April 24, 2005

Ye Olde Linkes

A Variety of Ladies' Head Dresses, The New lady's magazine (1786). Click for larger image.

Ladies' headdresses at the Beinecke (via Jim Chevalier on C18-L).

Sharon posts a multitude of links on crime. She writes, "Has to come around sooner or later in an election campaign." Indeed. She has also scored a copy of Hanging not punishment enough (1701) and plans to make it available. Please do!

The Gutenberg Bible held at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin is available on CD-ROM. G. Zombie has one. Here it is online. There are a number of other copies online: two at the British Library, which one can compare; the Göttingen Gutenberg Bible (ca. 1454); and the Keio Gutenberg Bible. Bible links from the University of Calgary. See also The Oliver Cromwell Website and The Goodspeed New Testament Manuscript Collection (both via Plep).

Libraries as fingerprints at Historiological Notes.

The fantastic architectural drawings of Achilles G. Rizzoli (1896-1981) at Giornale Nuovo.

The Opium Wars (via Plep).

Britain's 18th-c canal system being restored (via Metafilter).

Click for larger image.

April 19, 2005

Online resources

DNA of Literature Project. The Paris Review is posting their interviews with authors, by decade. They are up to the 1970s, with the 80s due in June (via Maud, who posts highlights of the Joan Didion interview).

The Borgesian Cyclopaedia: "Being a Virtual Reference to the World of Jorge Luis Borges" (via Plep).

The Epic of Gilgamesh and Reading in the Islamic World (both via Mark Woods).

Publishers' Bindings Online, 1815 - 1930: "a digital collection of decorative bookbindings that strengthens a growing interest in this 'common' object - the book." Feast your eyes (via Bibi).

The Encyclopedia of Television "includes more than 1,000 original essays from more than 250 contributors and examines specific programs and people, historic moments and trends, major policy disputes and such topics as violence, tabloid television and the quiz show scandal. It also includes histories of major television networks as well as broadcasting systems around the world and is complemented by resource materials, photos and bibliographical information" (via Exclamation Mark).

Nest, that very funky shelter magazine "where high-style London and Paris interiors meet igloos and prison cells on equal terms," ceased publication last year but has plans to digitally archive its entire fabulous run (via things magazine, though one might be forgiven for missing it within a truly phenomenal link dump).

April 17, 2005

Big old books

14 Fatum Subscribat Eliza / Princess Elizabeth / A blank tablet. Click to enlarge.

Minerva Britanna, or A Garden of Heroical Deuises, furnished, and adorned with Emblemes and Impresa's of sundry natures, Newly devised, moralized, and published, By HENRY PEACHAM, Mr. of Artes. (London, 1612), the "sophisticated and intriguing" emblem book posted online as a student project — how wonderful! (via Bibi).

More emblems at Giornale Nuovo: Johann Theodor de Bry and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and a reprint of Théâtre d’Amour (1620).

Johnson's Dictionary: an appreciation by Verlyn Klinkenborg in the NY Times (free; reg. required). Heads up from Kevin Berland on C-18L. (See also John Carey's review, in the Times Online, of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary: The Extraordinary Story of the Book that Defined the World by Henry Hitchings, and Samuel Johnson's Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work that Defined the English Language edited by Jack Lynch.)

Seeing is Believing: 700 years of scientific and medical illustration: online exhibition based on 2000 exhibit at the NY Public Library (via Exclamation Mark).

Notes on the Book of the Revelation by John Nelson Darby (1876; 2nd ed.) (via Plep).

And, old but not so big: Masterpieces in Miniature: Italian MSS from the middle ages and Renaissance (also via Plep).

April 5, 2005

Poems from prose

Click for larger view.

This will be old news to some, but I have just discovered it: A Humument (link from compton crop circle): artist Tom Phillips makes — or samples, or "plunders" — poetry from a copy of W.H. Mallock's three-decker A Human Document (1892). Each and every one of 370 pages. Fascinating and beautiful, though it looks as though at least one book was harmed (Ray Davis tells us why we shouldn't cry). And here are a selection of critical essays and commentaries on the work, and the Tom Phillips website. Some quick history. Why Mallock? And you can buy it, for US$395 plus.

Ray Davis has made available Maddock's apparently better known The New Republic: according to Davis, "the work of a clever and vindictive student, a vicious mimic with little experience of life outside home or school." If I link it, that surely doesn't mean I actually have to read it, does it? I'd rather bask in Phillips's work:

Click for larger view.

[NB. They're not all yellow. I just like yellow.]

