Think Beauty and the Beast and a library beyond your wildest imagination. Then think about how lucky photographer Benjamin Van Wong was to be able to carry out the first creative photoshoot held inside the library at Admont Abbey in Austria. Completed in 1776 Stift Admont is the oldest monastic library in the world, some have dubbed it the “eighth wonder of the world.” It holds 200,000 books and is adorned with priceless frescoes and needless to say made a perfect backdrop. Model Jen Brook, Clothes by Polish designer Agnieszka Ospia, Hair and makeup Bianca Kristin Woltsche More on the shoot at Benjamin Van Wong's blog, What...
Of Interest: Library of Unrequited Love, On Used Bookstores, Lauren Ipsum, Lou Reed, Mrs. Darwin’s Recipe Book and more
Welcome to the first installment of Of Interest for 2015. Lots of good stuff to kick off the New Year. Pictured above: The Library of Unrequited Love by Sophie Divry Published by Maclehose Press. Translated from the French by Siân Reynolds. One morning a librarian finds a reader who has been locked in overnight. She starts to talk to him, a one-way conversation that soon gathers pace as an outpouring of frustrations, observations and anguishes. Two things shine through: her shy, unrequited passion for a quiet researcher named Martin, and an ardent and absolute love of books. Bestseller in France. Buy: Publisher |...
Cream of Wheat and the Golden Age of Illustration
From 1903-1928 The Cream of Wheat Co. ran a national advertising campaign to promote their "breakfast porridge." The campaign featured American illustrators and appeared in the leading periodicals of the day. Lucky for them their campaign ran during the time of Americas Golden Age of Illustration. They hired the likes of N. C. Wyeth, James Montgomery Flagg, Jessie Willcox Smith and J. C. Leyendecker to help spread the word. By the time Cream of Wheat was acquired by Nabisco in 1962 the campaign was long forgotten. In 1980 Dave Stivers, the archivist at Nabisco Brands, hit the jackpot. In a group of metal lockers at the former headquarters...
Happy New Calendar! A Sampling of Calendars at the DPLA
Now that we have our new calendar in place to help track the year ahead let's have a look back at some of the thousands of calendars available for your perusal at the Digital Public Library of America, DPLA. Derived from the Latin word kalendae, which was the name of the first day of every month, there are as many varieties of calendars as there are days of the month. From a 12th century Book of Hours to a 16th century perpetual calendar to a Native American calendar on buckskin to a handwritten calendar by Lee Harvey Oswald there is no shortage of creative...
Going to any length: The manuscript of Marquis de Sade’s ‘The 120 Days of Sodom’
Part of the festivities celebrating the bicentenary of the death of Marquis de Sade is an exhibit at the L’ Institut des Lettres et Manuscrits in Paris featuring the original manuscript of The 120 Days of Sodom. Regarded by Sade as his magnum opus, The 120 Days of Sodom also known as The School of Libertinism, was written by Sade in the space of thirty-seven days in 1785 while imprisoned. The production, construction and preservation of the manuscript is itself an epic tale. Sade wrote for 3 hours each evening, copying his drafts on strips of paper 11" wide, he then glued them together to...