It was this time of year in 1887 when we got our first taste. A Study of Scarlet, originally titled A Tangled Skein, was published by Ward Lock & Co. in Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887. A. Conan Doyle got £25 for the story and the world was introduced to Sherlock Holmes. He has since gone on to become the most famous literary character on the planet. And last month when the U.S. Supreme court refused to hear an appeal by the estate of Arthur Conan Doyle over licensing fees Sherlock Holmes has finally come to rest in the...
Book Patrol’s Favorite Books of 2014: Part 1
2014 was a banner year for the book. Not only has the 'death of the book' mantra been finally put to sleep but the e-book revolution has smoldered and electronic reading begins to settle into its place in the book universe. In 2014 the well-made book had a strong showing. One of the healthiest by-products of the electronic hysteria has been a greater attention to the production of the book and coupled with the plethora of offerings of books about books, about authors, and about all things bookish makes 2014 one for the books. The Thing The Book: A Monument to the Book as Object is...
The Thing The Book: A Monument to the Book as Object
Assembled by the brain trust of THE THING Quarterly's, Jonn Herschend & Will Rogan, The Thing The Book is a magical tribute to our favorite physical object, the printed book. More than 30 "creative visionaries" were asked to contribute with each being assigned a different traditional element of a book. From endpapers to ribbon bookmarks to page numbers, no part of the codex is left untouched. Here's a taste: Ed Ruscha got the bookplate; Jonathan Lethem got the footnotes; Miranda July got the erratta slip; Lawrence Weiner got the thumb tab; John Baldessari got the epigraph; Rick Moody got the endnotes. There are also plenty of essays and...
When books went bad: Charting the demise of the well made book
Graph accompanying Extracts from an investigation into the physical properties of books, as they are at present published, undertaken by the Society of Calligraphers The pamphlet was printed and published by noted American type designer, calligrapher, and book designer W.A. Dwiggins and L.B. Siegfried in 1919 and decried the then current state of book production. For the Society it was unanimous; "All Books of the Present Day are Badly Made" The reason were plenty "to wean mankind from the use of books. Automobiles, the motion-picture drama, professional athletics, the Saturday Evening Post" and the Society was resigned to the fact that...
Among His Books by Edith Nesbit
Though best known for her series The Railway Children E. Nesbit also wrote 21 collections of poetry as well as numerous adult novels and story collections. She was also a founding member of the Fabian Society.The poem 'Among His Books' appeared in the collection Leaves of Life which was published in 1888. It is the Poem of the Week at the Guardian where it is read closely by Carol Rumens who calls it "a wry, novelistic tale of a jilted bachelor."Enjoy.Among His BooksA silent room – grey with a dusty blightOf loneliness;A room with not enough of lightIts form to dress.Books enough though!...