by Katherine Walker for the British Society for Literature and Science.
- Ruth Franklin's Shirley Jackson; reviews by Elaine Showalter in the WaPo and Scott Bradfield in the LATimes.
- Mark Kurlansky's Paper and Keith Houston's The Book; review by Dennis Duncan in the TLS.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Links & Reviews
The world lost a true bookman of the highest order on Thursday. Through his bookselling and publishing firms Oak Knoll Books & Press, Bob Fleck labored tirelessly over the last forty years to make important works of bibliographical and book-historical scholarship available to readers, scholars, and collectors. I always enjoyed talking to Bob at book fairs and other places where our paths crossed; he usually had an interesting book or two to show me, and was unfailingly encouraging to me as a young collector of the sorts of books he liked and published. I send my heartfelt condolences to his family and his colleagues. He will be much missed.
- Tributes to Bob Fleck from Jim Hinck at vialibri, Nevine Marchiset at ILAB (with additional submissions from booksellers around the world), and Rich Rennicks on the ABAA blog. John Schulman of ABAA announced on Friday that "All are invited to send memorials, testimonials, anecdotes, etc., about Bob Fleck, to the editor of the ABAA website, Rich Rennicks. His email is rich@abaa.org. We hope to compile these and publish them on the website."
- See also: Jane Rodgers Siegel's remarks at the awarding of the 2008 APHA Institutional Award for Distinguished Achievement in Printing History to Oak Knoll Press and Nevine Marchiset's post about his receipt of the ILAB Medal last fall.
- The online catalog for Boston's Beyond Words exhibition is now available. I'm very much looking forward to seeing at least portions of the show when I'm up there in October.
- Daryl Green has a farewell post at Echoes from the Vault; in October he takes up the reins as College Librarian at Magdalen College, Oxford.
- Scientists have "virtually unwrapped" the charred En-Gedi scroll, known as "the oldest Pentateuchal scroll in Hebrew outside of the Dead Sea Scrolls."
- Isaac Newton's library is under consideration this week at the Provenance Online Project blog.
- Gordon Rugg has published a new paper offering more evidence that the Voynich Manuscript's text may be an elaborate hoax. See Science Alert, New Scientist.
- Jerry Morris writes at My Sentimental Library about his (very collaborative) work reconstructing Boswell's library on LibraryThing.
- From the Getty's Iris blog, "A Day in the Life of a Digitization Expert."
- Staff at the University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections have identified a Bible once belonging to theologian John Knox.
- Nate Pedersen has begun a new series on the Fine Books Blog, Rare Books on Instagram.
- Now on display at The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia, "The Art of Ownership: Bookplates and Book Collectors from 1480 to the Present."
- From Sarah's Books, "a reasonable number of books," about the process of book-sorting.
- Scotland's Iona Cathedral Trust has received a £100,000 grant to support conservation and cataloging for the library at Iona Abbey.
- Three short stories by Georgette Heyer will be republished next month.
- The Medieval Manuscripts Provenance blog has been posting images of several manuscript leaves and cuttings stolen from a private collection in London.
- Christoph Irmscher posts about a somewhat mysterious page in an Audubon ledger now at the Lilly Library.
- Princeton's Graphic Arts collection announced the recent acquisition of a tiny 1636 Protestant psalter printed at Sedan.
- From the "This is New York" blog, see a video of the NYPL's new "book train" system in action.
- The librarian known as the "world's oldest" has reopened in Fez after a lengthy renovation process.
Reviews
- Christopher de Hamel's Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts; review in The Economist.
- Robert Gottlieb's Avid Reader; reviews by Alexandra Alter in the NYTimes, Michael Dirda in the WaPo, and Thomas Mallon in the NYTimes.
- Emma Donoghue's The Wonder; review by Maureen Corrigan in the WaPo.
- Tributes to Bob Fleck from Jim Hinck at vialibri, Nevine Marchiset at ILAB (with additional submissions from booksellers around the world), and Rich Rennicks on the ABAA blog. John Schulman of ABAA announced on Friday that "All are invited to send memorials, testimonials, anecdotes, etc., about Bob Fleck, to the editor of the ABAA website, Rich Rennicks. His email is rich@abaa.org. We hope to compile these and publish them on the website."
- See also: Jane Rodgers Siegel's remarks at the awarding of the 2008 APHA Institutional Award for Distinguished Achievement in Printing History to Oak Knoll Press and Nevine Marchiset's post about his receipt of the ILAB Medal last fall.
- The online catalog for Boston's Beyond Words exhibition is now available. I'm very much looking forward to seeing at least portions of the show when I'm up there in October.
- Daryl Green has a farewell post at Echoes from the Vault; in October he takes up the reins as College Librarian at Magdalen College, Oxford.
- Scientists have "virtually unwrapped" the charred En-Gedi scroll, known as "the oldest Pentateuchal scroll in Hebrew outside of the Dead Sea Scrolls."
- Isaac Newton's library is under consideration this week at the Provenance Online Project blog.
- Gordon Rugg has published a new paper offering more evidence that the Voynich Manuscript's text may be an elaborate hoax. See Science Alert, New Scientist.
- Jerry Morris writes at My Sentimental Library about his (very collaborative) work reconstructing Boswell's library on LibraryThing.
- From the Getty's Iris blog, "A Day in the Life of a Digitization Expert."
- Staff at the University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections have identified a Bible once belonging to theologian John Knox.
- Nate Pedersen has begun a new series on the Fine Books Blog, Rare Books on Instagram.
- Now on display at The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia, "The Art of Ownership: Bookplates and Book Collectors from 1480 to the Present."
- From Sarah's Books, "a reasonable number of books," about the process of book-sorting.
- Scotland's Iona Cathedral Trust has received a £100,000 grant to support conservation and cataloging for the library at Iona Abbey.
- Three short stories by Georgette Heyer will be republished next month.
- The Medieval Manuscripts Provenance blog has been posting images of several manuscript leaves and cuttings stolen from a private collection in London.
- Christoph Irmscher posts about a somewhat mysterious page in an Audubon ledger now at the Lilly Library.
- Princeton's Graphic Arts collection announced the recent acquisition of a tiny 1636 Protestant psalter printed at Sedan.
