A Bali Starling, An Endangered Species Whose Song Was Recorded By Linda Macaulay. The goal of poets is to make words sing. And so what better to inspire them than the sublime sounds, expressed so casually, so naturally, so sweetly, by the songbird? It comes as no surprise, then, that nearly every major poet has written a poem in praise of avian warblers. From Catallus to Chaucer to Keats to Collins, all are spellbound by the music of the skies. They try, with all the tools at their command, to conjure up in words the notes that flow so effortlessly...
17th c. Scandal: 14 Yr Old Girl Falls for Baron, Writes Rare Tell-All
The modern world's embarrassing, cringe-worthy, candid memoir-as-novel that dumps upon an ex-lover/spouse is nothing new. In 1931, Jack Kahane, a writer of novels that nobody read, launched Obelisk Press. In a few years the imprint would gain international notoriety for publishing Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. In the interim, it stayed afloat with racy fluff such as Daffodil by Cecil Barr (Kahane’s pseudonym), one of the imprint’s best-selling titles.But before Kahane got Obelisk Press off the ground he had to get Henri Babou off his back.He had entered into an agreement with Babou, “a short, well-groomed Frenchman with a goatee...
First Edition of Jane Austen’s “Emma” Sells For $489,747
A first edition of Jane Austen’s classic novel Emma has fetched £325,000 ($489,747) in a private transaction between Jonkers Rare Books of Henley-on-Thames, U.K., and a British collector.Why the high price? It is the most spectacular presentation copy of the book known to exist. There are presentation copies (a copy of a book given to someone by the author or publisher) and then there are presentation copies. This copy is a double-whammy jaw-dropper: a presentation and an association copy - a copy owned by someone with a relationship of some nature to the author. Here, the association is about as...
Winds Of War Stir Nation’s Libraries
Illustrator and theatrical designer Charles Buckles Falls created this lithograph to promote the American Library Association's First World War book drives for soldiers. Donated books were seen as a key to keeping up morale, and stocked temporary wartime libraries, as well as being given directly to soldiers. The most popular books on the frontlines were adventure and detective fiction, biographies, military histories, and travel journals. As the war wound down, soldiers began to request titles on farming, business, engineering, construction and other trades in preparation for the return to civilian life.It was the first, but sadly not the last, modern...
First Auction Exclusively Devoted to British Spy Novels Coming Soon
Journey into Fear (1940). Estimate: $2K-$3K.On Thursday, April 8, auction house Swann Galleries in New York will offer The Otto Penzler Collection of British Espionage and Thriller Fiction. The sale represents a select portion of the private library of the well-known mystery fiction specialist and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City who amassed his collection of rare spy and suspense books over 40 years. In that time, Penzler befriended many noted authors including Eric Ambler, Ken Follett, John Gardner and others, who inscribed copies of their works.“British spy novels are among the greatest of all works in...