This Just In: Summer Beach Reading Edition

Posted on June 27, 2013 by

The following miscellany of recent book acquisitions is intended, not for those basking and basting on a sandy beach, but for those who prefer the cool, calm, and comfortable surroundings of the Special Collections reading room under Grounds. Take a break from tanning and pay us a summer visit!

Plate 13 in William M. Woollett, Old homes made new: being a collection of plans … illustrating the alteration and remodelling of several suburban residences (New York: A. J. Bicknell & Co., 1878).

A new addition to our extensive architecture holdings reminds us that architecture can be a process of renovation as well as creation. In Old homes made new (New York: A. J. Bicknell, 1878), Albany, N.Y. architect William M. Woollett offers remodeling advice to American homeowners. Stuck with a New England saltbox, Federal mansion, Greek Revival temple, or Gothic Revival embarrassment? Through before-and-after floor plans and exterior views, Woollett shows how to update one’s ancestral family home to the then-fashionable Queen Anne style. The work closes with exterior photographs of a mid-18^th-century home in Ridgefield, Conn. that Woollett had transformed into a Victorian showpiece. Architectural historians, historic preservationists, and others charged with reverse-engineering historic structures may find Woollett’s approach illuminating.

When money is THE object: one way to select a spouse in the Antebellum South, as explicated in S. S. Hall, The bliss of marriage: or, How to get a rich wife. (New Orleans: J. B. Steel, 1858)

But the nest must be built before it can be renovated. Populating that nest is the subject of S. S. Hall’s rare and unusual Bliss of marriage: or, How to get a rich wife (New Orleans: J. B. Steel, 1858). In some respects similar to the many courtship guides published in Antebellum America, Hall’s work is in other ways different in claiming to be written for a Southern audience. A New Orleans attorney (and not the prolific dime novel writer “Buckskin Sam” Hall, as often claimed), Hall based this work on three years’ “personal experience and general observation.” After offering advice such as “Marry no woman who sleeps till breakfast,” Hall devotes most of the book to the art of marrying well, and well-to-do. At the end is a 15-page appendix of nearly 400 wealthy “unmarried young ladies and gentlemen”—the former identified only by initials, the latter by full name—residing in various Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kentucky towns, with their estimated net worth. One wonders how successfully Hall followed his own advice.

Title page to Wänskaps och handels tractat emellan Hans Maj:t konungen af Swerige och the Förente staterne i Norra America … = Traité d’amitié et de commerce entre Sa Majesté le roi de Suède et les Etats-unis de l’Amérique septentrionale … (Stockholm: Kongl. Tryckeriet, 1785)

To the McGregor Library of American History we have added the rare Swedish printing (Stockholm, 1785) of the landmark 1783 Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Sweden and the United States. In September 1782, with the American Revolution drawing to a close, Congress empowered John Adams, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and Benjamin Franklin to negotiate peace with Britain. At the same time Franklin was appointed minister to Sweden, and he quickly entered into discussions with his Swedish counterpart. A treaty was concluded on April 3, 1783, and ratified by both countries later that year. Sweden thus became the first neutral country to officially recognize the United States. The treaty’s text is printed in parallel columns in Swedish and French, with Congress’s act of ratification appended in English.

A detail from one of the massive (53 x 36 cm.) engraved plates in André François Roland, Le grand art d’ecrire. (Paris: Chez Esnauts et Rapilly, [between 1777 and 1791]

Summer is no time to dredge up dreary memories of primary school penmanship class, but we can’t resist pointing out that the history of handwriting and calligraphy are strongly represented in Special Collections. At a recent auction we were able to acquire several very rare 18^th-century French, Italian, and German penmanship manuals, thereby adding significant depth to our holdings. Penmanship instruction was long the province of writing masters, some of whom published manuals for their students’ use. Typically these consisted of engraved plates reproducing examples of the master’s penmanship. Some plates would demonstrate how to hold the quill pen and execute the basic strokes, others would illustrate the various hands, and still others would advertise the master’s expertise, particularly his command of hand in which texts and even elaborate images were drawn without once lifting the pen from paper. These writing books were often published on demand, with students customizing their copies by selecting from among the available engraved plates, hence copies are rare and tend to vary in content. Shown here is a detail from Le grande art d’ecrire, which features the work of André François Roland, a Parisian writing master active in the mid-18^th century. The U.Va. copy, in its original blue paper wrappers, contains 31 plates and was issued sometime between 1777 and 1791. Other copies are known issued as early as 1758. This work is extremely unusual for its large format, with plates measuring 53 x 36 cm.

