Twenty-nine Harper Lee letters to various friends and acquaintances are up for auction today, March 31, from Nate D. Sanders in Los Angeles, covering a wide range of topics. 

                                                                                                                                                                   One of the letter highlights is a missive Lee penned to a friend after a 1990 visit to Donald Trump's Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. Lee was... not impressed:

                                                                                                                                                                       "...the worst punishment God can devise for this sinner is to make her spirit reside eternally at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City."

                                                                                                                                                                       42397a_lg.jpegIn another letter, Lee praises the novel Tuscaloosa by W. Glasgow Phillips. The novel, now out of print, but easily procured online, is set in Alabama in 1972 and follows a young man who falls in love with an inmate at a mental institution.

                                                                                                                                                                      Lee writes of the novel, "Nowadays there's so damn little to praise, my heart leaps up when I behold a beautiful English sentence."

                                                                                                                                                                    Lee also expresses her affection, in a separate letter, for Elise Sanguinetti, calling her "the finest of Alabama's writers."

                                                                                                                                                                        The letters, to be sold separtely, have starting bids of $750. Online bidding is available on the Nate D. Sanders website.

barr-cover-shadow-400.jpgApropos to a Salon article last week about women writers languishing in "moldy archives," I wanted to share the news about book artist Richard Minsky's newest collection and catalogue, The Books of Amelia E. Barr.

Barr was born in England in 1831 but emigrated to the U.S. when she was 23. She became a writer after her husband and six of her (nine) children died. She wrote primarily for women and was an influential supporter of women's rights. In total, she published seventy books.* 

Minsky has put together six collections of American publishers' bindings over the past decade. He stumbled upon Barr's books while collecting in another area. In addition to the limited edition catalogue (of which he tells me there are only 8 left), Minsky is also offering the collection for sale en bloc. Its eventual acquistion by an institutional library is bound to kindle academic, if not popular, interest in Barr. I asked him more about his interest in her work and this project.

RRB: It is striking how 'lost to history' Barr was. When you started collecting her titles, did you intend to 'recover' her, or did that happen later in the process?

RM: It wasn't until I read her autobiography that I saw this as a compelling story, and developed the format where she describes each of the books in the exhibition. As I learned more I saw her importance not only as a popular author, but her narrative of the circumstances of writing, her interactions with publishers, and the letters from her readers, all appealed to me as a coherent study in book history. This complements the collection as a study in material culture and graphic design. What topped it off was her dramatic expository position on women's rights which, at a time when women were marching to get the vote, brought constitutional process into the mix. She reached out to women with this underlying theme set in the context of well-researched historical romance fiction.
     The extent of her readership is indicated not only by the number of editions of her books. According to the "What Middletown Read" project, which documented the circulation of books in the Muncie, Indiana, Public Library from 1891 to 1902, Amelia Barr's Bernicia was borrowed 291 times. The library had eleven Barr books in that period, with 1,052 transactions by 667 patrons. If one extrapolates from that one small Midwest city library to the entire nation...

RRB: How long did the collecting & cataloguing take? Where did you do most of your buying?

                                                                                                                                                                            RM: Books by Amelia Barr were in my first exhibition (2005-06), so in that sense it was over a decade. It took a year to do the research and write the catalogue. Most books were acquired over the Internet, and some were scouted for me by dealers.

belle-bowling-350.jpgRRB: Can you pinpoint something about her fiction that made it such a good fit for decorated bindings?

                                                                                                                                                                   RM: She wrote primarily for women, and much of it was historical romance novels, so there was a lot of room for floral and decorative work, as well as metaphoric and literal imagery. 

RRB: In the past decade, you've done this kind of large-format collecting, exhibiting & cataloguing process 6 times (including Barr). Do you plan to do another?

RM: I didn't plan to do any of them--they grabbed me one way or another and were too compelling to ignore. Right now I'm working on a small-scale catalogue about The Unknown Modernist Master of 1879-1882. This is the artist responsible for Aboard the Mavis and the Bodley book covers that were decades ahead of their time.

*See also Richard's post yesterday on what would have been Barr's 185th birthday.

Images: Catalogue cover adapted from the 1897 William Snelling Hadaway design for Prisoners of Conscience. Courtesy of Richard Minsky. The Bell of Bowling Green, illustrated by Walter H. Everett, cover by Charles Buckles Falls (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1908). Courtesy of Richard Minsky.