April 3, 2005

Those were the days

The Juvenile Miscellany (1826-1836): Cover for 1828. Click for larger image.

Marking papers, still fighting a cold, hovering over at The Valve checking for comments on my comments, wondering how this ALSC issue is going to play out, particularly as I am an unregenerate race-class-gender kinda gal — but, the show must go on!

"Quack, Quack, Quack: The Sellers of Nostrums in Prints, Posters, Ephemera & Books." Doesn't seem to be much online, but here are some links to photos in the media.(via BoingBoing).

Visit Giornale Nuovo for misteraitch's post about George Psalmanazar (1679?-1763):

a man of uncertain origins who came to claim that he was a native of the island of Formosa (i.e. Taiwan). So little was known about this island in Europe at the turn of the eighteenth century, that Psalmanazar got away with an elaborately fanciful back-story, one which he eventually expanded into a marvellously inventive book-length Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa, which was published in London in 1704.

Read the post and see the novel illustrations of "Formosans" and their putative language.

A Small Gallery of Magazine Covers: covers of nineteenth-century children's magazines (lots of great illustrations, including the one above); old magazine covers from Nostalgiaville; "Magazine Covers and Cover Lines: An Illustrated History" by Gerald Grow, Ph.D. (has some nice late 18thc and 19thc covers) (all via growabrain. Check the post for other magazine links).

The original handwritten MSS of Madame Bovary will be online next year (also via growabrain. Be sure to see his other book links).

The Persistent Puppet: Pinocchio's Heirs in Contemporary Fiction and Film by Rebecca West. A lovely article about the century-old Italian tale and its successors (via Plep).

Ramelli's Machines: original drawings of 16thc machines (via Plep).

Literary Landscapes:

The rise of the English novel during the 18th century coincided with a growing pride in the landscape of Britain. As novels portrayed society, so maps and topographical views delineated the grandeur of Nature and the man–made elegance of new urban streets and squares. Town and country often provide the travelling backdrop to novels and poems, sometimes exerting such a strong a presence they almost become players in the plot.

From the British Library (via Plep).

Alexander Cruden and his concordance of the Bible (at Metafilter).

Moliere in English: translations by Timothy Mooney, online (via Plep).

Volcanoes, slugs and comets: rare scientific books at UCL (via C18-L, via Sharon).

Two posts by Sharon from some days back, Women’s history and gender history: what and why? and Alice Clark, working women’s historian. Loaded with her usual astute analysis, and links.

And, I don't usually post about ancient history, but this caught my eye: Welcome to the Obsolete Technology Website (via Plep).

from Ramelli's Machines

March 17, 2005

Fun with words

Three ways to recycle those letters (and they do pile up):

Visit the Web of Letters (via Mirabilis),
spell words in letters made of book-covers (Warning! Resource-intensive. Via BoingBoing), or
spell with flickr photos (original source mislaid).

March 10, 2005

It really is fascinating

how much we use the internet to indulge our love of paper.

The British Library's Aspects of the Victorian Book: two sets of pages, one on production and one on publishing (vis Bibi)..

A thousand and one fore-edge paintings, with notes on the artists, bookbinders, publishers, and other men and women connected with the history of a curious art by Carl J. Weber, 1949. And lots and lots of other links; be sure to follow them (from MetaFilter).

Taking the tactile one step further: fabric postcards (via Divided Attention).

March 5, 2005

Beautiful books

Reliquary for the Ashes of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses Minsky 1993

NYPL Digital Gallery "provides access to over 275,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more." And, it's free (heads up from Mirabilis).

Iowa Book Works: hand made books, kits, workshops, journaling (Future of the Book via wood s lot).

The Book Art of Richard Minsky. Be sure to check out the gallery and see the American Decorated Publishers' Bindings, 1872-1929. See also Minsky's Bill of Rights edition, which includes William Gibson's Neuromancer.

Women in the Book Arts: A Selection.

The Edible Book Tea.

More etchings by the 17th/18th century Bolognese graphic artist Giuseppe Maria Mitelli at Giornale Nuovo.

In Flight: an exhibition of fifty-four works.

Letterpress Broadside: Absurd trial of a moth caught in flight, written by the artist in the style of 18th & 19th century dying speeches.

February 18, 2005

Beautiful books

Livres de Poètes (link from Mark Woods). Writes one of the artists, Lisa Kokin:

I’ve been making books since 1991. My primary source for art supplies is the flea market; I’m intrigued by other people’s detritus. At some point I started using other people’s cast off words. I would take parts of books and cut them up and juxtapose them with parts of other books, such as a sex manual with a hunting guide. Writing in this way, I came up with lots of surprises that I wouldn’t necessarily have come up with on my own.