[Harvey Newcomb], The “Negro pew”: being an inquiry concerning the propriety of distinctions in the House of God, on account of color. (Boston: Isaac Knapp, 1837)

Another spring auction added several anti-slavery and abolitionist works to Special Collections, including a fine copy in its original publisher’s binding with printed cover label of Harvey Newcomb’s The “Negro pew”: being an inquiry concerning the propriety of distinctions in the House of God, on account of color. Published in Boston in 1837, Newcomb’s book advanced the abolitionist movement a step further by confronting Northern prejudice against African Americans. Taking as his starting point the common practice of restricting where blacks could sit in church, Newcomb marshals many arguments to support his thesis “that every man is entitled to be esteemed and treated according to his social, moral, and intellectual worth.”

P. T. Barnum (er, Petite Bunkum) and General Tom Thumb make the acquaintance of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, in The autobiography of Petite Bunkum, the showman. (New York: P. F. Harris, 1855)

The great American showman P. T. Barnum makes innumerable cameo appearances under Grounds in Special Collections’ rich holdings relating to 19^th-century American literature and culture, hence we were happy to acquire a rare Barnum parody. In 1855, just before financial reversals added further notoriety to his name, Barnum published a best-selling autobiography “written by himself.” The book was quickly and affectionately parodied in The autobiography of Petite Bunkum, the showman (New York: P. F. Harris, 1855), also (and anonymously) “written by himself.” “In these pages I have adhered to the truth as closely as might suit my purpose,” Bunkum allows, before relating his comical rise to fame and fortune. Of the supporting characters, only General Tom Thumb retains his full name. Others receive a modest fig leaf—Joyce Heath (for Joyce Heth, billed as George Washington’s 160-year-old nurse), Jenny [Lind] the Swedish Nightingale, the Fudge Mermaid, the Whiskered Woman—and all are caricatured in image as well as in word.

It’s 5 p.m. and we must close for the day, but perhaps there’s still time for the beach?

Class Notes from Rare Book School: A Special Collections Edition

Posted on June 22, 2013 by

You know it is officially summer when Rare Book School (RBS) begins at the University of Virginia. RBS offers week-long, intensive courses on manuscript, printed, and born-digital materials. Although a completely independent institute, RBS shares a close relationship with the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. In fact, its director, Michael Suarez, is honorary curator of the Special Collections Library (SC). Nicole Bouché, director of Special Collections, describes the relationship:

The relationship between SC and the RBS is unique: it allows a convergence of an outstanding Special Collections and a world-class school for the study of the history of the book, combining forces and resources for an intensive summer of instruction. The Rare Book School program would not be possible without the strength of our collections, and we benefit annually from the expertise that an international faculty brings to the study of the rare books, manuscripts and other resources held by the Small Special Collections Library.

RBS is outfitted with its own well-used teaching collections, and some of its faculty also arrange sessions in the Special Collections Library, using our materials. RBS also organizes several public lectures of “bookish” matters, coinciding with their summer sessions. All of this makes for an engaging and lively environment around the learning about books. Two Special Collections and RBS staff pull and organize 800 books over a five week period for approximately 25 classes. It is a rapid-paced endeavor that takes lots of focus since some of the classes use the same materials, sometimes in the same week.

Here is a little behind the scenes look at what goes on to make the magic happen!

Week one slips for each Special Collections book pulled for Rare Book School.

First week slips for each Special Collections book pulled for Rare Book School (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Emily Cone-Miller pulls the books for each RBS class and organizes them in the stacks. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

George Riser checks out Special Collections books for RBS.(Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

George Riser checks out books for each RBS class that visits Special Collections.(Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Books are ready for an RBS class and include titles, such as the Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, the Kelmscott Chaucer, and the Doves Press Bible.

The books are ready for an RBS class. This book truck include titles, such as Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary, the Kelmscott Chaucer, and the Doves Press Bible. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

All of this preparation results in lots of opportunities for RBS students to immerse themselves in and learn about the many facets of rare books and book history made possible by the rich holdings of Special Collections. The first week of classes with topics as varied as teaching the history of the book, scholarly editing, and 19th- and 20th-Century typography, included 15 sessions using our collections materials.

Here are some of the classes in action!

