- The 10th biennial conference of the Society of Early Americanists is coming up this week in Tulsa. I've organized a panel there on the future of American library history, where I hope to prompt a good conversation about current tools for working with historical library records and what tools we need in order to make even better use of these.
- After that, it's off to New York for Rare Book Week: three book fairs and lots of other goings-on.
- Harvard Magazine features a highlight article in celebration of Houghton Library's 75th anniversary.
- Coming soon, the Stationers' Register Online.
- Dawn Albinger of Archives Fine Books in Australia has a post up on the ILAB site about her work recently to restore a stolen book to its rightful home.
- A serialized Walt Whitman novel from 1852 has been identified and published. More coverage on NPR.
- From Erin Blake at The Collation, "Manuscripts in libraries: catalog versus finding aid."
- In the "Bright Young Booksellers" series, Nate Pedersen talks to Derek and Anna Walker of Edinburgh's McNaughtan's Bookshop.
Reviews
- John Stubbs' Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel; reviews by James McNamara in the NYTimes and Jeffrey Meyers in the LATimes.
- Anders Rydell's The Book Thieves; review by Michael S. Roth in the WaPo.
- Sean Wilentz's The Politicians & the Egalitarian; review by Christopher Childers at Reviews in History.
Upcoming Auctions
- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Bonhams London, 1 March.
- Rare Books at Heritage New York, 8 March.
- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Bonhams New York, 9 March.
- Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books at Swann Galleries, 9 March.
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Links & Reviews
- The California book fair(s) are behind us and here comes New York. Recaps from Oakland from Tavistock Books, Oak Knoll Books, and Lux Mentis. It was my first visit to the CA Antiquarian Book Fair in Oakland; the Rare Book School table stayed busy for much of the fair and it was a treat to see so many friends and meet lots of new folks. Found a few good books, too!
- More on that theft of a shipment of rare books from a warehouse in London: see the stolen-book.org page for a PDF list of the titles. The ABA posted a statement about the thefts, the Guardian covered the story, and the Daily Mail ran a report (which the ABA secretary described as "more than a little sensationalist" - take it with a grain of salt).
- Brenda Cronin profiles Glenn Horowitz for the WSJ.
- Robert Darnton offers "The True History of Fake News" in the NYRB.
- Mark Samuels Lasner has donated his collection of British literature and art to the University of Delaware.
- Ella Morton writes for Atlas Obscura about "library hand," the penmanship technique once common on library catalog cards.
- Audio of selected presentations from RBMS 2016 is now available.
- The Harry Ransom Center has posted video of Eric White's recent talk there about the HRC copy of the Gutenberg Bible.
- Don't miss Matt Kirschenbaum's "Books.Files" in the new Archive Journal.
- Sarah Werner asks "what do digitized first folios do for us?"
- The Newberry Library has received a Mellon Foundation grant to create a website for training in Italian Renaissance paleography.
- At their annual meeting during Bibliography Week, APHA presented awards to Lisa Unger Baskin and to the U.S. Government Printing Office, and a Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship to Amanda Stuckey.
- From Sarah Larson for the New Yorker: "The Librarian of Congress and the Greatness of Humility."
- The Internet Archive has reached the semifinalist stage in the competition for a $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
- APHA also offered a sneak peak into the forthcoming Printing History 21.
- Maddy Smith writes for the BL's Untold Lives blog about their recent acquisition of the only known copy of a 1650 schoolbook, The Grounds of Learning.
- Over at The Collation, an 1838 promptbook covered in coarse cloth.
- On the OUP Blog, Vincent Carretta asks if Phillis Wheatley's husband was a "crook or a dreamer"?
- New from the Bodleian: The William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné. See their press release for more.
- LitHub has launched a new series on librarians in the 21st century.
- Nick Holdstock writes for the Guardian about cataloging Doris Lessing's library.
- Daniel Pollack-Pelzner explores "The Radical Argument of the New Oxford Shakespeare" for the New Yorker's Page-Turner blog.
- Behind a paywall, alas, but Haaretz has a report on the Kafka manuscripts by Hilo Glazer.
Reviews
- Karen Baston's Charles Areskine's Library; review by Alexander Murdoch at Reviews in History.
- Anders Rydell's The Book Thieves; review by David Holahan in the CSM.
- Randall Fuller's The Book That Changed America; review by Jerry A. Coyne in the WaPo.
- "The Art of the Qur'an" at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; review by Robert F. Worth in the NYRB.
- A November 2016 symposium on women's book history at Texas A&M; review by Kate Ozment at Early Modern Online Bibliography.
Upcoming Auctions
- Americana - Travel & Exploration - World History - Photographs - Cartography at PBA Galleries, 23 February.
- Books and Works on Paper at Bloomsbury, 23 February.
- More on that theft of a shipment of rare books from a warehouse in London: see the stolen-book.org page for a PDF list of the titles. The ABA posted a statement about the thefts, the Guardian covered the story, and the Daily Mail ran a report (which the ABA secretary described as "more than a little sensationalist" - take it with a grain of salt).
- Brenda Cronin profiles Glenn Horowitz for the WSJ.
- Robert Darnton offers "The True History of Fake News" in the NYRB.
- Mark Samuels Lasner has donated his collection of British literature and art to the University of Delaware.
- Ella Morton writes for Atlas Obscura about "library hand," the penmanship technique once common on library catalog cards.
- Audio of selected presentations from RBMS 2016 is now available.
- The Harry Ransom Center has posted video of Eric White's recent talk there about the HRC copy of the Gutenberg Bible.
- Don't miss Matt Kirschenbaum's "Books.Files" in the new Archive Journal.
- Sarah Werner asks "what do digitized first folios do for us?"
- The Newberry Library has received a Mellon Foundation grant to create a website for training in Italian Renaissance paleography.
- At their annual meeting during Bibliography Week, APHA presented awards to Lisa Unger Baskin and to the U.S. Government Printing Office, and a Mark Samuels Lasner Fellowship to Amanda Stuckey.
- From Sarah Larson for the New Yorker: "The Librarian of Congress and the Greatness of Humility."
- The Internet Archive has reached the semifinalist stage in the competition for a $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
- APHA also offered a sneak peak into the forthcoming Printing History 21.
- Maddy Smith writes for the BL's Untold Lives blog about their recent acquisition of the only known copy of a 1650 schoolbook, The Grounds of Learning.
- Over at The Collation, an 1838 promptbook covered in coarse cloth.
- On the OUP Blog, Vincent Carretta asks if Phillis Wheatley's husband was a "crook or a dreamer"?
- New from the Bodleian: The William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonné. See their press release for more.
- LitHub has launched a new series on librarians in the 21st century.
- Nick Holdstock writes for the Guardian about cataloging Doris Lessing's library.
- Daniel Pollack-Pelzner explores "The Radical Argument of the New Oxford Shakespeare" for the New Yorker's Page-Turner blog.
- Behind a paywall, alas, but Haaretz has a report on the Kafka manuscripts by Hilo Glazer.
Reviews
- Karen Baston's Charles Areskine's Library; review by Alexander Murdoch at Reviews in History.
- Anders Rydell's The Book Thieves; review by David Holahan in the CSM.
- Randall Fuller's The Book That Changed America; review by Jerry A. Coyne in the WaPo.
- "The Art of the Qur'an" at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; review by Robert F. Worth in the NYRB.
- A November 2016 symposium on women's book history at Texas A&M; review by Kate Ozment at Early Modern Online Bibliography.
Upcoming Auctions
- Americana - Travel & Exploration - World History - Photographs - Cartography at PBA Galleries, 23 February.
- Books and Works on Paper at Bloomsbury, 23 February.
Sunday, February 05, 2017
Links & Reviews
- The ABAA put out a security alert this week about the theft of a shipment of rare books from a West London warehouse.
- Mike Cummings has a piece in YaleNews, "Authenticating the Oldest Book in the Americas," about the recent scholarly work on dating the Grolier Codex.
- Two notebooks from the collections of Philadelphia's Girard College were recently returned; they went missing from Girard sometime between 1964 (when they were microfilmed) and the early 2000s, when their absence was noted.
- The February Rare Book Monthly features Michael Stillman's analysis of 2016 book auction prices, Bruce McKinney writing about a new book on the Eberstadt firm, and more.
- The AAS has acquired a collection of more than fifty manuscript sermons by Massachusetts minister Joseph Avery.
- David Sellers guest-posts on the Oak Knoll blog about printing, design, and bookselling in Havana, with some pictures from his recent trip there.
- Barbara Bair posts for the LC blog about the recently-digitized Whitman papers from the Charles E. Feinberg Collection.
- Peter Dobrin provides an update on the Sendak library matter.
- Provenance images from the collections at Bryn Mawr can now be found in the Provenance Online Project.
- The Concord Free Public Library has acquired a collection of Louisa May Alcott manuscripts.
- Over at Echoes From the Vault, the first post in a series on "book use and marginal contentions" in 18th-century books from the St. Andrews collections.
- Amy McDonald writes for the Devil's Tale blog about the Aldine Press Metadata Project.
- The ABAA has published an "In Memoriam" post for Bernard Rosenthal, with some wonderful stories from his colleagues.
- New: the Needham Calculator, useful for determining the category and size of 15th-century paper.
- Lorraine Berry writes for the Guardian on bibliomania.
- Lisa Fagin Davis has launched an Ege Field Guide, for identifying Otto Ege manuscript leaves "in the wild."
- Derek O'Leary posts on the JHI Blog about "Jared Sparks' American Archives."
- Over on the Course of Human Events blog, a look at the custodians of the engrossed parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence over the years.
Reviews
- Michael Sims' Arthur and Sherlock; reviews by Graham Moore in the NYTimes and Amy Henderson in the WaPo.
- Laurel Thacher Ulrich's A House Full of Females; review by Beverly Gage in the NYTimes.
- Robert McCracken Peck's The Natural History of Edward Lear; review by Adam Kendon in the TLS.
- Raymond Clemens' new edition of the Voynich Manuscript; review by Dustin Illingworth in the LARB.
- Matthew Mason's Apostle of Union; review by Daniel Crofts for Reviews in History.
- The Royal College of Physicians' exhibit on Sir Thomas Browne, "A Cabinet of Rarities;" review by Ruth Scurr in the TLS.
Upcoming Auctions
- Livres et Manuscrits at Sotheby's Paris, 8 February.
- Rare Books & Manuscripts at PBA Galleries (in Oakland), 12 February.
- Icons & Images: Photographs & Photobooks at Swann, 14 February.
- Remaining Books from the Library of Franklin Brooke-Hitching at Forum Auctions (online sale), 15 February.
- Books, Maps & Manuscripts at Freeman's, 17 February.
