- A 28-year-old Bangor, Maine man, Russell Graves, has been sentenced to two years in prison (with all but six months suspended) for the theft of 75 Civil War cartes de visite and 50 WWI and WWII posters from the Bangor Public Library, where he had been working as a janitor. Graves was caught when he tried to sell some of the stolen material to Maritime International, a Bangor collectibles shop.
- Rebecca Rego Barry talked to Alix Christie about her new novel Gutenberg's Apprentice (a copy of which recently arrived here; I'm looking forward to reading it soon).
- Book Patrol reports on a now-abandoned plan by ILAB to develop a partnership with AbeBooks to promote the listings of ILAB dealers.
- There's an interesting piece in Wired about multispectral imagery and its use on Yale's 1491 Martellus map.
- Christian Dupont has officially taken up the reins as John J. Burns Librarian and associate university librarian for special collections at Boston College.
- Art and document forger Mark Landis is the subject of a new documentary which recently opened in New York, "Art and Craft." More from The Art Newspaper.
- The Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress recently acquired two manuscript diaries of Mathew Carey, covering portions of 1821–1825. Julie Miller highlights the acquisition.
- Jane Austen's House Museum in Chawton, Hampshire, will exhibit one of the manuscript booklets for Austen's unfinished novel "The Watsons" through December.
- At Antipodean Footnotes, a look at the University of Melbourne's copy of William Cowper's The anatomy of humane bodies (1698), which contains many manuscript notes by an English apothecary.
Reviews
- Charles N. Edel's Nation Builder: John Quincy Adams and the Grand Strategy of the Republic; review by Donald Breed in the Providence Journal.
- Justin Martin's Rebel Souls; review by Dennis Drabelle in the WaPo.
- Nick Bunker's An Empire on the Edge; review by Brendan Simms in the WSJ.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Links & Reviews
- Some pretty big news reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer: some 10,000 Maurice Sendak items long housed at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia will return to the Sendak estate, since the author chose not to leave the material to the library in his will. A museum and study center at Sendak's home in Ridgefield, CT is planned. The Rosenbach will receive Sendak's collection of rare books and correspondence, as well as a $2 million bequest.
- There's a piece in the Harvard Gazette about the early Audubon drawings at Harvard.
- The Cambridge University Library has succeeded in raising £1.1 million to secure the Codex Zacynthius, thanks to a £500,000 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
- New from Ikea, "BookBook."
- A foundation run by Warren Buffett's son Howard has purchased an archive of Rosa Parks-related items, including artifacts, photographs, and more. The material will be on a ten-year loan to the Library of Congress.
- The Church History Library in Salt Lake City is displaying early Mormon documents and books publicly for the first time.
- BYU Libraries have put out a pretty amusing video about book preservation (runs about eight minutes).
- Paul Collins talked to the LA Review of Books about his new book Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Life.
- Also from Paul Collins, "How to Pitch a Magazine (in 1888)" in The New Yorker.
- Christopher de Hamel is the new Senior Vice-President at Les Enluminures.
- Turkish filmmaker Oguz Uygur has created a lovely short film about paper marbling.
- Rizzoli Bookstore will reopen next year at 1133 Broadway, near Madison Square Park.
- The Summer 2014 issue of Common-place is out, and as usual it's full of goodies, including Erik Beck's "Finding a Lost Election" and a roundtable discussion on Sacvan Bercovitch's The American Jeremiad.
- Yale's Beinecke Library has acquired the papers of author/illustrator Mo Willems.
- There's an IndieGoGo campaign to install a climate control system at historic home of Edna St. Vincent Milay, to preserve the poet's personal library.
- Over at The American Literary Blog, a
- J.S. Makkos writes for The Atlantic about rescuing some 30,000 old New Orleans newspapers.
- Meredith Mann surveys printers' marks in the NYPL Rare Books Division.
- Alan Jacobs writes about David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks over at The New Atlantis.
- Also from Alan Jacobs, a short piece on the very obnoxious Answers.com for their massively annoying "Tweet your question to an expert" thing.
- Simon Beattie posted on the ABAA blog this week, "In Search of 'Rare Books.'"
- The University of Michigan has acquired the archive of political activist Tom Hayden.
- There's a new short video up about Boston's Brattle Book Shop.
- There's a crowd-funding campaign afoot raise £520,000 for the purchase of William Blake's cottage on the Sussex coast.
- A book bound by the Restoration binder known as the "Naval Binder" has been found at Houghton Library.
- From Adam Hooks at Anchora, "Monumental Shakespeare."
- Over at This is Money, Brian Lake of Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers (and president of the ABA) discusses Dickens collecting and its ongoing appeal.
- There's a quick rundown of the Miniature Book Society's Boston conclave at the Oak Knoll Biblio-Blog.
- And speaking of miniature books, a Conan Doyle story written for Queen Mary's dolls' house is to be published this fall by Walker & Company.
- Over at The Collation, some tips from Erin Blake on how to get and use raw data from the Folger's OPAC.
- Caroline O'Donovan writes for The Baffler about Boston's designation of a Literary Cultural District.
- Now available from the BSA via Bibsite, "British Book Auction Catalogues, 1801–1900," by Lenore Corel and edited by Annette Fern.
- A large collection of books on the Jewish Enlightenment, or Haskalah, has been donated to the Cornell University Library by alumnus Steven Chernys.
- Also now available for purchase is Ann Jordan's Laeuchli's A Bibliographical Catalog of William Blackstone (William S. Hein & Co., Inc., $149).
- A piece I wrote for the most recent FB&C about book thefts is up on their website.
- The Free Library of Philadelphia has received a grant of $25 million over three years from the William Penn Foundation to pay for renovation of the Central Library and several branch libraries.
- Doris Lessing has left 3,000 books from her collection to the Harare City Library.
- Iain Watts posts on the Royal Society's The Repository blog about the diary of Sir Charles Blagden, which sounds like a remarkably interesting source (alas, Blagden had execrable handwriting) for British science from the 1780s through the 1820s. Watts calls for an online annotated transcription of the diary, which motion I'll very happily second.
- Australian businessman and art collector Kerry Stokes has been announced as the buyer of the Rothschild Prayerbook. Reports here and here (with video), via Antipodean Footnotes.
- The SEA has updated the list of current and forthcoming books on early American topics.
- A book at Juniata College purportedly bound in human skin has been demystified: it's bound in sheepskin.
- The longlist for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize has been announced.
- From Jamelle Bouie at Slate, "A Few Helpful Rules for Reviewing Books About Slavery."
Reviews
- Philip Gould's Writing the Rebellion; review by Edward M. Griffin at Common-place.
- Diane Ackerman's The Human Age; review by Rob Nixon in the NYTimes.
- Norman Thomas di Giovanni's Georgie & Elsa; review by Lorna Scott Fox in the TLS.
- Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist; review by Wendy Smith in the WaPo.
- David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks; review by Miriam Barnum in the Harvard Crimson.
- Joanna Scott's De Potter's Grand Tour; review by John Vernon in the NYTimes.
- Edward Baptist's The Half Has Never Been Told; reviews by Hector Tobar in the LATimes and Jonathan Wilson at The Junto.
- Jeff VanderMeer's Acceptance; review by Scott Hutchins in the NYTimes.
- There's a piece in the Harvard Gazette about the early Audubon drawings at Harvard.
- The Cambridge University Library has succeeded in raising £1.1 million to secure the Codex Zacynthius, thanks to a £500,000 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
- New from Ikea, "BookBook."
- A foundation run by Warren Buffett's son Howard has purchased an archive of Rosa Parks-related items, including artifacts, photographs, and more. The material will be on a ten-year loan to the Library of Congress.
- The Church History Library in Salt Lake City is displaying early Mormon documents and books publicly for the first time.
- BYU Libraries have put out a pretty amusing video about book preservation (runs about eight minutes).
- Paul Collins talked to the LA Review of Books about his new book Edgar Allan Poe: The Fever Called Life.
- Also from Paul Collins, "How to Pitch a Magazine (in 1888)" in The New Yorker.
- Christopher de Hamel is the new Senior Vice-President at Les Enluminures.
- Turkish filmmaker Oguz Uygur has created a lovely short film about paper marbling.
- Rizzoli Bookstore will reopen next year at 1133 Broadway, near Madison Square Park.
- The Summer 2014 issue of Common-place is out, and as usual it's full of goodies, including Erik Beck's "Finding a Lost Election" and a roundtable discussion on Sacvan Bercovitch's The American Jeremiad.
- Yale's Beinecke Library has acquired the papers of author/illustrator Mo Willems.
- There's an IndieGoGo campaign to install a climate control system at historic home of Edna St. Vincent Milay, to preserve the poet's personal library.
- Over at The American Literary Blog, a
- J.S. Makkos writes for The Atlantic about rescuing some 30,000 old New Orleans newspapers.
- Meredith Mann surveys printers' marks in the NYPL Rare Books Division.
- Alan Jacobs writes about David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks over at The New Atlantis.
- Also from Alan Jacobs, a short piece on the very obnoxious Answers.com for their massively annoying "Tweet your question to an expert" thing.
- Simon Beattie posted on the ABAA blog this week, "In Search of 'Rare Books.'"
- The University of Michigan has acquired the archive of political activist Tom Hayden.
- There's a new short video up about Boston's Brattle Book Shop.
- There's a crowd-funding campaign afoot raise £520,000 for the purchase of William Blake's cottage on the Sussex coast.
- A book bound by the Restoration binder known as the "Naval Binder" has been found at Houghton Library.
- From Adam Hooks at Anchora, "Monumental Shakespeare."
- Over at This is Money, Brian Lake of Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers (and president of the ABA) discusses Dickens collecting and its ongoing appeal.
- There's a quick rundown of the Miniature Book Society's Boston conclave at the Oak Knoll Biblio-Blog.
- And speaking of miniature books, a Conan Doyle story written for Queen Mary's dolls' house is to be published this fall by Walker & Company.
- Over at The Collation, some tips from Erin Blake on how to get and use raw data from the Folger's OPAC.
- Caroline O'Donovan writes for The Baffler about Boston's designation of a Literary Cultural District.
- Now available from the BSA via Bibsite, "British Book Auction Catalogues, 1801–1900," by Lenore Corel and edited by Annette Fern.
- A large collection of books on the Jewish Enlightenment, or Haskalah, has been donated to the Cornell University Library by alumnus Steven Chernys.
- Also now available for purchase is Ann Jordan's Laeuchli's A Bibliographical Catalog of William Blackstone (William S. Hein & Co., Inc., $149).
- A piece I wrote for the most recent FB&C about book thefts is up on their website.
- The Free Library of Philadelphia has received a grant of $25 million over three years from the William Penn Foundation to pay for renovation of the Central Library and several branch libraries.