Martin Antonetti discusses a medieval bible with his The Printed Book in the West to 1800 class. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

New RBS faculty John Kristensen and Katherine M. Ruffin give background information on a book. Their class The History of c19 & c20 Typography & Printing made its debut the first week of RBS this summer. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Matthew Kirschenbaum and Naomi Nelson brought their Born-Digital Materials: Theory and Practice to Special Collections to see one book. The book, featured here, (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

Matthew Kirschenbaum and Naomi Nelson brought their Born-Digital Materials: Theory and Practice to Special Collections to see one book, Notebook by Annesas Appel. According to our catalog record the book “is a project based on mapping the inside of a notebook [computer].” Ours is number 7 of a limited edition. (N7443.4 .A645 N6 2009. Associates Endowment Fund, 2012/2013. Photograph by Petrina Jackson.)

This summer, RBS runs through the last week of July, including notable faculty such as our very own Curator and Blogger David Whitesell and Mark Dimunition, Chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress. If you are looking for an intensive learning experience, surrounded by enthusiastic, like-minded people, and outstanding faculty, look no further than Rare Book School at the University of Virginia. You may get to study from some of the treasures of the Special Collections Library.

ABCs of Special Collections: E is for

Posted on June 19, 2013 by

Welcome to our newest installment in the ABC series! Today, we give you the letter…

E is for Eccentric French, which is one of 75 alphabets represented in Frank H. Atkinson’s Atkinson Sign Painting up to Now: A Complete Manual of Sign Painting. Chicago: Frederick J. Drake & Co., 1915 (not yet catalogued. Gift of Nicholas Curtis. (Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

E is for Endpapers

With rare exceptions, endpapers are not part of the book as printed.
They are the double leaves (or pages) added at front and back by the binder,
the outer leaf (or page) of each being pasted to the inner surface of the
cover (known as the paste-down), the inner leaves (or free endpapers)
forming the first and last of the volume when bound or cased.

Contributed by Petrina Jackson, Head of Instruction and Outreach; text from the Online Books Page: ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp43199

Front Free Endpaper page 1 from Liure tres bon plaisant et salutaire de linstitution de la femme chrestienne, tant en son enfance, que mariage & viduite. : Aussi de loffice du mary, · Vives, Juan Luis, 1492-1540 · 1543

Front free endpaper from Liure tres bon plaisant et salutaire de linstitution de la femme chrestienne, tant en son enfance, que mariage & viduite.: Aussi de loffice du mary, 1543. (Gordon 1543 .V58. Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books. Image by U.Va. Library Digitization Services.)

Front Free Endpaper page 1 from La Metamorphose d'Ouide figuree · Ovid, 43 B.C.-17 or 18 A.D. · 1557

Front free endpaper from La Metamorphose d’Ouide figuree, 1557. (Gordon 1557 .O85. Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books. Image by U.Va. Library Digitization Services.)

Pastedown endpaper from Le mistere de la conception natiuite mariage. Et annonciation de la benoiste vierge marie. Auec la natiuite de Jesuchrist et son enfance …, 1530. (Gordon 1530 .M57. Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books. Image by U.Va. Library Digitization Services.)

E is for Engraving and Etching

E is for Engraving and Etching …the difference? “A useful analogy is to imagine the surface of the paper as a thin layer of snow on a frozen pond. The engraver is limited to making lines with the edge of a skate; the etcher can draw with a pointed stick”, notes author Bamber Gascoigne in How to Identify Prints. The engraver incises a design into a metal plate, allowing for highly detailed renderings. The etcher scratches an image into a wax coating, and then the design is bitten into the plate with acid, allowing the artist more creative freedom.

Contributed by Donna Stapley, Assistant to the Director

Copper plate from George Cruikshank's Illustrations for Oliver Twist, 1894 (NC978 .5. C78 O55 1894 v. 4. Photograph by Donna Stapley.)

Copper “fireside” plate from George Cruikshank’s Illustrations for Oliver Twist, 1894 (NC978 .5. C78 O55 1894 v. 4. Photograph by Donna Stapley.)

Detail of an etching from Six Signed Proofs of Original Etchings of Pablo Picasso: Made to illustrate an edition of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, 1934. (ND553 .P5 1934. Gift of T. Catesby Jones. Photograph by Donna Stapley.)

Engraving from Encyclopédie; ou Díctionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. (Gordon 1751 .D542 t8. Gordon French Book Collection. Photograph by Donna Stapley.)

Engraving from Encyclopédie; ou Díctionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers.
(Gordon 1751 .D542 t8. Douglas H. Gordon Collection of French Books. Photograph by Donna Stapley.)

