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...
2010 New York Antiquarian Book Fair or Sunny?
The 2010 New York Antiquarian Book Fair previews this Thursday evening at the Park Avenue Armory, officially opens on Friday and continues through Sunday, April 11, 2010.On Friday, Nicholas Basbanes, the rare book world's Boswell, will sign copies of his new book, About the Author: Inside the Creative Process. On Saturday, Stuart Lutz will sign copies of his book, The Last Leaf: Voices of History's Last-Known Survivors.Sponsored by the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), this year the fair debuts a new feature, New York Book Fair Search Engine, which allows fair-goers to see what books dealers will be bringing...