- Doris Lessing has left 3,000 books from her collection to the Harare City Library.
- Iain Watts posts on the Royal Society's The Repository blog about the diary of Sir Charles Blagden, which sounds like a remarkably interesting source (alas, Blagden had execrable handwriting) for British science from the 1780s through the 1820s. Watts calls for an online annotated transcription of the diary, which motion I'll very happily second.
- Australian businessman and art collector Kerry Stokes has been announced as the buyer of the Rothschild Prayerbook. Reports here and here (with video), via Antipodean Footnotes.
- The SEA has updated the list of current and forthcoming books on early American topics.
- A book at Juniata College purportedly bound in human skin has been demystified: it's bound in sheepskin.
- The longlist for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize has been announced.
- From Jamelle Bouie at Slate, "A Few Helpful Rules for Reviewing Books About Slavery."
Reviews
- Philip Gould's Writing the Rebellion; review by Edward M. Griffin at Common-place.
- Diane Ackerman's The Human Age; review by Rob Nixon in the NYTimes.
- Norman Thomas di Giovanni's Georgie & Elsa; review by Lorna Scott Fox in the TLS.
- Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist; review by Wendy Smith in the WaPo.
- David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks; review by Miriam Barnum in the Harvard Crimson.
- Joanna Scott's De Potter's Grand Tour; review by John Vernon in the NYTimes.
- Edward Baptist's The Half Has Never Been Told; reviews by Hector Tobar in the LATimes and Jonathan Wilson at The Junto.
- Jeff VanderMeer's Acceptance; review by Scott Hutchins in the NYTimes.
Thursday, September 04, 2014
Mark Gatiss M.R. James Shows Available
Quick note since I know at least a few others who follow this blog are fans of M.R. James: I discovered yesterday, to my utter delight, that Mark Gatiss' adaptation of "The Tractate Middoth" and his documentary "M.R. James: Ghost Writer" (both of which aired last Christmas in the UK) are currently available on YouTube. It's unclear whether they'll be up for the long term, so I made sure to watch both last night, and if you're keen I'd suggest watching them soon too.
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Links & Reviews
Apologies for the lack of links last week; here's a double bill to make up for it.
- A Washington Post video reporter, Lee Powell, spent two days with us at Rare Book School this summer, and he's now posted the resulting five-minute video feature.
- Two more Italian libraries, the Biblioteca del Seminario vescovile di Pontremoli and the Archivio storico della cattedrale di Massa, have announced that they are missing hundreds of incunabula and early printed books. You can download the full list here.
- More than 2.6 million public-domain images from books scanned by the Internet Archive have been uploaded to Flickr at Internet Archive Book Images. Kalev Leetaru, a Yahoo! Fellow in Residence at Georgetown, built a program to extract the images by looking at the areas original OCR programs had ignored and saving those areas as JPG files, according to a BBC report. The images include all relevant Internet Archive metadata and even surrounding text.
- In The Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance reports on Paul Moran, who collected thousands of pieces of John Updike's trash from the street.
- The University of Rochester has acquired a collection of letters between Susan B. Anthony and fellow women's right activist Rachel Foster Avery.
- Robert Darnton has launched his long-projected website, A Literary Tour de France.
- The bicentenary of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's birthday was marked by articles in The Guardian and The Telegraph, as well as a Google Doodle in the UK.
- Rebecca Mead profiles Mary Beard in the New Yorker.
- Ian Kahn's 2012 ABAA oral history interview is now available on YouTube.
- Over at Notabilia, Steve Ferguson notes the reappearance of an historiated initial L from the 1543 edition of Vesalius in a 1555 edition of Livy.
- Now available in digital form, the second edition of Daniel Mosser's A Digital Catalogue of the pre-1500 Manuscripts and Incunables of the Canterbury Tales.
- Rick Anderson's Library Journal piece "Asserting Rights We Don't Have: Libraries and 'Permission to Publish'" is a must-read.
- At History Today, Patricia Fara writes about the scientific education of Mary Shelley.
- Pittsburgh-area libraries are being targeted by book thieves; thousands of dollars' worth of bestsellers have been stolen from the libraries and sold online. Police say they "hope to make an arrest soon."
- Sarah Werner explores "Pop Shakespeare's typography" at The Collation.
- A neat and amusing visualization from the Rylands Library: what Elizabeth Gaskell's inbox might have looked like in 1854, had she been using Microsoft Outlook.
- Patricia Crosby has pleaded not guilty to the theft of some $2,000 worth of books from the Owl's Neat Upholstery and Antique Store in Bennington, Vermont. Crosby turned the stole books over to police.
- A free, online, collaboratively-written American history textbook, The American Yawp, has now launched in beta version.
- There's a powerful Guardian editorial about the importance of public libraries (specifically in the UK, but the arguments are the same as for this side of the pond).
- The Library of Congress has acquired an iconic Civil War tintype of a Confederate soldier and his slave. The photograph was donated by Tom Liljenquist.
- From the Clog, a look at manuscript recipes for inks and colors in a copy of The excellency of the pen and pencil (1668).
- Tavistock Books has released a "Catalogue of Catalogues," which is well worth a thorough browse.
- A copy of "Action Comics No. 1" sold for $3.2 million on eBay this week, setting a record price for a comic book. More from the Washington Post.
- Houghton's Peter Accardo highlights Thomas Gray's interleaved and annotated copy of Linnaeus' Systema Naturae, which is frankly, nothing short of spectacular.
- Over at the Provenance Online Project they've got a mystery bookplate for us, featuring a squirrel and (probably) Hercules, and a look at how library catalogs can help us reconstruct the appearance of long-ago libraries.
- Rachel from The Book Trout recounts her time at CABS this summer.
- A Yale student has written a guest post for the Beinecke blog about the text font of the First Folio.
- Joanna Rotté recounts her visits to "Athenaeums of the Northeast" in the Broad Street Review.
- A study has found that people reading the same text on a Kindle had more trouble reconstructing the plot of the story chronologically than people who read the text in paper form.
- Jerry Morris tracks the Lydgate manuscript Boke of the Sege of Troy through Quaritch's catalogues and handlists (the manuscript is now at the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester).
Reviews
- Ryan K. Smith's Robert Morris' Folly; review by Charles R. Morris in the WSJ.
- David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks; reviews by Pico Iyer in the NYTimes, Michiko Kakutani in the NYTimes.
- Brian Catlos' Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors; review by Nick Romeo in the CSM.
- Joshua Wolf Shenk's Powers of Two; review by Sarah Lewis in the NYTimes.
- Ammon Shea's Bad English; review by Stan Carey at Sentence first.
- Kevin Birmingham's The Most Dangerous Book; review by Rachel Shteir in the NYTimes.
- Karen Abbott's Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy; review by Alice Fahs in the LATimes.
- David Bromwich's The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke; review by Daniel McCarthy in the NYTimes.
- A Washington Post video reporter, Lee Powell, spent two days with us at Rare Book School this summer, and he's now posted the resulting five-minute video feature.
- Two more Italian libraries, the Biblioteca del Seminario vescovile di Pontremoli and the Archivio storico della cattedrale di Massa, have announced that they are missing hundreds of incunabula and early printed books. You can download the full list here.
- More than 2.6 million public-domain images from books scanned by the Internet Archive have been uploaded to Flickr at Internet Archive Book Images. Kalev Leetaru, a Yahoo! Fellow in Residence at Georgetown, built a program to extract the images by looking at the areas original OCR programs had ignored and saving those areas as JPG files, according to a BBC report. The images include all relevant Internet Archive metadata and even surrounding text.
- In The Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance reports on Paul Moran, who collected thousands of pieces of John Updike's trash from the street.
- The University of Rochester has acquired a collection of letters between Susan B. Anthony and fellow women's right activist Rachel Foster Avery.
- Robert Darnton has launched his long-projected website, A Literary Tour de France.
- The bicentenary of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's birthday was marked by articles in The Guardian and The Telegraph, as well as a Google Doodle in the UK.
- Rebecca Mead profiles Mary Beard in the New Yorker.
- Ian Kahn's 2012 ABAA oral history interview is now available on YouTube.
- Over at Notabilia, Steve Ferguson notes the reappearance of an historiated initial L from the 1543 edition of Vesalius in a 1555 edition of Livy.
- Now available in digital form, the second edition of Daniel Mosser's A Digital Catalogue of the pre-1500 Manuscripts and Incunables of the Canterbury Tales.
- Rick Anderson's Library Journal piece "Asserting Rights We Don't Have: Libraries and 'Permission to Publish'" is a must-read.
- At History Today, Patricia Fara writes about the scientific education of Mary Shelley.
- Pittsburgh-area libraries are being targeted by book thieves; thousands of dollars' worth of bestsellers have been stolen from the libraries and sold online. Police say they "hope to make an arrest soon."
- Sarah Werner explores "Pop Shakespeare's typography" at The Collation.
- A neat and amusing visualization from the Rylands Library: what Elizabeth Gaskell's inbox might have looked like in 1854, had she been using Microsoft Outlook.
- Patricia Crosby has pleaded not guilty to the theft of some $2,000 worth of books from the Owl's Neat Upholstery and Antique Store in Bennington, Vermont. Crosby turned the stole books over to police.
- A free, online, collaboratively-written American history textbook, The American Yawp, has now launched in beta version.
- There's a powerful Guardian editorial about the importance of public libraries (specifically in the UK, but the arguments are the same as for this side of the pond).
- The Library of Congress has acquired an iconic Civil War tintype of a Confederate soldier and his slave. The photograph was donated by Tom Liljenquist.
- From the Clog, a look at manuscript recipes for inks and colors in a copy of The excellency of the pen and pencil (1668).
- Tavistock Books has released a "Catalogue of Catalogues," which is well worth a thorough browse.
- A copy of "Action Comics No. 1" sold for $3.2 million on eBay this week, setting a record price for a comic book. More from the Washington Post.
- Houghton's Peter Accardo highlights Thomas Gray's interleaved and annotated copy of Linnaeus' Systema Naturae, which is frankly, nothing short of spectacular.
- Over at the Provenance Online Project they've got a mystery bookplate for us, featuring a squirrel and (probably) Hercules, and a look at how library catalogs can help us reconstruct the appearance of long-ago libraries.
- Rachel from The Book Trout recounts her time at CABS this summer.
- A Yale student has written a guest post for the Beinecke blog about the text font of the First Folio.
- Joanna Rotté recounts her visits to "Athenaeums of the Northeast" in the Broad Street Review.
- A study has found that people reading the same text on a Kindle had more trouble reconstructing the plot of the story chronologically than people who read the text in paper form.
- Jerry Morris tracks the Lydgate manuscript Boke of the Sege of Troy through Quaritch's catalogues and handlists (the manuscript is now at the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester).
Reviews
- Ryan K. Smith's Robert Morris' Folly; review by Charles R. Morris in the WSJ.