E is for the Eliot Bible

The Eliot “Indian” Bible was published in 1663, the first Bible printed in America. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and the New Testament was translated into the Algonquin language by Puritan minister John Eliot, who was assisted by a young Native American. The first complete English edition of the Bible was not printed in North America for another 120 years.

Contributed by Anne Causey, Public Services Assistant

Title page of John Eliot’s The Holy Bible: Containing the Old Testament and the New and the spine of his New Testament translation into the Algonquin language. (A 1663 .B53 and A 1661 .B52, respectively. Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

First edition of the Eliot Bible opened to the book of Deuteronomy. (A 1663 .B53. Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

E is for William Everson

William Everson, also known as ‘Brother Antoninus,’ or the ‘Beat Friar,’ was a poet, critic, and small press printer. Meeting like-minded poets during his World War II stint as a conscientious objector, Everson became an influential member of the San Francisco Renaissance during the late 50’s, 60’s and 70s. Much of his critical work focused on Robinson Jeffers, and his Lime Kiln Press printed a number of notable editions, most famously Granite & Cypress in 1975.

Contributed by George Riser, Collections and Instruction Assistant

William Everson (Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Career biography of William Everson, featured in The Masks of Drought, 1980. (PS3509 V65 M37. Marvin Tatum Collection of Contemporary Literature. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Granite and Cypress (Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Title page of Granite & Cypress by Robinson Jeffers. According to our catalog records, “One hundred copies of this book have been printed under the direction of William Everson. The title page woodcut is by William Prochnow … Binding [of German Naturegewebe and spine open-laced with deerskin rawhide] is by The Schuberth Bookbindery of San Francisco. The slip-case, fashioned by one who prefers to remain anonymous, is of Monterey Cypress. Its window of granite is from Jeffers’ own stoneyard ” (PS3519. E27 G7. Photograph by Donna Stapley.)

That is all for now. Please join us in two weeks when the featured letter is F!

On view now: Landmarks of Dystopian Fiction

Posted on June 13, 2013 by

Wednesday morning, National Public Radio reported that the recent revelations about NSA surveillance have led to skyrocketing book sales of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four:

As of this morning, Amazon sales of George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 had jumped 6,021 percent in just 24 hours, to No. 213 on Amazon’s bestseller list. As NPR’s Alan Greenblatt recently pointed out, many people have found uncomfortable resonances between Orwell’s “Big Brother” state and the news that broke last week of U.S. government surveillance programs. The news can often be a major driver of book sales: In 2008, sales of Ayn Rand’s conservative classic Atlas Shrugged spiked during the banking industry bailouts.

The first American edition of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. (Z239 .C53 Z99 .O78 N56 1949. Gift of Warren Chappell. Photo by Molly Schwartzburg).

Now, we don’t want to claim that Special Collections had advance knowledge of Snowden’s whistle-blowing plans. It may just be a coincidence that when this all happened, public services staff member Margaret Hrabe was in the process of preparing our latest mini-exhibition: Dystopian Fiction: Trapped in a Nightmare Future, now on view in the First Floor Gallery. Featuring Orwell’s masterpiece as well as many other landmark dystopias–and a handful of utopias for balance–this latest visual feast may offer you some alternatives for your summer’s reading list if your local bookstore is all sold-out of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Stop by and take a gander.

We’ll be watching.

Some of the titles on view. (Photo by Molly Schwartzburg)

The books on display range in date from 1518 to 2013. (Photo by Molly Schwartzburg)

The first editions of Thomas More's Utopia and Samuel Johnson's Rasselas, two landmarks in the history of Utopian literature.

Rare landmarks in the history of Utopian literature are on display, including the genre’s namesake, Thomas More’s Utopia, open to the map of Utopia (HX 810.5 .A2 1518. Robert and Virginia Tunstall Trust.) Also shown here is Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas (PR 3529 .A1 1759. Gift of CD Johnson). (Photo by Molly Schwartzburg

This Just In: Rolling in the Stacks with the Charlottesville Derby Dames

Posted on June 6, 2013 by

This week, we feature a guest post from Charlottesville Derby Dame Grëtel vön Metäl, also known as Gretchen Gueguen.

When we here at the Small Library think about new materials we would like to add to our collections we take many factors into consideration: the research quality of the content, connections to the University’s curriculum or history, or alignment with our core collecting areas. Given the breadth of subject, time period, and format of our collections we often come across materials that will complement or counterpoint something we already own, even though at first glance it might not seem to fit with everything else.

