Abstract Art Or Camouflage?Ellsworth Kelly, The Meschers, 1951, oil on canvas, 59 x 59 inches, Museum Of Modern Art, New York."All warfare is based on deception," said Chinese theoretician Sun Tzu in his definitive work on military strategy and tactics, The Art of War. No one knew this better than the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops of the World War II U.S. Army. This unit was chronicled in Friday's Book Patrol, in conjunction with an exhibit at The University of Michigan's Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library. The Ann Arbor library's display of memorabilia, photos, and art works will also include the screening...
Crooks in the Food Trade
Carl Wagner, Bartender; wanted for carrying a concealed weapon. Previously wanted in Tacoma for murder Rabelais Books, a bookshop in Portland, Maine that specializes in food and wine material, is currently exhibiting a selection of mug shots of criminals that dabbled in the food trade. The exhibit titled Food Industry Mug Shots 1899-1954 features images from the collection of Dr. Lou Jacobs. Jacobs, a serious foodie himself, started collecting the mug shots 4 years ago when after searching for an antique cleaver for his own kitchen, came across a visual of a foodie who had stabbed a colleague with a butcher...
Audio/Visual
Here are a few recent podcasts and videos Hitchens and Packer on OrwellSilverblatt talks with Patti SmithThe making of a book cover Barnes & Noble on Saturday Night Live
Ghost Army Haunts Michigan Library
Resting Soldiers A Watercolor By Ghost Army Soldier John Jarvie.(Image Courtesy Of Rick Beyer, ghostarmy.org.) An invisible army, operating in obscurity, mastering the arts of illusion, deception, and disinformation to defeat the Nazis in World War II. This could be a description of the French Resistance fighters, the band of brothers who operated in utmost secrecy under the noses of the German occupation forces, and have been called "The Army of Shadows." But it also describes an amazing division of American troops stationed in the European Theatre: the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, AKA "The Ghost Army." This top-secret unit, so...
The Largest Vintage Paperback Book Fair in the World
Yesterday, I catalogued the Macclesfield copy of the important and highly significant third edition (1617) of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, published in the Dutch Republic, a Protestant country, a year after papal censors had added the book to the Index Prohibitorum. This edition brought Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the heavens to a broad readership. It's a very rare book.It’s tough to catalog while in the midst of a swoon.Next Sunday, March 21, 2010, I’ll be swooning all day at the 31st Annual Paperback Collectors Show and Sale here in Southern California.Tom Lesser is an attorney and one of the...