- New on the acquisitions table at AAS, the 1860 Bien edition of Audubon's Birds of America.
- The Boston Globe profiled the great Brattle Book Shop this week.
- More on the probable sale of a Bay Psalm Book, from NPR and The Guardian.
- From Editer, a nicely-illustrated primer on collecting rare books, featuring Pom Harrington of Peter Harrington.
- A volume of the quite rare American Woods set has been returned to Penn's Rare Book & Manuscript Library, more than sixty years after it was borrowed by biology professor Ralph Erickson.
- Over at The Little Professor, Miriam Burstein reports on her year in books. I really love some of her categories: "Most unenjoyable contemporary reading experiences," "Neo-Victorian novel not to be read over lunch," and "Oddest Victorian religious novel."
- From McSweeney's this week, "Welcome to my Rare and Antiquarian eBook Shop."
- Sarah Faragher posts on some of her favorite literary figures writing about some of her other favorite literary figures.
- The Getty Museum purchased the illuminated manuscript known as the Roman de Gillion de Trazegnies at Sotheby's this week for almost $6.2 million.
- From the Sydney Morning Herald, Nicky Phillips reports on Auckland Museum librarian Shaun Higgins' efforts to find the first mention on a map of the now-discovered-to-be-fictitious Sandy Island. He's found that it seems to have first appeared on a 1908 map (which indicates that it was discovered in 1876 by the crew of the whaling ship Velocity; an 1879 directory also contains information on the supposed island).
- Booktryst notes that a three-page Emily Dickinson letter will be up for sale at an 18 December Profiles In History auction.
- For your holiday gift list: Wittgenstein's copy of Tristram Shandy is for sale. [h/t David Armitage on Twitter]
- The December crocodile mystery is up at The Collation.
- Also new from the Folger Library, Folger Digital Texts, edited digital versions of Shakespeare's plays.
- From Rick Ring, word that Trinity College has acquired a collection of letters to add to their holdings of the papers of the publishing firm Roberts Brothers.
- At the Justin Croft Antiquarian Books blog, a look at a very attractive Edinburgh relief leather binding, found in Copenhagen and now back in Edinburgh at the National Library of Scotland.
- Heather Wolfe reports on the identification of a third Thomas Trevelyon manuscript, at University College Library.
- Over at the Rare Books @ Princeton blog, Steve Ferguson has found what is, perhaps, the earliest bookplate designed for a specific book collection within a library.
Reviews
- Digital resource The French Book Trade in Enlightenment Europe, 1769-1794, edited by Simon Burrows; review by Robert Darnton at Reviews in History.
- Karen Engelmann's The Stockholm Octavo; reviews by Susann Cokal in the NYTimes and Ron Charles in the WaPo.
- Robert Gottlieb's Great Expectations; review by Janet Maslin in the NYTimes.
- Joyce Chaplin's Round About the Earth; review by Carolyn Kellogg in the LATimes.
- Kevin Phillips' 1775: A Good Year for Revolution; review by Joseph Ellis in the NYTimes.
