In March 1994, Neutrogena CEO Lloyd Cotsen's massive trove of children's literature arrived at its new residence at Princeton University's Cotsen Children's Library. Part of the donation agreement included the publication of a printed catalogue. After three 18-wheelers deposited more than 120,000 items at the campus, that massive task began taking
Barbara Basbanes Richter
I don’t know about you, dear readers, but it’s been nothing short of a miracle for me to focus on much other than the parade of horribles happening right now. Apparently it’s called
Alcott completists, take note: Though she died in 1888, Little Women author Louisa May Alcott is back with a new story. Entitled "Aunt Nellie's Diary" this incomplete novella was rediscovered among her archives at Harvard's Houghton Library by Strand Magazine editor Andrew Gulli, who published the piece in the latest
The secret to great book design may be akin to an exquisite ballet performance: the experience is nearly perfect when the effort and work put into the creation of the piece is invisible. In
"Where were you during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020," will become a common query of us by generations to come. Some of us will respond with poetry--there's been plenty of time to write, and America's poets have answered Covid-19 with verse. Notably among them is Daniel Mark Epstein, who recently launched a series of sonnets created during the early days of the shelter-in-place order.
Ready or not, parts of the country are beginning to reopen, but opportunities to exercise those mental muscles do exist for those of us still homebound. Even before the pandemic, the National Archives put out a call for volunteer researchers and
In another pandemic-era example that makes a compelling case for broadband to one day be reclassified as a utility, the Boston Athenæum has reformatted its spring and early summer in-person events for a stay-at-home audience. A full slate of
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) is perhaps best remembered for creating the intrepid detective Sherlock Holmes. Today, numerous clubs, such as the Baker Street Irregulars, devote themselves to understanding all things Sherlockian. Heavy-hitting collectors such as former Apple chief technology officer Glen Miranker, Dan Posnansky, and
Like nearly every other aspect of modern life today, what can migrate online is doing so at a rapid clip, and at first blush, it might seem that the announcement of San Francisco-based Letterform Archive opening its virtual doors to the public was a decision made over the course of a few days. But in fact, the nonprofit museum and library dedicated to
On the heels of Internet Archive's recent decision to launch a "National Emergency Library" by offering access to 1.4 million books during the coronavirus pandemic--now embroiled in debate as to whether the move is an act of piracy rather than lending-- another enterprise known as HathiTrust recently announced freely accessible
