The first major exhibition to explore the hidden collections of rare books in the north west of England features the work of William Morris, Kate Greenaway, and the prolific Harry Rountree, who provided illustrations for many magazines and novels including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and P.G. Wodehouse.
Alex Johnson
There are many novels about bookshops, rather fewer about collectors of rare books, and almost none about book design. This final category has now been bulked out a little with Death of a Typographer by Nick Gadd (published by Arden), a playful crime thriller about the world of typography.
Set largely in Melbourne,
The Dear Mr. Poole exhibition at the Cartoon Museum in London has been one of the casualties of the coronavirus lockdown, but happily a sizable section of it has now been put online for readers to visit virtually.
Philip Poole (1909-1999) was known as the ‘pen-man of London’ running his shop His Nibs at 182 Drury
Although the real world has paused in its celebration of fine books and collections, it is still very much possible to find delights online. Here are five suggestions:
Determine how you like your rare books (rare, medium rare?):
A marvelous tweet from Durham Cathedral Library inspired by the ‘How
One of the leading twentieth-century British book collectors, Major John Abbey (1894-1969), is celebrated in an exhibition at Horsham Museum, West Sussex, England, which looks at his collecting life. (And yes, it is still currently open to visitors.)
Dyslexic and a poor writer, Abbey was interested in the book as physical object, its
Prize Books and Politics, a digital exhibition on Instagram and Twitter that launched on March 5, looks at the history of inscriptions in books at the start of the twentieth century in Britain when a literate working class was making the most of two decades of compulsory education and a dramatic fall in the price of books.
“Book inscriptions offer a unique opportunity to
The Book Guide (TBG), the UK’s best guide to secondhand bookshops, book fairs, auctions, and bookbinders, will close its virtual doors at the end of the month after operating for 19 years.
TBG is run by Mike Goodenough who also ran the popular Inprint
The Charles Dickens Museum in London has acquired a substantial private collection of Dickens material from the U.S., including 144 handwritten letters by the author (25 of which are unpublished); personal items including writing implements and jewelry; original artwork by the illustrators of Dickens’ books, including George Cruikshank, John Leech,
Successful writers have long been adept at self-promotion – indeed, Stendhal even suggested that “Great success is not possible without a certain degree of shamelessness.” Taking advantage of the latest in technology can be particularly helpful, whether that means honing your tweets or Instagramming your writing shed.
In the nineteenth century, the arrival of the photograph was a boon
The National Archives in London celebrates Valentine’s Day with a new exhibition called With Love. Highlights include the will of Anne Lister, the early nineteenth-century lesbian entrepreneur and diarist whose life has recently been dramatized in the popular BBC-HBO television drama