- From the "This is New York" blog, see a video of the NYPL's new "book train" system in action.
- The librarian known as the "world's oldest" has reopened in Fez after a lengthy renovation process.
Reviews
- Christopher de Hamel's Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts; review in The Economist.
- Robert Gottlieb's Avid Reader; reviews by Alexandra Alter in the NYTimes, Michael Dirda in the WaPo, and Thomas Mallon in the NYTimes.
- Emma Donoghue's The Wonder; review by Maureen Corrigan in the WaPo.
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Links & Reviews
- From the new issue of Common-place, a great piece by Endrina Tay on the sale of Jefferson's library to Congress in 1815.
- New York City police have released photos of a suspect in the theft of two books from PRPH Books back in April.
- Daniel Akst reports for the WSJ about an MIT/Georgia Tech research effort to use electromagnetic waves (terahertz radiation) to "read" stacked pages: the technique could potentially have uses in analyzing ancient manuscripts, &c.
- Leah Grandy writes for Borealia about the increasing need for training in basic cursive paleography.
- NYPL's Rose Main Reading Room will reopen on 5 October after being closed for more than two years for repairs and restoration.
- Carla Hayden was sworn in this week as Librarian of Congress. You can watch the ceremony here via C-SPAN. Nicholas Fandos reported for the NYTimes on Hayden's remarks at the event, and read an interview Hayden gave to USA Today.
Reviews
- John Dickerson's Whistlestop; review by Molly Ball in the NYTimes. The podcast is excellent, and I'm looking forward to reading the book.
- Richard Kluger's Indelible Ink; review by Bill Keller in the NYTimes.
- Keith Houston's The Book; review by Clea Simon in the Boston Globe.
- Robert Gottlieb's Avid Reader; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- Mary Sarah Bilder's Madison's Hand; review by Stuart Leibiger in Common-place.
- Boston's joint "Beyond Words" exhibition of illuminated manuscripts; review by Barrymore Laurence Scherer in the WSJ.
- New York City police have released photos of a suspect in the theft of two books from PRPH Books back in April.
- Daniel Akst reports for the WSJ about an MIT/Georgia Tech research effort to use electromagnetic waves (terahertz radiation) to "read" stacked pages: the technique could potentially have uses in analyzing ancient manuscripts, &c.
- Leah Grandy writes for Borealia about the increasing need for training in basic cursive paleography.
- NYPL's Rose Main Reading Room will reopen on 5 October after being closed for more than two years for repairs and restoration.
- Carla Hayden was sworn in this week as Librarian of Congress. You can watch the ceremony here via C-SPAN. Nicholas Fandos reported for the NYTimes on Hayden's remarks at the event, and read an interview Hayden gave to USA Today.
Reviews
- John Dickerson's Whistlestop; review by Molly Ball in the NYTimes. The podcast is excellent, and I'm looking forward to reading the book.
- Richard Kluger's Indelible Ink; review by Bill Keller in the NYTimes.
- Keith Houston's The Book; review by Clea Simon in the Boston Globe.
- Robert Gottlieb's Avid Reader; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- Mary Sarah Bilder's Madison's Hand; review by Stuart Leibiger in Common-place.
- Boston's joint "Beyond Words" exhibition of illuminated manuscripts; review by Barrymore Laurence Scherer in the WSJ.
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Links & Reviews
- Tests have reportedly authenticated the Grolier Codex as a genuine 13th-century Maya codex.
- The NEDCC has posted about its work on the preparations for the upcoming cross-institutional exhibition of illuminated manuscripts in Boston.
- Over at Past is Present, a new list of recent articles and books by members of the AAS community.
- And via the ABAA, a roundup of recent bookseller catalogs.
- Thirty-five porters and three auctioneers employed by French auction house Hotel Drouot have been sentenced for the theft of numerous artifacts over several years.
- A four-page portion of the manuscript of Napoleon's "novella" will be sold at Bonhams New York on 21 September.
- From the First Impressions blog, some interesting finds in the Exeter Book revealed by multi-spectral imaging.
- Adam Hooks and Dan De Simone talk about the First Folio's rise to the status of cultural icon in a Folger "Shakespeare Unlimited" podcast.
- UVA Today profiles John Unsworth, new university librarian and dean of libraries.
- Alexandra Kiely has a short piece on the Fortsas hoax for the Biblio.com blog.
- The winners of the 2016 National Collegiate Book Collecting awards have been announced.
- Artdaily.org reports on Forum Auctions' "new type of finance deal to help a collector acquire an £850,000 Shakespeare First Folio."
- Sarah Larimer reports for the Washington Post on UNH library cataloger Robert Morin, who left an estate of $4 million to the university.
- The 2017 Boston Book Fair will be held on 10–12 November.
Reviews
- "Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will," at the Morgan Library; review by William Grimes in the NYTimes.
- Ruth Scurr's John Aubrey: My Own Life; review by Dwight Garner in the NYTimes.
- Anthony Gottlieb's The Dream of Enlightenment; review by Michael Wood in the NYTimes.
- James Gleick's Time Travel; review by Rosalind Williams in the WaPo.
- Alan Taylor's American Revolutions; reviews by Gordon S. Wood in the NYTimes and Eric Herschthal in Slate.
- Brian Vickers' The One King Lear; review by Holger S. Syme in the LARB. Wow.
- The NEDCC has posted about its work on the preparations for the upcoming cross-institutional exhibition of illuminated manuscripts in Boston.
- Over at Past is Present, a new list of recent articles and books by members of the AAS community.
- And via the ABAA, a roundup of recent bookseller catalogs.
- Thirty-five porters and three auctioneers employed by French auction house Hotel Drouot have been sentenced for the theft of numerous artifacts over several years.
- A four-page portion of the manuscript of Napoleon's "novella" will be sold at Bonhams New York on 21 September.
- From the First Impressions blog, some interesting finds in the Exeter Book revealed by multi-spectral imaging.
- Adam Hooks and Dan De Simone talk about the First Folio's rise to the status of cultural icon in a Folger "Shakespeare Unlimited" podcast.
- UVA Today profiles John Unsworth, new university librarian and dean of libraries.
