Did you know that 82 of the 233 surviving First Folios of Shakespeare's plays live at The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.? To mark the quadricentennial of his death The Folger is sending a few copies on a tour of America. Jonathan Karl of ABC News was granted exclusive access to the Folger vault, where he got a look at some of the goodies that rarely see the light of day.
Billy Collins’ book stolen, shot up, then returned
Somebody in Asheville, North Carolina doesn't think too kindly of two-time U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. According to the proprietors of The Captain's Bookshelf someone took a copy of Nine Horses by Collins from the shelf, brought it home, then proceeded to shoot more than 20 shotgun pellets from close range through the book. And if that wasn't enough the book crook also "meticulously defaced in ink" the author's portrait by adding a devil's beard and mustache and blacking out the eyes before returning it to the shelf. The bookshop owners believe "the culprit is not just an irate reader,...
The House of Twenty Thousand Books
There is no end to the praise of books, to the value of the library. Who shall estimate their influence on our population where all the millions read and write ? ~Ralph Waldo Emerson in “Address at the Opening of Concord Free Public Library” I was having dinner last week with a neighbor who, with his team, recently had a meeting with Bill Gates to discuss their project within the Gates Foundation. One of the words he used to describe Gates was "polymath." He spoke of Gates as having an incredibly deep knowledge in a wide variety of subject matter and...
The Pocket Poets Series turns 60
2015 marks the 60th anniversary of City Lights Publishers and the beginning of the seminal Pocket Poets Series. It began with a 500 copy letterpress printed edition of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Pictures of a Gone World, his first book, in 1955. In 2011 they published the 60th title in the series, David Meltzer‘s When I Was a Poet. But it was the 4th book in series that single-handedly changed the course of American poetry and put City Lights on the map for good. That was Allen Ginsberg's masterwork, Howl and Other Poems. About the series: Inspired by the French poetry series, Poètes d'aujourd'hui, Lawrence...
Independent Bookstore Day is Saturday May, 2
Are you ready for the first ever nationwide Independent Bookstore Day? Building on the success of last year's inaugural California Bookstore Day, independent bookstores across the country are getting ready for this day of celebration. And why not - after a brutal run that saw more than half our independent bookshops wiped out things have stabilized and a glimmer of hope has returned and seems to be getting brighter. Over 400 bookstores are part of the festivities and there is plenty of cool swag being produced for this special day. From signed prints by graphic novelist Chris Ware and Captain Underpants...