Leave a legacy in George Washington's library
Fine Books & Collections editor Rebecca Rego Barry noted last February that Mount Vernon announced a Donald W. Reynolds Foundation grant of $38 million to fund construction of a 45,000-square-foot library. What's also exciting about the new facility is that you don't have to carry $38 million in your wallet to be a part of George Washington's new library.

Enter the "Adopt-A-Book" sponsorship program that seeks to buy more books for the library and to digitize more of the 18,000 volumes and 6,000 historical manuscripts so that they can be shared with the world. According to a beautifully done fundraising piece I got in the mail, fewer than 200 researchers were able to visit the Mount Vernon Library and use materials in the collection. "Through an Adopt-A-Book sponsorship for digitization, you will help expand our potential audience to billions through the computers in their own homes."

The estate is asking people to help in a variety of ways by purchasing three modern books, a single rare manuscript, and to digitize or preserve already purchased artifacts. Depending on the level of gift, you can be linked by name with your book's or manuscript's official listing in the online catalog, be acknowledged by name with a nicely designed digital bookplate accessible through that listing, receive a certificate suitable for framing that describes your books or manuscripts or receive a set of twelve Crane's note cards with beautifully reproduced color images taken from one of the Mount Vernon Library's rare books.

I spend a lot of time at Mount Vernon -- sometimes roaming the Virginia grounds with notebook in hand learning as much as I can, other times stopping there for lunch during a day of bike riding. I was actually sitting on the lawn overlooking the Potomac River during one of my frequent visits to Washington D.C. that I began to think seriously about moving here. Not many better places for history junkie and writer than the D.C. area. Since making the move and spending my spare time in libraries all over the region, I've dreamed about being able to do more to give something back to them.

Now I know what I can do. I can leave a small legacy in the library of one our nation's great founders.
George Washington, Mount Vernon, Mount Vernon Library
Braveheart Returns
getEdFrontImage.jpg
It was reported in yesterday's Scotsman newspaper that Scotland has take steps toward repatriation of a 700-year-old 'medieval passport' believed to have been owned by Scottish hero William Wallace. The document has been in English hands since they hanged Wallace in 1305. It is currently held in the National Archives in Surrey, and many Scots are asking for its return to its homeland. From the article:

The medieval "passport" is said to have been found in a pouch on his belt prior to his execution. George MacKenzie, Keeper of the Records of Scotland, said: "It is remarkable how a 700-year-old document still stirs such emotion today."

According to the National Archives of Scotland, "An academic research group of distinguished historians and archivists from Scotland, England and France will study the document's provenance, to find out where and why it was created...The group will conclude its work with a seminar on the document at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh in the spring of 2011 and present a report to Scottish and UK ministers. Based on this report, there will be an agreement on the future custody of the document...An exhibition on the document is planned in Edinburgh during 2012, to tie in with the culture and creativity focus of the Homecoming legacy. It will feature the latest virtualisation technologies allowing visitors to experience the document."
archival repatriation, archives, document repatriation, historic document, medieval passport, national archives scotland, national archives surrey, scotsman newspaper, william wallace
Tom Swift at 100

One of the great stories in the annals of American juvenile publishing was the creation a century ago by Edward Stratemayer, founder of the Stratemayer Syndicate, a book-packaging firm, of Tom Swift, the boy inventor who appeared in 105 books written by various authors in five separate series over the years, and whose sales totaled in the many millions. His adventures coveted by collectors--none more desirable than the gee-whiz kid's first appearance, "Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle," 1910, at right--the iconic character has his own fan club, which will be mounting a centennial convention next month in San Diego that promises to be quite the bash.

Organizer of the event is James D. Keeline, for many years a bookseller with Prince and the Pauper Collectible Children's Books in San Diego, and now, with his wife Kim, crossing all the t's and dotting all the i's for what is being billed as the 100th Anniversary Tom Swift Convention (TS100), an ambitious get-together of kindred spirits scheduled for Friday, July 16, through Sunday, July 18, at the Sheraton Mission Valley Hotel in San Diego. 

Activities include several tours that should be of particular interest to Tom Swift fans, the San Diego Automotive Museum and the San Diego Air & Space Museum. In conjunction with the convention, there will be what sounds like a terrific exhibition of books and artifacts at the Geisel Library at the University of California San Diego; programs at the fair include presentations on such topics as "How Tom Swift Invented Everything," "Tom Swift on the Silver Screen," "Tom Swift Science Vs. Real World Science," and "Artists of Tom Swift." There will be  round-table discussions for collectors, plus lots more--Tom Swift themed doo-dads and many books for sale, and great things on display--including a wood model of the Aeroship designed for an unproduced Tom Swift film that Twentieth Century Fox had worked on in the mid-'60s.

All in all, sounds like a great take-in. The convention's motto says it all: "100 Years of Making Science and Invention Cool." 

San Diego, Tom Swift, Tom Swift at 100
Propitious Esculents
Why are so many cookbooks devoted to the humble potato?  American cuisine revolves around a mere handful of varieties, which most of us consume in the guise of potato chips, french fries, hash browns, mashed or baked potatoes.
 
What else is there?  Why the need for all those cookbooks?  And who the heck is buying them?  Is there some sort of underground Vary Your Potato Intake movement of which I'm unaware?  Should I be concerned that I'm not ingesting enough tattie scones or boxty pancakes or bryndzové halušky?  
 
And why it is it that most folks who collect potato cookbooks seem to stop there? The humble tater, as even the most cursory review of the published literature will suggest, has so much more to offer … .
 