- Alexandra Kiely has a short piece on the Fortsas hoax for the Biblio.com blog.
- The winners of the 2016 National Collegiate Book Collecting awards have been announced.
- Artdaily.org reports on Forum Auctions' "new type of finance deal to help a collector acquire an £850,000 Shakespeare First Folio."
- Sarah Larimer reports for the Washington Post on UNH library cataloger Robert Morin, who left an estate of $4 million to the university.
- The 2017 Boston Book Fair will be held on 10–12 November.
Reviews
- "Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will," at the Morgan Library; review by William Grimes in the NYTimes.
- Ruth Scurr's John Aubrey: My Own Life; review by Dwight Garner in the NYTimes.
- Anthony Gottlieb's The Dream of Enlightenment; review by Michael Wood in the NYTimes.
- James Gleick's Time Travel; review by Rosalind Williams in the WaPo.
- Alan Taylor's American Revolutions; reviews by Gordon S. Wood in the NYTimes and Eric Herschthal in Slate.
- Brian Vickers' The One King Lear; review by Holger S. Syme in the LARB. Wow.
Sunday, September 04, 2016
Links & Reviews
- In the Yale Alumni Magazine, Judith Schiff has a short piece on Yale's early years and the "battle of the books" between Saybrook and New Haven when the college decided to relocate.
- Carla Hayden will be sworn in as Librarian of Congress on 14 September.
- The September Rare Book Monthly is up: features include a Bruce McKinney interview with Tom Lecky, now of Riverrun Books; Susan Halas talked to Ken Lopez and asked him to update his 1999 analysis of book collecting and the book trade; and (most interestingly!) Bruce McKinney's account of a recent personal acquisition of a 160-page manuscript volume containing records of an Ulster County, New York membership library from 1810 to 1823.
- The Library of Congress has added some 15,000 pages of scanned newspapers from New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC during the early national period.
- Pew released a new report on "book reading."
- The AAS fall public programs schedule is out: great lineup!
- At the Royal Society's Repository blog, Joanna Corden writes about how the Great Fire of London (350 years ago last week) affected the Society.
- David Mason has more in the Guardian about a 1993 theft from his shop in which a small archive of letters relating to an Ernest Hemingway boxing match was stolen.
- Karen Langley highlights the rare book collections of the State Library of Pennsylvania for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Reviews
- Matthew Kirschenbaum's Track Changes; review by Ben Allen at Public Books.
- Ross King's Mad Enchantment; review by Philip Kennicott in the WaPo.
- Nisi Shawl's Everfair; review by Elizabeth Hand in the WaPo.
- Sean Wilentz's The Politicians and the Egalitarians; review by Mickey Edwards in the LATimes.
- Keith Houston's The Book; review by Henry Hitchings in the WSJ.
- Anne Trubek's The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting; review by Scott McLemee in Inside Higher Ed.
- Carla Hayden will be sworn in as Librarian of Congress on 14 September.
- The September Rare Book Monthly is up: features include a Bruce McKinney interview with Tom Lecky, now of Riverrun Books; Susan Halas talked to Ken Lopez and asked him to update his 1999 analysis of book collecting and the book trade; and (most interestingly!) Bruce McKinney's account of a recent personal acquisition of a 160-page manuscript volume containing records of an Ulster County, New York membership library from 1810 to 1823.
- The Library of Congress has added some 15,000 pages of scanned newspapers from New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC during the early national period.
- Pew released a new report on "book reading."
- The AAS fall public programs schedule is out: great lineup!
- At the Royal Society's Repository blog, Joanna Corden writes about how the Great Fire of London (350 years ago last week) affected the Society.
- David Mason has more in the Guardian about a 1993 theft from his shop in which a small archive of letters relating to an Ernest Hemingway boxing match was stolen.
- Karen Langley highlights the rare book collections of the State Library of Pennsylvania for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Reviews
- Matthew Kirschenbaum's Track Changes; review by Ben Allen at Public Books.
- Ross King's Mad Enchantment; review by Philip Kennicott in the WaPo.
- Nisi Shawl's Everfair; review by Elizabeth Hand in the WaPo.
- Sean Wilentz's The Politicians and the Egalitarians; review by Mickey Edwards in the LATimes.
- Keith Houston's The Book; review by Henry Hitchings in the WSJ.
- Anne Trubek's The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting; review by Scott McLemee in Inside Higher Ed.
Monday, August 29, 2016
Links & Reviews
- The Echoes from the Vault blog is beginning a series on Victorian cloth bindings.
- Ever wondered about the differences between "uncut," "unopened," and "untrimmed"? Erin Blake's got you covered at The Collation.
- The fall Book History Seminar at Yale, "Inevitabilities of the Book," is coming up on 9–10 September. Looks like a great lineup.
- Jane Raisch writes for the JHIBlog on "The Hellenism of Early Print."
- A manuscript account by Granville Sharp of an important 1781 slave ship massacre has been identified in the British Library.
- The New Haven Register reports on the impending reopening of the Beinecke Library.
- The William Blake Gallery will open in October in San Francisco.
- The Bookhunter on Safari posts about publisher W.J. Adams, "the almost wholly forgotten man behind the story of Bradshaw's Railway Guides."
- Phillip Lopate writes for the American Scholar about the process and pain of selling his papers to Yale.
- From John Schulman, "An Antiquarian's Guide to the Election."
- Charlotte Howsam's dissertation on medieval book fastenings is now available via medievalists.net.
- Lauren Young writes about the "library wars of the ancient world" for Atlas Obscura.
- In the New Yorker's "Daily Shouts," feature, Janet Manley highlights "Rare Books for sale, excellent condition."
- Penguin Classics is publishing a collection of ancient Egyptian writings in English for the first time.
- Keith Houston has a short feature for the BBC, "The mysterious ancient origins of the book."
Reviews
- John Dixon's The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden; review by Christopher Minty at The Junto.
- Forrest Leo's The Gentleman; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- Emma Smith's Shakespeare's First Folio; review by Jonathan Rose in the WSJ.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Links & Reviews
- George Eberhart writes for American Libraries about a panel at last week's IFLA congress on library theft and security.
- Brooke Palmieri has been appointed editor and Michael Russem designer of APHA's journal, Printing History. Look forward to seeing the fruits of their labors!