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863–1944), The Sleeping Beauty and other Fairy Tales (1910) online, illustrated by Edmund Dulac; The Canterbury Tales online; and The World of Dante: "a hypermedia environment for the study of the Inferno" (links from Plep). Be sure to visit the map of hell.

Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (via Bibi).

Eerie Publications Cover Gallery (also from Bibi).

The Penguin Collectors' Society (from things magazine).

February 13, 2005

Reading

Matthew Kirschenbaum continues his series of posts on the Technologies of Writing seminar he is attending. He discusses Don Quixote, and how revolutions in technologies of writing paradoxically spur innovation in older technologies. And, more beautiful graphics.

The playful antiquarian points towards a special issue of The Lion and the Unicorn with the evocative title "Handmade Literacies." She particularly recommends "Why I Like to Set Type by Hand" by master printer Barbara Henry:

Henry's essay reminded me of all the reasons why I love hand-press books — the poetic vocabulary of printing, the meditative nature of the process, and the connection to the history of printed word.

Full texts are available through Project Muse, if your library subscribes (ours does), but the abstracts can be read. There appear to be a lot of studies of children's literature in the mix.

February 10, 2005

Beautiful books

Engravings from Italian graphic artist Giuseppe Maria Mitelli (1634-1718), at Giornale Nuovo.

Mark Woods reminds us that it was recently the birthday of Richard Burton, author of The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621).

The Cinderella Project, The Little Red Riding Hood Project and The Jack and the Beanstalk Project (links from The Secret Library). Also, the de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection (also from The Secret Library).

The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) — "one of the most puzzling, enigmatic and fascinating books ever conceived" — in an online facsimile (link from Rashomon).

Elizabethan English and Anna-Marie Ferguson's illustrations to Le Morte d'Arthur (links via Plep).

February 7, 2005

Our wonderful campus bookstore

is having a sale this week and I picked up a book I had been eyeing — fingering, even — for a little while now: Thomas Wharton's beautifully produced The Logogryph: a bibliography of imaginary books, compact in its handsome little slipcase. Apart from its sheer loveliness, the description reminded me of "The Library of Babel" by Jorge Luis Borges, a story I read ages ago and have never forgotten:

In a small town in the mountains, a young boy is given a suitcase filled with battered old books. So begins a lifelong pursuit of the elusive creature known as the logogryph. Describing imaginary books and alternate realities, Wharton explores the mysterious alchemy called reading, and along the way summons a cast of characters that includes duelling margin scribblers, a dislodged protagonist, and an unforgettable family that becomes one man's mythology.

"Duelling margin scribblers." I can hardly wait.

Just as importantly,

This book is a Smyth-sewn paperback with a jacket and full sleeve. The text was typeset by Andrew Steeves in Caslon types and printed on Rolland Zephyr Laid paper. The jacket was printed letterpress. The inside features illustrations by Wesley Bates.

And what serendipity to also find, at the same sale, a copy of In the Stacks: short stories about libraries and librarians edited by Michael Cart, which includes "The Library of Babel" as well as stories by Italo Calvino, Ursula LeGuin, Alice Munro, and a host of other luminaries.

Wharton wrote the marvellous — in both senses — Salamander, about an eighteenth-century printer who attempts to print an infinite book. A memorable, wonderful novel.

January 30, 2005

Print links

Matthew Kirschenbaum posts about the first meeting of a Folger Institute Technologies of Writing seminar taught by Peter Stallybrass and Roger Chartier,

and G Zombie is taking a bookmaking class. I envy them both.

Check out Secular Books, an exhibit of medieval manuscripts at the Getty (via Rashomon). And see their many other exhibits, most on not – so – secular books. Worth a look: Comic Art: The Paris Salon in Caricature, and The Making of a Medieval Book.

Misteraitch posts beautiful figurative alphabets.

January 24, 2005

Hildegard von Bingen

Slide show of her art on this attractive site (link from Catalogue Blog).

Bonus links:

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) - A discography. And another.
Patron Saints Index: Blessed Hildegard von Bingen.
Hildegard von Bingen lyrics in latin and english.
Hildegard of Bingen: Symphony of the Harmony of Heaven.
Abtei St. Hildegard.
Hildegard.org.
Hildegard von Bingen's healing chants.
Hildegard of Bingen: "a blazing mind longing to soar above the clouds."