- David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks; reviews by Pico Iyer in the NYTimes, Michiko Kakutani in the NYTimes.
- Brian Catlos' Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors; review by Nick Romeo in the CSM.
- Joshua Wolf Shenk's Powers of Two; review by Sarah Lewis in the NYTimes.
- Ammon Shea's Bad English; review by Stan Carey at Sentence first.
- Kevin Birmingham's The Most Dangerous Book; review by Rachel Shteir in the NYTimes.
- Karen Abbott's Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy; review by Alice Fahs in the LATimes.
- David Bromwich's The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke; review by Daniel McCarthy in the NYTimes.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Book Review: "Collegiate Republic"
Margaret Sumner's Collegiate Republic: Cultivating an Ideal Society in Early America (UVA Press, 2014) is a new and important book, which should find a wide audience among those interested in American higher education during the early national period. Drawing on a very impressive range of archival collections and a broad base of secondary research, Sumner moves beyond the single-institution-model, arguing that those who established and promoted the post-Revolutionary colleges saw them as an "essential resource for the nation - a model world that reminded it of the need for collective harmony" (p. 4). The colleges were "idealized as peaceful spaces where young minds were being molded and shaped for the future and where the powers of good and evil would not be allowed to 'wage' their 'strife'" (p. 4).
In "Cultivating the College World," her first chapter, Sumner profiles Washington College president George Baxter, highlighting one of his multiple fundraising trips to the east for the purpose of soliciting money for the young institution. Baxter provides a useful springboard for a discussion of how college trustees, presidents, and faculty members working together sought to create collegiate communities, and explores to some degree the contributions (whether in the form of land, cash, books, scientific instruments, &c.) required by the early national colleges. I was hopeful that she would treat here the trend of subscription-based college establishments (a important factor in the foundation of Union College, among others), since that doesn't seem to have been much examined in any depth anywhere, but nonetheless the chapter provides a very good cross-regional study.
The second chapter, "Organizing the College World," is centered on the families of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, arguing for the importance of "coeducational sociability" as a key component of college life. The role of faculty members and their families as surrogate parents and siblings to the college boys (often to the extent that living quarters were very close, if not actually shared) is explored thoroughly, with a wide range of useful examples. The idea of shared spaces extends into Sumner's third chapter, "Building the College World," with Franklin College providing the focal point. Here Sumner reaches a bit further, bringing in an argument about the role of colleges in several social reform movements (temperance and colonization).
"Working in the College World," Sumner's fourth chapter, she explores the changing notion of academic pursuit as a new kind of labor, and the idea of the need to balance mental and physical exertions. I was very glad to see that she included the most notable example of this that I knew of: Union's president Eliphalet Nott encouraging professor Isaac Jackson to spend time gardening (Jackson's efforts remain a vital and beautiful component of Union's campus to this day). Sumner's case here as elsewhere also encompasses the key role played by women in this context, with excellent examples in the form of Louisa Payson, Margaret Junkin Preston, and others.
Finally, in "Leaving the College World," Sumner highlights the experiences of John Russwurm, the first black graduate of Bowdoin College, and Jenny, a slave owned by the daughter of a Washington College trustee. While both stories make for interesting examples, and several other cases of poor white servants are included as well, I felt here that Sumner drew a few two many sweeping generalizations based on isolated data points, and this seemed to me the least successful chapter. Given Russwurm's circumstances, it would have been worthwhile, perhaps, to spend some time exploring (as is done just briefly earlier in the book) the long-lasting ties between college leaders and their students, as well as between students themselves, as they leave the college community to make their way in the wider world.
I'm quibbling, mildly, and there are a few very minor typographical errors ("principals" for "principles" at several points being the most noticeable), but overall the book is nicely done. This period remains a vastly understudied time in nearly every respect: there is very little good, broad-based literature about the courses of study at these colleges, their libraries, their cultures, &c. Sumner's contribution to this field is to be applauded, and I do hope that it will spur additional study and exploration. The importance of the post-Revolutionary colleges in the history of the early republic cannot be understated, and I hope we'll see more good studies like this.
In "Cultivating the College World," her first chapter, Sumner profiles Washington College president George Baxter, highlighting one of his multiple fundraising trips to the east for the purpose of soliciting money for the young institution. Baxter provides a useful springboard for a discussion of how college trustees, presidents, and faculty members working together sought to create collegiate communities, and explores to some degree the contributions (whether in the form of land, cash, books, scientific instruments, &c.) required by the early national colleges. I was hopeful that she would treat here the trend of subscription-based college establishments (a important factor in the foundation of Union College, among others), since that doesn't seem to have been much examined in any depth anywhere, but nonetheless the chapter provides a very good cross-regional study.
The second chapter, "Organizing the College World," is centered on the families of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, arguing for the importance of "coeducational sociability" as a key component of college life. The role of faculty members and their families as surrogate parents and siblings to the college boys (often to the extent that living quarters were very close, if not actually shared) is explored thoroughly, with a wide range of useful examples. The idea of shared spaces extends into Sumner's third chapter, "Building the College World," with Franklin College providing the focal point. Here Sumner reaches a bit further, bringing in an argument about the role of colleges in several social reform movements (temperance and colonization).
"Working in the College World," Sumner's fourth chapter, she explores the changing notion of academic pursuit as a new kind of labor, and the idea of the need to balance mental and physical exertions. I was very glad to see that she included the most notable example of this that I knew of: Union's president Eliphalet Nott encouraging professor Isaac Jackson to spend time gardening (Jackson's efforts remain a vital and beautiful component of Union's campus to this day). Sumner's case here as elsewhere also encompasses the key role played by women in this context, with excellent examples in the form of Louisa Payson, Margaret Junkin Preston, and others.
Finally, in "Leaving the College World," Sumner highlights the experiences of John Russwurm, the first black graduate of Bowdoin College, and Jenny, a slave owned by the daughter of a Washington College trustee. While both stories make for interesting examples, and several other cases of poor white servants are included as well, I felt here that Sumner drew a few two many sweeping generalizations based on isolated data points, and this seemed to me the least successful chapter. Given Russwurm's circumstances, it would have been worthwhile, perhaps, to spend some time exploring (as is done just briefly earlier in the book) the long-lasting ties between college leaders and their students, as well as between students themselves, as they leave the college community to make their way in the wider world.
I'm quibbling, mildly, and there are a few very minor typographical errors ("principals" for "principles" at several points being the most noticeable), but overall the book is nicely done. This period remains a vastly understudied time in nearly every respect: there is very little good, broad-based literature about the courses of study at these colleges, their libraries, their cultures, &c. Sumner's contribution to this field is to be applauded, and I do hope that it will spur additional study and exploration. The importance of the post-Revolutionary colleges in the history of the early republic cannot be understated, and I hope we'll see more good studies like this.
Book Review: "The Map Thief"
I think I have managed to keep a pretty close eye on the media coverage of the E. Forbes Smiley map thefts, his ensuing plea deal and sentencing process, as well as the long aftermath. I even wrote a paper in grad school about the newspaper coverage of the thefts. So I was pleasantly delighted to read Michael Blanding's The Map Thief (Gotham Books, 2014) and find that there was much to the story that hadn't previously made its way into the news in any major way.
Blanding's book, like Miles Harvey's The Island of Lost Maps, probably ought to be required reading for anyone responsible for the cataloging, supervision, curation, collection, purchase, or sale of maps (or even rare printed materials and archives broadly conceived). It tells the story of Smiley's thefts and the ensuing legal wrangling, but Blanding also very carefully treats another important aspect of Smiley's life: his involvement with the interior Maine town of Sebec, which didn't tend to come up much when Smiley was in the news, but which had a major impact on his life and dealings.
Many of the major players in the case spoke to Blanding directly, including former NYPL maps curator Alice Hudson, and the Curator of the Leventhal Map Center at the BPL, Ronald Grim. Many current and former map dealers also spoke to Blanding, as did a whole slew of Smiley's personal friends, as well as Smiley himself (for a brief period). But even with Smiley's perspective, this book in no way turns into a remotely sympathetic portrait (for which see The Man Who Loved Books Too Much). Blanding treats Smiley's crimes with the seriousness they deserve, and makes quite clear the continued concerns among curators at several institutions that prosecutors were too quick to accept a plea deal and did not take seriously enough the post-plea revelations that Smiley had not admitted to all of the thefts.
The book manages to tell a complex story in an extremely readable way, and includes a fair amount of background material on the cartographic history of the maps themselves, the map trade, and how Smiley's actions changed the broader community. Recommended without reservation.
Blanding's book, like Miles Harvey's The Island of Lost Maps, probably ought to be required reading for anyone responsible for the cataloging, supervision, curation, collection, purchase, or sale of maps (or even rare printed materials and archives broadly conceived). It tells the story of Smiley's thefts and the ensuing legal wrangling, but Blanding also very carefully treats another important aspect of Smiley's life: his involvement with the interior Maine town of Sebec, which didn't tend to come up much when Smiley was in the news, but which had a major impact on his life and dealings.
Many of the major players in the case spoke to Blanding directly, including former NYPL maps curator Alice Hudson, and the Curator of the Leventhal Map Center at the BPL, Ronald Grim. Many current and former map dealers also spoke to Blanding, as did a whole slew of Smiley's personal friends, as well as Smiley himself (for a brief period). But even with Smiley's perspective, this book in no way turns into a remotely sympathetic portrait (for which see The Man Who Loved Books Too Much). Blanding treats Smiley's crimes with the seriousness they deserve, and makes quite clear the continued concerns among curators at several institutions that prosecutors were too quick to accept a plea deal and did not take seriously enough the post-plea revelations that Smiley had not admitted to all of the thefts.
The book manages to tell a complex story in an extremely readable way, and includes a fair amount of background material on the cartographic history of the maps themselves, the map trade, and how Smiley's actions changed the broader community. Recommended without reservation.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Links & Reviews
- Ten years after fire destroyed the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany, the library's copy of Copernicus' De revolutionibus, thought destroyed, has been found amongst the many books still being restored, a process which is expected to continue for another 15 years.
- The Smithsonian Institution has launched a crowdsourced transcription interface, to allow volunteers to help transcribe Civil War diaries, field notebooks, and more. There's a short report in the NYTimes.
- The Folger Library has announced that all images in its Digital Image Collection (currently nearly 80,000 items) are now eligible for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Fantastic news!
- Martin Kemp writes on the threats facing the Warburg Institute Library in the Royal Academy Magazine. More coverage on this front from The Guardian.
- UVA Special Collections has acquired a copy of the rare Tolkien publication Songs for the Philologists.
- Many maps stolen by Peter Bellwood from the National Library of Wales remain missing, Wales Online reports.
- On the Provenance Online Project blog, a look at inscriptions partially trimmed off during rebinding.