- Mike Cummings has a piece in YaleNews, "Authenticating the Oldest Book in the Americas," about the recent scholarly work on dating the Grolier Codex.
- Two notebooks from the collections of Philadelphia's Girard College were recently returned; they went missing from Girard sometime between 1964 (when they were microfilmed) and the early 2000s, when their absence was noted.
- The February Rare Book Monthly features Michael Stillman's analysis of 2016 book auction prices, Bruce McKinney writing about a new book on the Eberstadt firm, and more.
- The AAS has acquired a collection of more than fifty manuscript sermons by Massachusetts minister Joseph Avery.
- David Sellers guest-posts on the Oak Knoll blog about printing, design, and bookselling in Havana, with some pictures from his recent trip there.
- Barbara Bair posts for the LC blog about the recently-digitized Whitman papers from the Charles E. Feinberg Collection.
- Peter Dobrin provides an update on the Sendak library matter.
- Provenance images from the collections at Bryn Mawr can now be found in the Provenance Online Project.
- The Concord Free Public Library has acquired a collection of Louisa May Alcott manuscripts.
- Over at Echoes From the Vault, the first post in a series on "book use and marginal contentions" in 18th-century books from the St. Andrews collections.
- Amy McDonald writes for the Devil's Tale blog about the Aldine Press Metadata Project.
- The ABAA has published an "In Memoriam" post for Bernard Rosenthal, with some wonderful stories from his colleagues.
- New: the Needham Calculator, useful for determining the category and size of 15th-century paper.
- Lorraine Berry writes for the Guardian on bibliomania.
- Lisa Fagin Davis has launched an Ege Field Guide, for identifying Otto Ege manuscript leaves "in the wild."
- Derek O'Leary posts on the JHI Blog about "Jared Sparks' American Archives."
- Over on the Course of Human Events blog, a look at the custodians of the engrossed parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence over the years.
Reviews
- Michael Sims' Arthur and Sherlock; reviews by Graham Moore in the NYTimes and Amy Henderson in the WaPo.
- Laurel Thacher Ulrich's A House Full of Females; review by Beverly Gage in the NYTimes.
- Robert McCracken Peck's The Natural History of Edward Lear; review by Adam Kendon in the TLS.
- Raymond Clemens' new edition of the Voynich Manuscript; review by Dustin Illingworth in the LARB.
- Matthew Mason's Apostle of Union; review by Daniel Crofts for Reviews in History.
- The Royal College of Physicians' exhibit on Sir Thomas Browne, "A Cabinet of Rarities;" review by Ruth Scurr in the TLS.
Upcoming Auctions
- Livres et Manuscrits at Sotheby's Paris, 8 February.
- Rare Books & Manuscripts at PBA Galleries (in Oakland), 12 February.
- Icons & Images: Photographs & Photobooks at Swann, 14 February.
- Remaining Books from the Library of Franklin Brooke-Hitching at Forum Auctions (online sale), 15 February.
- Books, Maps & Manuscripts at Freeman's, 17 February.
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Links & Reviews
- Penn has acquired the only known copy of "Elegy on the Death of Aquila Rose," printed by Benjamin Franklin shortly after his arrival in Philadelphia in 1723. See coverage in Philly.com, the WaPo, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. The broadside was included in a scrapbook of material collected by Samuel Hazard in the 19th century and later purchased by manuscripts dealer Carmen Valentino. Both the broadside and the scrapbook are currently on display at Penn's Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center.
- The strong showing for Hamilton manuscripts at Sotheby's this week made the NYTimes, Bloomberg, and even SNL's "Weekend Update."
- The EMMO beta site is now live. See the Collation post for more info.
- Roberta Kwok writes about the Folger's Shakespeare's World crowdsourced transcription project for the New Yorker.
- Rare Book Week West 2017 is coming up soon!
- Heather Wolfe and Michael Witmore have a joint Collation post, "William Shakespeare, Scholar and Gentleman."
- The Jay I. Kislak Foundation has made a major gift of some 2,300 rare books and manuscripts to the University of Miami and Miami Dade College.
- Kathleen Lynch takes a deep dive into Folger First Folio number 54.
- Ana Marie Cox interviewed Carla Hayden for the NYTimes.
- Leo Cadogan is profiled in the "Bright Young Booksellers" series.
- The National Library of Israel has acquired the remainder of the Valmadonna Trust Library.
- Bookseller Ed Smith interviewed Kurt Brokaw about selling books on the sidewalks of New York.
- Michael J. Barsanti has been named director of the Library Company of Philadelphia.
- Nate D. Sanders Auctions will sell a copy of the 1494 Basel edition of the Columbus letter on 30 January.
- Several photographs from the 1911 Scott expedition will be sold at Bonhams next month.
Reviews
- Randall Fuller's The Book That Changed America; review by Eric Foner in the NYTimes.
- Robert Gottlieb's Avid Reader: A Life; review by J. Michael Lennon in the TLS.
Upcoming Auctions
- Printed Books, Maps & Documents at Dominic Winter Auctioneers, 25 January.
- Fine Literature and Modern First Editions at PBA Galleries, 26 January.
- Travel & Exploration at Bonhams London, 1 February.
- The strong showing for Hamilton manuscripts at Sotheby's this week made the NYTimes, Bloomberg, and even SNL's "Weekend Update."
- The EMMO beta site is now live. See the Collation post for more info.
- Roberta Kwok writes about the Folger's Shakespeare's World crowdsourced transcription project for the New Yorker.
- Rare Book Week West 2017 is coming up soon!
- Heather Wolfe and Michael Witmore have a joint Collation post, "William Shakespeare, Scholar and Gentleman."
- The Jay I. Kislak Foundation has made a major gift of some 2,300 rare books and manuscripts to the University of Miami and Miami Dade College.
- Kathleen Lynch takes a deep dive into Folger First Folio number 54.
- Ana Marie Cox interviewed Carla Hayden for the NYTimes.
- Leo Cadogan is profiled in the "Bright Young Booksellers" series.
- The National Library of Israel has acquired the remainder of the Valmadonna Trust Library.
- Bookseller Ed Smith interviewed Kurt Brokaw about selling books on the sidewalks of New York.
- Michael J. Barsanti has been named director of the Library Company of Philadelphia.
- Nate D. Sanders Auctions will sell a copy of the 1494 Basel edition of the Columbus letter on 30 January.
- Several photographs from the 1911 Scott expedition will be sold at Bonhams next month.
Reviews
- Randall Fuller's The Book That Changed America; review by Eric Foner in the NYTimes.
- Robert Gottlieb's Avid Reader: A Life; review by J. Michael Lennon in the TLS.
Upcoming Auctions
- Printed Books, Maps & Documents at Dominic Winter Auctioneers, 25 January.
- Fine Literature and Modern First Editions at PBA Galleries, 26 January.
- Travel & Exploration at Bonhams London, 1 February.
Monday, January 16, 2017
Links & Reviews
- This week's Sotheby's sale of a remarkable collection of Hamilton manuscripts garnered a NYTimes report and a Fine Books Blog post by Rebecca Rego Barry.
- The BPL has digitized their copy of Moxon's Mechanick Exercises (1683).
- Over at Literary Hub, Rebecca Rego Barry previewed the sale of some important pieces of Doubleday publishing history at Doyle this week.
- A "Book History Unbound" section has been added to the SHARP website, as a space for Book History contributors to post additional materials.
- ILAB released a warning this week about a book circulating with a forged Darwin inscription.
- The California International Antiquarian Book Fair celebrates fifty years this February; I'm looking forward to attending for the first time!
- Early American bookplates are the order of the day on the Princeton Graphic Arts Collection blog.
- A new digital collation tool is now available for download.
- Bruce Springsteen's archive is going to Monmouth University.
- The Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture at the University of Wisconsin Madison will host what looks like a fascinating conference in September, "BH and DH: Book History and Digital Humanities." See the page for the call for papers, &c.
- The new journal Libraries: Culture, History, and Society is now accepting submissions for the second issue.
- Nancy Campbell writes on the "Beauty of Books" for the TLS.
- On the OUP blog, James Cortada asks how map reading has changed over the past several centuries.
- A new podcast from AAS features interviews with AAS research fellows.
- A Watertown, NY woman was arrested after attempting to steal rare books from the Flower Public Library in Watertown.
- From Michiko Kakutani, "Obama's Secret to Surviving the White House Years: Books," as well as the transcript of the interview for the piece.
Reviews
- A new translation of Dumas' The Red Sphinx; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- Ruth Franklin's Shirley Jackson and Miles Hyman's recent graphic adaptation of "The Lottery"; review by Emilie Bickerton in the TLS.
- Kevin Dann's Expect Great Things; review by John Kaag in the NYTimes.
Upcoming Auctions
- Alexander Hamilton: An Important Family Archive of Letters and Manuscripts at Sotheby's New York, 18 January
- Books, Art and Ephemera: Whaling, Horror, 16th Century, &c. at National Book Auctions, 21 January
- The BPL has digitized their copy of Moxon's Mechanick Exercises (1683).
- Over at Literary Hub, Rebecca Rego Barry previewed the sale of some important pieces of Doubleday publishing history at Doyle this week.
- A "Book History Unbound" section has been added to the SHARP website, as a space for Book History contributors to post additional materials.
- ILAB released a warning this week about a book circulating with a forged Darwin inscription.
- The California International Antiquarian Book Fair celebrates fifty years this February; I'm looking forward to attending for the first time!
- Early American bookplates are the order of the day on the Princeton Graphic Arts Collection blog.
- A new digital collation tool is now available for download.
- Bruce Springsteen's archive is going to Monmouth University.
- The Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture at the University of Wisconsin Madison will host what looks like a fascinating conference in September, "BH and DH: Book History and Digital Humanities." See the page for the call for papers, &c.
- The new journal Libraries: Culture, History, and Society is now accepting submissions for the second issue.
- Nancy Campbell writes on the "Beauty of Books" for the TLS.
- On the OUP blog, James Cortada asks how map reading has changed over the past several centuries.
- A new podcast from AAS features interviews with AAS research fellows.
- A Watertown, NY woman was arrested after attempting to steal rare books from the Flower Public Library in Watertown.
- From Michiko Kakutani, "Obama's Secret to Surviving the White House Years: Books," as well as the transcript of the interview for the piece.
Reviews
- A new translation of Dumas' The Red Sphinx; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- Ruth Franklin's Shirley Jackson and Miles Hyman's recent graphic adaptation of "The Lottery"; review by Emilie Bickerton in the TLS.
- Kevin Dann's Expect Great Things; review by John Kaag in the NYTimes.