- A research team has confirmed that the Codex Selden, housed at the Bodleian Library, is a palimpsest, containing earlier characters beneath the 16th-century text. The before-and-after images here are pretty stunning. More.
- Wayne Wiegand has been named distinguished visiting scholar at the Library of Congress' John W. Kluge Center, to support his work on a book covering the history of American public school libraries.
- Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Manuscripts) is now available. Congratulations to all those involved!
- Fiona McDonald writes for the BBC about several long-hidden libraries.
- John Fea talks to Jonathan Yeager about Yeager's new book Jonathan Edwards and Transatlantic Print Culture.
- Forthcoming from the Book Club of California, The Noblest Roman: A History of the Centaur Types of Bruce Rogers.
- Jason Rovito has been appointed Director of Fine Books and Manuscripts at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.
- Hannah Stahl has the latest in a series of posts about imaginary creatures in maps for the Library of Congress' Worlds Revealed blog.
- Rutgers University has received an NEH grant to digitize some 100,000 pages of New Jersey newspapers published between 1836 and 1922 and not currently available in digital form.
- Barnes & Noble CEO Ronald Boire was sacked this week, after just a year on the job.
- Atlas Obscura highlights the NYPL's new storage facility beneath Bryant Park.
- John Lancaster posts for the Houghton Library blog about an important recent acquisition (a 1485 Aquinas) and his work to find the other volume from the set.
- In the LARB, Melissa Dinsman interviews Richard Grusin about digital humanities.
- Coming soon at Penn, an exhibition and publication, Reactions: Medieval/Modern, which "explores the many and varied ways that people have reacted to, and acted upon, manuscripts from the Middle Ages up to today."
- Emily Dourish gets the "Bright Young Librarians" treatment on the Fine Books blog.
- Richard Davies posts for the AbeBooks blog offering a cautionary tale about potentially valuable copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
- Virginia university librarians have sent a letter to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee urging caution about any potential changes to Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Act.
- Cameron Hunt McNabb writes for Slate on the origins of the ellipsis.
- Alexandra Walker posts for the Bodleian Library's blog about conservation work undertaken on a recent collection of Mabel Fitzgerald materials.
- Spanish facsimile publishing firm Siloe will produce 898 "exact replicas" of the Voynich manuscript, which will sell for more than £6,000 apiece. Note that Yale University Press will also be publishing a facsimile edition this year, accompanied by essays by Raymond Clemens and Deborah Harkness.
Reviews
- John Fea's The Bible Cause; review by D.G. Hart in the WSJ.
- Irina Reyn's The Imperial Wife; review by Shannon Reed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- Brooke Palmieri has been appointed editor and Michael Russem designer of APHA's journal, Printing History. Look forward to seeing the fruits of their labors!
- A research team has confirmed that the Codex Selden, housed at the Bodleian Library, is a palimpsest, containing earlier characters beneath the 16th-century text. The before-and-after images here are pretty stunning. More.
- Wayne Wiegand has been named distinguished visiting scholar at the Library of Congress' John W. Kluge Center, to support his work on a book covering the history of American public school libraries.
- Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Manuscripts) is now available. Congratulations to all those involved!
- Fiona McDonald writes for the BBC about several long-hidden libraries.
- John Fea talks to Jonathan Yeager about Yeager's new book Jonathan Edwards and Transatlantic Print Culture.
- Forthcoming from the Book Club of California, The Noblest Roman: A History of the Centaur Types of Bruce Rogers.
- Jason Rovito has been appointed Director of Fine Books and Manuscripts at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers.
- Hannah Stahl has the latest in a series of posts about imaginary creatures in maps for the Library of Congress' Worlds Revealed blog.
- Rutgers University has received an NEH grant to digitize some 100,000 pages of New Jersey newspapers published between 1836 and 1922 and not currently available in digital form.
- Barnes & Noble CEO Ronald Boire was sacked this week, after just a year on the job.
- Atlas Obscura highlights the NYPL's new storage facility beneath Bryant Park.
- John Lancaster posts for the Houghton Library blog about an important recent acquisition (a 1485 Aquinas) and his work to find the other volume from the set.
- In the LARB, Melissa Dinsman interviews Richard Grusin about digital humanities.
- Coming soon at Penn, an exhibition and publication, Reactions: Medieval/Modern, which "explores the many and varied ways that people have reacted to, and acted upon, manuscripts from the Middle Ages up to today."
- Emily Dourish gets the "Bright Young Librarians" treatment on the Fine Books blog.
- Richard Davies posts for the AbeBooks blog offering a cautionary tale about potentially valuable copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
- Virginia university librarians have sent a letter to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee urging caution about any potential changes to Sections 107 and 108 of the Copyright Act.
- Cameron Hunt McNabb writes for Slate on the origins of the ellipsis.
- Alexandra Walker posts for the Bodleian Library's blog about conservation work undertaken on a recent collection of Mabel Fitzgerald materials.
- Spanish facsimile publishing firm Siloe will produce 898 "exact replicas" of the Voynich manuscript, which will sell for more than £6,000 apiece. Note that Yale University Press will also be publishing a facsimile edition this year, accompanied by essays by Raymond Clemens and Deborah Harkness.
Reviews
- John Fea's The Bible Cause; review by D.G. Hart in the WSJ.
- Irina Reyn's The Imperial Wife; review by Shannon Reed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Links & Reviews
- Rebecca Rego Barry writes for the Guardian about a bird book which once belonged to the "Birdman of Alcatraz" which will go on the auction block at Christie's in September (as part of their "Out of the Ordinary" sale, which always contains some fantastic things).
- María Palacio posts for the Jesuit Libraries Provenance Project about working with an 1836 manuscript library catalog of a Jesuit seminar in Missouri.
- A new report on digitizing orphan works is now available via Harvard's DASH portal.
- At meh.com, a history of intentionally blank pages, featuring Sarah Werner, Joe Howley, and others.
- The very long legal battle over Franz Kafka's manuscripts has ended, with Israel's supreme court ruling that Max Brod's heirs must turn over the manuscripts to the National Library of Israel.