Jim Harrison, American novelist and poet, died this past weekend at his home in Arizona. Harrison was 78.
                                                                                                                                                             Harrison was much admired for both his poetry and prose, suffused with descriptions of the outdoor life. He was primarily known for his grand-scale novella about a Montana family in the early twentieth century entitled Legends of the Fall, which was turned into a blockbuster film in 1994.
                                                                                                                                                              Harrison was born in Michigan in 1937 and most recently divided his time between Montana and Arizona.
                                                                                                                                                                     A prolific writer, Harrison produced 30 books in 50 years in addition to a host of essays, criticism, screenplays, and reviews. Harrison's first book of poetry, Plain Song, was published in 1965. His first novel, Wolf, was published six years later and turned into a film starring Jack Nicholson. In 1973 Harrison published his poetry collection Letters to Yesenin, widely considered to be his finest collection of verse. His most recent novel, The Ancient Minstrel, was published earlier this month.

Grolier-Goose Game copy.jpgBoard games may have been an overlooked area in the history of graphic design, but not anymore. In addition to an exhibit, The Royal Game of the Goose, showcasing more than seventy historic game boards, the Grolier Club will also welcome gamers to a colloquium on April 5 from 1-5 p.m., during Rare Book Week in New York.

What follows is a schedule for "Some Beautiful Board Games," courtesy of the Grolier Club, as well as information about each of the speakers. Adrian Seville, whose private collection forms the basis of the GC's current exhibit, will focus his talk on the medieval game of the goose and its variants.   

1:00 - 1:15 PM: G. Scott Clemons, Welcome by the President of the Grolier Club & Andrea Immel, Introduction
ANCIENT GAMES
1:15 - 1:45 PM: Irving Finkel, The Royal Game of Ur
1:45 - 2:15 PM: Anne Dunn-Vaturi, Hounds and Jackals
2:15 - 2:45 PM: Alex De Voogt, Mancala
2:45 - 3:15 PM: Break
MODERN GAMES
3:15 - 3:45 PM: Adrian Seville, Two Fine Goose boards
3:45 - 4:15 PM: Andrea Immel, The Game of the Dolphin
4:15 - 4:45 PM: Margaret K. Hofer, Bulls and Bears: the Great Wall Street Game
4:45 PM: Closing
5:00 PM: Reception

Irving Finkel is Assistant Keeper in the Department of the Middle East in the British Museum London where he has responsibility for cuneiform inscriptions. He also works extensively on ancient board games. The Game of Twenty Squares - or the Royal Game of Ur - is an ideal subject for ludological enquiry, since its distribution across a major stretch of the ancient world and its sheer durability anticipates that of chess.  This lecture will offer a survey in support of that claim, consider the ancient playing rules that have survived from the second century BC, and seek to identify the intrinsic qualities in the game that ensured its international success and survival down to modern times

Anne-Elizabeth Dunn-Vaturi is Hagop Kevorkian Research Associate in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, and has been documenting the provenance of the Ancient Near Eastern Art collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2009. She is now working on ancient board games from the Near East and Egypt, currently preparing the catalogue of such games for the Musée du Louvre. She is pursuing PhD research on the game of Hounds and Jackals, the topic of her paper today. The game of Hounds and Jackals originated in Egypt at the turn of the second millennium BC and spread to Sudan and the Near East where it is attested until the mid-first millennium BC. Playing scenes are extensively described in ancient Egypt but some representations of the game seem to have gone unnoticed and will be presented for the first time here.

Alex de Voogt is an assistant curator of African Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History and has published widely on board games, in particular mancala games. Alex will be presenting on the largest mancala games known today and how their size affects the modes of play and their identification in the absence of players. Mancala games are characterized by rows of cup-shaped depressions and a proportionate number of playing counters. Variations of these games are found throughout Africa, the Middle East as well as Central, South and South-East Asia. Later introductions to the Americas during the slave trade and twentieth century commercial versions in Europe and North America have made this group of games one of the most wide-spread in the world.

Adrian Seville specializes in research on printed board games, especially the medieval Game of the Goose and its many variants over the centuries. He was educated as a Physicist before joining City University, London, where he became Academic Registrar. His research is supported by his private collection of over 500 games, forming the basis for the current Grolier Club exhibition. Two contrasting boards for the Game of Goose will be presented. The first is a board from Adrian's multiple games table by Vaugeois of Paris, probably commissioned by Napoleon's second empress, Marie Louise, around 1813. This classic version of the game will be contrasted with the MET Museum's splendid 16th century board, which has a remarkable decorative scheme and shows intriguing differences from the classic game.