And, a migraine tidbit:

According to this site:

It is now generally agreed that Hildegard suffered from migraine, and that her visions were a result of this condition. The way she describes her visions, the precursors, to visions, to debilitating aftereffects, point to classic symptoms of migraine sufferers. Although a number of visual hallucinations may occur, the more common ones described are the "scotomata" which often follow perceptions of phosphenes in the visual field. Scintillating scotomata are also associated with areas of total blindness in the visual field, something Hildegard might have been describing when she spoke of points of intense light, and also the "extinguished stars." Migraine attacks are usually followed by sickness, paralysis, blindness-all reported by Hildegard, and when they pass, by a period of rebound and feeling better than before, a euphoria also described by her. Also, writes Oliver Sachs

Among the strangest and most intense symptoms of migraine aura, and the most difficult of description and analysis, are the occurrences of feelings of sudden familiarity and certitude... or its opposite. Such states are experienced, momentarily and occasionally, by everyone; their occurrence in migraine auras is marked by their overwhelming intensity and relatively long duration.

It is a tribute to the remarkable spirit and the intellectual powers of this woman that she was able to turn a debilitating illness into the word of god, and create so much with it.

I have started a new blog category, "migraines," in honour of Hildegard.

January 17, 2005

Minimal posting

Mussolini, eat your heart out! (Click for larger image)

It was a snow day today, which means that I got much less done than if I'd gone in to the office, what with the Jinker Boy and all. He is climbing on my back as we speak.

Here is an interesting site I saw on Plep: The Iconography of Paradise Lost. Doré, Blake, and many others. I particularly liked the illustrations of John Martin (1789-1854), of whom I hadn't heard. I am in the middle of teaching Coleridge's "Rime" and am showing my students Doré's illustrations of the poem — with presentation software, eh? — and it's interesting to compare his work on the two different texts. I had thought, with Coleridge, that he had used too much Christian iconography for what is a pretty pantheistic poem — lots of angels, bright lights, etc. etc. — and here they are again where they more properly belong.

Also showing my class Willy Pogány's (1882-1955) illustrations of "Rime." Very fin de siècle.

January 14, 2005

It's payday

(Click for larger image)

and I just ordered this. For half price, my fellow dix-huitiémistes! I got very excited when I read that it was edited by William Smellie, but it was not the William Smellie I was thinking of.

Though they were both Scottish.

According to Robbie Burns,

SHREWD Willie Smellie to Crochallan came;
The old cock’d hat, the grey surtout the same;
His bristling beard just rising in its might,
’Twas four long nights and days to shaving night:
His uncomb’d grizzly locks, wild staring, thatch’d
A head for thought profound and clear, unmatch’d;
Yet tho’ his caustic wit was biting-rude,
His heart was warm, benevolent, and good.

Bonus links on the first Smellie:

William Smellie, A sett of anatomical tables, with explanations, and an abridgment, of the practice of midwifery (1754)
Of the Management of new-born Children, with the Diseases to which they are subject; A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery (1762)
Smellie lived for a time with William Hunter, author of Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata [The anatomy of the human gravid uterus exhibited in figures] (1774), and of whom I have written.
Collection of obstetrical and gynecological instruments in the Historical Library, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library.
Obstetric Literature and the Changing Character of Childbirth.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Collection.

And the second:

Major Topics of the Encycopedia Britannica, First Edition (1768–1771)
Buffon's Natural History: General and Particular translated by William Smellie (8 volumes, 1781).
A Romantic Natural History Bibliography
Elegy on the death of Smellie's son (facsimile from the wonderful The Word on the Street).
"Romanticism and the Triumph of Life Science: Prospects for Study."
The Scottish Printing Archival Trust. See particularly Links to printing historical resources. Also of interest: First Scottish Books.
The Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers.

January 12, 2005

Something old

The Scrap Album: Victorian Greeting Cards, Valentines, and Scraps (via Plep).

Check for the History Carnival tomorrow.

There is a thread at C18-L about monstrous births.

Watercolours of Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605) (featured at Giornale Nuovo).

Misteraitch has started a new weblog at which he is reproducing the essays of Isaac D’Israeli from his Curiosities of Literature, a wide-ranging work full of excellent advice, such as the following:

AMONG the Jesuits it was a standing rule of the order, that after an application to study for two hours, the mind of the student should be unbent by some relaxation, however trifling.

He also warns,

THE literary treasures of antiquity have suffered from the malice of men, as well as that of time. It is remarkable that conquerors, in the moment of victory, or in the unsparing devastation of their rage, have not been satisfied with destroying men, but have even carried their vengeance to books.

