As of May, 2000 the British Library housed 48 different translations of Dante's Inferno into English.Poet and sound artist Caroline Bergvall gathers the opening lines of each translation in her sound piece VIA (48 Dante Variations).Bergvall reads the opening of each translation then names the translator and the date of the publication. The result is powerful. The overarching monotony sprinkled with the subtlety of each translation and the hypnotic drone of Bergvall's voice leaves the listener transfixed as they await the next rendering of Dante's lines. The piece conveys the inherent complexity of the art of translation and illuminates the...
From the Square to the Hill: Elliott Bay Book Company is on the move
Now it is official. The Elliott Bay Book Company, the retail centerpiece of Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood for over 35 years, will be packing up and moving to Capitol Hill.It is a sad day. For the city as a whole, for Pioneer Square in particular and in some sense for EBBC as well.Our book shop has been a block or less away from EBBC for over 15 years. We have seen, felt and have been affected by all the issues EBBC attributes as factors for their decision. Bookselling can be a very competitive business. When you look at the pressures...
By the Pound: Bookselling "Deli-Style"
Is this simply the latest manifestation of the race to the bottom mentality that is polluting much of the bookselling world or will it prove to be a new way to sell books?At the newly opened Market Fresh Books in Evanston, Illinois all books and related products are sold by the pound! Yes, by the pound.Here's how it works:Books cost $3.99 a poundBooks on tape $10.99 a poundAudio CD's are $24.99 per poundThe store stocks lightly used best sellers and other popular current titles. Nothing old, nothing rare, nothing antiquarian. It also boasts a children's room, a room dedicated to...
ABC’s of Book Collecting: Author’s Binding
AUTHOR’S BINDINGCopies to be presented by authors to their friends or to public figures were, from the earliest times, occasionally bound to their order; normally in a superior manner, but by no means always recognisable as such. (morocco was a common style for this purpose in the 17th and 18th centuries and vellum, gilt, in the 16th.) In the absence, therefore, of an inscription or other evidence, the statement that a leather-bound book is in an author’s binding will usually be made – and should always be received – with caution, still more so the assumption (commonly made) that such...
Old Books Fresh Eggs
Between Muddy Gap and the Lander, Wyoming lies Sweetwater Station home of the Mad Dog and the Pilgrim Booksellers.Population of Sweetwater Station: 5Inventory of Mad Dog and the Pilgrim: 75,000In addition to the books Lynda “Mad Dog” German and Polly “The Pilgrim” Hinds operate an "eccentric working farm" featuring two dogs ; four cats; 62 chickens; 26 sheep; two llamas; one milk goat; four pea fowl, and two ducks.The roadside sign above is the only advertising they do for as German says “People who like books will find you.”Rone Tempest profiles Mad Dog and the Pilgrim at New West MissoulaPhoto...