Andrea Immel is Curator of the Cotsen Children's Library in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections of the Princeton University Library.   She is interested in the intersections between print, visual, and material cultures of childhood and those for adults 1660-1839. The focus of this talk will be The Royal Game of the Dolphin, one of a handful of unusual board games published by William Darton, junior, in the early 1820s.  Collectors consider these Darton games especially desirable because so beautiful.  Andrea will try to answer the large question of how much fun would children have had playing these early examples of non-competitive games? 

Margaret K. Hofer is Vice President and Museum Director at the New-York Historical Society, where she has worked since 1993. As Curator of Decorative Arts, Margi curated exhibitions on a wide range of topics, including American board games. Her publications include Making It Modern: The Folk Art Collection of Elie and Viola Nadelman (2015); Stories in Sterling: Four Centuries of Silver in New York (2011); A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls (2007); and The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board & Table Games (2003). Margi Hofer will discuss "Bulls and Bears: The Great Wall Street Game," produced in 1883 by McLoughlin Bros., the leading American board game manufacturer of the late 19th century. The game board's dark, cynical illustrations of rapacious robber barons represent a departure from the imagery of rosy-cheeked, go-getting Americans typically found on games of the period. The sources for the illustrations, which were lifted from satirical cartoons in the popular press, will be identified and examined. 

Registration is $75 per person, $25 for students. To reserve, please call Maev Brennan at 212-838-6690 or email mbrennan@grolierclub.org.

                                                                                                                                              The exhibit will remain on view through May 14.

Image: THE ROYAL GAME OF GOOSE. London: E[dward] Wallis; printed by W. Lake, 50 Old Bailey, [c. 1840]. Hand-colored lithograph, 38 ? 46 cm. Collection of Adrian Seville, courtesy of the Grolier Club.

On Tuesday, ISIS suicide bombers carried out attacks that killed over 30 people and wounded more than 300 in Brussels. The next day, as members of the press gathered at the Manhattan Onassis Cultural Center in advance of an archaeology exhibition, Greek Minister of Culture Aristides Baltas wondered how this exhibit could provide meaning in the wake of such horrific events, suggesting that "culture and education may be the best weapon against terrorism of all kinds." "Gods and Mortals at Olympus" certainly offers hope that an understanding of Hellenic culture may civilize ruthless extremists, though it is something of an uphill battle: Terrorist groups, and ISIS in particular, routinely plunder ancient sites to fund their operations. However, for the rest of us, there's much to be learned from this show, on view now through June 18th.

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Spectacle-Shaped Brooch with Fabric Remains Early Iron Age (1000-700 BC). Copper alloy, iron, and textile. Photo © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, Ephorate of Antiquities of Pieria, and the Dion Excavations. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY.

 

Nestled in the slopes of Mount Olympus, Dion was the religious center of Macedon for centuries, with sanctuaries dedicated to Zeus, Artemis and the Egyptian goddess Isis. Over ninety artifacts excavated from unearthed temples, baths, and private homes are on display in the Onassis Foundation's recently renovated gallery space.  Brooches from the Iron Age, copper lamps, gold bracelets and stunning Roman-era mosaics evoke the importance of Dion as a sacred site, and how the constant influx of outside cultures influenced local art and architecture.

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Mosaic of the Epiphany of Dionysus Late 2nd-early 3rd century AD. Stone tesserae. Photo © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, Ephorate of Antiquities of Pieria, and the Dion Excavations. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY.


Dion was also a major theater hub dating back to 400 BC, when Euripides wrote The Bacchae under the patronage of Macedon's King Archelaus and was believed to have visited the city seeking inspiration. A suite of mosaics depicting theatrical masks surround the imposing "Epiphany of Dionysus," a 5 foot by 7 foot mosaic dating from the late 2nd century CE which shows the god of wine and theater bursting out of the sea on a jaguar-drawn chariot. Pulled from a luxurious villa, the piece suggests that the homeowner had embraced Roman customs while still retaining various Greek religious traditions. (Many of the stelae on display have inscriptions written in both Greek and Latin, offering further evidence of life in the city under Roman rule.)

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Slab with the Imprint of Two Feet and Dedicatory Inscription Late 2nd-3rd century AD. Marble. Photo © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, Ephorate of Antiquities of Pieria, and the Dion Excavations. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY.


Equally impressive is a diminutive 3rd century BC gold bracelet with lion's head finials, which was discovered in a Macedonian tomb outside the city. Massive marble statues, table supports, and stelae depicting various gods, all offer tantalizing glimpses of this special place.

