Maurice Sendak's Rare Book Collection is Subject of New Lawsuit
Source: NY Times Books
By CAROLYN KELLOGG
Maurice Sendak's books are the subject of a dispute between a museum and his executors
Maurice Sendak was the author of the beloved children's books "Where the Wild Things Are," "In the Night Kitchen," "Chicken Soup with Rice" and many more. The author and illustrator, who could be delightfully gruff (see his not-safe-for-work interview with Stephen Colbert), passed away in 2012 at age 84.
In his will, he directed his rare book collection and items of his personal work be gifted to the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia, and they haven't been, according to a lawsuit filed by the museum last week.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Sendak's relationship with the museum dates to the 1960s, when he began placing his work there on deposit. He was at times a board member and its honorary president. The museum presented dozens of shows of his work.
"According to the suit, the Sendak trustees have turned over fewer than half the hundreds of items in Sendak's rare-book collection," the Inquirer reports. "In fact, the estate has told the Rosenbach it had no intention of transferring ownership of several extremely valuable volumes by Peter Rabbit author Beatrix Potter because they are children's books, not rare books, the suit states. The Rosenbach calls that reasoning not only faulty but rife with irony: Sendak argued that divisions between adult and children's literature were invalid - in his work as well as that of others. He called Potter's works 'the literary equivalent of the greatest English prose writers that have lived.'"
The suit was filed in Connecticut, where Sendak lived. There are tentative plans to establish a museum and study center there. The Inquirer reports that many of the items left in the Rosenbach's care are intended to support that museum. "But his will directed the estate and Rosenbach to reach a deal whereby the museum would continue to display many items," the Inquirer writes, "Such a deal, long expected, has not been reached."
The lawsuit asks the probate court to compel individuals who overlap as executors of Sendak's estate and officers of the Maurice Sendak Foundation to carry out Sendak's wishes.
Sendak's executors have a Christie's auction scheduled for Jan. 21. The auction, titled "The World of Maurice Sendak: Artist, Author, Connoisseur," has not yet released the items to be offered for sale. Sendak's estate has said that none of the items in question will be auctioned.
Separately from its lawsuit, the museum has sought a court order barring the executors from transferring, disposing or distributing any books until the dispute is resolved.
www.abe.com has a signed first edition of Where the Wild Things Are offered for $13,500.00
One of the truly great sentences from literature
Source:: This World Like A Knife
From Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian: this sentence gave me a vision of literary godhood. It’s from the point of view of a bunch of ragged cowboys who have noticed a band of Comanches coming toward them from the distance. These cowboys (land pirates, really) are about meet near-total annihilation:
A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained weddingveil and some in headgear of cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or saber done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses’ ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse’s whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen’s faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of Christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools.
What about it folks? Does anyone have a "more literate" sentence to compare? Leave a comment if you do...
[Top]Theodore Low De Vinne - American printer and author on typography
Source: Wikipedia
Theodore Low De Vinne (December 25, 1828 – February 16, 1914) was an American printer and scholarly author on typography. De Vinne did much for the improvement of American printing.
Contents
Life and career
The De Vinne Press printers mark
Theodore L. De Vinne was born at Stamford, Connecticut, and educated in the common schools of the various towns where his father had pastorates. He developed the ability to be a printer while employed in a shop at Fishkill, New York. He worked at the Newburgh, New York Gazette, then moved to New York City. In 1849 he entered the establishment of Francis Hart, and worked there until 1883 when the business was renamed Theodore L. Devinne & Co. In 1886 he moved to a model plant designed by him on Lafayette Place, which still stands.
De Vinne either commissioned Linn Boyd Benton, or co-designed in conjunction with Benton, the hugely popular Century Roman typeface for use by The Century Magazine, which his firm printed. For use at his own press, he also commissioned Linotype to produce De Vinne, an updated Elzevir (or French Oldstyle) type, and the Bruce Typefoundry to produce Renner, a Venetian face. However, his biographer Irene Tichenor notes that De Vinne's private correspondence shows he was not closely involved with the design of "De Vinne" and he ultimately was somewhat unhappy with the type.
He was one of nine men who founded the Grolier Club, and he was printer to the Club for the first two decades of its existence. He was also a founder and the first president of the United Typothetae of America, a predecessor of the Printing Industries of America.
Works
A prolific author in the periodical printing trade press, De Vinne was also responsible for a number of books on the history and practice of printing. For years his publications ranked at the head of American presswork. His works include:
- The Invention of Printing (1876)
- An investigation of the claims of Laurens Coster to be inventor of printing with movable type, and awarding the honor to Gutenberg
- Historic Printing Types (1886)
- Plain Printing Types (1900) (The Practice of Typography, v.1)
- Correct Composition (1901) (The Practice of Typography, v. 2)
- A Treatise on Title-Pages (1902) (The Practice of Typography, v.3)
- A revision of his earlier Title Pages as seen by a Printer, published by the Grolier Club in 1901
- Modern Methods of Book Composition (1904) (The Practice of Typography, v.4)
- Notable Printers of Italy during the Fifteenth Century (1910)
See also
References
- Jump up ^ Irene Tichenor, No Craft without Art: The Life of Theodore Low De Vinne. (Boston: David R. Godine, 2002), pp. 106-109. ISBN 1567922864
- Jump up ^ Mac MacGrew, "American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century, Oak Knoll Books, New Castle Delaware, 1993. ISBN 0938768344
- Jump up ^ Tichenor, No Craft without Art, pp. 125-126.