- It's all pigeons this week over at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie.
- New (to me, anyway): the Centre for the Study of the Book at Oxford is now posting podcasts of its discussion series.
- Ravi Somaiya profiles Harper's Magazine publisher John R. MacArthur.
- Emory University has launched Readux, a collection of digitized books from their libraries.
- Joshua Holm reviews and recommends Meredith McGill's article "Copyright and Intellectual Property: The State of the Discipline" in Book History 15.
- Michael Blanding talked to David Holahan from the Hartford Courant about his book The Map Thief.
- Anna Da Silva writes about a spat between Anthony Panizzi and the Royal Society for the Society's Repository blog.
- Maurice Sedgwick writes in The Guardian about "What makes Gormenghast a masterpiece?"
- A book cull at the Boston Public Library has hit the news with a report in the Boston Globe. Administrators are, reportedly, "disposing" of 180,000 "little-used volumes" based on circulation statistics.
- Nalo Hopkinson, a professor of Creative Writing at UC Riverside, has posted about concerns over the future of the university's famed science fiction collection.
Reviews
- Adrian Goldsworthy's Augustus; review by Nicholas Shakespeare in The Telegraph.
- Hampton Sides' In the Kingdom of Ice; review by Robert R. Harris in the NYTimes.
- Peter Snow's When Britain Burned the White House; review by Jonathan Yardley in the WaPo.
- The Smithsonian Institution has launched a crowdsourced transcription interface, to allow volunteers to help transcribe Civil War diaries, field notebooks, and more. There's a short report in the NYTimes.
- The Folger Library has announced that all images in its Digital Image Collection (currently nearly 80,000 items) are now eligible for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Fantastic news!
- Martin Kemp writes on the threats facing the Warburg Institute Library in the Royal Academy Magazine. More coverage on this front from The Guardian.
- UVA Special Collections has acquired a copy of the rare Tolkien publication Songs for the Philologists.
- Many maps stolen by Peter Bellwood from the National Library of Wales remain missing, Wales Online reports.
- On the Provenance Online Project blog, a look at inscriptions partially trimmed off during rebinding.
- It's all pigeons this week over at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie.
- New (to me, anyway): the Centre for the Study of the Book at Oxford is now posting podcasts of its discussion series.
- Ravi Somaiya profiles Harper's Magazine publisher John R. MacArthur.
- Emory University has launched Readux, a collection of digitized books from their libraries.
- Joshua Holm reviews and recommends Meredith McGill's article "Copyright and Intellectual Property: The State of the Discipline" in Book History 15.
- Michael Blanding talked to David Holahan from the Hartford Courant about his book The Map Thief.
- Anna Da Silva writes about a spat between Anthony Panizzi and the Royal Society for the Society's Repository blog.
- Maurice Sedgwick writes in The Guardian about "What makes Gormenghast a masterpiece?"
- A book cull at the Boston Public Library has hit the news with a report in the Boston Globe. Administrators are, reportedly, "disposing" of 180,000 "little-used volumes" based on circulation statistics.
- Nalo Hopkinson, a professor of Creative Writing at UC Riverside, has posted about concerns over the future of the university's famed science fiction collection.
Reviews
- Adrian Goldsworthy's Augustus; review by Nicholas Shakespeare in The Telegraph.
- Hampton Sides' In the Kingdom of Ice; review by Robert R. Harris in the NYTimes.
- Peter Snow's When Britain Burned the White House; review by Jonathan Yardley in the WaPo.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Links & Reviews
- ILAB has issued an official letter of protest to the Italian Ministries of Culture and Justice over their investigations into de Caro's thefts from the Girolamini and other libraries. This follows the arrest of Danish bookseller Christian Westergaard over books matching titles stolen from the libraries (but all recovered and in German police custody since 2012) and the cancellation of a Bloomsbury/Philobiblon auction in Rome on suspicion that books scheduled to be sold there might have been stolen (none proved to have been removed from libraries). The full letter is very much worth a read.
- Over at The Collation, Goran Proot explores the use of "vv" for "w" in 17th-century title pages.
- Lisa Fagin Davis reports on manuscripts in Alabama and Georgia, and comments on the recent discovery that the now-broken Beauvais Missal was once in the possession of William Randolph Hearst.
- Another bookstore I've always wanted to visit is closing, I'm very sorry to say: Seattle's Wessel & Lieberman is shutting its doors soon.
- A library card signed by Elvis Presley when he was in seventh grade is going up for auction later this month at Graceland.
- Judge Richard Posner, ordering the Conan Doyle estate to pay Leslie Klinger's legal fees, slammed as extortion the practice of certain literary estates charging license fees.
- British Airways is planning to add audio versions of eleven Shakespeare plays to its inflight entertainment options.
- The Brontë parsonage at Haworth has purchased a script from the first film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, made in the 1920s and shot in the Haworth area. No copy of the film itself is known to exist.
- As part of their second sale from the library of Franklin Brooke-Hitching on 30 September, Sotheby's will sell a number of books and other artifacts from the 1914 Shackleton expedition.
- Over at The Junto, a list of forthcoming books on early American topics.
- The diploma of the first African-American student to attend Harvard, Richard Greener (also the father of Belle da Costa Greene) sold for $12,500 this week at a Chicago auction.
- Bookbinding scholar Anthony Hobson died in early July; read an obituary by Nicolas Barker in The Independent.
- Daryl Green of the University of St. Andrews is featured in the FB&C "Bright Young Librarians" interview series.
- Historians have authenticated an inscription in an 1854 book on race as being written by Abraham Lincoln.
- The State Library of Massachusetts has digitized the manuscript of William Bradford's autograph manuscript for Of Plimouth Plantation, now available here. The interface leaves rather a great deal to be desired, I must say, but I suppose better something than nothing.
- Donald Kerr posted on ExLibris-L about a new census he's compiling, of the 1913 work La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France by Paul Cendrars with artwork by Sonia Delaunay-Terk. Contact him if you have any information about copies of this work.
Reviews
- Edward Dolnick's The Rush; review by Walter Borneman in the NYTimes.
- Michael Schmidt's The Novel: A Biography; review by John Sutherland in the NYTimes.
- Lev Grossman's The Magician's Land; reviews by Sarah Lyall in the NYTimes and Gwenda Bond in the LATimes.
- Helen Rappaport's Four Sisters; review by Natasha Randall in the TLS.
- Over at The Collation, Goran Proot explores the use of "vv" for "w" in 17th-century title pages.
- Lisa Fagin Davis reports on manuscripts in Alabama and Georgia, and comments on the recent discovery that the now-broken Beauvais Missal was once in the possession of William Randolph Hearst.
- Another bookstore I've always wanted to visit is closing, I'm very sorry to say: Seattle's Wessel & Lieberman is shutting its doors soon.
- A library card signed by Elvis Presley when he was in seventh grade is going up for auction later this month at Graceland.
- Judge Richard Posner, ordering the Conan Doyle estate to pay Leslie Klinger's legal fees, slammed as extortion the practice of certain literary estates charging license fees.
- British Airways is planning to add audio versions of eleven Shakespeare plays to its inflight entertainment options.
- The Brontë parsonage at Haworth has purchased a script from the first film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, made in the 1920s and shot in the Haworth area. No copy of the film itself is known to exist.
- As part of their second sale from the library of Franklin Brooke-Hitching on 30 September, Sotheby's will sell a number of books and other artifacts from the 1914 Shackleton expedition.
- Over at The Junto, a list of forthcoming books on early American topics.
- The diploma of the first African-American student to attend Harvard, Richard Greener (also the father of Belle da Costa Greene) sold for $12,500 this week at a Chicago auction.
- Bookbinding scholar Anthony Hobson died in early July; read an obituary by Nicolas Barker in The Independent.
- Daryl Green of the University of St. Andrews is featured in the FB&C "Bright Young Librarians" interview series.
- Historians have authenticated an inscription in an 1854 book on race as being written by Abraham Lincoln.
- The State Library of Massachusetts has digitized the manuscript of William Bradford's autograph manuscript for Of Plimouth Plantation, now available here. The interface leaves rather a great deal to be desired, I must say, but I suppose better something than nothing.
- Donald Kerr posted on ExLibris-L about a new census he's compiling, of the 1913 work La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France by Paul Cendrars with artwork by Sonia Delaunay-Terk. Contact him if you have any information about copies of this work.
Reviews
- Edward Dolnick's The Rush; review by Walter Borneman in the NYTimes.
- Michael Schmidt's The Novel: A Biography; review by John Sutherland in the NYTimes.
- Lev Grossman's The Magician's Land; reviews by Sarah Lyall in the NYTimes and Gwenda Bond in the LATimes.
- Helen Rappaport's Four Sisters; review by Natasha Randall in the TLS.
Sunday, August 03, 2014
Links & Reviews
Another Rare Book School season has come to a close, so here's a catchup post of links and reviews I missed over the last couple weeks:
- Many congratulations to the American Antiquarian Society, which was honored with a National Humanities Medal this week for "safeguarding the American story."
- The Provenance Online Project blog has launched, with some excellent first posts.
- David Whitesell writes on the Notes from Under Grounds blog about UVA Special Collections' acquisition this spring of 19th-century American and English books in original dust jackets. The 700 titles in 829 volumes are, David writes, "the largest such holding ever documented."
- From Sarah Werner at The Collation, 10mo!
- The Boston Athenaeum has announced that Elizabeth E. Barker will be the next Stanford Calderwood Director.
- HiLobrow has begun a series on contributors' favorite typefaces, including, so far, Matthew Battles on Aldine Italic and Sherri Wasserman on Toronto Subway.
- A two-parter at medievalfragments: Portable Medieval Manuscripts and Giant Medieval Manuscripts.
- Speaking of RBS, Rick Ring blogged about his experiences this week in "Teaching the History of the Book" over at The Bibliophile's Lair.
- Michael Paulson writes in the NYTimes on efforts by historian James Fenimore Cooper, Jr. and Congregational Library executive director Margaret Bendroth to preserve New England church records.
- The Folger Shakespeare Library launched Folgerpedia this week, a wiki designed to be an "infinitely updateable, constantly growing encyclopedia of all thing Folger and of interest to the Folger community."
- During renovations of UVA's Rotunda, masons discovered pieces of the original dome, destroyed in the 1895 fire.
- In Intelligent Life, Charles McCann writes about Roald Dahl in the "Notes on a Voice" column.
- Mike Widener notes a new installment in Mark Weiner's series of short videos about rare law books. Weiner writes that in "Water, Paper, Law," "an eighteenth-century Italian legal treatise about water inspires some thoughts about law, rare books, and the passage of time."
- There's an interview with John Ferling about the American Revolution on the OUP Blog.
- The Scholars' Lab crew launched Neatline 2.3 this week.
