“Happy Christmas to All ~ And to All a Good Night!”

[Image:  Postcard - illustration from
Thomas Nast Christmas Postcards. Dover, 1985.]

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas!

Exhibition Notes: “From Pen to Print” ~ Boston Public Library

From Pen to Print: The Handwriting Behind the Book  is an exhibition that features handwritten letters, notes, postcards, and other manuscripts that reveal personal, private, and otherwise veiled aspects of the production of books. Putting authors’ manuscript materials on display alongside their print books, the exhibition reveals the passions, obsessions, lofty dreams, and gritty realizations triggered by the writing and publishing process. These materials capture the relationships between 19th- and 20th-century American authors, editors, and readers, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Alice Cary, Rufus Griswold, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Anne Warren Weston, Sarah Grimke, Angelina Grimke, Charles Folsom, and Robert Frost. These writers’ correspondence and notes, paired with rare, early editions of the books discussed therein, bring many fascinating facets of composition and publishing to light, notably the working relationships between authors and their editors and the interactions between authors and their readers. The exhibit also offers such curiosities as digitally enlarged signatures and passages from autographs, cross-hatched letters, and a selection of author portraits.

This exhibition is the result of an innovative, ongoing partnership between UMass-Boston’s English M.A. Program and the Boston Public Library. UMass-Boston students take a semester-long course in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Room, engaging in hands-on research that generates a student-curated exhibit. This exhibition presents the results of a seminar that focused on the scholarly transcription and annotating of handwritten texts. Previous years’ topics have included books from colonial Boston, Shakespeare, public poetry, and the origins of the British novel.

The exhibition is free and open to the general public. It is located in the Rare Books Exhibition Room on the third floor of the Boston Public Library’s McKim Building, and is open M, T, W, F – 9am – 5pm; Th – 11am – 7pm. The exhibition runs through March 30, 2012.

[Image and text from the BPL Website]

Travel Thoughts ~ Visiting Libraries

If you still like to look at and hold books or visit libraries when you are traveling, here is a great article at msnbc.com about five spectacular libraries to visit on your worldly travels: “Leaf Through a Library on Your Next Trip,” by Harriet Baskas…

Stuttgart Central Library, Stuttgart, Germany

Happy Halloween!

 

[Raphael Tuck & Sons "Hallowe'en" Post Cards Series No. 150]

Happy Trick or Treatin’!

Happy Fourth of July!

Have a great holiday weekend one and all!

Happy Easter!

[Vintage postcard from my collection]

Hope your day is filled with Love, Books, and Chocolate!

Who’s Buying What & Where!

This is cool! – you can go into Book Depository and “Watch People Shop” – pop-ups on a world map show you who just bought what from anywhere in the world.  Take a few minutes to watch – delightful to see Buying and Reading!  Here is the link:  http://www.bookdepository.com/live

[Map image:  mapsofworld.com]

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Wishing you all a day filled with Love & Chocolate!

A Winter Reading List ~ Penguin Style

Wondering what to read for the next few months of winter [despite what Punxsutawney Phil has to say about it!] – Penguin has  just released their New 10 Essential Penguin Classics, the follow-up to last year’s 10 Essential Classics compiled by Penguin.  This year’s list is compiled by readers, a.k.a. you, the reading masses. 

Good to know that Pride & Prejudice made both lists:  number 1 by readers, number 3 by Penguin…. just sorry to see Steinbeck off the list – anyway, it is a great reading list, or re-read list – this latest winter storm is the best excuse to hunker down and enjoy a great read after a hefty snow shoveling adventure!

The Results are… 

1. Jane Austen.  Pride and Prejudice 
2. William Shakespeare. Hamlet 
3. Mark Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 
4. Homer. The Odysssey 
5. Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre 
6. William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet 
7. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations 
8. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women 
9. Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights 
10. Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales

Visit the Penguin site for an 8-minute video conversation by Laura and Dave…

A Jane Austen Day!

Visit my Jane Austen in Vermont blog for a post on Austen’ s birthday, today, December 16, 1775.

See also the latest Persuasions On-Line, Vol. 31, No 1, released today on the JASNA.org website.