- Last week I linked to a report that a box of rare comics had been stolen from the Tampa Bay Comic Con. The Tampa Bay Times updated this week that the dealer, Rick Whitelock, received a phone call on Monday from an anonymous man saying he had accidentally packed up the box with his materials from the show and would return them, but refusing to give his name or contact information. All's well that end's well, though: on Wednesday, the box arrived.
- Tom Kiser of Vivarium Books is profiled as part of the FB&C "Bright Young Booksellers" series.
- Peter Harrington staff have chosen their favorite items from the firm's Summer Catalogue.
- Paul Dingman posts at The Collation about how the transcriptions submitted as part of the Early Modern Manuscripts Online project will be aggregated and verified.
- The Harry Ransom Center is seeking a Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Curator of Early Printed Books and Manuscripts.
- Elaine Long posts on the Shakespeare's World blog about finding references to paper used in early modern cooking.
- Nearly 400 books donated to an English village after an American plane crashed there during WWII have been removed from the village library and destroyed.
Reviews
- Carols M. N. Eire's Reformations; reviewed by Michael Massing in the NYTimes.
- Winifred Gallagher's How the Post Office Shaped America; review by Emily Cataneo in the CSM.
- Richard Zacks' Chasing the Last Laugh; review by Debra Bruno in the WaPo.
- María Palacio posts for the Jesuit Libraries Provenance Project about working with an 1836 manuscript library catalog of a Jesuit seminar in Missouri.
- A new report on digitizing orphan works is now available via Harvard's DASH portal.
- At meh.com, a history of intentionally blank pages, featuring Sarah Werner, Joe Howley, and others.
- The very long legal battle over Franz Kafka's manuscripts has ended, with Israel's supreme court ruling that Max Brod's heirs must turn over the manuscripts to the National Library of Israel.
- Last week I linked to a report that a box of rare comics had been stolen from the Tampa Bay Comic Con. The Tampa Bay Times updated this week that the dealer, Rick Whitelock, received a phone call on Monday from an anonymous man saying he had accidentally packed up the box with his materials from the show and would return them, but refusing to give his name or contact information. All's well that end's well, though: on Wednesday, the box arrived.
- Tom Kiser of Vivarium Books is profiled as part of the FB&C "Bright Young Booksellers" series.
- Peter Harrington staff have chosen their favorite items from the firm's Summer Catalogue.
- Paul Dingman posts at The Collation about how the transcriptions submitted as part of the Early Modern Manuscripts Online project will be aggregated and verified.
- The Harry Ransom Center is seeking a Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Curator of Early Printed Books and Manuscripts.
- Elaine Long posts on the Shakespeare's World blog about finding references to paper used in early modern cooking.
- Nearly 400 books donated to an English village after an American plane crashed there during WWII have been removed from the village library and destroyed.
Reviews
- Carols M. N. Eire's Reformations; reviewed by Michael Massing in the NYTimes.
- Winifred Gallagher's How the Post Office Shaped America; review by Emily Cataneo in the CSM.
- Richard Zacks' Chasing the Last Laugh; review by Debra Bruno in the WaPo.
Sunday, August 07, 2016
Links & Reviews
- The August Rare Book Monthly is up: it includes a piece by Bruce McKinney asking several booksellers to answer the question "Looking back five and ahead five years, where have you come from, where are you now, and where will you be?" Michael Stillman also writes up the theft of William Wordsworth's prayer book from a Grasmere church.
- Anthony Tedeschi posts about Melbourne Rare Book Week at the Fine Books Blog.
- For his "Booking It" series this week, Keith Houston makes a woodcut.
- Jane Eagan of the Oxford Conservation Consortium writes about a 17th-century ream wrapper used in a binding.
- A box of rare comics has been reported missing from Tampa Bay Comic Con.
- Pradeep Sebastian profiles Simran Thadani for The Hindu.
- Caroline Duroselle-Melish explores an eighteenth-century copybook with a Don Quixote engraving (printed on heavy stock) used as the cover.
- Kevin Young has been named Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
- Don Skemer surveys a few of the 200+ commonplace books in Princeton's collections.
- Andrew McGill reports on the state of the Library of Congress-Twitter archive.
- Ted Underwood asks how many texts one has to examine for it to be considered "distant reading."
- Roland Arkell reports for the Antiques Trade Gazette that some of the Aristophil books and manuscripts may soon be back on the market.
- At Techdirt, Mike Masnick reports that there seem to be moves afoot at the Copyright Office to make changes to Section 108 of the Copyright Act, which exempts libraries and archives from certain provisions.
- Michael Dirda picks eleven "hidden gem" books for the summer.
Reviews
- John Strausbaugh's City of Sedition; review by Sam Roberts in the NYTimes.
- Claire Harman's Charlotte Brontë; review by Trev Broughton in the TLS.
- Jennifer Schuessler reviews the Folger's new exhibition, "Will and Jane," in the NYTimes.
- Anthony Tedeschi posts about Melbourne Rare Book Week at the Fine Books Blog.
- For his "Booking It" series this week, Keith Houston makes a woodcut.
- Jane Eagan of the Oxford Conservation Consortium writes about a 17th-century ream wrapper used in a binding.
- A box of rare comics has been reported missing from Tampa Bay Comic Con.
- Pradeep Sebastian profiles Simran Thadani for The Hindu.
- Caroline Duroselle-Melish explores an eighteenth-century copybook with a Don Quixote engraving (printed on heavy stock) used as the cover.
- Kevin Young has been named Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
- Don Skemer surveys a few of the 200+ commonplace books in Princeton's collections.
- Andrew McGill reports on the state of the Library of Congress-Twitter archive.
- Ted Underwood asks how many texts one has to examine for it to be considered "distant reading."
- Roland Arkell reports for the Antiques Trade Gazette that some of the Aristophil books and manuscripts may soon be back on the market.
- At Techdirt, Mike Masnick reports that there seem to be moves afoot at the Copyright Office to make changes to Section 108 of the Copyright Act, which exempts libraries and archives from certain provisions.
- Michael Dirda picks eleven "hidden gem" books for the summer.
Reviews
- John Strausbaugh's City of Sedition; review by Sam Roberts in the NYTimes.
- Claire Harman's Charlotte Brontë; review by Trev Broughton in the TLS.