Such is the story of how we made our newest acquisition, the Charlottesville Derby Dames Records. The Dames are a non-profit women’s sport club here in Charlottesville founded in 2007. My day-job at the library is Digital Archivist, but on the flat-track I am known as “Grëtel vön Metäl.” When I mentioned one day that I was going to be skating with the Dames in an upcoming match (called a “bout” in derby parlance), our current Head of Technical Services, Edward Gaynor, immediately suggested that a collection of Dames materials would make an excellent complement to our collections of the papers of various local and regional “ladies’ clubs” such as The Garden Club or the Ladies’ Sewing Society. When researchers come to the Reading Room to look at these collections they are usually studying the ways in which women construct their identities in public: how do they present themselves? what kinds of activities do they become involved in? what can these things tell us about women’s roles?

A screenshot of the Dames’ website, ca. 2012 (MSS MSS 15490). Compare with the Team’s current page: http://www.charlottesvillederbydames.com.

A screenshot of the Dames’ website, ca. 2012 (MSS 15490). Compare with the Team’s current page: http://www.charlottesvillederbydames.com.

The sport of roller derby began in the late 1800s as endurance skating races. They were a popular activity for both sexes until entrepreneurs Leo Seltzer and Damon Runyon formed professional leagues featuring women in the 1930s and added elements of competition and physical contact. The sport was immensely popular, a staple of television, until the 70s. While the fights were often staged, the women skaters were skilled athletes.

Roller derby in the fifties was pretty rough and tumble, but with no protective gear (image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs division: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c13476/)

Roller derby in the fifties was pretty rough and tumble, but skaters wore no protective gear (image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs division: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c13476/)

Roller derby began its resurgence in the early 2000s in Austin, Texas. Doing away with the traditional banked track and playing on a flat oval made it easier to find a place to skate – anywhere you can find a big flat space, you can play roller derby (although a few leagues still use a banked track). The game quickly spread across the country and even across the globe. By 2013 over 1,200 leagues had formed on every continent but Antarctica, and men’s, junior’s, and co-ed leagues are growing in numbers as well.

Derby has a growing fan-base, and an even more passionate following among those who play it. Women’s roller derby is especially known for the colorful personas adopted by players, symbolized by their adopted “Derby Names.” The sport itself requires a high degree of athleticism combining strength, endurance, skill, and strategy, but on the flat track skaters can be as menacing (Soulfearic Acid), tough (Punky Bruiser), flirty (Sexy Sladie), or playful (Snot Rocket Science) as they want to be.

Today the Dames play with helmets, knee and elbow pads and wrist guards. This photo is from a bout in 2012 at Charlottesville’s Main Street Arena against the Charm City Rollergirls of Baltimore, Maryland (MSS 15490. photo by Dan Purdy).

The newly acquired Derby Dames collection here at UVa is unusual in more than just its subject. It was also a chance for us to acquire a modern collection composed almost entirely of electronic materials. As the Dames have only just recently formed, all of our operational documents, promotional material, and ephemera are created as electronic documents and most are never printed. While the library has collected about 30 posters, handbills, programs, and other ephemera, we’ve also collected more than 12,000 electronic documents including bylaws and policies, meeting minutes, graphics, photos, video, and websites.

I worked with the Dames to download a copy of all of the team’s working files from a shared Google Documents folder. These files were immediately copied for safe keeping and stored on an external hard drive. Next, I used specialized software to create listings of all of the files present and some technical details of each. A key piece of information is what’s called a “checksum” – a kind of digital fingerprint in the form of a numerical code created by running an algorithm on the contents of a file. That file and only that particular file will create that particular checksum. This allows me to verify that files haven’t been corrupted or tampered with over time.

After organizing and removing duplicates from the collection, I uploaded the new collection to networked library storage and created a finding aid. Future work will include creating a searchable, online archive of the documents (access will be available on Grounds in the Reading Room initially) and working with the Library IT department to ensure the long-term preservation of the content within the Library and University’s larger IT infrastructure. This work will not only ensure the future access to the Derby Dames collection, but will pave the way for more electronic collections to come.

