Reporting 36,000 miles above somewhere in the Western United States: The long winter that has kept the rare book trade chilly has passed; Spring is in the air, the sun is out, the temperature is warming, green has returned to leaves and dealer bank accounts. The parting clouds observed at the California International Antiquarian Book Fair last February appear to have completely opened and moved on. The weather inside and outside the Fair was classic New York Spring. The season of renewal and growth is upon us.While a few dealers complained of slow starts, low attendance, and lack of excitement,...
Chicago Library is Turning Japanese
Tadanori Yokoo, Made In Japan, silk screen, 1998.(Images Courtesy Of University of Chicago Libraries.)Critics trying to sum up the work of artist Tadanori Yokoo have called him, "The Japanese Andy Warhol." That's like calling James Joyce, "The Irish Dr. Seuss." Both artists use silk-screen techniques to create prints, and that's where the similarity ends. Warhol's clear, linear, flat, and repetitive surfaces have a visceral visual impact. The eye instantly recognizes and grasps the content, often a colorful take on an already iconic image. Throw away all of that pop-art kapow, replace it with chaos, complexity, commotion, clutter, and more layers...
Will True Anarchy Reign at 2010 Anarchist Book Fair?
New York City Anarchist Book Fair, 2009.The 4th annual NYC Anarchist Book Fair, a one-day exposition of books, zines, pamphlets, art, film/video, and other cultural and very political productions of the anarchist scene worldwide, will take place on April 17, 2010, at Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan, New York City, a center of anarchist life, culture, struggle, and ideas for 150 years, In addition, there will be two days of panels, presentations, workshops, and skillshares on April 17 and 18 to provide further opportunities to learn more and share your own experience and creativity. The goal of the book...
Charles Dickens’ Model for the Modern Rehab Facility: Victorian Health Care Reform
On November 29, 1842, London’s Morning Chronicle published a short, unusual piece by Charles Dickens, already a celebrated writer and novelist, titled The Sanatorium.Written shortly after Dickens’s return from his first American tour, it reflected both his deep and lasting interest in public affairs and his fascination with medicine and the medical profession, particularly mental illness, detailed descriptions of which form central passages in several of Dickens’s novels. Thomas Chapman was chairman of the Sanatorium Committee and a personal friend of Dickens (the character of Mr Dombey was supposedly based on Chapman). Chapman asked Dickens to write a brief piece...
Yale Exhibit Romances The Last Of The Gentleman Scholars
Pierre-Joseph Redoute, Plum Branches Intertwined, 1802-04, watercolor on vellum. (Images Courtesy Of Yale Center For British Arts.)When Charles Ryskamp was interviewed in 2004, he found the reporter's questions about his background so tedious he snapped: "I don't want this to be an obituary." Ryskamp needn't have worried. The one-time director of both the Morgan Library and Museum and the Frick Collection died on March 26, 2010, with the best possible remembrance of his life and career on display at the Yale Center For British Art. Varieties of Romantic Experience: Drawings from the Collection of Charles Ryskamp, an exhibit of 200...