- Jennifer Schuessler reviews the Folger's new exhibition, "Will and Jane," in the NYTimes.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Links & Reviews
- Rebecca Romney posts about her time at the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS) last week.
- John Nulty, formerly employed by the National Library of Ireland, received a suspended sentence for the theft of rare books worth nearly €200,000 over the course of nine years. Nulty entered a guilty plea on eight of 216 counts of theft. The judge granted the suspended sentence, he said, because nearly all of the books were recovered.
- Ellen Cloyed writes for An Acquired Taste (the blog of Swem Library's Special Collections) about a book inscribed to Horatia Nelson.
- The STCV (Short Title Catalogue Flanders) has released their cataloging manual.
- Joe Helm writes for the Washington Post about (maybe?) the beginnings of a cursive resurgence?
- Had this link saved to include here in May, but missed it at the time: Katrina Martin posts at The Devil's Tale about Duke's collection of early movable books, including some new acquisitions as part of the Lisa Unger Baskin collection.
Reviews
- Anna Keay's The Last Royal Bastard; review by Jeffrey Collins in the WSJ.
- Peter Doran's Breaking Rockefeller; review by John R. Coyne, Jr. in the Washington Times.
- Lillian Sciberras' Shadows in Penumbra; review by Paul Xuereb in the Times of Malta.
- John Nulty, formerly employed by the National Library of Ireland, received a suspended sentence for the theft of rare books worth nearly €200,000 over the course of nine years. Nulty entered a guilty plea on eight of 216 counts of theft. The judge granted the suspended sentence, he said, because nearly all of the books were recovered.
- Ellen Cloyed writes for An Acquired Taste (the blog of Swem Library's Special Collections) about a book inscribed to Horatia Nelson.
- The STCV (Short Title Catalogue Flanders) has released their cataloging manual.
- Joe Helm writes for the Washington Post about (maybe?) the beginnings of a cursive resurgence?
- Had this link saved to include here in May, but missed it at the time: Katrina Martin posts at The Devil's Tale about Duke's collection of early movable books, including some new acquisitions as part of the Lisa Unger Baskin collection.
Reviews
- Anna Keay's The Last Royal Bastard; review by Jeffrey Collins in the WSJ.
- Peter Doran's Breaking Rockefeller; review by John R. Coyne, Jr. in the Washington Times.
- Lillian Sciberras' Shadows in Penumbra; review by Paul Xuereb in the Times of Malta.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Links & Reviews
- Brenda Cronin reports for the Wall Street Journal on the renovation of the Beinecke Library, which is set to reopen this fall.
- Allan Young and Patrick Scott are working on a census of Robert Burns' first book, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786), and they issued a public call for assistance on ExLibris this week. Please help if you can. Project background.
- The Osher Map Library's digitization of maps from its collections is highlighted in the "Future Tense" series at Slate. The piece gets at both the possibilities and shortcomings of digital presentation.
- Rebecca Romney posts about an 1872 self-promotional poster designed by Walt Whitman to drum up sales of his books.
- New to me: a YouTube video of Lisa Baskin talking about her collection, which is now at Duke.
- Heather Wolfe has a Collation post up about how another recent discovery seems to clarify some longstanding questions about several heraldic manuscripts featuring Shakespeare.
- Recent work has revealed a great deal about the provenance of a fragment of the 36-line Bible in the Scheide Library at Princeton.
- The SHARP book awards were announced this week in Paris. Congratulations to the winners!
- A call for individual paper proposals for the Society of Early Americanists' meeting next March in Tulsa is now live, and I do encourage anyone interested to submit. I've been to several of these meetings (though I missed the last one), and have enjoyed them immensely.
- Keith Houston's new book, The Book, comes out next month. On his blog, he recounts a visit to Edinburgh papermaker Chrissie Heughan.
- A Brontë family book containing an early manuscript poem by Charlotte has been purchased by the Brontë Society. More.
- The website for "Beyond Words," a cross-institutional exhibition of medieval manuscripts in Boston, is now live. Along with the exhibitions, there are an impressive number of events coming up this fall.
- There's a report in the Business Tribune that a proposed tax measure in Oregon could spell an end to the venerable Powell's Books.
- The Folger's Digital Anthology of Early Modern English Drama launched.
- A collection of more than 300 Dick Whittington-related items was bequeathed to London's Guildhall Library.
- Princeton has announced the books and manuscripts acquired at the Pirie sale in December.
- Rare Books Digest has an interview with Sandra Hindman of Les Enluminures.
- Sarah Werner went looking for open digital collections. Here's what she found.
- Jerry Morris has been working on the library of lexicographer Joseph E. Worcester.
- AAS intern Dylan McDonough writes about his work this summer on the AAS Printers' File.
Reviews
- William Egginton's The Man Who Invented Fiction; review by Daniel Hahn in the Guardian.
- Lucy Sussex's Blockbuster; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- Geoffrey Cowan's Let the People Rule; review by Thomas Curwen in the LATimes.
- John Guy's Elizabeth; review by Anna Whitelock in the TLS.
- Allan Young and Patrick Scott are working on a census of Robert Burns' first book, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786), and they issued a public call for assistance on ExLibris this week. Please help if you can. Project background.
- The Osher Map Library's digitization of maps from its collections is highlighted in the "Future Tense" series at Slate. The piece gets at both the possibilities and shortcomings of digital presentation.
- Rebecca Romney posts about an 1872 self-promotional poster designed by Walt Whitman to drum up sales of his books.
- New to me: a YouTube video of Lisa Baskin talking about her collection, which is now at Duke.
- Heather Wolfe has a Collation post up about how another recent discovery seems to clarify some longstanding questions about several heraldic manuscripts featuring Shakespeare.
- Recent work has revealed a great deal about the provenance of a fragment of the 36-line Bible in the Scheide Library at Princeton.
- The SHARP book awards were announced this week in Paris. Congratulations to the winners!
- A call for individual paper proposals for the Society of Early Americanists' meeting next March in Tulsa is now live, and I do encourage anyone interested to submit. I've been to several of these meetings (though I missed the last one), and have enjoyed them immensely.
- Keith Houston's new book, The Book, comes out next month. On his blog, he recounts a visit to Edinburgh papermaker Chrissie Heughan.
