New York Court Orders Return of $600,000 Book Stolen in WWII
A New York court ordered a book collector to return a 16th-century volume valued at $600,000 to a museum in Stuttgart, more than six decades after it was stolen by a U.S. army captain at the end of World War II.
Spoils of war return home
The rare book collector, Rod Shene, purchased the book in 2001 from a St. Louis dealer for $3,800. The dealer, Sheldon Margulis, had originally purchased it from the nephews of U.S. army captain John Doty when they where cleaning out their uncle’s estate, according to a 2007 report in St. Louis’s Riverfront Times.
Art looted by Nazis to be returned to owners
A government bill would soften a long-standing ban on museums selling items of national importance in their collections. The Holocaust (stolen art) Restitution Bill would allow curators to return paintings and other artefacts to families who did not wish them to remain in national collections.
World's Top Online Archive Of Mexican, Mexican American Recordings Launched
The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center announced today that the public can now access the Arhoolie Foundation's Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings - the largest online digital archive of its kind. The archive includes more than 41,000 recordings and is a treasure trove of historical Spanish-language songs dating from the early 1900s to the 1950s.
Vines: Lowe has come a long way
One big difference in archival material that [Alan] Lowe will deal with at the Bush library will be electronic records, he said. Bush has taken with him more than 100 terabytes of stored data, he said. (A terabyte is equivalent to one trillion bytes.) In contrast, Bill Clinton had three terabytes of stored data when he left the White House, Lowe said. "It's a different world of archiving and (figuring out) how to preserve and eventually make available," Lowe said.
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The future arrives gradually. Unless you’re Rip Van Winkle, you don’t even notice. But once in a while there’s a signpost that says, “Yup. You’re living in the future.” I saw one this morning, and it arrived courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.
MLK archives to reopen at Boston University
The Boston University center that holds a key collection of papers from Martin Luther King Jr. is reopening after being closed for two years. The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, which houses the collection, was closed while researchers created an electronic search system. The archiving project allows scholars to search by subject and name in BU's collection and Morehead College's Martin Luther King Jr. Collection.
‘To Sleep, Perchance to Dream’
“To Sleep, Perchance to Dream” is an entrancing exhibition of 17th-century manuscripts, images and other sleep-centric artifacts at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington. The included dream manuals and recipes for sleep potions reflect the era’s belief, Edward Rothstein writes in his review of the exhibition, that sleep “should not be thought of casually: it is mysterious, powerful, central, inextricably linked to the world.”
Yale’s Art Gallery Presents Bookish Picasso, Lady’s Man: Review
At the pinnacle of his profession, in 1935 when he was just 53, Pablo Picasso stopped painting. Instead, he wrote hundreds of poems in French and Spanish, with surrealist titles like “On the back of the immense slice of burning melon.” The poems, along with other artifacts of Picasso’s literary fixations, are part of a quietly stunning exhibition at the Yale University Art Gallery. Picasso didn’t just put words on paper; he drew them in elegant, open swirling letters, with his own invented abstract symbols dotting the page.
Are there any Mormon books left to collect?
But this doesn't mean there are not fun and historically important things to collect related to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On Friday, March 27, Crawley told a class of collectors and enthusiasts at BYU's A. Dean Larsen Book Collecting Conference about three collecting categories within reach of collectors with average means. "More importantly, (a collector) would actually make a significant contribution to the bibliographic record," Crawley said.
Nevermore: A Graphic Adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories (Sterling)
The collection Nevermore, which presents nine of Poe's stories and poems plus a biography, interpreted by nine different creative teams, is a welcome addition to the field. Some of the adaptations stick fairly close to their source, while others reimagine Poe's works in different historical and cultural contexts. So sorry, kids, but you can't use Nevermore to shirk your assigned reading. On the other hand, these adaptations are so vivid that they just might induce you to read originals for fun. And if you're already familiar with Poe, you can enjoy these fresh takes on some of his most popular tales.
Designer of Shadows and Light: Currier’s Poetry Finds a Format
That idea led to Charlotte’s “poem box”; a beautiful box containing poems framed like paintings and photos on tiny, matted cards, printed on rolled-up vellum, or found on small folded sheets. Each poem was designed to be pulled from the box, held, and read. One of Charlotte’s original poem boxes now resides in the Yale University Library Book Arts Center.
Book Review: Dream City
If you collect paper, old paper, paper so cheap it was meant to crumble in your desperate hands, the evolution of Halligan's bloodless obsession is all too familiar. There are good reasons why he dotes on the Big Little Books: They remind him of a time when his mother was alive, when their heroes -- Dick Tracy, the Lone Ranger and Buck Rogers -- not only guarded his universe but explained it to him.
Book Review: Books at center of murder tale
A day later, another woman is found in the same apartment, bludgeoned to death with a rare book beneath her body. The second victim’s employer, Minerva Hunt, says the book was stolen from her family. Minerva and her brother are sibling rivals trying to persuade their ailing father, a major benefactor of the New York Public Library, to change his will so they can benefit from his estate. Barr, who had been working for a private collector, once was employed by the library and worked on the Hunt collection.
'Batman' movie creator coming to Virginia Tech
I was a comic book nut. My mom swore I taught myself to read before I was 4 by comic books. When I was 8 years old, I became a Batman fanatic. He was my favorite superhero -- more than Superman or the Hulk or Spider-Man -- because this guy had no superpowers, and so I could identify with him more strongly. I think of my heart of hearts, when I was 8 years old I believed that if I worked out real hard and studied real hard and my dad bought me a cool car, I could be this guy. That was part of the whole thing. And then I collected comics avidly, and the collection would be about 60,000 right now, but I've donated 45,000 of my comic books to the Indiana University rare books library, the Lilly Library, so it's always been a part of my life.
Comic-book symposium slated for Lakeland Community College in Kirtland
Nationally known artists and local comic historians will highlight a full day of comic-book discussions at the Sixth Annual Lakeland Community College Comics Symposium on Saturday, April 4.
Rants! Adult Comics
Why are adult comics so taboo? I am not sure. For years adult book were always a big seller for me. I always carry the new stuff and stocked a good selection of back issues, but back issues are hard to come by. I have bought almost every collection offered to me there is never more than one or two issues of adult comics. I have scoured shows, stands, stores, and everywhere in between. Many dealers and stores do not like to carry adult comics. I just do not know why?
27th Annual Akron Antiquarian Book Fair, April 10-11
Jim Best, a Kent book dealer and another co-founder, recalled they
were in Frank [Klein]’s office on a cool, rainy evening in 1982 with a whiskey
bottle when the inspiration hit. These book lovers and vendors
savored printed works of all types. They created NOBS to stimulate
public interest with an annual book fair. The first was held in April
1983 at Schoolhouse Antiques with 16 vendors and modest success.
3D imaging reveals new grooves on old rock
As technology advances, so does research on – and evidence against – the Kensington Runestone. With each new test, there is more proof that the stone, unearthed in 1898 by Olof Ohman on his farm near Kensington, is authentic and not a hoax.
On the Road: Personalized gravestones
This pictorial panorama is only possible because local artist Jodi Wilken has turned her talented hands to carefully etching whatever the customer wants on polished blocks of black granite.
But contestants go far beyond baking cake as they become consumed with the idea of turning something to eat into something to read. Past books have been made out of tortillas, pastry, crackers, fruits and vegetables. "It is obviously a little absurd," said organizer Jeff Abshear, director of the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center. "It's related to April Fool's Day."
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