Upcoming Auctions
- Alexander Hamilton: An Important Family Archive of Letters and Manuscripts at Sotheby's New York, 18 January
- Books, Art and Ephemera: Whaling, Horror, 16th Century, &c. at National Book Auctions, 21 January
Sunday, January 08, 2017
Links & Reviews
- Joseph Berger's NYTimes report "A Secret Jew, the New World, a Lost Book: Mystery Solved," on the identification of manuscript stolen from the National Archives of Mexico, is not to be missed.
- Heather Wolfe's recent Shakespeare discoveries are highlighted in The Guardian.
- The Grolier Club is hosting a mini-symposium on Wednesday, 11 January, "The World of Bookplates," drawing on their current exhibition, "Bookplates at the Grolier Club."
- Alex Shashkevich writes for the Stanford News website about a recent collaborative initiative to get students using materials from the university's special collections and archives.
- Among the Rare Book Monthly pieces for January are the annual look at the top 500 auction prices for works on paper (2016), Bruce McKinney on Sven Becker's appointment as head of books and manuscripts at Christie's New York, and Michael Stillman on the badly-done California law governing the sale of signed materials.
- Speaking of AB 1570, there's a Change.org petition up now urging its repeal, which had more than 800 signatures as of this morning.
- The BPL has started a new blog series in unique items in their collections, and I'd missed a pre-Christmas post from Jay Moschella about the BPL's important Americana purchases at the 1896 sale of the library of S.L.M. Barlow.
- Georgianna Ziegler notes a beautiful new Folger acquisition: a tiny manuscript presented to the eldest son of James I in 1607 by calligrapher Esther Inglis.
- Kirk Johnson highlights the work of bookbinder Donald Vass, who has worked for the King County Public Library system for more than a quarter-century.
- New and with all kinds of interesting things to be found, Early Modern Typography.
- This year marks the 75th anniversary of the opening of Harvard's Houghton Library.
- Rick Rojas reports for the NYTimes on the big move for a large collection of New York City court archives.
- Pradeep Sebastian surveys 2016's books about books for The Hindu.
- The British Library has returned a book from its collections after determining that it was stolen from an earlier owner by the Nazis.
- Jay Sylvestre of the University of Miami gets the "Bright Young Librarians" treatment at the Fine Books Blog.
- The Kelmscott Chaucer census blog notes that two copies have recently found new institutional homes.
- Two librarians in Florida have been suspended for apparently falsifying circulation records by creating fake patron accounts. Reportedly they did this to avoid the books being "automatically culled," but it poses a problem since the libraries receive some funding based on circulation.
Reviews
- Robert Parkinson's The Common Cause; review by Annette Gordon-Reed in the NYRB.
- Lawrence Bergreen's Casanova; review by Anthony Gottlieb in the NYTimes.
- Dava Sobel's The Glass Universe; review by Eileen Pollack in the WaPo.
- David Silverman's Thundersticks; review by Casey Sanchez in the LATimes.
- Alison Bradford and Joyce Chaplin's The New Worlds of Thomas Robert Malthus; review by Mark Micale in the TLS.
Upcoming Auctions
- Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photography at Lyon & Turnbull, 11 January
- Rare Medicine & Science: Inventory of Edwin V. Glaser Rare Books (with additions) at PBA Galleries, 12 January
- Heather Wolfe's recent Shakespeare discoveries are highlighted in The Guardian.
- The Grolier Club is hosting a mini-symposium on Wednesday, 11 January, "The World of Bookplates," drawing on their current exhibition, "Bookplates at the Grolier Club."
- Alex Shashkevich writes for the Stanford News website about a recent collaborative initiative to get students using materials from the university's special collections and archives.
- Among the Rare Book Monthly pieces for January are the annual look at the top 500 auction prices for works on paper (2016), Bruce McKinney on Sven Becker's appointment as head of books and manuscripts at Christie's New York, and Michael Stillman on the badly-done California law governing the sale of signed materials.
- Speaking of AB 1570, there's a Change.org petition up now urging its repeal, which had more than 800 signatures as of this morning.
- The BPL has started a new blog series in unique items in their collections, and I'd missed a pre-Christmas post from Jay Moschella about the BPL's important Americana purchases at the 1896 sale of the library of S.L.M. Barlow.
- Georgianna Ziegler notes a beautiful new Folger acquisition: a tiny manuscript presented to the eldest son of James I in 1607 by calligrapher Esther Inglis.
- Kirk Johnson highlights the work of bookbinder Donald Vass, who has worked for the King County Public Library system for more than a quarter-century.
- New and with all kinds of interesting things to be found, Early Modern Typography.
- This year marks the 75th anniversary of the opening of Harvard's Houghton Library.
- Rick Rojas reports for the NYTimes on the big move for a large collection of New York City court archives.
- Pradeep Sebastian surveys 2016's books about books for The Hindu.
- The British Library has returned a book from its collections after determining that it was stolen from an earlier owner by the Nazis.
- Jay Sylvestre of the University of Miami gets the "Bright Young Librarians" treatment at the Fine Books Blog.
- The Kelmscott Chaucer census blog notes that two copies have recently found new institutional homes.
- Two librarians in Florida have been suspended for apparently falsifying circulation records by creating fake patron accounts. Reportedly they did this to avoid the books being "automatically culled," but it poses a problem since the libraries receive some funding based on circulation.
Reviews
- Robert Parkinson's The Common Cause; review by Annette Gordon-Reed in the NYRB.
- Lawrence Bergreen's Casanova; review by Anthony Gottlieb in the NYTimes.
- Dava Sobel's The Glass Universe; review by Eileen Pollack in the WaPo.
- David Silverman's Thundersticks; review by Casey Sanchez in the LATimes.
- Alison Bradford and Joyce Chaplin's The New Worlds of Thomas Robert Malthus; review by Mark Micale in the TLS.
Upcoming Auctions
- Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photography at Lyon & Turnbull, 11 January
- Rare Medicine & Science: Inventory of Edwin V. Glaser Rare Books (with additions) at PBA Galleries, 12 January
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Links & Reviews
One last roundup for 2016:
- David Barnett writes for the Independent about the enduring power of M.R. James' ghost stories.
- French publisher Le Seuil has threatened to sue the Van Gogh Museum over questions of the authenticity of several recently published Van Gogh sketches.
- A great post from Dan Hinchen at The Beehive about the wonderful things you can find when answering a reference question.
- The AAS has posted images from their Bien edition of Audubon's Birds.
- Over at Echoes from the Vault, Keelan Overton reports on her recent research on the St. Andrews Qu'ran.
- Kate De Rycker guest-posts at The Collation about her work preparing an edition of the works of Thomas Nashe.
- Rebecca Onion surveys five great digital history projects of 2016.
- Erik Kwakkel has been appointed Scaliger professor at the University of Leiden.
- The first batch of Kafka papers from the estate of Max Brod have arrived at the National Library of Israel.
- Michael Melgaard surveys the used and rare bookshops of Toronto.
- Scholars are concerned about the preservation of an extensive rare book collection at a soon-to-be-closed abbey in Altomuenster, Germany.
- PBA Galleries will offer stock from antiquarian bookseller Edwin V. Glaser in a 12 January sale.
- The January Crocodile mystery post is up at The Collation.
- I'm not entirely sure what to make of this, but pass it along: The Book As ...
- Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, died this week at the age of 96. NYTimes obituary.
- Leah Dobrinska has a "defense of marginalia" at The New Antiquarian.
- Lisa Fagin Davis posts about "training the next generation of fragmentologists" at Manuscript Road Trip. Speaking of which, Leiden University student Éloïse Ruby posts for the KB's blog about analyzing fragments from the KB collections.
Reviews
- Julia Baird's Victoria the Queen; review by Janet Maslin in the NYTimes.
- Matthew Rubery's The Untold Story of the Talking Book; review by Dennis Duncan in the TLS.
- David Barnett writes for the Independent about the enduring power of M.R. James' ghost stories.
- French publisher Le Seuil has threatened to sue the Van Gogh Museum over questions of the authenticity of several recently published Van Gogh sketches.
- A great post from Dan Hinchen at The Beehive about the wonderful things you can find when answering a reference question.
- The AAS has posted images from their Bien edition of Audubon's Birds.
- Over at Echoes from the Vault, Keelan Overton reports on her recent research on the St. Andrews Qu'ran.
- Kate De Rycker guest-posts at The Collation about her work preparing an edition of the works of Thomas Nashe.
- Rebecca Onion surveys five great digital history projects of 2016.
- Erik Kwakkel has been appointed Scaliger professor at the University of Leiden.
- The first batch of Kafka papers from the estate of Max Brod have arrived at the National Library of Israel.
- Michael Melgaard surveys the used and rare bookshops of Toronto.
- Scholars are concerned about the preservation of an extensive rare book collection at a soon-to-be-closed abbey in Altomuenster, Germany.
- PBA Galleries will offer stock from antiquarian bookseller Edwin V. Glaser in a 12 January sale.
- The January Crocodile mystery post is up at The Collation.
- I'm not entirely sure what to make of this, but pass it along: The Book As ...
- Richard Adams, author of Watership Down, died this week at the age of 96. NYTimes obituary.
- Leah Dobrinska has a "defense of marginalia" at The New Antiquarian.
- Lisa Fagin Davis posts about "training the next generation of fragmentologists" at Manuscript Road Trip. Speaking of which, Leiden University student Éloïse Ruby posts for the KB's blog about analyzing fragments from the KB collections.
Reviews
- Julia Baird's Victoria the Queen; review by Janet Maslin in the NYTimes.
- Matthew Rubery's The Untold Story of the Talking Book; review by Dennis Duncan in the TLS.
Year-End Reading Report 2016
Another year over, and in the case of this one, good riddance.
I read 140 books in 2016, and here are my favorites:
Fiction
Islandia by Austin Tappan Wright
The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
The Way We Live Now and the Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope
League of Dragons by Naomi Novik
Non-Fiction
The Problem of the Missale Speciale by Allan Stevenson
Where We Lived by Jack Larkin
American Literary Publishing in the Mid-Nineteenth Century by Michael Winship
The Invisible Bridge by Rick Perlstein
The Skull Collectors by Ann Fabian
Happy New Year to you all, and good reading! I'm going to start 2017 with a re-read of one of my perennial favorites, Watership Down, in tribute to Richard Adams.
Previous year's reports: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.
I read 140 books in 2016, and here are my favorites:
Fiction
Islandia by Austin Tappan Wright
The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
The Way We Live Now and the Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope
League of Dragons by Naomi Novik
Non-Fiction
The Problem of the Missale Speciale by Allan Stevenson
Where We Lived by Jack Larkin
American Literary Publishing in the Mid-Nineteenth Century by Michael Winship
The Invisible Bridge by Rick Perlstein
The Skull Collectors by Ann Fabian
Happy New Year to you all, and good reading! I'm going to start 2017 with a re-read of one of my perennial favorites, Watership Down, in tribute to Richard Adams.