- A Brontë family book containing an early manuscript poem by Charlotte has been purchased by the Brontë Society. More.
- The website for "Beyond Words," a cross-institutional exhibition of medieval manuscripts in Boston, is now live. Along with the exhibitions, there are an impressive number of events coming up this fall.
- There's a report in the Business Tribune that a proposed tax measure in Oregon could spell an end to the venerable Powell's Books.
- The Folger's Digital Anthology of Early Modern English Drama launched.
- A collection of more than 300 Dick Whittington-related items was bequeathed to London's Guildhall Library.
- Princeton has announced the books and manuscripts acquired at the Pirie sale in December.
- Rare Books Digest has an interview with Sandra Hindman of Les Enluminures.
- Sarah Werner went looking for open digital collections. Here's what she found.
- Jerry Morris has been working on the library of lexicographer Joseph E. Worcester.
- AAS intern Dylan McDonough writes about his work this summer on the AAS Printers' File.
Reviews
- William Egginton's The Man Who Invented Fiction; review by Daniel Hahn in the Guardian.
- Lucy Sussex's Blockbuster; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- Geoffrey Cowan's Let the People Rule; review by Thomas Curwen in the LATimes.
- John Guy's Elizabeth; review by Anna Whitelock in the TLS.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Links & Reviews
- Georgianna Ziegler writes for The Collation about a recent Folger acquisition, a volume which contains what is for now the earliest known reference to a Shakespeare volume in America. I used the photo from the post to make a quick LibraryThing catalog of Edward Dale's books (there are a few still to be added once the book comes off display and we can get images of the titles written in the gutter).
- The UK government has placed a temporary export bar on a jewelled prayer-book once owned by François I of France; British institutions now have the opportunity to raise £8 million to match the price offered by an overseas buyer.
- SHARP's annual conference starts tomorrow in Paris - good luck to all the presenters, and I look forward to the tweets and recaps!
- Also coming up this week (starting tonight) is the annual Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS): Lisa Baskin will give the keynote address and Don Lindgren is this year's specialty dealer.
- Over American Book Collecting, Kurt Zimmerman listens to Bill Reese's recent Rare Book School lecture (available here, or search "Rare Book School" in your preferred podcast delivery system) and then finds a fascinating association copy on his bookshelves!
- Matthew Kirschenbaum talked to Manuel Portela about Track Changes.
- Dan Cohen has posted an updated take on why we're seeing a decline in e-book sales.
Reviews
- Geoffrey Cowan's Let the People Rule; review by Thomas Curwen in the LATimes.
- Ritchie Robertson's Goethe and The Essential Goethe (ed. Matthew Bell); review by Osman Durrani in the TLS.
- The UK government has placed a temporary export bar on a jewelled prayer-book once owned by François I of France; British institutions now have the opportunity to raise £8 million to match the price offered by an overseas buyer.
- SHARP's annual conference starts tomorrow in Paris - good luck to all the presenters, and I look forward to the tweets and recaps!
- Also coming up this week (starting tonight) is the annual Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS): Lisa Baskin will give the keynote address and Don Lindgren is this year's specialty dealer.
- Over American Book Collecting, Kurt Zimmerman listens to Bill Reese's recent Rare Book School lecture (available here, or search "Rare Book School" in your preferred podcast delivery system) and then finds a fascinating association copy on his bookshelves!
- Matthew Kirschenbaum talked to Manuel Portela about Track Changes.
- Dan Cohen has posted an updated take on why we're seeing a decline in e-book sales.
Reviews
- Geoffrey Cowan's Let the People Rule; review by Thomas Curwen in the LATimes.
- Ritchie Robertson's Goethe and The Essential Goethe (ed. Matthew Bell); review by Osman Durrani in the TLS.
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Links & Reviews
- Stephen Tabor writes for Verso, the Huntington's blog, about a tremendously interesting and exciting new acquisition.
- Rachel Beattie writes for the National Library of Scotland blog about sleuthing out correspondent names in the James Murray Archive.
- James Dawson covers "Mistaikes in Books" over at Rare Books Digest.
- Toronto bookseller David Mason is profiled in the Toronto Star, with a focus on his efforts (thus far unsuccessful) to solve a 1993 theft from his shop. Among the material stolen was a small archive relating to a 1929 boxing match between Ernest Hemingway and Morley Callaghan (for which F. Scott Fitzgerald acted as timekeeper).
- Steven Overly reports for the WaPo about the Vatican's digitization of one of the earliest manuscript versions of Virgil's Georgics and Aeneid, known as the "Virgilius Vaticanus."
- Keith Houston has posted a new miscellany of punctuation-related news at Shady Characters.
- The Boston Globe covered worries about the fate of Boston University's Editorial Institute this week.
- Over at Inciting Sparks, Tess Goodman has a new post, "Pics or It Didn't Happen: On the Objectivity of Photographs."
- Rabia Barkatulla writes for The Bookseller about the challenges inherent in digitizing Arabic books and manuscripts.
- A Thomas Jefferson letter discovered in a family's attic is being offered for $325,000 by the Raab Collection.
- Registration for this fall's APHA conference at the Huntington Library is now open. The theme is "The Black Art & Printers' Devils: The Magic, Mysticism, and Wonders of Printing History."
- More on Heather Wolfe's recent Shakespeare discoveries at Beyond Shakespeare.
- Melbourne's Rare Book Week is coming up from 14–24 July. Check out the full schedule - lots of great events going on!
- Nick Basbanes talked to novelist Matthew Pearl for Fine Books & Collections.
- London's Feminist Library faces eviction after a rent hike.
- Some excellent news from Portland, Maine, where a new independent bookshop will open in the fall.
- Excavation work for the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia has turned up a bunch of printing type.
- A Bible given by Charlotte Brontë to her friend Ellen Nussey will be sold at Sotheby's London this week.
- The London Library was profiled in Londonist.
- Tokyo's Jinbocho, which houses some 160 used and rare bookshops, sounds like a browser's dream!
- Several drawings by Beatrix Potter were found at Melford Hall in Suffolk during conservation works on books from the house library.