On Today's Date 1843 Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol Was Published
1843 – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (pictured), a novella about the miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his conversion after being visited by three Christmas ghosts, was first published.
[Top]The Lovely Island of Sans Serriffe
Source: Wikipedia
San Serriffe is a fictional island nation created for April Fools' Day, 1977, by Britain's Guardian newspaper.[1] An elaborate description of the nation, using puns and plays on words relating to typography (such as "sans-serif" and names of common fonts), was reported as legitimate news. Because typographic terminology had not yet spread through widespread use of desktop publishing and word processing software, these jokes were easily missed by the general public, and many readers were fooled.
A seven-page hoax supplement appeared in The Guardian on 1 April 1977, published in the style of contemporary reviews of foreign countries, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the island's independence, complete with themed advertisements from major companies. The original idea was to place the island in the Atlantic Ocean near Tenerife, but because of the ground collision of two Boeing 747s there a few days before publication it was moved to the Indian Ocean, near the Seychelles Islands.
There is much more to this article plus follow up articles in the years since publication of the April fools edition.
You can read more about it: HERE
[Top]FRIENDS OF BRADBURY STAGE READ-IN Nov 13
FRIENDS OF BRADBURY STAGE READ-IN AS FUNDRAISER FOR MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION, PROVING THAT RUMORS OF THE DEATH OF BOOKS ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED
On November 13th, from noon until six o’clock in the evening at Mystery and Imagination Bookshop in Glendale, “Friends of Bradbury” evoke the spirit of the Sixties and light Ray Bradbury’s favorite bookstore on fire with their passion for books.
Visionaries like Bradbury foretold the future—and it is our today. However unwittingly, electronic data and devices like Kindle assume the role of Guy Montag in Bradbury’s iconic “Fahrenheit 451” and undermine the role of physical books in our culture. Believing ourselves powerless, we stand by and watch our neighborhood bookstores topple.
You have heard the warnings: The bound book is dead or dying! Let us not prove the doomsayers right. Come join the Friends of Bradbury, and show that we will not take this lying down. The marathon read-in will be an all-day happening, as many special guests raise their voices, channel Ray Bradbury, and demonstrate the power that resides in books by great authors, many of which can be found for sale at the Glendale bookstore.
The November 13th event will be a tribute to Ray Bradbury, a benefit for Mystery and Imagination Bookshop in Glendale, and a call to arms for all who love to hold a book in their hands and spend an afternoon treasure-hunting the aisles of their favorite local bookseller. More than anything, the day will serve as a clarion call—let all who love and collect books speak out against the death of books by continuing to support your local bookstore. The bound book will only die if we stand by passively and watch.
All readings will be recorded and sold at Mystery and Imagination Bookstore in Glendale , and all proceeds thereof will be divided between the bookstore and Mr. Bradbury himself. Given his remarkable longevity, Ray Bradbury is frail of health, and does not get out as often as he would like, so his attendance is not expected. The event is being produced by celebrated writer of books, teleplays, and screenplays, George Clayton Johnson—Ray Bradbury’s dear friend and co-author of Icarus Montgolfier Wright, their Academy Award nominated short film.
For More Information, Contact:
Mystery and Imagination Bookshop
238 N. Brand Blvd.
Glendale , CA. 91203
818-545-0206
Rare $15,000 Harry Potter Defeats Dante’s Inferno In London
From Paul Frazer Collectibles - a great resource for all things collectible:
Dark forces were at work at Bloomsbury’s auction, featuring works by Dante and J K Rowling
Bloomsbury's sale of rare books last Thursday May 13 (English & Continental Literature, History and other Antiquarian Books; Modern First Editions) took on a surprisingly dark side with witchcraft and hell showing a hold over the sale.
Or at least that might be the interpretation of some, as the two books which proved most covetable to the assembled audience, separated by several centuries and much else, were first editions of a work by Dante and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
The best performer of the sale was certainly the first edition, first issue of the small format version of DivinaCommedia, Le Terze Rime (The Inferno). The issue was bound with 18th century vellum over boards, spine with blind-stamped compartments and a dark green gilt leather label, lightly soiled.
Dante's Divine Comedy
The copy includes the error of displaying Dante's second name as 'Alaghieri' (rather than Alighieri) on the verso of sub-title. It was previously the property of Joseph Smith, British Consul at Venice (1744-1760) who had a great passion for collecting rare books and manuscripts and printed lavish, limited edition books himself.
Estimated at £3,000-4,000, the work sold for £9,760.
The top lot for the sale however was a rare hard cover edition of J K Rowling's classic Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Only a few hundred of these were ever released and, as these were intended for libraries, most are in a somewhat dilapidated condition.
Not only does the copy sold at Bloomsbury not have any but the most trivial wear-and-tear marks, but it also escaped the usual library markings, pocketing and stamps. It was given a guide price of £12,000-18,000, and sold for £14,640 to a delighted collector.
Potter fans may wish to know that a first edition of The Philosopher's Stone, signed by J K Rowling, is currently available, as is a rare, unpublished work by her.