Previous year's reports: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Links & Reviews
Another busy week in the world of books!
- The Irish Times reported this week that the Jesuit Order in Ireland will sell "thousands" of rare books from its collections at Sotheby's London next summer. Some additional books and manuscripts have been deposited at the National Library of Ireland on long-term loan.
- A copy of Isaac Newton's Principia set a new auction record for a scientific book this week, selling for $3.7 at Christie's New York.
- The ISTC is now live at its new home.
- The Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand has issued a call for papers for their 2017 conference, "Connecting the Colonies: Empires and Networks in the History of the Book."
- A remarkable collection of rare books and manuscripts has been bequeathed to Trinity College, Cambridge by Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe.
- The British Library has acquired nine copper plates used to print diagrams and maps in several East India Company publications in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The plates were previously in the possession of a scrap metal dealer.
- Xinyi Ye has posted a video profile of Boston's Brattle Book Shop (one of my very favorite places, it must be said).
- The Fine Press Book Association seeks an editor for their journal, Parenthesis.
- There's a new Common-place out; it includes a Q&A with Carla Mulford about her recent literary biography of Benjamin Franklin, and John Garcia on print culture and popular history during the Mexican War, among other interesting pieces.
- Video of Matthew Kirschenbaum's 2016 Fales Lecture, "Bookish Media," is now available online.
- Bookbinder Michael Chrisman has been sentenced to twenty-one months in jail after defrauding a business partner; Chrisman had promised to bind seventy facsimile Gutenberg Bibles, but instead sent false invoices and used the funds for personal expenses. Chrisman was also ordered to pay some $483,000 in restitution.
- Registration is now open for the "Bibliography Among the Disciplines" conference in October 2017.
- The University of Michigan Special Collections have completed an eight-year project to digitize Islamic manuscripts from the collections.
- AbeBooks have posted their top sales of 2016.
- Mark Boonshoft writes for the NYPL blog about literary politics in 1790s New York City.
- Caroline Duroselle-Melish posts about sophistications in the First Folio over at The Collation, while Elizabeth DeBold explores explores "The Mysterious Case of Folger First Folio 33."
Reviews
- Joanne Limburg's A Want of Kindness; review by Katharine Grant in the NYTimes.
- Matthew Rubery's The Untold Story of the Talking Book; review by Kevin Canfield in the WaPo.
- Boston's "Beyond Words" exhibition; review by Jane Whitehead at West 86th.
- Caroline Winterer's American Enlightenments; review by Benjamin Park at Professor Park's Blog.
No Upcoming Auctions
Happy holidays, good cheer, and good books to one and all!
- The Irish Times reported this week that the Jesuit Order in Ireland will sell "thousands" of rare books from its collections at Sotheby's London next summer. Some additional books and manuscripts have been deposited at the National Library of Ireland on long-term loan.
- A copy of Isaac Newton's Principia set a new auction record for a scientific book this week, selling for $3.7 at Christie's New York.
- The ISTC is now live at its new home.
- The Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand has issued a call for papers for their 2017 conference, "Connecting the Colonies: Empires and Networks in the History of the Book."
- A remarkable collection of rare books and manuscripts has been bequeathed to Trinity College, Cambridge by Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe.
- The British Library has acquired nine copper plates used to print diagrams and maps in several East India Company publications in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The plates were previously in the possession of a scrap metal dealer.
- Xinyi Ye has posted a video profile of Boston's Brattle Book Shop (one of my very favorite places, it must be said).
- The Fine Press Book Association seeks an editor for their journal, Parenthesis.
- There's a new Common-place out; it includes a Q&A with Carla Mulford about her recent literary biography of Benjamin Franklin, and John Garcia on print culture and popular history during the Mexican War, among other interesting pieces.
- Video of Matthew Kirschenbaum's 2016 Fales Lecture, "Bookish Media," is now available online.
- Bookbinder Michael Chrisman has been sentenced to twenty-one months in jail after defrauding a business partner; Chrisman had promised to bind seventy facsimile Gutenberg Bibles, but instead sent false invoices and used the funds for personal expenses. Chrisman was also ordered to pay some $483,000 in restitution.
- Registration is now open for the "Bibliography Among the Disciplines" conference in October 2017.
- The University of Michigan Special Collections have completed an eight-year project to digitize Islamic manuscripts from the collections.
- AbeBooks have posted their top sales of 2016.
- Mark Boonshoft writes for the NYPL blog about literary politics in 1790s New York City.
- Caroline Duroselle-Melish posts about sophistications in the First Folio over at The Collation, while Elizabeth DeBold explores explores "The Mysterious Case of Folger First Folio 33."
Reviews
- Joanne Limburg's A Want of Kindness; review by Katharine Grant in the NYTimes.
- Matthew Rubery's The Untold Story of the Talking Book; review by Kevin Canfield in the WaPo.
- Boston's "Beyond Words" exhibition; review by Jane Whitehead at West 86th.
- Caroline Winterer's American Enlightenments; review by Benjamin Park at Professor Park's Blog.
No Upcoming Auctions
Happy holidays, good cheer, and good books to one and all!
Recent Reads
Just a few stray thoughts on some recent reads. I'll have another of these posts before the end of the year.
Ben Winters' "The Last Policeman" trilogy was good, but he takes it to the next level with Underground Airlines. Set in an alternate America where the Civil War never happened and slave culture clings on in four southern states, Winters' tale is chock full of slightly-twisted historical threads - like any good counterfactual, it explores what might easily have been had things gone just a bit differently. It's uncomfortable, chilling, heartbreaking ... and it deserves a wide audience.
Rick Perlstein's third volume of narrative political history, The Invisible Bridge covers the tumultuous years between Nixon's reelection and the 1976 Republican convention. A straight-up chronicle of these years in politics would probably be an interesting enough read, but as in the previous volumes, Perlstein deftly brings in the cultural contexts surrounding the political news of the day. This, combined with Perlstein's lively writing style and his great skill at sussing out the stories behind the headlines, makes this another excellent read.
My first foray into the magical world of Dorothy Dunnett. I found The Game of Kingsa tough go at first (even, for a few nights, a book sure to send me to sleep after just a couple pages), but once I got into the rhythm of the thing, I was off and running. Not the sort of book you can read without giving it your full attention, since it's full of intricate plot threads that are easily lost and hard to locate again, but full of great historical detail, rich wordplay, and moments of pure comic genius.
First published in 1771 as L'An 2440, the title of Louis-Sebastien Mercier's utopian fantasy was edited to Memoirs of the Year Two Thousand Five Hundred when William Hooper's English translation was published at Philadelphia in 1795. This change was made simply "for the sake of a round number," according to the "Advertisement" preceding the text, as "there appears no reason for fixing it to any particular year." Extremely popular in its day (it is one of the books profiled by Robert Darnton in his The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France), the book employs many of what we now think of as typical utopian tropes: man wakes up and finds himself hundreds of years in the future, and spends an incredulous day walking around learning how things are done, and wakes up at the end to find it'd all been a dream. But, as Darnton points out, Mercier's work was one of the first to use these techniques, which were entirely fresh and new to his original readers. There's not much plot at all: the narrator is simply guided from place to place, learning how people are clothed, fed, educated, governed, &c. in the very Rousseau-ian society of far-future France. I found it a somewhat intriguing window into the historical moment, but unless you've got a real soft spot for utopian fiction, probably safe to give this one a miss.
After reading Keith Houston's book on punctuation several years ago, Shady Characters, I have been looking forward to his new one, The Book, with much anticipation. It didn't disappoint: it is a nicely-produced and well-written history of the book. Basic, but lively and chock full of interesting tidbits. Well done to Norton for lavishing so much attention on the design.
Dave Eggers' The Circle is a dark satirical look at a society where (most) people happily give themselves over to an all-consuming online presence ("The Circle"), with dramatic consequences. It's not exactly subtle, but for all the heavy-handedness, many (if not all) elements of the plot seem all-too-creepily plausible.
I really enjoyed Nancy Marie Brown's The Ivory Vikings, which provides an in-depth look at the Lewis Chessmen and their cultural context. There's a bit of speculation and a small amount of padding here (see the subtitle, "The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them"), but overall I was completely drawn into Brown's wide-ranging narrative, and even the speculation is carefully done and well explained.
Mutiny on the Bounty (the original version, but Charles Nordhoff and James Normal Hall) is one of those books that somehow managed to seep into my consciousness without ever actually having read it. I'm sure I saw one of the movie versions at some point, which gave me the basic outline of the plot. But that bare-bones version of the story that I thought I knew doesn't hold a candle to the actual novel, which is rich, riveting, and extremely well told. When I picked it up I didn't think it would be one of those books I had a difficult time putting down, but I very nearly read it all in one sitting.
I reread Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell this summer in advance of watching the BBC adaptation of the novel, and was extremely glad I did. It had been at least ten years since I read the whole thing, and I definitely needed a refresher. The book was just as good as I remembered it, and I was also extremely happy with the adaptation.
Marc Hartzman's The Embalmed Head of Oliver Cromwell: A Memoir is pretty much precisely what the title suggests: a memoir narrated by a decapitated head. Weird, yes, but Hartzman has done his research and manages to tell the story of the afterlives of Cromwell's head in a surprisingly vivid way. Would it have worked just as well as a series of narrative vignettes without the fictional component? For me, yes, since I enjoy books like that, but perhaps not for others. A worthwhile experiment!
Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Quartet was one of those those series that, once I started reading, I couldn't believe I'd waited so long. "The Tombs of Atuan" was by far my favorite, but I liked the others too.
Colin Dickey always comes up with fascinating topics for his books, and Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places is no exception. As he writes at the outset, Dickey is concerned with the following question: "how do we deal with stories about the dead and their ghosts, and how do we inhabit and move through spaces that have been deemed haunted?" Drawing on several years' worth of observations from around the country, from famous haunted places to locations you've probably never heard of, Dickey deftly searches for the nuggets of truth at the heart of the ghost stories we tell ... and also for why we tell those stories.
Trollope's The Way We Live Now: darker than the Barsetshire books, but with the same way of getting at the humanity of his characters. Delightfully complex, wickedly funny - it may look like a long read, but the time just flies right by.
Ben Winters' "The Last Policeman" trilogy was good, but he takes it to the next level with Underground Airlines. Set in an alternate America where the Civil War never happened and slave culture clings on in four southern states, Winters' tale is chock full of slightly-twisted historical threads - like any good counterfactual, it explores what might easily have been had things gone just a bit differently. It's uncomfortable, chilling, heartbreaking ... and it deserves a wide audience.
