Our monthly roundup of the stories bibliophiles are reading, sharing, and discussing.

 

Kenneth Karmiole Establishes Research Fellowship at UCSB

ABAA_member Kenneth Karmiole has established the Kenneth Karmiole Endowed Research Fellowship, which will support scholars working with primary resource materials and rare books in the University of California Santa Barbara Library. 

 

How a rare Revolutionary War-era document ended up in Utah

“Who knows what’s in anybody’s garage, right?” Read more...

 

2018 Pulitzer Prizes

Andrew Sean Greer won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel Less; Caroline Fraser won the Biography Price for her biography of Laura Ingalls WIlder, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder; and Frank Bidart won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his volume of Collected Poems, Half-light. Read about all the winners here...

 

Police Recover "Potentially Stolen" Rare Books

Here's a minor literary mystery that some book collectors might be able to help the Welsh police with. During a separate investigation, police found an old suitcase containing some "potentially rare" Victorian books and jewelry. The books, including a Bible and a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, were dedicated to a "Mary Elizabeth Taylor" and carried dates between 1892 and 1894. Anyone with any insight into the rightful owner should contact North Wales Police.

 

Bromer Booksellers Temporarily Relocates

If you are book-hunting in Boston, be advised that ABAA-member Bromer Booksellers have temporarily moved upstairs to the 6th floor of 607 Boylston Street while their usual home on the second floor undergoes rennovations. 

 

Copyrighted Works to Resume Entering the Public Domain in 2019

The annual expiration of copyrights resumes in 2019, after copyrights were granted a 20-year extension in 1998 by Congress (barring any new last-minute legislation, of course). Among the books entering the public domain will be Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Jean Toomer's Cane, and Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. Whether or not Hollywood producers are lining up to turn any of these into blockbuster franchises anytime soon is a question on which we can shed no light...

 

The National Collegiate Book Collection Contest is Now Accepting Entries

Established in 2005 to recognize outstanding book collecting efforts by college and university students, the contest aims to encourage young collectors to become accomplished bibliophiles. Deadline: June 1, 2018. Full details here... 

 

The Honey & Wax Book Collecting Contest is Also Accepting Entries

This contest is open to women book collectors in the United States, aged 30 or younger. Deadline: June 1, 2018. Full details here...

 

Tiny Books Collection at University of Iowa Has volumes Smaller Than an Inch

The Iowa City Press Citizen gets excited by miniature books!

 

Illicit Love Letters: Albert Camus and Maria Casares

In the Paris Review, Stephanie LaCava writes about a mammoth collection of "original letters, postcards, and telegrams sent between the French philosopher and writer Albert Camus and the Spanish French actress Maria Casares between 1944 and 1959" recently published in France.

 

Glorious Bookishness

And finally, the Director of the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, Michael F. Suarez, S.J., recently gave a talk at TEDx Charlottesville about how and why we should judge a book by its cover...