What a Long Strange Trip: Six Degrees – From Lord Byron to Kevin Bacon

 click to enlargeThe Spring 2010 'Arts & Letters' issue of Lapham's Quarterly features this handy graphic; Friends, Lovers and Family.  This incestuous journey through literary history is color coded for your convenience. Writers, Actors, Painters, Architects and their accompanying Muses make up this web of creativity as it meanders it's way through history, finally coming to an end on the shoulders of Kevin Bacon.In addition to the usual stellar content, the issue also features a job description posted by Annie Dillard from 1989 when she was living in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington State (available in...

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A Couple of New Blogs for the Rare Book World

First, we want to congratulate Stephen J. Gertz and Nancy Mattoon, two of Book Patrol's finest, on  the launch of their new blog; Booktryst. We will miss them here at BP and are grateful for their efforts; we look forward to their top-notch coverage of the rare book and library world.Also of note:  Peter Harrington Books of London has started a new blog, The Cataloguer's Desk which features contributions by Laura Massey, whom many of us know as bookn3rd. Her first post on William Moon and his pre-braille Bible  was a knockout.

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The Half-Life of Dan Brown and John Grisham

Tim Spalding over at LibraryThing did some number crunching from the various book swap sites that are integrated with LibraryThing to find out what the Top Wanted and Unwanted books are. Dan Brown not only took home the dubious honor of the book most people want to get out of their lives with the Da Vinci Code but he also secured the 2, 3, and 7 slot of the top twenty-five with his books Angels & Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress.But the award for the most books on the list goes to John Grisham with an astounding 13 titles on...

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Inside Donald Judd’s Library

The Main Library at Donald Judd's La Mansana de Chinati residence in Marfa, Texas. It has been sixteen years since the passing of Donald Judd. Though known as one of the foremost minimalist painters of the 20th century Judd was also a serious bibliophile. He claimed to have read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica as child which, given his minimalist leanings, is quite a feat. And wherever in the world his art took him he bought books and had them sent back to Marfa.Library Details:13,004 books in the library on 576 shelves.40 languages represented. 2286 duplicates - for Judd was fond...

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