- Lenny Bruce's papers have been acquired by Brandeis University.
- Will Noel talked to FB&C's Nate Pedersen for the "Bright Young Librarians" series.
- Houghton Library reference assistant Leah Lefkowitz posted about an Elizabeth I letter in the library's collections.
- Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy talked to Tom Cutterham for The Junto about his book The Men Who Lost America.
Reviews
- Lev Grossman's The Magician's Land; review by Edan Lepucki in the NYTimes.
- Robert J. Mayhew's Malthus; review by Justin Fox in the NYTimes.
- Danielle Allen's Our Declaration; review by Gordon S. Wood in the NYRB.
- Paul Sorrentino's Stephen Crane: A Life of Fire; review by Jayne Anne Phillips in the NYTimes.
- Elizabeth Drew's Washington Journal; review by Maura Casey in the WaPo.
- Rick Perlstein's The Invisible Bridge; review by David Ulin in the LATimes.
- John Dean's The Nixon Defense; review by Carolyn Kellogg in the LATimes.
- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; reviews by John H. Kennedy in the Vineyard Gazette and Nick Romeo in The Daily Beast.
- Many congratulations to the American Antiquarian Society, which was honored with a National Humanities Medal this week for "safeguarding the American story."
- The Provenance Online Project blog has launched, with some excellent first posts.
- David Whitesell writes on the Notes from Under Grounds blog about UVA Special Collections' acquisition this spring of 19th-century American and English books in original dust jackets. The 700 titles in 829 volumes are, David writes, "the largest such holding ever documented."
- From Sarah Werner at The Collation, 10mo!
- The Boston Athenaeum has announced that Elizabeth E. Barker will be the next Stanford Calderwood Director.
- HiLobrow has begun a series on contributors' favorite typefaces, including, so far, Matthew Battles on Aldine Italic and Sherri Wasserman on Toronto Subway.
- A two-parter at medievalfragments: Portable Medieval Manuscripts and Giant Medieval Manuscripts.
- Speaking of RBS, Rick Ring blogged about his experiences this week in "Teaching the History of the Book" over at The Bibliophile's Lair.
- Michael Paulson writes in the NYTimes on efforts by historian James Fenimore Cooper, Jr. and Congregational Library executive director Margaret Bendroth to preserve New England church records.
- The Folger Shakespeare Library launched Folgerpedia this week, a wiki designed to be an "infinitely updateable, constantly growing encyclopedia of all thing Folger and of interest to the Folger community."
- During renovations of UVA's Rotunda, masons discovered pieces of the original dome, destroyed in the 1895 fire.
- In Intelligent Life, Charles McCann writes about Roald Dahl in the "Notes on a Voice" column.
- Mike Widener notes a new installment in Mark Weiner's series of short videos about rare law books. Weiner writes that in "Water, Paper, Law," "an eighteenth-century Italian legal treatise about water inspires some thoughts about law, rare books, and the passage of time."
- There's an interview with John Ferling about the American Revolution on the OUP Blog.
- The Scholars' Lab crew launched Neatline 2.3 this week.
- Lenny Bruce's papers have been acquired by Brandeis University.
- Will Noel talked to FB&C's Nate Pedersen for the "Bright Young Librarians" series.
- Houghton Library reference assistant Leah Lefkowitz posted about an Elizabeth I letter in the library's collections.
- Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy talked to Tom Cutterham for The Junto about his book The Men Who Lost America.
Reviews
- Lev Grossman's The Magician's Land; review by Edan Lepucki in the NYTimes.
- Robert J. Mayhew's Malthus; review by Justin Fox in the NYTimes.
- Danielle Allen's Our Declaration; review by Gordon S. Wood in the NYRB.
- Paul Sorrentino's Stephen Crane: A Life of Fire; review by Jayne Anne Phillips in the NYTimes.
- Elizabeth Drew's Washington Journal; review by Maura Casey in the WaPo.
- Rick Perlstein's The Invisible Bridge; review by David Ulin in the LATimes.
- John Dean's The Nixon Defense; review by Carolyn Kellogg in the LATimes.
- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; reviews by John H. Kennedy in the Vineyard Gazette and Nick Romeo in The Daily Beast.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Links & Reviews
- A copy of Lefevre's Recuyell of the Histories of Troye, the first book printed in English, sold for £1,082,000 at Sotheby's this week. The CSM reported on the sale.
- From Sarah Werner at The Collation, an exploration of symbols used as signature marks.
- Rebecca Romney writes on "Sterne's Tristram Shandy and Materials as Meaning."
- More on the Archaeology of Reading in Early Modern Europe project from the CSM and The Guardian.
- In Prospect, Sarah Dry offers an excerpt of her new book The Newton Papers.
- Cambridge University has launched a new online exhibition celebrating the 500th anniversary of Vesalius' birth.
- At Yale Books, an interview with David Knight, author of Voyaging in Strange Seas.
- One of this summer's "catalog campers" at AAS, Samantha Cook, reports on her experiences working with the tremendously important Printers' File.
- The Supreme Court has refused to hear an "emergency petition" from Conan Doyle's literary heirs over a planned book by Leslie Klinger.
- Over at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie, Lew interviews bookplate artist Daniel Mitsui.
- At Notabilia, Stephen Ferguson highlights a copy of Anti-Machiavel containing extensive manuscript annotations from other versions of the text.
Reviews
- Andrew Pettegree's The Invention of News; review by Julianne Werlin in the LA Review of Books.
- Deborah Harkness' The Book of Life; review by Paula L. Woods in the LATimes.
- Lawrence Buell's The Dream of the Great American Novel; review by Sarah Graham in the TLS.
- From Sarah Werner at The Collation, an exploration of symbols used as signature marks.
- Rebecca Romney writes on "Sterne's Tristram Shandy and Materials as Meaning."
- More on the Archaeology of Reading in Early Modern Europe project from the CSM and The Guardian.
- In Prospect, Sarah Dry offers an excerpt of her new book The Newton Papers.
- Cambridge University has launched a new online exhibition celebrating the 500th anniversary of Vesalius' birth.
- At Yale Books, an interview with David Knight, author of Voyaging in Strange Seas.
- One of this summer's "catalog campers" at AAS, Samantha Cook, reports on her experiences working with the tremendously important Printers' File.
- The Supreme Court has refused to hear an "emergency petition" from Conan Doyle's literary heirs over a planned book by Leslie Klinger.
- Over at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie, Lew interviews bookplate artist Daniel Mitsui.
- At Notabilia, Stephen Ferguson highlights a copy of Anti-Machiavel containing extensive manuscript annotations from other versions of the text.
Reviews
- Andrew Pettegree's The Invention of News; review by Julianne Werlin in the LA Review of Books.
- Deborah Harkness' The Book of Life; review by Paula L. Woods in the LATimes.
- Lawrence Buell's The Dream of the Great American Novel; review by Sarah Graham in the TLS.
Monday, July 14, 2014
Links & Reviews
- Newly available as free PDFs, DCRM(Books) and DCRM(Serials). DCRM(Graphics) is also available in the same format.
- On the Houghton Library blog, John Overholt writes about the re-acquisition of a set of Addison's works that were acquired by Harvard in the aftermath of the 1764 fire, but later removed as duplicates.
- Patrons have emptied the shelves of a small Devon village library after planned funding cuts threatened to close the library.
- The WaPo reports on the Folger Library's ambitious plan to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 2016 by exhibiting a First Folio in every U.S. state, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- New from USGS, Historical Topographic Map Explorer, which I'm looking forward to playing with. Read about it here.
- Rick Gekoski writes for The Guardian on "How to get ahead - or at least stay afloat - in the rare book trade."
- Elizabeth Yale writes at The Atlantic on "The Mortality of Paper."
- From Midwest Arcadia, Susan Donahue Karetsky writes on "Lairesse Meets Bidloo, or, the Case of the Absent Anatomist."
- Jennifer Schuessler reports on several efforts to document early marginalia, including the newly-Mellon-funded project Exploring the Archaeology of Reading. More from JHU here.
- Sarah Werner works on identifying a distinctive leather bookplate at The Collation.
- Over at Notabila, an incunable containing an early leather bookmark with rotating column indicator.
Reviews
- Fred Kaplan's John Quincy Adams; review by Alec Rogers in the Washington Times.
- Ben Shephard's Headhunters; review by Adam Kuper in the TLS.
- John Paul Steven's Six Amendments; review by Steven Calabresi in the WSJ.
- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; review by Maxwell Carter in the WSJ.
- On the Houghton Library blog, John Overholt writes about the re-acquisition of a set of Addison's works that were acquired by Harvard in the aftermath of the 1764 fire, but later removed as duplicates.
- Patrons have emptied the shelves of a small Devon village library after planned funding cuts threatened to close the library.
- The WaPo reports on the Folger Library's ambitious plan to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 2016 by exhibiting a First Folio in every U.S. state, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- New from USGS, Historical Topographic Map Explorer, which I'm looking forward to playing with. Read about it here.
- Rick Gekoski writes for The Guardian on "How to get ahead - or at least stay afloat - in the rare book trade."
- Elizabeth Yale writes at The Atlantic on "The Mortality of Paper."
- From Midwest Arcadia, Susan Donahue Karetsky writes on "Lairesse Meets Bidloo, or, the Case of the Absent Anatomist."
- Jennifer Schuessler reports on several efforts to document early marginalia, including the newly-Mellon-funded project Exploring the Archaeology of Reading. More from JHU here.
- Sarah Werner works on identifying a distinctive leather bookplate at The Collation.
- Over at Notabila, an incunable containing an early leather bookmark with rotating column indicator.
Reviews
- Fred Kaplan's John Quincy Adams; review by Alec Rogers in the Washington Times.
- Ben Shephard's Headhunters; review by Adam Kuper in the TLS.
- John Paul Steven's Six Amendments; review by Steven Calabresi in the WSJ.
- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; review by Maxwell Carter in the WSJ.
Sunday, July 06, 2014
Links & Reviews
I've updated the blog list at right, removing now-dead links, indicating those that haven't been updated within the last year, and adding a few. As always, if there are blogs, &c. you think I ought to be linking to there, let me know!
- The Telegraph reports today on the 16 July sale at Christie's of a fascinating library collected by multiple generations of English bibliophiles, containing quite a few bibliographic treasures.
- A new Neatline/Omeka presentation of the Declaration of Independence by David McClure launched this week, and it's very much worth a look.
- David Rubenstein has funded a new facsimile of the 1823 Stone facsimile of the Declaration of Independence, to allow one framed copy of be displayed in each U.S. embassy. Seth Kaller, Inc. produced a 24-page booklet to accompany the facsimiles.
- The NYPL displayed a copy of the Declaration in Jefferson's hand this week, drawing more than 10,000 visitors.
