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...
And a happy new year…Holiday Cards by Poets
Postcard by Alice Notley. Photograph: Courtesy of Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, MARBL, Emory University As the 2104 holiday season wraps up let's finish the year with a look at how some of our most beloved poets shared the holiday love. Winter Wedding: Holiday Cards by Poets currently on view at Poet's House features over 40 works by poets who included creative correspondence as a component of their offerings. "Holiday cards, valentines, birthday greetings, rare booklets, and more from some of the last century’s most beloved poets, including Langston Hughes, Alice Notley, Ted Berrigan, Seamus Heaney, and Sylvia Plath. Ranging...
Wilde News: Newly discovered items, books from his library and more
Oscar Wilde as an undergradute A couple of recent Oscar Wilde related happenings instigated this look into the holdings available through the DPLA. First there is a new program produced by KCET, the nation's largest independent public television station, which highlights the unparalleled Oscar Wilde collection that resides at The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in Los Angeles. Then we found out that The Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The National Library of the Netherlands, has discovered in its holdings five books from Wilde's own library. And if that is not enough Wilde goodness The Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia has an upcoming exhibition on Wilde featuring several...
The World’s First Mobile Library; A ‘Jacobean Kindle’
The year was 1617. William Hakewill MP commissioned it to give as a gift to a friend. And it just might be the first mobile library. The Jacobean miniature travelling library consisted of 50 gold-tooled vellum-bound miniature books contained in a wooden case that resembled a large folio. Inside there were three shelves for the books. The inside cover was an illuminated table of contents. The subject matter covered history, poetry, theology and philosophy and included works by Cicero, Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, Horace and Julius Caesar. It was the perfect gift for a reader on the go and must of been a hit for within...
For Your Listening Pleasure: New Technology Rescues Poets from Old Vinyl
The Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard University just might be the closest thing we have to a poetry heaven on earth. Yes, there is the extensive collection of 20th and 21st century English-language poetry books and "an encyclopedic array of poetry journals and literary magazines" but the crown jewel of the collection is their collection of sound recordings, "one of the largest poetry-specific sound archives in the world". And, as you can imagine, many of the older vinyl recordings are simply to beat-up to listen to. That is, until now. The folks at WBUR, Boston's NPR station, take us behind the scenes and...