ABCs of Special Collections: D is for

Posted on June 3, 2013 by

We are delighted to present to you, the letter:

D is for “Detroit” Single Stroke Antique, which is one of 75 alphabets represented in Frank H. Atkinson’s Atkinson Sign Painting up to Now: A Complete Manual of Sign Painting. Chicago: Frederick J. Drake & Co., 1915 (not yet catalogued. Gift of Nicholas Curtis. Photograph by Petrina Jackson

D is for Darwin

As a medical student in London, Paul Victorius began collecting rare books and manuscripts, focusing primarily on Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution. Victorius returned to the United States in 1940 and in 1949 the University of Virginia acquired his collection. The Victorius Evolution Collection consists of over 800 books and 150 manuscripts relating to Darwin’s (and his contemporaries’) discoveries. Two highlights of the collection are watercolors of the H.M.S. Beagle by Conrad Martens.

Contributed by Edward Gaynor, Head of Description and Specialist for Virginiana and University Archives

Portrait of Charles Darwin, 1860. (MSS 3314. Paul Victorius Evolution Collection. Image by U.Va. Library Digitization Services)

H.M.S. Beagle, “Terra del Fuego,” watercolor by Conrad Martens, ca.1832. (MSS 3314. Paul Victorius Evolution Collection. Image by U.Va. Library Digitization Services.)

H.M.S. Beagle, “Mount Sarmiento in Terra del Fuego,” watercolor by Conrad Martens, ca.1832. (MSS 3314. Paul Victorius Evolution Collection. Image by U.Va. Library Digitization Services.)

D is for Desk of Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens embarked from Liverpool aboard the RMS Britannia on January 3, 1842, landing in Boston, on a tour of approximately 17 U.S. cities, including Richmond, Virginia. What would a prolific writer of novels, poetry and plays require for such a journey? A pearl inlaid travel desk, complete with quill pen, ink well, hat brush, ivory watch stand, and wooden match-case. Sensibly, in preparation against the winter winds of the northeastern States, a glass liquor flask accompanied the writer as well. In October of the same year, his book American Notes for General Circulation was published in England.

Contributed by Donna Stapley, Assistant to the Director

Portrait of Charles Dickens, photographed by George Herbert Watkins, 1858. (Image from Wikimedia Commons.)

Charles Dicken's desk, quill, album, and manuscript letter. (MSS 10562. Photograph by Donna Stapley.)

Charles Dickens’ desk, quill pen, album, and manuscript letter. (MSS 10562. Photograph by Donna Stapley.)

Charles Dickens' (MSS 10562. Photograph by Donna Stapley)

Charles Dickens’ hand mirror, case and hat brush. (MSS 10562. Photograph by Donna Stapley.)

D is for Diane Di Prima

Often thought of as a poet who bridged the aesthetics of the Beats and the Hippie Movements, Diane Di Prima grew up in Brooklyn, and became a seminal figure in the early days of the Beat Movement. With Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), she founded the influential Beat magazine, The Floating Bear, and was friends and colleagues with Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, William Burroughs, and Gregory Corso, among others. A search of our Library’s catalog shows 54 records related to Diane Di Prima.

Contributed by George Riser, Collections and Instruction Assistant

Cover of Diane Di Prima, Diane's This Kind of Bird Flies Backward, 1958. (PS3507.I68 T48 1958. Gift of Marvin Tatum. Photograph by Petrina Jackson).

Cover of Diane Di Prima’s This Kind of Bird Flies Backward, 1958. (PS3507.I68 T48 1958. Gift of Marvin Tatum. Photograph by Petrina Jackson).

Detail of the first Issue of Floating Bear, edited by Diane Di Prima and LeRoi Jones (aka Amiri Baraka). This issue includes poems by Michael McClure, Charles Olson, Max Finstein, and Robin Blaser. (PS3552 .U75 F562 1973. Photograph by Petrina Jackson)

D is for Dog – the Thurber Dog

The humor of James Thurber came across abundantly in his writing, cartoons, and work as editor for The New Yorker magazine. Thurber’s prolific output of writings included The Middle-Aged Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935), Thurber’s Dogs (1955), and many more. Thurber loved dogs, owned and showed dogs, and delighted in drawing dogs. His cartoons of dogs in The New Yorker were renowned for their simplicity and the humor that they conveyed. By the late 1940s, Thurber had lost his eyesight. His drawings were of necessity large and done in crayon.

Contributed by Margaret Hrabe, Reference Coordinator

Thurber’s Dogs: A Collection of the Master’s Dogs, Written and Drawn, Real and Imaginary, Living and Long Ago, 1955. (PS3539 .H94 T54 1955. Gift of Mr. Charles Barham, Jr. Photograph by Donna Stapley.)

Well, D is done! We look forward to meeting you again in two weeks with the letter “E.”

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Notes from Under Grounds

Monthly Archives: June 2013