- Jennifer Howard reported for the Chronicle this week on the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's preparations for a new strategic plan, to be released this summer.
- The NYTimes reported on a punctuation question that has arisen around the text of the Declaration of Independence as presented by NARA. Danielle Allen's full paper on which the article is based is here, and Joe Adelman weighed in.
- Simon Beattie reminds us other things happened during 1776, highlighting a new collection of material printed at Stargard Szczeciński (Poland) to document the celebrations held to welcome Catherine the Great's son, Paul, who visited the town enroute to Berlin where he was to meet a new wife.
- Michael Beschloss wrote about the 1952 transfer of the major American founding documents from the Library of Congress to the new National Archives building.
- Amazon's Jeff Grandinetti spoke to the WSJ about the company's ongoing feud with Hachette; Melville House's Alex Shephard responds.
- The Yale Digital Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson are currently available in beta form.
Reviews
- Richard W. Oram and Joseph Nicholson's Collecting, Curating, and Researching Writers' Libraries: A Handbook; review by Peter Steinberg at Sylvia Plath Info.
- Fred Kaplan's John Quincy Adams; review by Edward Cuddihy in the Buffalo News.
- Diana Scarisbrick & Benjamin Zucker's Elihu Yale; review by Martin Rubin in the Washington Times.
- Alex Beam's American Crucifixion; review by Benjamin Moser in the NYTimes.
- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; review by Pradeep Sebastian in The Hindu.
- Danielle Allen's Our Declaration; review by Steven B. Smith in the NYTimes.
- The Telegraph reports today on the 16 July sale at Christie's of a fascinating library collected by multiple generations of English bibliophiles, containing quite a few bibliographic treasures.
- A new Neatline/Omeka presentation of the Declaration of Independence by David McClure launched this week, and it's very much worth a look.
- David Rubenstein has funded a new facsimile of the 1823 Stone facsimile of the Declaration of Independence, to allow one framed copy of be displayed in each U.S. embassy. Seth Kaller, Inc. produced a 24-page booklet to accompany the facsimiles.
- The NYPL displayed a copy of the Declaration in Jefferson's hand this week, drawing more than 10,000 visitors.
- Jennifer Howard reported for the Chronicle this week on the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's preparations for a new strategic plan, to be released this summer.
- The NYTimes reported on a punctuation question that has arisen around the text of the Declaration of Independence as presented by NARA. Danielle Allen's full paper on which the article is based is here, and Joe Adelman weighed in.
- Simon Beattie reminds us other things happened during 1776, highlighting a new collection of material printed at Stargard Szczeciński (Poland) to document the celebrations held to welcome Catherine the Great's son, Paul, who visited the town enroute to Berlin where he was to meet a new wife.
- Michael Beschloss wrote about the 1952 transfer of the major American founding documents from the Library of Congress to the new National Archives building.
- Amazon's Jeff Grandinetti spoke to the WSJ about the company's ongoing feud with Hachette; Melville House's Alex Shephard responds.
- The Yale Digital Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson are currently available in beta form.
Reviews
- Richard W. Oram and Joseph Nicholson's Collecting, Curating, and Researching Writers' Libraries: A Handbook; review by Peter Steinberg at Sylvia Plath Info.
- Fred Kaplan's John Quincy Adams; review by Edward Cuddihy in the Buffalo News.
- Diana Scarisbrick & Benjamin Zucker's Elihu Yale; review by Martin Rubin in the Washington Times.
- Alex Beam's American Crucifixion; review by Benjamin Moser in the NYTimes.
- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; review by Pradeep Sebastian in The Hindu.
- Danielle Allen's Our Declaration; review by Steven B. Smith in the NYTimes.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Links & Reviews
Back from an excellent RBMS preconference in the very strange city of Las Vegas. It was a pleasure to see so many old friends and meet so many new ones, and to have a chance to hear from so many about the good work they're doing in their libraries and institutions.
- The Irish Times reports that the oldest known surviving Irish manuscript, known as the First Book of Ussher, will be displayed publicly by Trinity College Dublin for the first time in 2016.
- Mitch Fraas, who I had the great pleasure of meeting in person this week at RBMS, has posted some fascinating findings based on the Americana Exchange lists of top 2013 book and manuscript auction sales, including breakdowns by auction house, century, estimate overperformance, and more.
- From the Harvard Gazette, a story on the conservation of the miniature books created by the Brontë children.
- Over at the Melville House blog, Alex Shephard has an in-depth look at the ongoing Amazon/Hachette feud, and what it means for the publishing industry.
- Continuing the very strange stories coming out of Dublin, All Hallows College is planning to sell art and rare books next month at Sheppard's in Durrow.
- Following the recent confirmation from Houghton Library that a book in its collections was bound in human skin, Paul Needham has written a short essay calling for the binding to be removed and buried.
- Over at The Little Professor, thoughts on deaccessioning from one's personal library.
- SAA president Danna Bell has posted on the SAA blog about "The De-Evolution of the Archives and Archivists List."
- A working manuscript draft of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" sold for $2 million at Sotheby's this week.
- Jennifer Howard reports from the Association of American University Presses' annual meeting for the Chronicle of Higher Education.
- Retiring UVA historian Sandy Gilliam talked to the Roanoke Times about his long career at UVA.
Reviews
- Horst Bredekamp, Paul Needham et al.'s A Galileo Forgery; review by Massimo Mazzotti in the LA Review of Books. More than a review, though, this is an excellent background piece on the forgeries as well.
- Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling's The Silkworm; review by Harlan Coben in the NYTimes.
- Michael Korda's Clouds of Glory; review by Fergus M. Bordewich in the NYTimes.
- Elizabeth Mitchell's Liberty's Torch; review by Janet Napolitano in the LATimes.
- Kevin Birmingham's The Most Dangerous Book; review by Dwight Garner in the NYTimes.
- Nicola Barker's In the Approaches; review by Ruth Scurr in the TLS.
- Alex Wright's Cataloging the World; review by Maria Popova at Brain Pickings.
- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; review by Chuck Haga in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
- Lauren Owen's The Quick; review by Joy Tipping in the Dallas Morning News.
- The Irish Times reports that the oldest known surviving Irish manuscript, known as the First Book of Ussher, will be displayed publicly by Trinity College Dublin for the first time in 2016.
- Mitch Fraas, who I had the great pleasure of meeting in person this week at RBMS, has posted some fascinating findings based on the Americana Exchange lists of top 2013 book and manuscript auction sales, including breakdowns by auction house, century, estimate overperformance, and more.
- From the Harvard Gazette, a story on the conservation of the miniature books created by the Brontë children.
- Over at the Melville House blog, Alex Shephard has an in-depth look at the ongoing Amazon/Hachette feud, and what it means for the publishing industry.
- Continuing the very strange stories coming out of Dublin, All Hallows College is planning to sell art and rare books next month at Sheppard's in Durrow.
- Following the recent confirmation from Houghton Library that a book in its collections was bound in human skin, Paul Needham has written a short essay calling for the binding to be removed and buried.
- Over at The Little Professor, thoughts on deaccessioning from one's personal library.
- SAA president Danna Bell has posted on the SAA blog about "The De-Evolution of the Archives and Archivists List."
- A working manuscript draft of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" sold for $2 million at Sotheby's this week.
- Jennifer Howard reports from the Association of American University Presses' annual meeting for the Chronicle of Higher Education.
- Retiring UVA historian Sandy Gilliam talked to the Roanoke Times about his long career at UVA.
Reviews
- Horst Bredekamp, Paul Needham et al.'s A Galileo Forgery; review by Massimo Mazzotti in the LA Review of Books. More than a review, though, this is an excellent background piece on the forgeries as well.
- Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling's The Silkworm; review by Harlan Coben in the NYTimes.
- Michael Korda's Clouds of Glory; review by Fergus M. Bordewich in the NYTimes.
- Elizabeth Mitchell's Liberty's Torch; review by Janet Napolitano in the LATimes.
- Kevin Birmingham's The Most Dangerous Book; review by Dwight Garner in the NYTimes.
- Nicola Barker's In the Approaches; review by Ruth Scurr in the TLS.
- Alex Wright's Cataloging the World; review by Maria Popova at Brain Pickings.
- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; review by Chuck Haga in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
- Lauren Owen's The Quick; review by Joy Tipping in the Dallas Morning News.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Links & Reviews
I realized that this week marked the 8th anniversary of the first post on this blog; it seems almost remarkable that it's continued so long! The milestone seems particularly fitting since I've been spending more time actually thinking about this blog than I usually do, in preparation for a seminar at RBMS this coming week where I'll be talking about "Publishing for Professional Growth." Given the other excellent folks on the panel (Jessica Pigza, Anne Bahde, Colleen Thiesen, and John Overholt as moderator) it should be a really good discussion, and I'm quite looking forward to it. If you're in Las Vegas for RBMS and want to come, it'll be held from 4-5:30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon.
- The new ABAA website launched this week, and it's quite impressive!
- A first edition of Whitman's Leaves of Grass from the Huguette Clark collection fetched $305,000 at Christie's this week, setting a new record for a Whitman work.
- The copy of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest inscribed to his jailer sold at auction this week for £55,000.
- A new exhibition, "Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America" opens at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History on 24 June.
- With the news that a book at Harvard has now been confirmed to be bound in human skin, the BBC Magazine surveys the well-worn ground of anthropodermic bindings.
- Just weeks after the threat to IES comes another one: now the Warburg Institute could be closed and its collections broken up as the University of London seeks to change the 1944 deed of trust which brought the collection to London. A ruling on the terms of the deed could come this fall. This isn't exactly a new danger, though: Anthony Grafton and Jeffrey Hamburger posted an essay on the possible closure over on the NYRB blog way back in 2010.
- The DPLA has received an $81,000 grant from the Whiting Foundation to explore educational possibilities for its collections.
- Colum McCann gets the "By the Book" treatment in the NYTimes.
- Elizabeth Eisenstein spoke to Thomas Hill for his Library Café podcast. You can listen here.
- The NYPL's Rose Main Reading Room will remain closed for around six months to allow for inspections and repairs to the ceiling after a plaster rosette fell in May.
- Julian Baggini reports in the Financial Times about recent research into the differences between reading on paper and reading on a screen.
- Nathan Raab writes at Forbes about a Lincoln document believed authentic for the last seven decades or so, but now proven to be a forgery.
- Over at The Collation, Deborah J. Leslie writes on throwout plates, bound so that an illustration or table could be viewed while still reading the text.
- The Reading Experience Database bibliography has been updated with a number of new and forthcoming articles.
- Several unpublished Pablo Neruda poems have been found during the cataloging of the poet's manuscripts.
- Dublin police have discovered more than seventy pieces of art, rare books and other objects believed to have been stolen over more than four decades.
Reviews
- Fred Kaplan's John Quincy Adams; review by Randolph Walerius at Roll Call.