Domesticated for over eight thousand years, documented in over 5000 varieties, cultivated across a wide range of climates and soil conditions, Solanum tuberosum is the world's fourth most important food crop.  It's also much beloved by devotees of aquavit.
 
But if all most book collectors collect about potatoes is cookbooks, a large part of this versatile veggie's story is being overlooked. That's because few cookbooks delve into the potato's long and complicated history.  
 
How many book collectors, for example, are aware of Engels' declaration that cultivation of the humble potato was every bit as historically revolutionary as the production of iron?  That distribution of the potato impacted, among other things, the growth of railroads?That the potato once was considered a delicacy by Chinese royalty (and that China itself is now the world's largest producer of spuds)? 
 
Next time a tater cookbook catches your eye, you might want to see if there are any spud histories nearby to give that cookbook some context … .
book collecting, book collector, book history, books, home library, private library
Buying Up Ancient Bibles
This from yesterday's New York Times: Steve Green, the 46-year-old president of Hobby Lobby, is buying up bibles with the idea of creating a museum in Dallas...

The Green collection aims to be one of a kind. Other Bible collections in the United States, including one at the American Bible Society in Manhattan, generally intend to inspire readership, said Dr. Scott Carroll, who began advising Mr. Green about six months ago. "Our goal is to inspire people with the story of the Bible and its history."
bible collecting, bible collector, bible museum, hobby lobby, new york times, rare bible, steve green
Want to buy a wildly popular bookstore?
I almost choked on my breakfast bar this morning when I read that Washington D.C.'s beloved Politics and Prose bookstore is up for sale. The 26-year-old shop's owners are aging and say they just don't have the energy they used to.

I'm sure the news is sending tremors across the book-loving nation's capital. Politics and Prose is the place to go to soak in that independent bookstore experience ... to find items selected by human touch rather than just sales charts. It's the place to go to meet authors of all kinds of books who see the store as a must-visit destination. It's the place to go when you want to turn your brain on full power ... to mingle with staff and fellow shoppers who truly love books. Like many Washingtonians, my life is enriched every time I enter the store. Even the Washington Post described it as "iconic." 

If you know anyone who is looking to buy a wildly popular bookstore, Politics and Prose is available. I can't speak to its balance sheet or offer financial advice, but an entire city hopes the right kind of buyer steps forward to save one of Washington's most monumental sites.


Politics and Prose, Washington D.C. bookstores
Collecting Self-Published Authors
If one were to survey a very large and random group of book collectors, I strongly suspect that not a single one of them would fess up to collecting self-published authors.  Scott McKenzie penned an interesting rant on Slushpile a few years back which suggests why this is so:
 
You remember Bobby? That weird kid in high school who went out of his way to wear plaid pants, day-glo sneakers, a green mohawk, maybe a little goth makeup, and sucked on a pacifier all day? Bobby spent more time planning his anti-conformity outfit (because, "you know, he just does his own thing, he's such an individual") every morning than Jenny the Cheerleader dedicated to her hair. But then he always bitched and moaned about how Pam the Prom Queen ignored him. Some self-published authors are the same way. They act like idiots and then wonder why they face such disdain … .
 
McKenzie's point was not that self-publishing in itself is necessarily a bad thing, merely that the editorial processes which exist in the "real" publishing world help save most authors from themselves.  That being said, the sheer number of books that have been self-published over the centuries almost guarantees that many advanced book collectors have not a few self-published volumes on their shelves: think Atwood, Blake, Proust, Whitman...the list actually is quite lengthy.
 
The more interesting question is not do book collectors have the occasional self-published title on their shelves, but do any of us go out of our way to collect such titles in the same diligent, methodical way that we collect Shakespeare or hypermodern firsts or fine press or whatever it is that rings our bells.
 
Scholars are quite fond of extensive, well-considered book collections that tell them something they did not know previously.  What would an extensive, well-considered collection of self-published authors tell future scholars about the state of publishing, the distribution and reception of texts, etc., in this Late Age of Print, awash as we are with print-on-demand and other technologies that make it easier (and less expensive) than ever to self-publish...?
book collecting, book collector, book history, books, home library, private library
Film Review: Typeface
medium.png
Film review? Yes, book lovers, there is a new documentary that should be on your radar. Released on DVD just last week, Typeface is an excellent film about the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Directed and produced by Justine Nagan of Kartemquin Films, Typeface is an eloquent portrait of a small town and what was its biggest employer for more than a century, the Hamilton wood type company, which had been making wood type since 1880. The company was enormously successful, putting its competitors out of business and cashing in on the ornamental typography craze. (Think "Wanted" posters.)

The film does a wonderful job weaving together many strands -- from townsfolk sharing memories of working at Hamilton, to board members trying to keep the museum afloat, to young graphic designers discussing the importance of typography and art, and letterpress operators demonstrating how it all works. As designer and professor Dennis Y. Ichiyama of Purdue University put it: "Great characters, both wood and human."

Enhanced by the music of Josh Ritter, Typeface has broad appeal. The DVD also includes bonus scenes, such as an interview with Paul F. Gehl of the Newberry about type specimen books and a gallery of art inspired by the film.  

There is a private screening of the film tonight in New York City, followed by Norway, England, Germany, LA, etc. You can view a clip on YouTube, and order a limited edition DVD online.

dennis ichiyama, film review, graphic design, hamilton museum, hamilton wood type, josh ritter, justine nagan, kartemquin films, letterpress, limited edition DVD, paul gehl, printing museum, two rivers wisconsin, type art, typeface, typography, wood type