Rick Perlstein's third volume of narrative political history, The Invisible Bridge covers the tumultuous years between Nixon's reelection and the 1976 Republican convention. A straight-up chronicle of these years in politics would probably be an interesting enough read, but as in the previous volumes, Perlstein deftly brings in the cultural contexts surrounding the political news of the day. This, combined with Perlstein's lively writing style and his great skill at sussing out the stories behind the headlines, makes this another excellent read.
My first foray into the magical world of Dorothy Dunnett. I found The Game of Kings
First published in 1771 as L'An 2440, the title of Louis-Sebastien Mercier's utopian fantasy was edited to Memoirs of the Year Two Thousand Five Hundred when William Hooper's English translation was published at Philadelphia in 1795. This change was made simply "for the sake of a round number," according to the "Advertisement" preceding the text, as "there appears no reason for fixing it to any particular year." Extremely popular in its day (it is one of the books profiled by Robert Darnton in his The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France), the book employs many of what we now think of as typical utopian tropes: man wakes up and finds himself hundreds of years in the future, and spends an incredulous day walking around learning how things are done, and wakes up at the end to find it'd all been a dream. But, as Darnton points out, Mercier's work was one of the first to use these techniques, which were entirely fresh and new to his original readers. There's not much plot at all: the narrator is simply guided from place to place, learning how people are clothed, fed, educated, governed, &c. in the very Rousseau-ian society of far-future France. I found it a somewhat intriguing window into the historical moment, but unless you've got a real soft spot for utopian fiction, probably safe to give this one a miss.
After reading Keith Houston's book on punctuation several years ago, Shady Characters, I have been looking forward to his new one, The Book, with much anticipation. It didn't disappoint: it is a nicely-produced and well-written history of the book. Basic, but lively and chock full of interesting tidbits. Well done to Norton for lavishing so much attention on the design.
Dave Eggers' The Circle is a dark satirical look at a society where (most) people happily give themselves over to an all-consuming online presence ("The Circle"), with dramatic consequences. It's not exactly subtle, but for all the heavy-handedness, many (if not all) elements of the plot seem all-too-creepily plausible.
I really enjoyed Nancy Marie Brown's The Ivory Vikings, which provides an in-depth look at the Lewis Chessmen and their cultural context. There's a bit of speculation and a small amount of padding here (see the subtitle, "The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them"), but overall I was completely drawn into Brown's wide-ranging narrative, and even the speculation is carefully done and well explained.
Mutiny on the Bounty (the original version, but Charles Nordhoff and James Normal Hall) is one of those books that somehow managed to seep into my consciousness without ever actually having read it. I'm sure I saw one of the movie versions at some point, which gave me the basic outline of the plot. But that bare-bones version of the story that I thought I knew doesn't hold a candle to the actual novel, which is rich, riveting, and extremely well told. When I picked it up I didn't think it would be one of those books I had a difficult time putting down, but I very nearly read it all in one sitting.
I reread Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell this summer in advance of watching the BBC adaptation of the novel, and was extremely glad I did. It had been at least ten years since I read the whole thing, and I definitely needed a refresher. The book was just as good as I remembered it, and I was also extremely happy with the adaptation.
Marc Hartzman's The Embalmed Head of Oliver Cromwell: A Memoir is pretty much precisely what the title suggests: a memoir narrated by a decapitated head. Weird, yes, but Hartzman has done his research and manages to tell the story of the afterlives of Cromwell's head in a surprisingly vivid way. Would it have worked just as well as a series of narrative vignettes without the fictional component? For me, yes, since I enjoy books like that, but perhaps not for others. A worthwhile experiment!
Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Quartet was one of those those series that, once I started reading, I couldn't believe I'd waited so long. "The Tombs of Atuan" was by far my favorite, but I liked the others too.
Colin Dickey always comes up with fascinating topics for his books, and Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places is no exception. As he writes at the outset, Dickey is concerned with the following question: "how do we deal with stories about the dead and their ghosts, and how do we inhabit and move through spaces that have been deemed haunted?" Drawing on several years' worth of observations from around the country, from famous haunted places to locations you've probably never heard of, Dickey deftly searches for the nuggets of truth at the heart of the ghost stories we tell ... and also for why we tell those stories.
Trollope's The Way We Live Now: darker than the Barsetshire books, but with the same way of getting at the humanity of his characters. Delightfully complex, wickedly funny - it may look like a long read, but the time just flies right by.
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Links & Reviews
- Over at the Houghton Library blog, "Footprints of a Bibliographical Ghost."
- An ivory cup-and-ball toy from the family of Jane Austen will be sold at Sotheby's London on Tuesday.
- The Harry Ransom Center has acquired some 180 books from the library of Gabriel García Márquez.
- From Heather Wolfe at The Collation, a look at scissor impressions left behind in early modern books.
- The NARA blog had a really fascinating post this week about how the Archives responded to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
- The Times ran an obituary of Martin Stone this week.
- A new exhibition at the National Library of Scotland features early photographically-illustrated books relating to Scotland.
- Abby Schoolman gets the "Bright Young Booksellers" spotlight this week.
- The BPL's Collections of Distinction blog highlights a ~1460 Strasbourg bible from the BPL collections, recently conserved and digitized.
- Swann sold two uncolored plates from Audubon's Birds of America this week.
- Lew Jaffe's post this week at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie includes a query from another bookplate collector who is seeking dated English bookplates from particular years.
- The team working on building a replica common press at RIT has posted an update on their progress.
- Janice Hansen posts about examples of "mummy printing" (it's not what you think) in the UNC Chapel Hill rare book collections.
- Rebecca Romney offers a primer (treasure map?) on collecting books about pirates.
- R. M. Healey looks back at Bishop Richard de Bury (of Philobiblon fame) at Jot101.
- The Princeton Graphic Arts blog explores a rare print showing the interior of Paris's famed Lemercier lithography firm.
- Danuta Kean reports for the Guardian on what has been a truly terrible year for library funding in the UK.
- Kurt at American Book Collecting highlights a few of the association copies of Rosenbach's Unpublishable Memoirs from his collection.
- Jane Rickard writes for the Huntington Library's blog about evidence of early readership in Ben Jonson's Works.
- The Archives Hub team has posted a basic outline of their updated interface.
Reviews
- Elaine Scarry's Naming Thy Name; review by Matthew Harrison in the LARB.
- Matthew Kirschenbaum's Track Changes; review by Tim Groenland in the Dublin Review of Books.
- Yale's new edition of the Voynich Manuscript; review by Toby Lester in the WSJ.
Upcoming Auctions
- English Literature, History, Children's Books and Illustrations at Sotheby's London, 13 December
- Rare Books, Early Photographs, Manuscripts, Maps and Paintings at Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers (Dublin), 13 December
- Printed Books, Maps, and Documents at Dominic Winter Auctioneers (Cirencester), 14 December
- Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, including Americana at Christie's New York, 14 December
- Books, Photographs and Other Works on Paper at Bloomsbury, 15 December
- Americana, Travel & Exploration, World History and Cartography at PBA Galleries, 15 December
- Important Judaica at Sotheby's New York, 15 December
- Fine and Valuable Books at Bibliopathos (Milan), 15 December
- Bibliothèque d'un amateur at Pierre Bergé & Associes (Paris), 16 December
- An ivory cup-and-ball toy from the family of Jane Austen will be sold at Sotheby's London on Tuesday.
- The Harry Ransom Center has acquired some 180 books from the library of Gabriel García Márquez.
- From Heather Wolfe at The Collation, a look at scissor impressions left behind in early modern books.
- The NARA blog had a really fascinating post this week about how the Archives responded to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
- The Times ran an obituary of Martin Stone this week.
- A new exhibition at the National Library of Scotland features early photographically-illustrated books relating to Scotland.
- Abby Schoolman gets the "Bright Young Booksellers" spotlight this week.
- The BPL's Collections of Distinction blog highlights a ~1460 Strasbourg bible from the BPL collections, recently conserved and digitized.
- Swann sold two uncolored plates from Audubon's Birds of America this week.
- Lew Jaffe's post this week at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie includes a query from another bookplate collector who is seeking dated English bookplates from particular years.
- The team working on building a replica common press at RIT has posted an update on their progress.
- Janice Hansen posts about examples of "mummy printing" (it's not what you think) in the UNC Chapel Hill rare book collections.
- Rebecca Romney offers a primer (treasure map?) on collecting books about pirates.
- R. M. Healey looks back at Bishop Richard de Bury (of Philobiblon fame) at Jot101.
- The Princeton Graphic Arts blog explores a rare print showing the interior of Paris's famed Lemercier lithography firm.
- Danuta Kean reports for the Guardian on what has been a truly terrible year for library funding in the UK.
- Kurt at American Book Collecting highlights a few of the association copies of Rosenbach's Unpublishable Memoirs from his collection.
- Jane Rickard writes for the Huntington Library's blog about evidence of early readership in Ben Jonson's Works.
- The Archives Hub team has posted a basic outline of their updated interface.
Reviews
- Elaine Scarry's Naming Thy Name; review by Matthew Harrison in the LARB.
- Matthew Kirschenbaum's Track Changes; review by Tim Groenland in the Dublin Review of Books.
- Yale's new edition of the Voynich Manuscript; review by Toby Lester in the WSJ.
Upcoming Auctions
- English Literature, History, Children's Books and Illustrations at Sotheby's London, 13 December
- Rare Books, Early Photographs, Manuscripts, Maps and Paintings at Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers (Dublin), 13 December
- Printed Books, Maps, and Documents at Dominic Winter Auctioneers (Cirencester), 14 December
- Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, including Americana at Christie's New York, 14 December
- Books, Photographs and Other Works on Paper at Bloomsbury, 15 December
- Americana, Travel & Exploration, World History and Cartography at PBA Galleries, 15 December
- Important Judaica at Sotheby's New York, 15 December
- Fine and Valuable Books at Bibliopathos (Milan), 15 December
- Bibliothèque d'un amateur at Pierre Bergé & Associes (Paris), 16 December
Sunday, December 04, 2016
Links & Reviews
Somehow it's December already.
- The Library of Congress has signed on as a "content hub partner" with the DPLA.
- The Bute Hours will be offered on Tuesday at Sotheby's London.
- Josephine Livingstone writes on "The Unsolvable Mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript" for the New Yorker Page-Turner blog.
- The Internet Archive is working on building a complete copy of its holdings in Canada.
- Simon Beattie's turned up a fascinating book: an 1858 selection of music for a Merseyside church. An inserted printed slip from the compiler faults the printers for their "slovenly work and bad printing."
- Nate Pedersen checks back in with Zoe Abrams for the "Bright Young Booksellers" series.
- December's Rare Book Monthly articles include a piece by Eric Caren on what's next for him, Michael Stillman on the unconventional sale of books from Newcastle Central Library, and another nice find by Bruce McKinney.
- Stephen Greenberg writes for the NLM blog about a new book in sheets acquisition.