- Lauren Owen's The Quick; reviews by Andrew Sean Greer in the NYTimes and Elizabeth Hand in the LATimes.
- The new ABAA website launched this week, and it's quite impressive!
- A first edition of Whitman's Leaves of Grass from the Huguette Clark collection fetched $305,000 at Christie's this week, setting a new record for a Whitman work.
- The copy of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest inscribed to his jailer sold at auction this week for £55,000.
- A new exhibition, "Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America" opens at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History on 24 June.
- With the news that a book at Harvard has now been confirmed to be bound in human skin, the BBC Magazine surveys the well-worn ground of anthropodermic bindings.
- Just weeks after the threat to IES comes another one: now the Warburg Institute could be closed and its collections broken up as the University of London seeks to change the 1944 deed of trust which brought the collection to London. A ruling on the terms of the deed could come this fall. This isn't exactly a new danger, though: Anthony Grafton and Jeffrey Hamburger posted an essay on the possible closure over on the NYRB blog way back in 2010.
- The DPLA has received an $81,000 grant from the Whiting Foundation to explore educational possibilities for its collections.
- Colum McCann gets the "By the Book" treatment in the NYTimes.
- Elizabeth Eisenstein spoke to Thomas Hill for his Library Café podcast. You can listen here.
- The NYPL's Rose Main Reading Room will remain closed for around six months to allow for inspections and repairs to the ceiling after a plaster rosette fell in May.
- Julian Baggini reports in the Financial Times about recent research into the differences between reading on paper and reading on a screen.
- Nathan Raab writes at Forbes about a Lincoln document believed authentic for the last seven decades or so, but now proven to be a forgery.
- Over at The Collation, Deborah J. Leslie writes on throwout plates, bound so that an illustration or table could be viewed while still reading the text.
- The Reading Experience Database bibliography has been updated with a number of new and forthcoming articles.
- Several unpublished Pablo Neruda poems have been found during the cataloging of the poet's manuscripts.
- Dublin police have discovered more than seventy pieces of art, rare books and other objects believed to have been stolen over more than four decades.
Reviews
- Fred Kaplan's John Quincy Adams; review by Randolph Walerius at Roll Call.
- Lauren Owen's The Quick; reviews by Andrew Sean Greer in the NYTimes and Elizabeth Hand in the LATimes.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Links & Reviews
- The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling in favor of HathiTrust. Read Jennifer Howard's Chronicle report, or the full decision.
- The grandson of historian Samuel Eliot Morison appeared in federal court this week, accused of stealing more than thirty boxes of his grandfather's papers from the Naval Historical Center. Samuel L. Morison, 69, faces up to ten years in prison for the theft of government property, and has been banned from visiting libraries and archives without court approval while awaiting trial. Morison was allegedly selling the documents on eBay via a Maryland bookstore. Reports in Reuters and the WaPo (the latter containing much more detail).
- The Beinecke Library has acquired the papers of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson.
- Over at TNR, Blaine Greteman writes "It's the End of the Humanities as We Know It ... And I feel fine."
- Sid and Ruth Lapidus have donated $2.5 million, as well as rare books and manuscripts relating to slavery, to the NYPL's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
- Boston's wonderful Brattle Book Shop is profiled in Rare Books Digest.
- At The Collation, Sarah Werner examines the four states of the Martin Droeshout portrait of Shakespeare.
- Hillary Clinton talked books with the NYTimes this week.
- The LATimes Summer Book Preview is worth a look-through, and over at the TLS reviewers are discussing which books they're looking forward to reading while on vacation.
Reviews
- Margery Heffron's Louisa Catherine: The Other Mrs. Adams; review by Barry Alfonso in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- Gustavo Faverón Patriau's The Antiquarian; review by Carmela Ciuraru in the NYTimes.
- The grandson of historian Samuel Eliot Morison appeared in federal court this week, accused of stealing more than thirty boxes of his grandfather's papers from the Naval Historical Center. Samuel L. Morison, 69, faces up to ten years in prison for the theft of government property, and has been banned from visiting libraries and archives without court approval while awaiting trial. Morison was allegedly selling the documents on eBay via a Maryland bookstore. Reports in Reuters and the WaPo (the latter containing much more detail).
- The Beinecke Library has acquired the papers of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson.
- Over at TNR, Blaine Greteman writes "It's the End of the Humanities as We Know It ... And I feel fine."
- Sid and Ruth Lapidus have donated $2.5 million, as well as rare books and manuscripts relating to slavery, to the NYPL's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
- Boston's wonderful Brattle Book Shop is profiled in Rare Books Digest.
- At The Collation, Sarah Werner examines the four states of the Martin Droeshout portrait of Shakespeare.
- Hillary Clinton talked books with the NYTimes this week.
- The LATimes Summer Book Preview is worth a look-through, and over at the TLS reviewers are discussing which books they're looking forward to reading while on vacation.
Reviews
- Margery Heffron's Louisa Catherine: The Other Mrs. Adams; review by Barry Alfonso in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- Gustavo Faverón Patriau's The Antiquarian; review by Carmela Ciuraru in the NYTimes.
Sunday, June 08, 2014
Links & Reviews
- The excellent "Authenticity of Print Materials" symposium held at LC back in December is now available as a webcast [Updated with YouTube link, since that's easier to access].
- Tom Hyry has been announced as the new Florence Fearrington Librarian of Houghton Library.
- The BBC reports that three FSB agents have been sentenced for the theft of a Gutenberg Bible from Moscow State University: Sergei Vedishchev received a three-year term in a penal colony for theft, and two accomplices received lighter sentences for trying to sell the book to a collector.
- The Independent has more on the large-scale thefts of books and artwork from All Hallows College in Dublin.
- The Rare Book School summer lecture series was announced this week.
- From the Samuelson Clinic at Berkeley, a new "Is it in the Public Domain?" handbook.
- Newly-published is Collecting, Curating, and Researching Writers' Libraries: A Handbook (Rowman & Littlefield), edited by Rich Oram and Joseph Nicholson.
- Tests have confirmed (for all intents and purposes) that a Houghton Library book, Arsène Houssaye's Des destinées de l'ame is actually bound in human skin.
- The NYPL has revealed that its new renovation plans for the Fifth Avenue building and other upgrades will likely cost something on the order of $300 million, while the expected costs of the now-abandoned Central Library Plan had creeped up to more than $500 million. This just days after a falling chunk of plaster closed the Rose Main Reading Room indefinitely.
- Joel Kovarsky is profiled in the Crozet Times about his new book, The True Geography of Our Country: Jefferson's Cartographic Vision.
- From the ABAA Security blog, a robbery at Bay Leaf Books in Newaygo, MI.
- In the Guardian, a fascinating story about an overpainted whale in a 1641 Dutch painting, newly revealed through conservation work.
- Stephen Greenblatt writes about Montaigne's influence on Shakespeare.
Reviews
- Katharine Grant's Sedition; review by Andea Wulf in the NYTimes.
- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; review by Michael Washburn in the Boston Globe.
- Tom Hyry has been announced as the new Florence Fearrington Librarian of Houghton Library.
- The BBC reports that three FSB agents have been sentenced for the theft of a Gutenberg Bible from Moscow State University: Sergei Vedishchev received a three-year term in a penal colony for theft, and two accomplices received lighter sentences for trying to sell the book to a collector.
- The Independent has more on the large-scale thefts of books and artwork from All Hallows College in Dublin.
- The Rare Book School summer lecture series was announced this week.
- From the Samuelson Clinic at Berkeley, a new "Is it in the Public Domain?" handbook.
- Newly-published is Collecting, Curating, and Researching Writers' Libraries: A Handbook (Rowman & Littlefield), edited by Rich Oram and Joseph Nicholson.
- Tests have confirmed (for all intents and purposes) that a Houghton Library book, Arsène Houssaye's Des destinées de l'ame is actually bound in human skin.
- The NYPL has revealed that its new renovation plans for the Fifth Avenue building and other upgrades will likely cost something on the order of $300 million, while the expected costs of the now-abandoned Central Library Plan had creeped up to more than $500 million. This just days after a falling chunk of plaster closed the Rose Main Reading Room indefinitely.
- Joel Kovarsky is profiled in the Crozet Times about his new book, The True Geography of Our Country: Jefferson's Cartographic Vision.
- From the ABAA Security blog, a robbery at Bay Leaf Books in Newaygo, MI.
- In the Guardian, a fascinating story about an overpainted whale in a 1641 Dutch painting, newly revealed through conservation work.
- Stephen Greenblatt writes about Montaigne's influence on Shakespeare.
Reviews
- Katharine Grant's Sedition; review by Andea Wulf in the NYTimes.
- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; review by Michael Washburn in the Boston Globe.
Sunday, June 01, 2014
Links & Reviews
- The Irish Times reports that All Hallows College, Dublin is missing "a sizeable number" of valuable books, manuscripts, and pieces of art, possibly worth as much as €100,000. The small college is planning to cease operations in the near future, and this latest investigation comes just days after the college withdrew a collection of Jackie Kennedy letters from auction.
- At Anchora, Adam Hooks weighs in on the Shakespeare's Beehive business, particularly considering printer Richard Field and the uses made of him by the Beehive authors.
- The June AE Monthly is out, and it features a series on bookselling, booksellers talking about Amazon, and an update on Canadian book thief John Mark Tillman, now reportedly cooperating with police to return some 7,000 stolen artifacts to their rightful homes.
- On NPR, Mark Dimunation discussed his ongoing hunt for the last few titles needed to complete the LC's reconstruction of Jefferson's library.
- From Jerry Morris at Biblio Researching, some good sleuthing into the provenance of one of his books.
- A new list of recent and forthcoming books on early American history is up on the SEA site.
- And over at The Junto, they've announced a summer book club.
- Digital surrogates of more than a thousand manuscripts from the 17th and 18th centuries have now been added to Penn in Hand.
Reviews
- Fred Kaplan's John Quincy Adams; reviews by Robert K. Landers in the WSJ and David Holahan in the CSM.
- Daniel Levine's Hyde; review by Walter Kirn in the NYTimes.
- James Oakes' The Scorpion's Sting; review by Ira Berlin in the WaPo.
- Michael Waldman's The Second Amendment; review by Garrett Epps in the WaPo.
- Michael Korda's Clouds of Glory; review by Eric Foner in the WaPo.
- At Anchora, Adam Hooks weighs in on the Shakespeare's Beehive business, particularly considering printer Richard Field and the uses made of him by the Beehive authors.
- The June AE Monthly is out, and it features a series on bookselling, booksellers talking about Amazon, and an update on Canadian book thief John Mark Tillman, now reportedly cooperating with police to return some 7,000 stolen artifacts to their rightful homes.
- On NPR, Mark Dimunation discussed his ongoing hunt for the last few titles needed to complete the LC's reconstruction of Jefferson's library.
