Tag: Books
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The Year in Books
This late-1921 article recapping the year in books predicted: “The average of fiction was but fair, and it is to be doubted if anything of lasting import appeared.” Well, now we know: nothing of lasting import appeared. Looking at the Publishers Weekly list of the 10 bestselling novels of 1921, as of this writing, only four […]
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Thirty Years of International Copyright
The Chace Act of 1891 gave copyright to non-U.S. works in return for international copyright protections for American authors. On the law’s 30th anniversray, Brander Matthews wrote that he considered the law a smashing success. It remains the least adequate [such law] now in force of any of the civilized nations; but, improvable as it […]
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Martin Van Buren’s Autobiography
Martin van Buren’s autobiography wasn’t published until 1920: 60 years after his death and 80 years after he was last president. That’s like if FDR’s or Herbert Hoover’s memoirs were only published now. 80 years ago in 1941, FDR was president. Excluding JFK, the president who died closest to 60 years ago (of natural causes) […]
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America’s Unwritten Novels
The mostly-forgotten novelist Coningsby Dawson, speculated in 1920 that America would have difficulty producing great novels moving forward. “I believe American novelists as a class to be the most unobservant and the least local in their affections. When I say local, I use that term in its best sense. Hardy and Kipling and Tolstoy and […]
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The Corner Where Traffic Cop and Fairies Meet
In 1919, Benjamin de Casseres described New York Public Library children’s section as a world apart from the hustle and bustle just outside its walls at 42nd St. and 5th Ave.: Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue… is, as we all know, right in the very heart of practical, jazzing, money-scrambling little old New York. Only, […]
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Classics Of Literature Censored By A Sing Sing Convict
These reviews of classic literature by a Sing Sing convict are great. One of the most unique documents ever written by a convict in Sing Sing has just come to light. It was intended for the yes of convicts only — for the readers of prison books — and is penned in a slang that […]
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Moving A Million Books Into The New Library
The worst thing about moving is all the books. They take much longer to pack than you think they will, they fill more boxes than you guess they will, and they’re a lot heavier than you remember them being. The last time I moved, I probably had a few hundred books that came with me. […]
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