- Caleb Kiffer writes for the Swann blog about a previously unknown first state of de Wit's map of the Netherlands; the map will be on the block at their 8 December sale.
- Egyptian media report that 43 boxes of books and manuscripts were seized at Cairo airport; some appeared to have been stolen from the Al-Azhar University library.
- Over at The New Antiquarian, John Schulman muses about bookseller retirements.
- Lauren Young covers bibliomania for Atlas Obscura, and the Princeton Graphic Arts blog takes a look at an early response to Dibdin, Beresford's Bibliosophia.
- Mark Peters writes about the new online version of Green's Dictionary of Slang for the Boston Globe.
- A poem copied out by Anne Frank shortly before her family went into hiding from the Nazis sold at auction last week for €140,000, while the gun used by Paul Verlaine to wound Arthur Rimbaud fetched €434,000.
- Also from the Princeton Graphic Arts blog, a look at a newly-acquired collection of twenty printed and manuscript dinner bills from ~1780–1830.
- The Telegraph ran an obituary of book scout Martin Stone.
- Sid Berger talked to Rebecca Rego Barry about his Dictionary of the Book (Rowman and Littlefield) for the Fine Books Blog.
- A Beethoven manuscript which came in for a bit of pre-sale dispute failed to sell at Sotheby's London on 29 November; at the same sale, the manuscript of Mahler's second symphony set a new record for a music manuscript, selling for £5.4 million.
- Letters documenting the end of author Robert Louis Stevenson's life have been secured for the National Library of Scotland.
- "A Curious Cutting" at Medieval Manuscript Questions.
- From the Michigan State University Libraries conservation lab blog, a look at a neat technique for keeping pamphlets together.
- The ABAA recently approved seven new members: congratulations to all!
Reviews
- Yale's new edition of the Voynich Manuscript; review by Scott McLemee at Inside Higher Ed.
- Sarah Gristwood's Game of Queens; review by Sarah Dunant in the NYTimes.
- David Welky's A Wretched and Precarious Situation; review by Sara Wheeler in the NYTimes.
- Laura Miller's Literary Wonderlands; review by Andrew Sean Greer in the NYTimes.
- Graeme McCrae Burnet's His Bloody Project; review by Steph Cha in the LATimes.
Upcoming Auctions of Note
- Livres rares et manuscrits du XVe au XXe siècle at Christie's Paris, 5 December
- The Bible Collection of Dr. Charles Caldwell Ryrie at Sotheby's New York, 5 December
- Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Sotheby's London, 6 December
- Fine Books & Manuscripts including Americana at Sotheby's New York, 6 December
- Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures at Bloomsbury London, 7 December
- Livres anciens et modernes précieux et curieux, 1490–1837 at Binoche et Giquello Paris, 7 December
- History of Science and Technology at Bonhams New York, 7 December
- Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books at Swann Galleries, 8 December
- The Library of the late David Harrison: 17th-19th Century Literature and the Arts at Forum Auctions London, 8 December
- Miniature Books: Rico Onuma Memorial Auction from Lilliput Oval Saloon, Owned by Kazushige Onuma, Tokyo. Part II at PBA Galleries, 8 December
- American Revolution Documents, Arms and Relics at Alexander Historical Auctions, 10 December
- Books, Art and Ephemera at National Book Auctions, 10 December
- The Library of Congress has signed on as a "content hub partner" with the DPLA.
- The Bute Hours will be offered on Tuesday at Sotheby's London.
- Josephine Livingstone writes on "The Unsolvable Mysteries of the Voynich Manuscript" for the New Yorker Page-Turner blog.
- The Internet Archive is working on building a complete copy of its holdings in Canada.
- Simon Beattie's turned up a fascinating book: an 1858 selection of music for a Merseyside church. An inserted printed slip from the compiler faults the printers for their "slovenly work and bad printing."
- Nate Pedersen checks back in with Zoe Abrams for the "Bright Young Booksellers" series.
- December's Rare Book Monthly articles include a piece by Eric Caren on what's next for him, Michael Stillman on the unconventional sale of books from Newcastle Central Library, and another nice find by Bruce McKinney.
- Stephen Greenberg writes for the NLM blog about a new book in sheets acquisition.
- Caleb Kiffer writes for the Swann blog about a previously unknown first state of de Wit's map of the Netherlands; the map will be on the block at their 8 December sale.
- Egyptian media report that 43 boxes of books and manuscripts were seized at Cairo airport; some appeared to have been stolen from the Al-Azhar University library.
- Over at The New Antiquarian, John Schulman muses about bookseller retirements.
- Lauren Young covers bibliomania for Atlas Obscura, and the Princeton Graphic Arts blog takes a look at an early response to Dibdin, Beresford's Bibliosophia.
- Mark Peters writes about the new online version of Green's Dictionary of Slang for the Boston Globe.
- A poem copied out by Anne Frank shortly before her family went into hiding from the Nazis sold at auction last week for €140,000, while the gun used by Paul Verlaine to wound Arthur Rimbaud fetched €434,000.
- Also from the Princeton Graphic Arts blog, a look at a newly-acquired collection of twenty printed and manuscript dinner bills from ~1780–1830.
- The Telegraph ran an obituary of book scout Martin Stone.
- Sid Berger talked to Rebecca Rego Barry about his Dictionary of the Book (Rowman and Littlefield) for the Fine Books Blog.
- A Beethoven manuscript which came in for a bit of pre-sale dispute failed to sell at Sotheby's London on 29 November; at the same sale, the manuscript of Mahler's second symphony set a new record for a music manuscript, selling for £5.4 million.
- Letters documenting the end of author Robert Louis Stevenson's life have been secured for the National Library of Scotland.
- "A Curious Cutting" at Medieval Manuscript Questions.
- From the Michigan State University Libraries conservation lab blog, a look at a neat technique for keeping pamphlets together.
- The ABAA recently approved seven new members: congratulations to all!
Reviews
- Yale's new edition of the Voynich Manuscript; review by Scott McLemee at Inside Higher Ed.
- Sarah Gristwood's Game of Queens; review by Sarah Dunant in the NYTimes.
- David Welky's A Wretched and Precarious Situation; review by Sara Wheeler in the NYTimes.
- Laura Miller's Literary Wonderlands; review by Andrew Sean Greer in the NYTimes.
- Graeme McCrae Burnet's His Bloody Project; review by Steph Cha in the LATimes.
Upcoming Auctions of Note
- Livres rares et manuscrits du XVe au XXe siècle at Christie's Paris, 5 December
- The Bible Collection of Dr. Charles Caldwell Ryrie at Sotheby's New York, 5 December
- Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Sotheby's London, 6 December
- Fine Books & Manuscripts including Americana at Sotheby's New York, 6 December
- Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures at Bloomsbury London, 7 December
- Livres anciens et modernes précieux et curieux, 1490–1837 at Binoche et Giquello Paris, 7 December
- History of Science and Technology at Bonhams New York, 7 December
- Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books at Swann Galleries, 8 December
- The Library of the late David Harrison: 17th-19th Century Literature and the Arts at Forum Auctions London, 8 December
- Miniature Books: Rico Onuma Memorial Auction from Lilliput Oval Saloon, Owned by Kazushige Onuma, Tokyo. Part II at PBA Galleries, 8 December
- American Revolution Documents, Arms and Relics at Alexander Historical Auctions, 10 December
- Books, Art and Ephemera at National Book Auctions, 10 December
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Links & Reviews
- Daniel J. Leab, publisher of American Book Prices Current, editor, professor, and historian, died this week at the age of 80. As John Overholt wrote on the RBMS list, "The Leabs’ vision and commitment in establishing the Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibitions Awards has enriched the professional lives of the RBMS community in wide-ranging and innumerable ways since its inception. He will be deeply missed." My sincere condolences to his family.
- Now on display at the Folger Shakespeare Library, all eighteen copies (plus understudy) of the First Folio that have been traveling around the country this year. This is the largest-ever public display of First Folios at a single venue. The show will be up until 22 January.
- Original electrotype blocks used for the illustrations in Alice and Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass will be sold at Christie's on 1 December.
- ILAB has posted an interview with new ILAB president Gonzalo Pontes.
- The oldest-known version of the Ten Commandments on a stone tablet (dated to 300–500 CE), previously in the collections of the Living Torah Museum, sold at auction this week for $850,000 at Heritage Auctions; the sale came with a provision that the tablet must be put on public display.
- Arthur Fournier gets the "Bright Young Booksellers" treatment at FB&C.
- Matt Gallatin writes for the Michigan Daily about Motte & Bailey Booksellers of Ann Arbor.
- Sammy Hudes reports for the Star on the Leonard Cohen archives, housed at the University of Toronto's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.
Reviews
- James Stourton's Kenneth Clark; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- Ruth Scurr's John Aubrey, My Own Life; review by Jeffrey Collins in the WSJ.
Upcoming Auctions
- Rare Books at Ketterer Kunst, 21–22 November
- The Chicago World's Fair, Columbian Exposition 1893 at Gray's, 21 November
- Rare Books, Autographs, Maps & Photographs (including books from the Library of the Explorers Club) at Doyle New York, 22 November
- Music and Continental Books & Manuscripts at Sotheby's London, 29 November
- The Giancarlo Beltrame Collection of Scientific Books, Part II at Christie's London, 30 November
- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Chiswick Auctions, 30 November
- Now on display at the Folger Shakespeare Library, all eighteen copies (plus understudy) of the First Folio that have been traveling around the country this year. This is the largest-ever public display of First Folios at a single venue. The show will be up until 22 January.
- Original electrotype blocks used for the illustrations in Alice and Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass will be sold at Christie's on 1 December.
- ILAB has posted an interview with new ILAB president Gonzalo Pontes.
- The oldest-known version of the Ten Commandments on a stone tablet (dated to 300–500 CE), previously in the collections of the Living Torah Museum, sold at auction this week for $850,000 at Heritage Auctions; the sale came with a provision that the tablet must be put on public display.
- Arthur Fournier gets the "Bright Young Booksellers" treatment at FB&C.
- Matt Gallatin writes for the Michigan Daily about Motte & Bailey Booksellers of Ann Arbor.
- Sammy Hudes reports for the Star on the Leonard Cohen archives, housed at the University of Toronto's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.
Reviews
- James Stourton's Kenneth Clark; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.
- Ruth Scurr's John Aubrey, My Own Life; review by Jeffrey Collins in the WSJ.
Upcoming Auctions
- Rare Books at Ketterer Kunst, 21–22 November
- The Chicago World's Fair, Columbian Exposition 1893 at Gray's, 21 November
- Rare Books, Autographs, Maps & Photographs (including books from the Library of the Explorers Club) at Doyle New York, 22 November
- Music and Continental Books & Manuscripts at Sotheby's London, 29 November
- The Giancarlo Beltrame Collection of Scientific Books, Part II at Christie's London, 30 November
- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Chiswick Auctions, 30 November
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Links & Reviews
- From Jason Rhody, "How to Fight for Federal Support of Cultural Research and Why It Matters."
