NPR reports:The owner of Wordsmiths bookstore in Decatur, Ga., is appealing for donations to help pay his bills. Word of his plight is spreading in the literary world. But some wonder whether it's appropriate for a for-profit enterprise to ask for donations.
Author Homes
It's been a rough few months for the former homes of great authors. In January, Robert Frost's home was vandalized by partying teenagers. More recently, both the Mark Twain and Edith Wharton museums face severe budget shortfalls and likely closure or sale. Reading Ahead's Harold Augenbraum wonders what these possible losses could mean:Perhaps in these cases we are not only talking about the past as a predictor, but as a movement through horizontal space that re-senses our perceptions of the author and his or her literary work. When we visit these homes and imagine Wharton or Twain lolling on the...
Shakespeare’s First Folio
Christie's London will be auctioning a First Folio (along with a second and fourth) in their June 4th Auction. Quoting their catalog:The preservation of over half Shakespeare's works is owing solely to publication of the First Folio, the undisputed keystone of any serious collection of English literature. In the much quoted words of W.A. Jackson, 'It is needless to emphasise the literary importance of this volume which has preserved twenty of Shakespeare's plays, as well as provided superior texts of eight of the eighteen plays which had already been printed. Though it cannot be called a rare book, it is...
Stanford acquires late professor’s renowned collection of ‘association copies’
Happened a couple of months ago, but haven't seen any comment on it elsewhere. Stanford New Service has the details:An accomplished and renowned collector, Fliegelman specialized in "association copies." These books have a great, sometimes huge, added value largely because of who owned them. In this case, some of Fliegelman's books once belonged to Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, George Washington, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster and the Empress of Russia. One of them carries the most famous American signature of all, John Hancock.
Bookseller Killed by Falling Books
Law Chi Wah, owner of the "Green Text Book Store" in Hong Kong was killed when a shelf of approximately 20 boxes of books collapsed on top of him. The tragic accident occurred at a small wharehouse. He was found two weeks later buried under the fallen books.Thanks to Oiwan Lam for the lead. She also alerts us that: "Douban (zh) has set up a special page for this book martyr. His friends and acquaintances set up a blog (zh) in memory of him and his book store."The links above are the Google translated versions, both are originally in Chinese.