Though Misteraitch has rescued him from such a fate.

This is quite an inspiring project. I wonder if I have anything that is otherwise unavailable; one or two things, I think. Think how much we could add to the common pool if we all followed Misteraitch's lead.

December 9, 2004

Dream Anatomy

Dream Anatomy, an online exhibit by the U.S. National Library of Medicine about the history of anatomical imagery, from 1500 to the present:

The interior of our bodies is hidden to us. What happens beneath the skin is mysterious, fearful, amazing. In antiquity, the body's internal structure was the subject of speculation, fantasy, and some study, but there were few efforts to represent it in pictures. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century-and the cascade of print technologies that followed-helped to inspire a new spectacular science of anatomy, and new spectacular visions of the body. Anatomical imagery proliferated, detailed and informative but also whimsical, surreal, beautiful, and grotesque — a dream anatomy that reveals as much about the outer world as it does the inner self.

Over the centuries anatomy has become a visual vocabulary of realism. We regard the anatomical body as our inner reality, a medium through which we imagine society, culture and the human condition.

Here is the gallery.

(Via Boing Boing).

November 29, 2004

More groovy covers

Note the blurb: "He defied the 25th century with a woman who was NOT HIS WIFE—and a WIFE who was NOT A WOMAN." Though I'd bet it's not as promising as it sounds. Philip Jose Farmer was an interesting figure: a bone fide sf writer, but a big name in early sf erotica, too.

Images from Sleaze Science Fiction Covers, part of Vintage Paperbacks & Digests. What a blast from the past! I recognized several of the Frank Frazetta covers because my dad was a real Conan fan (link from Boing Boing).

An alternative to the Goodwill

Check out A Bibliophile's Bedroom, an exhibition at the Boston Public Library (via The Little Professor, whose house probably already looks like this).

November 16, 2004

More pulpy goodness

Followup on a recent post: here is Pulp Fiction Paperback Covers: "Warning...you are entering a politically-incorrect zone...if this bothers you, TURN BACK NOW!" (link from Plep). Lots of sf.

November 15, 2004

This caught my eye

for some reason:

Michael's Sketchy & Sci-Fi Book Covers (link from Plep).

November 7, 2004

Beautiful books

Have you seen the British Libraries Turning the Pages, digitalized books that you can "read" by, well, turning the pages? They have Jane Austen's History of England (thanks, Catalogue Blog) and Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal, George III's copy, no less.

And this rather shockingly titled book, Goodbye Gutenberg, does indeed look beautiful (link via Matt Kirschenbaum, apparently no relation). Perhaps I will ask for it for the holidays, along with this, which was supposed to be on sale — according to a poster to C18-L — but no longer seems to be.

Rare Books Exhibition — The Restoration 1660-1700 (via Plep).

Albrecht Dürer woodcuts and engravings (via Plep).

October 27, 2004

Follow-ups

Via Boing Boing: Pitcairn men accused of rape convicted but not yet serving time (registration required).

If any former sf students are reading this, get out your wallets. RE/Search will publish JG Ballard Quotes: Does The Future Have A Future? (also via Boing Boing).

Map of Dante's Inferno (via Plep).

Real Women Project: bronze sculptures the same size as Barbie but a lot more expensive (via Plep).

October 26, 2004

Book exhibits

Plep highlights a series of wonderful virtual exhibits on the Monash University Library site (Australia): sf magazines and comics, yellowbacks (popular books from the second half of the 19th century, simply bound in boards, with highly-coloured graphics on the covers), and English Literature to 1800, including Poems by the most deservedly admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the matchless Orinda: to which is added Monsieur Corneille's Pompey & Horace, tragedies, with several other translations out of French. (London : Printed by J.M. for H. Herringman, at the sign of the Blew Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange, 1667).

October 21, 2004

Telluris Theoria Sacra

Giornale Nuovo has another fabulous post, this one about 18thc geologist Thomas Burnet (1635-1715) and his Telluris Theoria Sacra (The Sacred Theory of the Earth), according to Misteraitch "the most popular book on geological matters in 18th-century England, its sonorous prose combining natural philosophy, scriptural exegesis and outright speculation."

October 19, 2004

Illustrating Dante

Illustrations of Dante's Divine Comedy by Dore, Blake and Botticelli (via Plep).

October 17, 2004

Seeing texts

The people at TextArc have made it possible to visualize the reading of a text:

A TextArc is a visual represention of a text—the entire text (twice!) on a single page. A funny combination of an index, concordance, and summary; it uses the viewer's eye to help uncover meaning.