- Another round of sales from Pierre Bergé's library was held in Paris on 8–9 November, resulting in total sales of €4.8 million. A Flaubert travel diary attracted much pre-sale attention, including coverage in the Guardian (it sold for nearly €540,000).
- November's Rare Book Monthly articles include a profile of map dealer Barry Ruderman, a tribute to Bob Fleck, and a report on the guilty verdict in Michael Danaher's trial for the murder of bookseller Adrian Greenwood. More on the latter from the BBC.
- Wayne Wiegand writes for Inside Higher Ed about how contemporary LIS "research" has shortchanged libraries.
- Some important job searches: AAS is hiring an Associate Librarian, UVA seeks an Associate University Librarian for Special Collections & Archives, and the BPL is looking for a Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarian.
- Newly launched, EMoBookTrade, which looks quite interesting indeed.
- A task force at MIT has issued a preliminary "Future of Libraries" report, which "contains general recommendations intended to develop 'a global library for a global university,' while strengthening the library system’s relationship with the local academic community and public sphere."
- Vic Zoschak looks back at this year's Boston Book Fair.
- The ABAA's Women in Bookselling Initiative launched in Boston during the fair.
- Rick Russack offers a review of the events around the book fair for Antiques and the Arts Weekly.
- The University of Chicago has digitized 68 Biblical manuscripts from the Edgar J. Goodspeed Manuscript Collection.
- Several major US and UK institutions have agreed to cooperate in the digitization of the papers of George III.
- Watch a talk by Tom Mole, "Scott in Stone: The Scott Monument in the Victorian Pantheon," delivered to the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club.
- A first edition of the first Harry Potter book sold for £35,000 this week.
- Based on some fairly tangled legal reasoning, a Connecticut judge ordered that 252 disputed books from Maurice Sendak's estate will go to the author's estate, with another 88 going to the Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Both sides may appeal. More coverage from Smithsonian and the NYTimes.
- Author Philip Roth is donating his 4,000-volume library to the Newark Public Library.
- Damage to a nearby building from a massive earthquake has closed the National Library of New Zealand for the time being.
- Tom Brokaw's papers and archive will go to the University of Iowa.
- At The Taper, Brandon Butler posts about the recent goings-on at the Copyright Office.
- The Portland Press Herald interviews Don Lindgren of Rabelais.
- One of 145 manuscripts stolen in 1985 from the Biblioteca Passerini-Landi in Piacenza was recovered after being spotted for sale online. More than half of the other manuscripts have also been recovered over the years. More from the BBC.
- Book scout Martin Stone has died. More from Bookride.
- Chicago's Lutheran School of Theology has returned a 9th-century New Testament to the Greek Orthodox Church.
- From Stephanie Kingsley in Perspectives, a "quick study" on book history.
- Rob Koehler writes for the JHIBlog on novel-reading in the early republic.
- Watch a time-lapse video of 52,000 books being reshelved in the NYPL's Rose Main Reading Room.
- Seven volumes missing from the London Library since the 1950s were recently returned after being found during an estate appraisal.
- The Watkinson Library has acquired an 1839 Audubon letter to Robert Havell.
- Stephanie Jamieson writes for the NLS blog about identifying platinotype photographs.
- Bookseller Ken Karmiole has given $100,000 to the Book Club of California to endow a lecture series in the history of the book trade in California and the West.
- Éditions des Saints Pères is publishing a limited facsimile edition of the manuscript of Jane Eyre, with illustrations by Edmund Garrett.
- Gregory Schneider reports for the WaPo about the State Library of Virginia's efforts to collect and scan Civil War documents from family collections across the commonwealth. Wonderful story.
- The director of Moscow's Library of Ukrainian Literature has been put on trial for "inciting ethnic hatred against Russians" (i.e. "disseminating banned literature classed as extremist"). Natalia Sharina is also charged with embezzling library funds; she maintains that all charges are politically motivated.
- The OUP blog features an essay by New Oxford Shakespeare editor Gary Taylor on Shakespeare's collaborators.
- National Geographic reports on Robert Berlo's important collection of more than 12,000 road maps.
- The second part of Gordon Hollis' "Book Collecting in the United States" series is up on the ABAA blog. Part One.
- Joel Fry, curator at Bartram's Garden, is seeking information on copies of the first edition of John Bartram's Travels (Philadelphia, 1791) for an ongoing census.
- The DPLA's Archival Description Working Group has released a new whitepaper on aggregating and representing archival collections.
- One of the most amusing library blog posts in a long time: "A Raven Named Sir Nevermore?"
Reviews
- The Morgan Library's Charlotte Brontë exhibition; review by Francine Prose in the NYRB.
- Anne Trubek's The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting; review by Lucy Ferriss at Lingua Franca.
- Frances Wilson's Guilty Thing; review by John Sutherland in the NYTimes.
- David Skal's Something in the Blood; review by Jason Zinoman in the NYTimes.
- John Crowley's new edition of The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz: A Romance in Eight Days by Johann Valentin Andreae; review by Peter Bebergal for the New Yorker's Page-Turner blog.
- John Simpson's The Word Detective and John McWhorter's Words on the Move; review by Lynne Truss in the NYTimes.
- Colin Dickey's Ghostland; review by Rachel Monroe in the LARB.
- Another round of sales from Pierre Bergé's library was held in Paris on 8–9 November, resulting in total sales of €4.8 million. A Flaubert travel diary attracted much pre-sale attention, including coverage in the Guardian (it sold for nearly €540,000).
- November's Rare Book Monthly articles include a profile of map dealer Barry Ruderman, a tribute to Bob Fleck, and a report on the guilty verdict in Michael Danaher's trial for the murder of bookseller Adrian Greenwood. More on the latter from the BBC.
- Wayne Wiegand writes for Inside Higher Ed about how contemporary LIS "research" has shortchanged libraries.
- Some important job searches: AAS is hiring an Associate Librarian, UVA seeks an Associate University Librarian for Special Collections & Archives, and the BPL is looking for a Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarian.
- Newly launched, EMoBookTrade, which looks quite interesting indeed.
- A task force at MIT has issued a preliminary "Future of Libraries" report, which "contains general recommendations intended to develop 'a global library for a global university,' while strengthening the library system’s relationship with the local academic community and public sphere."
- Vic Zoschak looks back at this year's Boston Book Fair.
- The ABAA's Women in Bookselling Initiative launched in Boston during the fair.
- Rick Russack offers a review of the events around the book fair for Antiques and the Arts Weekly.
- The University of Chicago has digitized 68 Biblical manuscripts from the Edgar J. Goodspeed Manuscript Collection.
- Several major US and UK institutions have agreed to cooperate in the digitization of the papers of George III.
- Watch a talk by Tom Mole, "Scott in Stone: The Scott Monument in the Victorian Pantheon," delivered to the Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club.
- A first edition of the first Harry Potter book sold for £35,000 this week.
- Based on some fairly tangled legal reasoning, a Connecticut judge ordered that 252 disputed books from Maurice Sendak's estate will go to the author's estate, with another 88 going to the Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Both sides may appeal. More coverage from Smithsonian and the NYTimes.
- Author Philip Roth is donating his 4,000-volume library to the Newark Public Library.
- Damage to a nearby building from a massive earthquake has closed the National Library of New Zealand for the time being.
- Tom Brokaw's papers and archive will go to the University of Iowa.
- At The Taper, Brandon Butler posts about the recent goings-on at the Copyright Office.
- The Portland Press Herald interviews Don Lindgren of Rabelais.
- One of 145 manuscripts stolen in 1985 from the Biblioteca Passerini-Landi in Piacenza was recovered after being spotted for sale online. More than half of the other manuscripts have also been recovered over the years. More from the BBC.
- Book scout Martin Stone has died. More from Bookride.
- Chicago's Lutheran School of Theology has returned a 9th-century New Testament to the Greek Orthodox Church.
- From Stephanie Kingsley in Perspectives, a "quick study" on book history.
- Rob Koehler writes for the JHIBlog on novel-reading in the early republic.
- Watch a time-lapse video of 52,000 books being reshelved in the NYPL's Rose Main Reading Room.
- Seven volumes missing from the London Library since the 1950s were recently returned after being found during an estate appraisal.
- The Watkinson Library has acquired an 1839 Audubon letter to Robert Havell.
- Stephanie Jamieson writes for the NLS blog about identifying platinotype photographs.
- Bookseller Ken Karmiole has given $100,000 to the Book Club of California to endow a lecture series in the history of the book trade in California and the West.
- Éditions des Saints Pères is publishing a limited facsimile edition of the manuscript of Jane Eyre, with illustrations by Edmund Garrett.
- Gregory Schneider reports for the WaPo about the State Library of Virginia's efforts to collect and scan Civil War documents from family collections across the commonwealth. Wonderful story.
- The director of Moscow's Library of Ukrainian Literature has been put on trial for "inciting ethnic hatred against Russians" (i.e. "disseminating banned literature classed as extremist"). Natalia Sharina is also charged with embezzling library funds; she maintains that all charges are politically motivated.
- The OUP blog features an essay by New Oxford Shakespeare editor Gary Taylor on Shakespeare's collaborators.
- National Geographic reports on Robert Berlo's important collection of more than 12,000 road maps.
- The second part of Gordon Hollis' "Book Collecting in the United States" series is up on the ABAA blog. Part One.
- Joel Fry, curator at Bartram's Garden, is seeking information on copies of the first edition of John Bartram's Travels (Philadelphia, 1791) for an ongoing census.
- The DPLA's Archival Description Working Group has released a new whitepaper on aggregating and representing archival collections.
- One of the most amusing library blog posts in a long time: "A Raven Named Sir Nevermore?"
Reviews
- The Morgan Library's Charlotte Brontë exhibition; review by Francine Prose in the NYRB.
- Anne Trubek's The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting; review by Lucy Ferriss at Lingua Franca.
- Frances Wilson's Guilty Thing; review by John Sutherland in the NYTimes.
- David Skal's Something in the Blood; review by Jason Zinoman in the NYTimes.
- John Crowley's new edition of The Chemical Wedding by Christian Rosencreutz: A Romance in Eight Days by Johann Valentin Andreae; review by Peter Bebergal for the New Yorker's Page-Turner blog.
- John Simpson's The Word Detective and John McWhorter's Words on the Move; review by Lynne Truss in the NYTimes.
- Colin Dickey's Ghostland; review by Rachel Monroe in the LARB.
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Links & Reviews
- The American Antiquarian Society has unveiled plans for a three-story, 7,000-square foot addition to Antiquarian Hall. See the September Almanac for details.