Reviews
- Ben H. Winters' Underground Airlines; review by Jennifer Forbus in the CSM.
- Pamela Haag's The Gunning of America; review by Stephen Wertheim in the TLS.
- Stephen Orgel's The Reader in the Book; review by Dustin Illingworth in the LARB.
- Rachel Beattie writes for the National Library of Scotland blog about sleuthing out correspondent names in the James Murray Archive.
- James Dawson covers "Mistaikes in Books" over at Rare Books Digest.
- Toronto bookseller David Mason is profiled in the Toronto Star, with a focus on his efforts (thus far unsuccessful) to solve a 1993 theft from his shop. Among the material stolen was a small archive relating to a 1929 boxing match between Ernest Hemingway and Morley Callaghan (for which F. Scott Fitzgerald acted as timekeeper).
- Steven Overly reports for the WaPo about the Vatican's digitization of one of the earliest manuscript versions of Virgil's Georgics and Aeneid, known as the "Virgilius Vaticanus."
- Keith Houston has posted a new miscellany of punctuation-related news at Shady Characters.
- The Boston Globe covered worries about the fate of Boston University's Editorial Institute this week.
- Over at Inciting Sparks, Tess Goodman has a new post, "Pics or It Didn't Happen: On the Objectivity of Photographs."
- Rabia Barkatulla writes for The Bookseller about the challenges inherent in digitizing Arabic books and manuscripts.
- A Thomas Jefferson letter discovered in a family's attic is being offered for $325,000 by the Raab Collection.
- Registration for this fall's APHA conference at the Huntington Library is now open. The theme is "The Black Art & Printers' Devils: The Magic, Mysticism, and Wonders of Printing History."
- More on Heather Wolfe's recent Shakespeare discoveries at Beyond Shakespeare.
- Melbourne's Rare Book Week is coming up from 14–24 July. Check out the full schedule - lots of great events going on!
- Nick Basbanes talked to novelist Matthew Pearl for Fine Books & Collections.
- London's Feminist Library faces eviction after a rent hike.
- Some excellent news from Portland, Maine, where a new independent bookshop will open in the fall.
- Excavation work for the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia has turned up a bunch of printing type.
- A Bible given by Charlotte Brontë to her friend Ellen Nussey will be sold at Sotheby's London this week.
- The London Library was profiled in Londonist.
- Tokyo's Jinbocho, which houses some 160 used and rare bookshops, sounds like a browser's dream!
- Several drawings by Beatrix Potter were found at Melford Hall in Suffolk during conservation works on books from the house library.
Reviews
- Ben H. Winters' Underground Airlines; review by Jennifer Forbus in the CSM.
- Pamela Haag's The Gunning of America; review by Stephen Wertheim in the TLS.
- Stephen Orgel's The Reader in the Book; review by Dustin Illingworth in the LARB.
Sunday, July 03, 2016
Links & Reviews
- Jennifer Schuessler reports for the New York Times on some excellent new discoveries about Shakespeare and heraldry by Heather Wolfe, curator of manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library. See the documents at Shakespeare Documented.
- On the NYPL blog, Mark Boonshoft highlights Mary Katherine Goddard's January 1777 printing of the Declaration of Independence.
- Video from the Grolier Club symposium "Blooks: The Art of Books That Aren't" is now available via Vimeo.
- There's a binding-related "Crocodile mystery" up at The Collation.
- Paul Heller writes for the Times Argus about the process of debunking the myth that the wooden hand-press at the Vermont Historical Society was the first press in Massachusetts.
- Kathy Major writes at Past is Present about finding a small but important collection of unpublished Richard Henry Lee letters at AAS.
- A first edition Principia will be sold at Christie's on 12 July as part of the excellent Giancarlo Beltrame Library of Scientific Books auction.
- Over at 6sqft, "Life Behind the Stacks: The Secret Apartments of New York Libraries." [Warning: I noticed a couple glaring errors in this piece, so take it with a generous helping of salt].
- Matt Kirschenbaum talked to Robinson Meyer about Track Changes for The Atlantic.
- HathiTrust and the National Federation for the Blind will collaborate to make some 14 million e-books available to blind and print-disabled users.
- Michael Danaher has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Oxford book dealer Adrian Greenwood.
- The 15CBOOKTRADE project has released a video introducing some of the various visualization tools available as 15cV, drawing on the MEI database ("Material Evidence in Incunabula").
Reviews
- Matt Kirschenbaum's Track Changes; review by Brian Dillon in the Guardian.
- Wendy Warren's New England Bound; review by Christopher L. Brown in the NYTimes.
- Ben H. Winters' Underground Airlines; review by Jon Michaud in the WaPo.
- On the NYPL blog, Mark Boonshoft highlights Mary Katherine Goddard's January 1777 printing of the Declaration of Independence.
- Video from the Grolier Club symposium "Blooks: The Art of Books That Aren't" is now available via Vimeo.
- There's a binding-related "Crocodile mystery" up at The Collation.
- Paul Heller writes for the Times Argus about the process of debunking the myth that the wooden hand-press at the Vermont Historical Society was the first press in Massachusetts.
- Kathy Major writes at Past is Present about finding a small but important collection of unpublished Richard Henry Lee letters at AAS.
- A first edition Principia will be sold at Christie's on 12 July as part of the excellent Giancarlo Beltrame Library of Scientific Books auction.
- Over at 6sqft, "Life Behind the Stacks: The Secret Apartments of New York Libraries." [Warning: I noticed a couple glaring errors in this piece, so take it with a generous helping of salt].
- Matt Kirschenbaum talked to Robinson Meyer about Track Changes for The Atlantic.
- HathiTrust and the National Federation for the Blind will collaborate to make some 14 million e-books available to blind and print-disabled users.
- Michael Danaher has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Oxford book dealer Adrian Greenwood.
- The 15CBOOKTRADE project has released a video introducing some of the various visualization tools available as 15cV, drawing on the MEI database ("Material Evidence in Incunabula").
Reviews
- Matt Kirschenbaum's Track Changes; review by Brian Dillon in the Guardian.
- Wendy Warren's New England Bound; review by Christopher L. Brown in the NYTimes.
- Ben H. Winters' Underground Airlines; review by Jon Michaud in the WaPo.
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