A quick look at the stories being discussed in book-collecting circles this week.
The Highlights:
ABAA-Members interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning
Starting off with the news that's closest to home, ABAA-members George Koppelman and Daniel Wechsler were featured on CBS Sunday Morning recently. The booksellers' belief is that they may have identified Shakespeare's personal copy of John Baret’s Alvearie; or Quadruple Dictionarie, and they have published a book, Shakespeare's Beehive, detailing their exhaustive investigation.
Possible Napoleonic-War Journal Found in Second Hand Bookshop
A customer rummaging through an old store cupboard in an Australian second-hand book shop unearthed a hand-written diary that appears to have been kept by a British Army officer serving under the Duke of Wellington between 1810 and 1812. Time to give a second glance to those out-or-reach corners in our local used bookstores, perhaps?
New Fine Press Launched
Wired magazne trotted out the tired "Print is Dead" line to frame a story about a former dot-com techie turned fine-press publisher who launched his new venture with a deluxe edition of Edwin A. Abbott's classic Flatland. Collectors already know print isn't dead, but the news of a new publisher with the goal of creative high-quality, well designed books as beautiful objects in their own right is always encouraging.
Collecting the Easter Rising
The world has been saturated with coverage of the 100th anniversary of Ireland's Easter Rising in 1916 for the past weeks. But, the only truly must-read piece as far as book collectors are concerned is Alexander Akin's article on rare pamphlets, newspapers, and books from rising itself, published in these fair (albeit virtual) pages.
Lost Harper Lee Article
One could be forgiven for thinking that every week brings news of another lost piece of writing by Harper Lee, but before you succumb to cynicism, this time it isn't the Lee estate claiming to have found a new book. Harper Lee's acclaimed biographer Charles J. Shields has finally uncovered a magazine article that Lee published on the infamous Clutter Murders, made famous by her friend Truman Capote in In Cold Blood, and then forgotten about except for one reference.
2016 Pulitzer Prizes
To absolutely nobody's surprise, Hamilton: An American Musical won the Pulitzer for best drama. We have collected some highlights from the offerings of ABAA members by and related to Alexander Hamilton...
Other interesting tid-bits:
More Than You Ever Knew About Food in Shakespeare...
Shepard Fairey Designs New Library Cards for LA Library System...
A Melville Marginalia Mystery...
Looking for Alaska Challenged...