One of their featured examples is Alice in Wonderland. Watching is hypnotic, though when I tried to turn the sound on, Safari hung up. I tried it with Gilman's Herland, with not much better luck (the site is linked to the Project Gutenberg library). Not for the RAM-challenged, or even the merely-RAM-comfortable. But pretty cool. Link from Thinking with my fingers.

October 15, 2004

Dust-free archives

Bookninja posts a link that might interest any archivists out there (and you know who you are): the British Library is planning to archive the email "of the nation's top authors and scientists," though there is the ongoing problem of technological obsolescence. The BL is appealing to the general public for access to old computers; maybe I should tell them about those two Performas in the basement.

Bookbindings at the the University of Glasgow (link from Plep) and the British Library.

Women's Travel Writing, 1830–1930 (also from Plep).

Amanda writes, "There really is an archive for everything" as she points towards the Deliberately Concealed Garments Project: Clothing found hidden in buildings: "A research project based at the Textile Conservation Centre, University of Southampton exploring instances of and the practice of concealing garments in the fabric of buildings." This is so cool! Link from Household Opera.

August 27, 2004

Go ask Alice

Lauren's Alice in Wonderland Page: collection of illustrations (from Bookninja [08/23/04]).

Dakota Fanning might be in new Alice film from Spielberg (from Stephany at Maud's).

Alice is big in Japan.

Alice for sale.

The Lewis Carroll Society.

Lewis Carroll Academic Information.

More Alice links.

Pop-up Alice.

Flash Alice (from Boing Boing).

Alice in Wonderland Theme Park.

Alice photo-montage.

Alice In Wonderland and the Shroud of Turin.

Go to Wonderland yourself or send a loved one.

And what would life be without Quizilla? Which Alice in Wonderland Character are you? (link from Sharon. Who is of course also the Chesire Cat.)

[I misplaced a link to a site featuring wierd and creepy photos of a Japanese Alice and her cohorts in a stiff, formal garden setting; it was linked recently on someone's blog. I'd love for anyone who recalls it to leave a comment. Even if the comment begins, "That what 'Add Bookmark' is for, bubblebrain!"]

Update (30/8/04): Thanks to Vernica for the elusive creepy Alice link: Alice in Wonderland staged by Japanese cosplayers (link from Boing Boing). And check out her The Playful Antiquarian for more examples of "Carroll-mania."

Illustrations

Seeing Is Believing: 700 years of scientific and medical illustration: an exhibition from the New York Public Library (2000). Nice site which allows you to look at some of the illustrations in detail (from Mirabilis).

Drolleries and two posts about Andrea Mantegnaat Giornale Nuovo.

August 21, 2004

Japanese children's art

Boing Boing links to Japanese children's books from 1920s: beautiful, modern paintings, stylish and haunting. Xeni Jardin comments thoughtfully about the experience of looking at this site, aware of the historical events through which the children who originally read these books lived. Yes. And more generally, looking at someone's else nostalgia is an odd, poignant thing in itself.

July 1, 2004

Some beautiful things

[Click illustration for larger view]

Wonderbound: centuries-old natural history books at the Smithsonian (via Plep).

A Case of Curiousities: the artist writes, "Taxidermy and assemblage inspired by 18th & 19th century French, German and Russian fairy tales, the curiosity cabinets (_wunderkammer_) of the 16th-19th centurys, Victorian grotesque taxidermy, Surrealism and a touch of the circus sideshow" (via Plep).

Jacob Cats' emblem-book, Proteus Ofte Minne-Beelden Verandert In Sinne-Beelden (1627) (at Giornale Nuovo).

Spring Surprises: Popular, Literary and Scientific Pop-up Books (via Plep).

Henry Purcell 1659-1695, "The Glory of the Temple and the Stage." With sound (via Plep).

Hamster Opera (via Mirabilis).

[Click illustration for full view]

June 22, 2004

Caxon, Shakespeare, and Children's lit.

Priceless Caxton book goes on show for first time. Book written by Benedictine monk in 1360 and printed by William Caxton in 1482 (via Mirabilis).

William Caxton stamps commemorating the 500th anniversary of printing in 1976.

Printing in England from William Caxton to Christopher Barker — An Exhibition: University of Glasgow, November 1976 — April 1977.

Caxton's Chaucer: compare the 1476 and 1483 editions held in the British Library.

18th and 19th Century Shakespearean Illustrations (via Plep).