- Over on the OUP blog, Cóilín Parsons writes on "Big data in the nineteenth century."
- At The New Antiquarian, an "In Memoriam" post for bookseller David Holmes, and Rich Rennicks offers up "Ten Reasons to Attend the Boston Book Fair."
- From Mark Oppenheimer on the New Yorker's Page Turner blog, "The Lost Virtue of Cursive."
- Rare Books Digest offers an analysis of the second- and third-quarter book auctions.
- Alison Flood reports for the Guardian about a House of Lords debate this week in which numerous peers criticized the Government for cuts to libraries over the last several years.
- It's that time again: Megan Rosenbloom writes about anthropodermic bindings for Lapham's Quarterly.
- Hay-on-Wye, perhaps the most famous "book town" in the world, could lose its public library, the BBC reports.
- Florence Fearrington has given $5 million to the Wilson Special Collections Library at UNC Chapel Hill.
- Phoenix Alexander writes for the Beinecke's blog about an apparently unrecorded pamphlet found during cataloging of a large collection of slavery tracts.
- I'm not at all just how newsy this is, but the Washington Post reported this week on analyses of the manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence which suggest that twentieth-century conservation efforts may have caused damage to the manuscript.
- The Museum of London has acquired a manuscript account of a January 1667 report to the House of Commons by Sir Robert Brooks, chairman of the committee charged with investigating the origins of the Great Fire of London.
- Book collector Howard Knohl, a selection from whose collection will be sold at Sotheby's this week, is profiled in the Orange County Times.
Reviews
- Richard Holmes' This Long Pursuit; review by Daisy Hay in the Guardian.
- Ronald C. White's American Ulysses; review by T.J. Stiles in the NYTimes.
- Over on the OUP blog, Cóilín Parsons writes on "Big data in the nineteenth century."
- At The New Antiquarian, an "In Memoriam" post for bookseller David Holmes, and Rich Rennicks offers up "Ten Reasons to Attend the Boston Book Fair."
- From Mark Oppenheimer on the New Yorker's Page Turner blog, "The Lost Virtue of Cursive."
- Rare Books Digest offers an analysis of the second- and third-quarter book auctions.
- Alison Flood reports for the Guardian about a House of Lords debate this week in which numerous peers criticized the Government for cuts to libraries over the last several years.
- It's that time again: Megan Rosenbloom writes about anthropodermic bindings for Lapham's Quarterly.
- Hay-on-Wye, perhaps the most famous "book town" in the world, could lose its public library, the BBC reports.
- Florence Fearrington has given $5 million to the Wilson Special Collections Library at UNC Chapel Hill.
- Phoenix Alexander writes for the Beinecke's blog about an apparently unrecorded pamphlet found during cataloging of a large collection of slavery tracts.
- I'm not at all just how newsy this is, but the Washington Post reported this week on analyses of the manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence which suggest that twentieth-century conservation efforts may have caused damage to the manuscript.
- The Museum of London has acquired a manuscript account of a January 1667 report to the House of Commons by Sir Robert Brooks, chairman of the committee charged with investigating the origins of the Great Fire of London.
- Book collector Howard Knohl, a selection from whose collection will be sold at Sotheby's this week, is profiled in the Orange County Times.
Reviews
- Richard Holmes' This Long Pursuit; review by Daisy Hay in the Guardian.
- Ronald C. White's American Ulysses; review by T.J. Stiles in the NYTimes.
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Links & Reviews
- Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending my first Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair (and given the weather reports, it sounds like they picked the right weekend for it!). Kate Mitas has a writeup for the Tavistock Books blog. Good venue, decent crowds, and as always a real delight to be among friends from around the biblio-community.
- As Boston approaches, Rich Rennicks has a posted on the ABAA blog offering advice on attending your first book fair.
- Speaking of Boston, the ABAA-RBS seminar series on Thursday, 27 October (right before the fair) still has some spaces available. If you'll be in the area and are interested in a concentrated day of bookish seminars, please join us!
- I missed this announcement in early August: the Berger-Cloonan collection of decorated papers has been acquired by Texas A&M.
- Gavriel Hundiashvili has been charged with the theft of two rare books from the PRPH Books in Manhattan, and has reportedly confessed both to the theft and to mailing the books to the police in September.
- See also, from the NYTimes, Sarah Maslin Nir's piece on rare book theft and booksellers' efforts to combat it.
- The BL and BNF are working on a joint project to digitized some 800 manuscripts from before 1200 CE. Please see Dot Porter's response to this announcement.
- Conservators Frank Mowery and Sonja Jordan-Mowery are profiled in the Lakeland Ledger.
- New letters by Sir Peyton Skipwith at William & Mary's Swem Library include one in which Skipwith mentions his wife Jean's "small, but well-chosen library." (See the library here).
- Matthew Carter will deliver APHA's Lieberman Lecture on 3 December at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, MA.
- Items from the collection of the Great Evanion (Harry Evans) will go on display at the British Library this week.
- PBA Galleries will sell an extensive archive of Civil War letters this week.
- The NYPL is digitizing its collection of New York city directories from 1786 through 1922/3. Good background and context on the project in the linked post.
- Arizona State University has acquired the Robert A. Lawler collection of sixteenth-century English literature.
- New from Cambridge: Fleuron: A Database of Eighteenth-Century Printers' Ornaments.
- There's a new exhibition on rare book provenance at the University of Adelaide.
- Michael Danaher is currently on trial in Oxford Crown Court for the April murder of rare book dealer Adrian Greenwood. Prosecutors claim the murder was "part of an attempt" to steal a first edition of The Wind in the Willows. The book was found in Danaher's house, along with lists of "people of means" the defendant allegedly planned to kidnap or rob.
- Jonathon Green's Dictionary of Slang is now available online.
- Over at The Collation, Abbie Weinberg and Elizabeth DeBold take a look at the "other" First Folio (Jonson's Workes), published four hundred years ago.
- Ben Cort writes for the Harvard Crimson about a project to digitize Native American petitions in the collections of the Massachusetts State Archives.
- Atlas Obscura visits the hidden apartments inside the NYPL's branch libraries.
- The National Library of Israel has acquired a collection of manuscripts related to the Silk Road.
- From Bookhunter on Safari, a profile of Clara Millard, "the most successful book-huntress in the world."
- More Rare Books of Instagram on the Fine Books Blog.
- Google and Monotype have launched Noto, an open-source typeface family designed to be used for any language.
- Sotheby's will sell the Bible collection of Charles Ryrie in December.
- John Pipkin writes for Lithub about bookseller James Lackington and his Temple of the Muses bookshop.
Reviews
- Zara Anishanslin's Portrait of a Woman in Silk; review by Alyssa Zuercher Reichardt at The Junto.
- Shakespeare & Company, Paris (edited by Krista Halverson); review by Frances Spalding in the Guardian.
- Corey Mead's Angelic Music; review by Eugenia Zukerman in the WaPo.
- Alan Taylor's American Revolutions; review by Louisa Thomas in the WaPo.
- Colin Dickey's Ghostland; review by Tom Zoellner in the LATimes.
- The current Grolier Club exhibition, "The Centaur Turns One Hundred"; review by Allison Meier at Hyperallergic.
- As Boston approaches, Rich Rennicks has a posted on the ABAA blog offering advice on attending your first book fair.
- Speaking of Boston, the ABAA-RBS seminar series on Thursday, 27 October (right before the fair) still has some spaces available. If you'll be in the area and are interested in a concentrated day of bookish seminars, please join us!
- I missed this announcement in early August: the Berger-Cloonan collection of decorated papers has been acquired by Texas A&M.
- Gavriel Hundiashvili has been charged with the theft of two rare books from the PRPH Books in Manhattan, and has reportedly confessed both to the theft and to mailing the books to the police in September.
- See also, from the NYTimes, Sarah Maslin Nir's piece on rare book theft and booksellers' efforts to combat it.
- The BL and BNF are working on a joint project to digitized some 800 manuscripts from before 1200 CE. Please see Dot Porter's response to this announcement.
- Conservators Frank Mowery and Sonja Jordan-Mowery are profiled in the Lakeland Ledger.
- New letters by Sir Peyton Skipwith at William & Mary's Swem Library include one in which Skipwith mentions his wife Jean's "small, but well-chosen library." (See the library here).
- Matthew Carter will deliver APHA's Lieberman Lecture on 3 December at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, MA.
- Items from the collection of the Great Evanion (Harry Evans) will go on display at the British Library this week.
- PBA Galleries will sell an extensive archive of Civil War letters this week.
- The NYPL is digitizing its collection of New York city directories from 1786 through 1922/3. Good background and context on the project in the linked post.
- Arizona State University has acquired the Robert A. Lawler collection of sixteenth-century English literature.
- New from Cambridge: Fleuron: A Database of Eighteenth-Century Printers' Ornaments.
- There's a new exhibition on rare book provenance at the University of Adelaide.
- Michael Danaher is currently on trial in Oxford Crown Court for the April murder of rare book dealer Adrian Greenwood. Prosecutors claim the murder was "part of an attempt" to steal a first edition of The Wind in the Willows. The book was found in Danaher's house, along with lists of "people of means" the defendant allegedly planned to kidnap or rob.
- Jonathon Green's Dictionary of Slang is now available online.
- Over at The Collation, Abbie Weinberg and Elizabeth DeBold take a look at the "other" First Folio (Jonson's Workes), published four hundred years ago.
- Ben Cort writes for the Harvard Crimson about a project to digitize Native American petitions in the collections of the Massachusetts State Archives.
- Atlas Obscura visits the hidden apartments inside the NYPL's branch libraries.
- The National Library of Israel has acquired a collection of manuscripts related to the Silk Road.
- From Bookhunter on Safari, a profile of Clara Millard, "the most successful book-huntress in the world."
- More Rare Books of Instagram on the Fine Books Blog.
- Google and Monotype have launched Noto, an open-source typeface family designed to be used for any language.
- Sotheby's will sell the Bible collection of Charles Ryrie in December.
- John Pipkin writes for Lithub about bookseller James Lackington and his Temple of the Muses bookshop.
Reviews
- Zara Anishanslin's Portrait of a Woman in Silk; review by Alyssa Zuercher Reichardt at The Junto.
- Shakespeare & Company, Paris (edited by Krista Halverson); review by Frances Spalding in the Guardian.
- Corey Mead's Angelic Music; review by Eugenia Zukerman in the WaPo.
- Alan Taylor's American Revolutions; review by Louisa Thomas in the WaPo.
- Colin Dickey's Ghostland; review by Tom Zoellner in the LATimes.
- The current Grolier Club exhibition, "The Centaur Turns One Hundred"; review by Allison Meier at Hyperallergic.
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