The family bible of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, has made its way to market.The book contains the only know full Joseph Smith family tree, which includes a seventh son who died at birth and was never named. The book was was sold by the family in 1979 and has been in private hands since.The only other known copy of a Joseph Smith family bible, one belonging his brother Hyrum, is in the special collections of Brigham Young University.The book is being offered by Ken Sanders Rare Books of Salt City who...
Australian Library’s Exhibit Is Unbearably Cute
Blinky Bill Made His Debut In 1933, And Has Been The Best Pal Of Australian Kids Ever Since.Wall, Dorothy, 1894-1942. Blinky Bill : the quaint little Australian / story and decorations by Dorothy Wall. (Sydney : Angus & Robertson, 1940).(Image Courtesy Of Monash University Library.)For American kids, it's Curious George or The Cat In The Hat. For English kids it's Peter Rabbit. But for Australian kids the most beloved mischief-maker in children's literature is a koala named Blinky Bill. A new exhibit at Australia's Monash University Library highlights the boy-like bear (okay, koala's aren't really bears but you get the...
Treasure Discovered at Rare Book Round-Up
The L.A. Times Festival of Books yielded a bonanza for the woman who came to the Southern California Chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America’s Rare Book Round-Up booth for a free appraisal.A book the woman bought for a dollar at a garage sale was worth $6,000. Suffice it to say, she plotzed when informed.A metaphysical ambulance is routinely parked nearby to handle such situations. Treated for acute swoon, she recovered fully and danced a jig all the way home.The volume she presented for appraisal was A Western Trip by Carl E. Schmidt (1904). A lavishly produced book bound...
At Yale University’s Library Recycling Is The Law
A Page From: The Passion of Saint Alexander, Pope and Martyr, (Passio Sancti Alexandri martyris papae) circa 975-1075. Reused To Strengthen The Cover Of Flos testamnetorum By Rolandinus, de Passageriis, Published In Padua In 1482. (Images Courtesy Of The Lillian Goldman Law Library Rare Book Collection, Yale University.)The last weekend of April 2010 saw celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Citizens of the world were urged to "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," to help save our imperiled planet. An exhibit at the Yale University's Lillian Goldman Law Library proves that, as fine an idea as this is, it is hardly...
Collecting Nurse Jackie’s Patron Saint: The Urtext of Memoirs
Suddenly, It's St. Augustine!That exclamation is neither a message from the Florida Board of Tourism nor the title of a wacky, new sit-com about a talking St. Bernard with identity issues.It is, rather, notice that recently, within the space of three days, I was struck by a cluster of references to the man who wrote the first memoir extant, the father of all autobiographies, St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. First, I'm skimming through The Erotic Revolution by Lawrence Lipton (1965), "An Affirmative View of the New Morality," i.e. the sexual revolution of the Sixties, and my eye falls upon a single...