Shakespeare Illustrated "explores nineteenth-century paintings, criticism and productions of Shakespeare's plays and their influences on one another."

How Shakespeare Prepared Manuscripts.

Intermingling illustration and text: hyper-illuminated criticism of Shakespeare's Works.

Alice and Beyond: English Children's Books (via Plep).

The Children's Literature Web Guide.

Authors & Illustrators on the Web.

Fairrosa Cyber Library of Children's Literature.

June 15, 2004

Some bookish stuff

wood s lot has some links about the passing of Canadian publishing legend Jack McClelland (here's the CBC story).

More on comics, something practical this time: From James Sime: "Listen up, Mr. and Mrs. Comic Industry Professional, your comic book covers are killing your books" (via Bookslut).

Making rejection public: Everyone Who's Anyone, Gerard Jones' site, and Deb Central, a new site from Deb Schwarz, both chock full of rejection letters and cheeky responses (via MoorishGirl). These two are clearly on a roll.

The Official Eric Carle Web Site (via Plep).

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

4000 Years of Miniature Books (also via Plep).

AbeCedarium: An Exhibit of Alphabet Books (via Plep).

OneZeroZero: A Virtual Library of English Canadian Small Press and Atlantic-Poetry Pages (via wood s lot).

June 14, 2004

Spare the rod

Years ago I visited the Osborne Collection, when it was still on University Ave., with my 18thc women writers graduate seminar. I won't soon forget the story of the little girl who wanted the pretty coloured vase instead of sensible shoes: her mother bought her the vase, which turned out to be plain glass filled with coloured water, and she wore her too-small shoes, full of holes, all through that winter. Bet she learnt her lesson. Surprised Gorey missed it.

moleskinerie links to a wonderful website, Victorian Children's Activities: a digital collection of pieces from the Osborne Collection that showcases pop-ups, theatres, and other movable books.

June 11, 2004

Linked links

Three book links:

Altered Books: the site of the International Society of Altered Book Artists (via moleskinerie).

Pop-up and Movable Books, part of the University of Delaware Library's "world of the child" collection (via Plep).

Fancy limited edition of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver , list price $ 200.00. But as they say at the Literary Salon, while it's tempting, think of all the not-so-fancy books you could buy with that money!

Segue into SF links:

China Miéville's next novel, Iron Council, due out July 27, takes us, according to the editors, "back to the decadent squalor of New Crobuzon—this time, decades later." (Thanks to The Agony Column). Miéville is also one of the authors represented in the anthology Cities: The Very Best of Fantasy Comes to Town, out this past April.

The Academic Buffy Bibliography (via wood s lot).

Segue into dead languages:

"Yoda speaks like Anglo-Saxon" (courtesy of Mirabilis).

Blogging in Latin (via Household Opera).

(Clever how I did that, wasn't it?)

May 18, 2004

The snack that smiles back, and other book news

Three posts on politics and literature at The Reading Experience.

Collecting bizarre books (via Mirabilis).

From Giornale Nuovo: a suit of books (playing cards with images of books rather than hearts or spades) by Jost Amma, published in 1588.

Pepperidge Farm is suing St. Martin's over the cover of Tom Perrotta's new novel, Little Children, which features two goldfish crackers (The Literary Salon).

The Little Prince tattoo (from Maud).

Nobel prize laureate Wole Soyinka tear-gassed and arrested (via Bookslut and The Literary Salon).

April 19, 2004

Reversing vandalism

For a year, an unknown person mutilated copies of books on GLBTQ topics¹ in the San Francisco Public Library and left them with little typewritten advertisements for a Bible radio station inside. He was finally caught, but what to do with the books? Click here to see "Reversing Vandalism," an amazing collection by various artists, professional and amateur, made from the damaged books.

From Maud, via Bookninja.

"For Duf" by Dacey Hunter, courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library.
[The glass highlights the words, "What were you afraid we would learn?"]

¹ Okay, I'm being snotty, quoting this. So be it: "Though the vandal had clearly relied on the library catalog to seek out books on gay issues, he evidently did not understand the search results: Among the books destroyed were works by author Gay Talese and those concerning the Enola Gay, the famous World War II warplane..."

April 17, 2004

English Pattern Books

Plep points towards eighteenth-century English pattern books at the Met. The context is American but the books are British.

April 3, 2004

Food for thought [wince!]