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Bracelet with Lion's Head Finials Late 3rd century BC. Gold. Photo © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, Ephorate of Antiquities of Pieria, and the Dion Excavations. Courtesy Onassis Cultural Center NY.

Shepherding the exhibit into the 21st century are installations by contemporary Greek artists Maria Zervos and Kostas Ioannidis. Zervos' video combines imagery shot at Mount Olympus with her translations of poetry by the ancient female poet Telesilla (510 BC), exploring how contemporary viewers perceive ancient notions of perfection and immortality. Ioannidis created sound installations which can be heard in the gallery foyer, playing on the idea of a "mountain language." An onsite video game called "Secrets of the Past--Excavating the City of Zeus" invites players to pretend they're directing the excavation work at Dion and decide the best way to unearth and examine the artifacts.


The Greeks at Dion demonstrated an ability to adapt as religious beliefs changed, even in the midst of war and natural disasters, and these artifacts offer opportunities to discover similarities between an ancient culture and our own. That's something to be hopeful about.

GODS AND MORTALS AT OLYMPUS: ANCIENT DION, CITY OF ZEUS is free to the public. Visit the Onassis Foundation's website for information on guided tours and additional programming.

Metallica_-_Master_of_Puppets_cover.jpgEach year the Library of Congress selects twenty-five artistic pieces considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" for historical preservation. This year, the Libray surprised observers by selecting its first ever heavy metal recording: "Master of Puppets," a hugely influential album by Metallica issued in 1986.


"Master of Puppets," the third album from Metallica and its first on a major record label, "shows the group moving away from its thrash metal history and reputation and exploring new ideas," the Library of Congress said in a press release.

"Thrash, a reaction against the pop metal of the early 1980s, aimed to renew metal by emphasizing speed and aggression," continued the Library.


"Master of Puppets" became the first thrash metal album to go platinum, eventually selling over 6 million copies. The album was also the last to feature original Metallica bassist Cliff Burton who died in a bus crash during its accompanying tour.


In addition to "Master of Puppets," the Library of Congress selected several jazz recordings and a 1947 speech from secretary of state George Marshall about the what came to be known as "the Marshall Plan," which was the groundwork for American led reconstruction efforts in post-WWII Europe. 




cockerelokukor.jpgFollowing a string of student protests against symbols of Britain's colonial past, Jesus College at Cambridge University has removed a bronze statue of an African cockerel from its main hall. The University is considering repratiating the statue, called "Okukor" to Nigeria.


The statue is part of a group of bronze sculptures collectively called the "Benin Bronzes," which were looted from the former kingdom of Benin (modern day south Nigeria) in 1897. After British officers were killed during a trade mission to Benin earlier that year, the British navy launched an invasion of the kingdom, culminating with the burning and looting of Benin City.


Two of the Benin Bronzes were repatriated to Nigeria in 2014 by the grandson of a participant in the invasion. The move was applauded by Nigerian officials, who called upon European nations to return a further 3,500 to 4,000 works of art looted from the palace.


The successful protest movement by the Cambridge students to remove the Okukor statue was also met with praise by Nigerian Prince Edun Akenzua, who said "We commend the initiative of the Cambridge students. They have done what they should do... We appeal to European countries to return our cultural properties dotting museums and galleries in London, Paris, Berlin and other cities around the world."




Lot-415-E-Simms-Campbell-Night-Club-Map-Harlem copy.jpgThis 1932 Night-Club Map showing Harlem's entertainment hotspots (the Savoy Ballroom, the Cotton Club) appeared as a centerfold illustration in volume 1, number 1 of the 1932 Manhattan Magazine, and again nine months later in Esquire. It was created by E. Simms Campbell (1906-1971), one of first commercially successful African-American cartoonists. He steadily produced artwork for Esquire upon its launch in 1933, and his work was also published in Cosmopolitan, The New Yorker, and Playboy. According to the New York Times, a museum curator rediscovered the map in 1993 when he was organizing an exhibition about Louis Armstrong for the Queens Museum. Since then, copies of the pictorial map have found their way to auction--selling most recently for $16,000 at Swann Galleries in 2011 and for $12,000 at PBA Galleries in 2014.

Now, the original artwork for A Night-Club Map of Harlem will go to auction at Swann Galleries on March 31, estimated at $40,000-60,000. Measuring 19 1/4" x 30," the map is executed in pen and brush on Whatman Drawing Board and is signed in ink by Campbell.

                                                                                                                                                                          Other sale highlights include a signed copy of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and the 1848 edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, published at the office of the North Star, Douglass' paper.