- From Jerry Morris at Biblio Researching, some good sleuthing into the provenance of one of his books.
- A new list of recent and forthcoming books on early American history is up on the SEA site.
- And over at The Junto, they've announced a summer book club.
- Digital surrogates of more than a thousand manuscripts from the 17th and 18th centuries have now been added to Penn in Hand.
Reviews
- Fred Kaplan's John Quincy Adams; reviews by Robert K. Landers in the WSJ and David Holahan in the CSM.
- Daniel Levine's Hyde; review by Walter Kirn in the NYTimes.
- James Oakes' The Scorpion's Sting; review by Ira Berlin in the WaPo.
- Michael Waldman's The Second Amendment; review by Garrett Epps in the WaPo.
- Michael Korda's Clouds of Glory; review by Eric Foner in the WaPo.
Book Review: "Washington Brotherhood"
Rachel Shelden's Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War (UNC Press, 2013) offers a fresh look at Washington society in the decades leading up to the Civil War, concentrating not on the occasional violent outburst but instead on the day-to-day camaraderie and social interactions of elected officials from across the regional and political spectrum. Shelden highlights a number of situations in which personal friendships between legislators had important consequences for the resolution of sectional differences, and argues for the existence of a Washington "bubble" that kept many of those who might have prevented the ultimate break from seeing it coming to the extent that they might have.
The author has done her research well, drawing on a wide range of unpublished papers, boardinghouse directories, Congressional seating charts, and other materials. She stresses the importance of not relying on the record of Congressional debates as the main source for sectional animus, noting that often legislators who were violently critical of their political opponents in public were close personal friends. She ably explains the Young Indians, a small group of Whig congressmen from across the sectional divide (including Abraham Lincoln and Alexander Stephens) who played a key role in the Whig selection of Zachary Taylor as the party's nominee in 1848 and cemented lasting personal bonds and perceptions between its members (for good and ill, as it turned out).
An excellent exploration of social and cultural connections which provide important context to the history of the antebellum period.
The author has done her research well, drawing on a wide range of unpublished papers, boardinghouse directories, Congressional seating charts, and other materials. She stresses the importance of not relying on the record of Congressional debates as the main source for sectional animus, noting that often legislators who were violently critical of their political opponents in public were close personal friends. She ably explains the Young Indians, a small group of Whig congressmen from across the sectional divide (including Abraham Lincoln and Alexander Stephens) who played a key role in the Whig selection of Zachary Taylor as the party's nominee in 1848 and cemented lasting personal bonds and perceptions between its members (for good and ill, as it turned out).
An excellent exploration of social and cultural connections which provide important context to the history of the antebellum period.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Links & Reviews
- The Glasgow School of Art's iconic library designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh was destroyed by a fire this week. You can contribute to a response fund here.
- A plan to close the University of London's Institute of English Studies, outlined here, has been temporarily shelved after a strong scholarly outcry, including more than 3,600 signatures on an online petition.
- Robert Darnton writes in the NYRB about the progress of the DPLA and other projects.
- Brian Cassidy's tenth-anniversary e-catalog, "Mistakes Were Made," is an absolute must-read.
- John Overholt made a fascinating find recently: inked bearer type, which he was then able to identify.
- A book inscribed by Oscar Wilde to prison governor James Nelson as a token of appreciation for giving the author access to reading material could fetch £60,000 when sold at Bonhams in London on 18 June.
- The BL Collection Care blog reports on the recent discovery of a watermark on the rear pastedown of the St. Cuthbert Gospel.
- A.J. O'Shaughnessy has won the 2014 George Washington Book Prize, with its $50,000 purse, for The Men Who Lost America.
- From Aaron Pratt, "Flipping EEBO," a post prompted by a very interesting conversation on Twitter.
- You can now watch the trailer for "Cold Storage," a forthcoming documentary film about the Harvard Depository.
- The Mapping the British Book Trade workshop at Oxford this week made for some lively Twitter chatter, which is documented here.
- At The Collation, Heather Wolfe highlights a wonderful and richly-annotated 1572 dictionary.
- William S. Peterson and Sylvia Holton Peterson have launched a new digital reconstruction of the library of William Morris.
- Caleb Crain responds to the abandonment of the NYPL's Central Library Plan.
- From the Smithsonian Libraries Unbound blog, a look at binding waste found in book spines.
- The NYTimes Bits blog covers the current battle between Amazon and Hachette. Utterly ridiculous for Amazon to be doing this; it just makes them look stupid and petty.
- The HRC has acquired the archive of author Ian McEwan. Along the same vein, see Tim Parks' NYRB essay on author archives.
- Walter Isaacson's NEH Jefferson Lecture "The Intersection of the Humanities and the Sciences" is well worth a read.
- Several books believed to be rebound in decorative cloth by Dorothy Wordsworth were sold for £5,800 at Dreweatts this week.
- The BL's new Romantics and Victorians section of their Discovering Literature website was highlighted in The Guardian.
- Sarah Dry talked to Wired about her new book The Newton Papers.
- John Overholt's put up an animated gif of 19th-century progressive color printing processes.
- Another excellent response to Adam Kirsch's TNR piece on DH (linked in my last post), by Anne Burdick, Johanna Drucker, Peter Lunenfeld, Todd Presner, and Jeffrey Schnapp.
- Colby College's plan to move books out of the stacks is panned in Slate by Rebecca Schuman.
- Larry McMurtry writes on "The Lost Booksellers of New York" in the NYTimes.
- There's an excerpt of Michael Blanding's book on E. Forbes Smiley, The Map Thief, in the Boston Globe Magazine.
- One of my favorite characters, William Jenks, showed up on the AAS blog this week, clothed in books.
- From the University of Melbourne Library Collections blog, "Provenance in Pictures: Tracking the Ownership of Three Early Printed Books."
- Book conservator Samantha Couture is profiled in the Albany Times-Union. Sam does great work, as a few books on my own shelves will attest!
Reviews
- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; review by Jim Shelton in the New Haven Register.
- Edward St. Aubyn's Lost for Words; review by Jonathan Yardley in the WaPo.
- Michael Waldman's The Second Amendment; review by David Ulin in the LATimes.
- John Leonard's Faithful Laborers; review by Nigel Smith in the TLS.
- Fred Kaplan's John Quincy Adams; reviews by David Shribman in the Boston Globe and Carol Berkin in the WaPo.
- The new edition of Tolkien's translation of Beowulf; review by Craig Williamson in the WSJ.
- Sarah Dry's The Newton Papers; review by Laura Snyder in the WSJ.
- Several alternate histories of the American Revolution are reviewed by Paul Aron at Common-place.
- The Morgan Library exhibition "Gatsby to Garp: Modern Masterpieces from the Carter Burden Collection"; review by Edward Rothstein in the NYTimes.
- A plan to close the University of London's Institute of English Studies, outlined here, has been temporarily shelved after a strong scholarly outcry, including more than 3,600 signatures on an online petition.
- Robert Darnton writes in the NYRB about the progress of the DPLA and other projects.
- Brian Cassidy's tenth-anniversary e-catalog, "Mistakes Were Made," is an absolute must-read.
- John Overholt made a fascinating find recently: inked bearer type, which he was then able to identify.
- A book inscribed by Oscar Wilde to prison governor James Nelson as a token of appreciation for giving the author access to reading material could fetch £60,000 when sold at Bonhams in London on 18 June.
- The BL Collection Care blog reports on the recent discovery of a watermark on the rear pastedown of the St. Cuthbert Gospel.
- A.J. O'Shaughnessy has won the 2014 George Washington Book Prize, with its $50,000 purse, for The Men Who Lost America.
- From Aaron Pratt, "Flipping EEBO," a post prompted by a very interesting conversation on Twitter.
- You can now watch the trailer for "Cold Storage," a forthcoming documentary film about the Harvard Depository.
- The Mapping the British Book Trade workshop at Oxford this week made for some lively Twitter chatter, which is documented here.
- At The Collation, Heather Wolfe highlights a wonderful and richly-annotated 1572 dictionary.
- William S. Peterson and Sylvia Holton Peterson have launched a new digital reconstruction of the library of William Morris.
- Caleb Crain responds to the abandonment of the NYPL's Central Library Plan.
- From the Smithsonian Libraries Unbound blog, a look at binding waste found in book spines.
- The NYTimes Bits blog covers the current battle between Amazon and Hachette. Utterly ridiculous for Amazon to be doing this; it just makes them look stupid and petty.
- The HRC has acquired the archive of author Ian McEwan. Along the same vein, see Tim Parks' NYRB essay on author archives.
- Walter Isaacson's NEH Jefferson Lecture "The Intersection of the Humanities and the Sciences" is well worth a read.
- Several books believed to be rebound in decorative cloth by Dorothy Wordsworth were sold for £5,800 at Dreweatts this week.
- The BL's new Romantics and Victorians section of their Discovering Literature website was highlighted in The Guardian.
- Sarah Dry talked to Wired about her new book The Newton Papers.
- John Overholt's put up an animated gif of 19th-century progressive color printing processes.
- Another excellent response to Adam Kirsch's TNR piece on DH (linked in my last post), by Anne Burdick, Johanna Drucker, Peter Lunenfeld, Todd Presner, and Jeffrey Schnapp.
- Colby College's plan to move books out of the stacks is panned in Slate by Rebecca Schuman.
- Larry McMurtry writes on "The Lost Booksellers of New York" in the NYTimes.
- There's an excerpt of Michael Blanding's book on E. Forbes Smiley, The Map Thief, in the Boston Globe Magazine.
- One of my favorite characters, William Jenks, showed up on the AAS blog this week, clothed in books.
- From the University of Melbourne Library Collections blog, "Provenance in Pictures: Tracking the Ownership of Three Early Printed Books."
- Book conservator Samantha Couture is profiled in the Albany Times-Union. Sam does great work, as a few books on my own shelves will attest!
Reviews
- Michael Blanding's The Map Thief; review by Jim Shelton in the New Haven Register.
- Edward St. Aubyn's Lost for Words; review by Jonathan Yardley in the WaPo.
- Michael Waldman's The Second Amendment; review by David Ulin in the LATimes.
- John Leonard's Faithful Laborers; review by Nigel Smith in the TLS.
- Fred Kaplan's John Quincy Adams; reviews by David Shribman in the Boston Globe and Carol Berkin in the WaPo.
- The new edition of Tolkien's translation of Beowulf; review by Craig Williamson in the WSJ.
- Sarah Dry's The Newton Papers; review by Laura Snyder in the WSJ.
- Several alternate histories of the American Revolution are reviewed by Paul Aron at Common-place.
- The Morgan Library exhibition "Gatsby to Garp: Modern Masterpieces from the Carter Burden Collection"; review by Edward Rothstein in the NYTimes.
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