It's time for Books2Eat 2004, The Fifth International Edible Book Festival. At least fourteen countries are participating, with 45 separate events (two thirds of them in the U.S.). The Literary Salon seems a little embarrassed to even report it, but gamely suggests that the event might "get some of the participants thinking about the literary works as well." I think it is a populist form of book art — at times a little kitschy — but still a paean to the resonance of the book as a cultural icon. Some of the pieces celebrate the book as material object,

while others are more conceptual, or provide critical commentary:

Ancient Wisdom (detail) by Linda Aiello. Discovered 6 April 3002. Since a "book" hasn't been made in nearly 500 years, this is a monumental find. Many computer-related illnesses have transpired since the end of Solid Waste Act, 2506.

Of course, some are just dreadful puns. But that's fun too. In all cases, the artists are affirming the importance of the book, and reinforcing ideas of community and shared culture.

And some of the pieces are even low carb.

March 31, 2004

I love engravings,

and so does the author of the beautiful Giornale Nuovo (link from Long story; short pier).

March 24, 2004

Darker Bury St Edmunds

Plep links to the Manor House Museum in Bury St Edmunds, home to a fine collection of interest to the student of horology (clocks, to the rest of us), as well as some stunning costumes and textiles. But Bury St Edmunds is also the site of Moyse's Hall Museum, where can be found macabre artifacts to do with the notorious Red Barn murders in 1827.

I am planning a trip this summer, and I know where I will go first.

Addendum (3/4/04): This is also categorized under the new category of "book art" because the museum holds a book bound in murderer William Corder's skin.

Breathe deeply

and then sneeze. Some pretty pictures of illustrated MSS and books at wood s lot: be sure to check out the memento mori.

February 13, 2004

Booklovers alert

Via the fascinating mirabilis.ca: the world's largest book: $10,000, 133 lbs. But, it has pictures.

February 6, 2004

A couple of book links

Two links via Maud Newton:

Pop-up and Movable Books from the University of North Texas: A collection of fabulous old books.

(Do you like pop-up books? I do, and Little Bump loves them. And he is finally at an age when he can restrain himself from ripping them to shreds. He particularly loves Jan Pieñkowski's Monster Pops. Last summer I bought him a copy of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz illustrated by Robert Sabuda, but that's still on the high shelf.

Second link: Cory Doctorow's Eastern Standard Tribe is out, both on paper and electronically. This is the second novel Doctorow has released both ways; his first, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003) is also available on-line and from fine bookstores everywhere. Doctorow writes,

[H]ere is the book as a non-physical artifact. A file. A bunch of text, slithery bits that can cross the world in an instant, using the Internet, a tool designed to copy things very quickly from one place to another; and using personal computers, tools designed to slice, dice and rearrange collections of bits. These tools demand that their users copy and slice and dice — rip, mix and burn! — and that's what I'm hoping you will do with this.

What does this mean, though, alongside the safety of the fixed book version? Though I suppose one could slice and dice that as well.

January 31, 2004

Book art

Someone sent me an invitation to a show by an artist called Doug Beube, called "Palimpsest" (in Toronto, next week, so I guess I won't be going). But if the name hadn't caught my attention, the photograph would have: an amazing sculpture called "Twisted Meanings" made by distorting a Webster's Dictionary into an almost glacial formation. I went on Google to see if I could find a digital photo of the piece. No luck, but I did find other amazing images of pieces by Beube:

“Twisted Disaster," 2002, book

“Borough (Brooklyn, New York, white and yellow page sold together),” 2002, found books/wood stands, 9 x 9 x 7”

Why is the idea of the book as compelling as the book itself? I suppose because the image of a book, or a real, but unread book, has infinite potential. It could be that book: the one you want to live in or the one that changes the way you look at where you do live. And then there is the book itself, the material object. A well made book is art, no-one can deny, but even mass-produced pocketbooks have that evocative pulpy-ink smell, that promise, when you first open them.

It may seem almost perverse to be sitting here at my keyboard fetishizing books. Certainly there is much generalized anxiety floating out there about the demise of the book/reading/culture, etc. During my last job interview (the successful one), while expounding upon "my research," I passed around a little 18thc chapbook in a cellophane slipcase. I said, as it went from hand to hand, “Go ahead, slip your finger in and touch it.” One member of the committee looked horrified, as if I had offered sexual favours to all and sundry right there against the lectern, but others chuckled and who knows? one or two fingers may have slid against that old rag paper. As long as we still have the impulse to touch (and face it, until storage media becomes more reliable for the long term), books are safe. Listen to Umberto Eco.

Here is a piece about Beube from the Brooklyn Artists Alliance, and an interview in Umbrella.

Beube is one of a number of book artists (here, here, and here).