Image courtesy of Swann Galleries.

Met.jpgThe public opening last week of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's third location, The Met Breuer at 945 Madison Avenue, also occasioned the launch of a pop-up bookshop, "Phaidon x The Met Bookstore." A collaboration between Phaidon Press, a global art book publisher, and The Met Store, the museum's retail arm, the shop offers museum-goers a selection of nearly 300 titles in art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, travel, and food, as well as "an array of limited and autographed editions by Edmund de Waal, Stephen Shore, and chef Enrique Olvera" and, in the coming months, "signed copies of new monographs," according to a press release.

The pop-up bookstore will remain open through summer 2016.

Keith Fox, chief executive officer at Phaidon, remarked, "We are proud to be part of the historic milestone of the opening of The Met Breuer. The building's legacy is inspiring, and Phaidon's mission is closely aligned with this branch's cultural, aesthetic, and artistic identity. To see our beautiful books housed in the 'Phaidon x The Met Bookstore,' with its iconic window and design, is truly a dream come true."

The new museum site is named after architect Marcel Breuer, who designed the landmark building. It is meant to provide additional space for contemporary art exhibits and related events. Currently on view is a retrospective of Indian abstract artist Nasreen Mohamedi and an exhibit titled Unfinished that delves into "the question of when a work of art is finished."

Photo: Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Final illustration for "LET ME DRIVE THE BUS" ©2003 by Mo Willems. Hyperion Books for Children, 2003. Aquarelle watercolor pencil on paper.

                                                                                                                                                                  Hours before the Saint Patrick's Day parade was scheduled to march up 5th Avenue yesterday, members of the press gathered in a second floor gallery of the New-York Historical Society to examine an exhibition organized by the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA dedicated to the work of bestselling author-illustrator Mo Willems.

Though currently residing in Northampton, Massachusetts, Willems created his iconic characters such as The Pigeon and Trixie while living in Brooklyn, and these characters are dyed-in-the-wool New Yorkers--slightly neurotic, full of chutzpah, yet entirely loveable. The show reveals how Willems' life and career were shaped by the people, sights, and sounds of New York. The Knuffle Bunny trilogy, for example, is full of photographs Willems took while living in Park Slope, Brooklyn; Prospect Park, PS 107, Grand Army Plaza, and laundromats form the backbone of these decidedly urban tales.

After a short introduction, the author walked us through the exhibit showcasing 90 sketches, animation cells, and sculptures. Early in his career, Willems wrote and illustrated for adults, but ultimately shifted his focus to creating children's books. "Writing for adults means tracking culture so you can spoof it, which requires a lot of effort on my part," he explained. 'With kids, you just have to deal with anxieties, neuroses, and pain, which I am well acquainted with and don't have to leave my home to discover."

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The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! Final illustration for "I've changed my mind." ©2008 by Mo Willems. Aquarelle watercolor pencil and red colored pencil on paper.

A finished Willems illustration is deceptively simple, but "being simple is not the same as being easy," he said as we moved towards a set of preliminary sketches. "Every design needs to be one line away from becoming an abstraction. The characters need to be accessible enough that a five year-old can reasonably copy them, but the images still have to carry emotion and weight." Willems said he goes through hundreds of sketches for a single book, some of which are on display. "You never know when a drawing is right, but you know immediately when it's wrong. A reader shouldn't look at the page and admire the color palette, the page-turn, and the lines. A story is successful if you look at an image and say, 'Wow, that took him five minutes.' Then I've done well."

After the tour, my seven-year-old daughter and I asked if Willems would sign three books we brought, and he graciously obliged. While inscribing our copy of The Story of Diva and Flea, his collaboration with Tony DiTerlizzi set in Paris, we asked about his experience living in the City of Lights while conducting research. Once revealed that we spoke French, he began chattering away about the beauty of Paris, and the wonders of the people and things there, much to the delight and amazement of my daughter. It seems no matter where he hangs his hat, Willems finds a way to draw out the charm and wit of his adopted home.

The Art and Whimsy of Mo Willems opens today, March 18, and runs through September 25, with family events, cartoon screenings, daily storytimes and book signings taking place scheduled throughout. Visit nyhistory.org for a detailed calendar of events.

Be sure to check out Noah Fleisher & Lauren Zittle's story on Mo Willems in the Spring 2016 print issue of Fine Books & Collections Magazine.

                                                                                                                                                               

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Leonardo the Terrible Monster Preliminary sketch © 2005 by Mo Willems. Hyperion Books for Children. Blue colored pencil and graphite on pencil.