Friday News: Ferguson’s library stands strong, rare Shakespeare volume found, how to tell if you’re in a Regency Romance, and temporary literary tattoos
Publishing Newsclassic literature / education / Libraries / rare books / Regency Romance / Shakespeare / tattoos5 Comments
Ferguson library stays open, attracts over $175,000 in grassroot support – In the aftermath of the Ferguson grand jury’s failure to indict Darren Wilson, there was a great deal to be angry and sad about. However, one place in Ferguson kept its doors open and its work going, and that was the Ferguson library, which its director, Scott Bonner, refers to as an “ad-hoc school,” because it serves as such when local schools are closed. In addition the many children and adult volunteers the library hosted in the wake of the grand jury’s announcement, the library also raised money that amounted to almost half its annual budget, a very bright spot in an otherwise awful civic landscape.
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The money donated so far adds up to almost half of the library’s annual budget of about $400,000, and Bonner said he hoped it would allow him to hire another full-time librarian to work with children and programming. The independent library, which has its own tax levy, serves about 21,000 residents with one full-time librarian (Bonner) and 12 part-time staff members. It relies heavily on volunteers to help with programs. –Saint Louis Post-Dispatch
Shakespeare Folio Discovered in France – The 233rd first Shakespeare folio was recently discovered at a library in northern France, in a discovery so rare that the scholar who flew from the University of Nevada, Reno to inspect it was even somewhat gobsmacked by the “magnificent” volume, which, unlike many first folios of Shakespeare’s work, was in extremely good condition. More, this copy is adding support to scholarly claims that Shakespeare was a secret Catholic, since there is now a direct link between his work and the Jesuit college network.
The folio, whose discovery was first reported by the regional French newspaper La Voix du Nord, is not the rarest book the St.-Omer library owns. It also has a Gutenberg Bible, of which fewer than 50 are known to survive.
But few books hold the first folio’s value — one was sold at Sotheby’s in 2006 for $5.2 million — or its mystique. It contains 36 plays, nearly all of Shakespeare’s output. Printed in a run of about 800 copies in 1623, seven years after the playwright’s death, it is considered the only reliable text for half of his plays. (No manuscripts of any Shakespeare plays survive.) –New York Times
How To Tell If You Are In a Regency Romance Novel – If you’re familiar with the series of ‘how to know if you’re in’ a certain type of story posts at The Toast, you may enjoy this one on the Regency Romance. One thing I love about these posts is that they do a great job of riding the line between satire and homage, and that combination is crucial if you don’t want to alienate the audience of readers you’re referencing. The whole list of 21 items is pretty hilarious, especially the ones dealing with what lies (and lays, heh) behind the bedroom door.
18. Despite having less sexual experience than a house fern, you fall into throes of ecstasy at your first encounter with your lover’s erect member/manhood/scepter. He deflowers you with the utmost tenderness and it’s the best sex anyone has ever had and you do it for hours and hours.
19. Your orgasms are like an explosion of Roman candles, or an impossibly sweet bouquet of roses blossoming, or a sunburst that launches you to the heavens and carries you blissfully back down to earth on golden wings. This goes on for pages, at the end of which your lover strokes your hair and calls you “Sweeting.” –The Toast
A collection of beautifully designed temporary literary tattoos – Want a tattoo memorializing your love of Jane Austen or Mary Shelley, but don’t want the pain, expense, and permanence of a regular tattoo? Although the collection is not yet very large, some of these temporary literary tattoos look pretty cool. I also wonder whether the Sherlock Holmes one had to be licensed by the estate, or whether it’s a rogue image. If it’s the latter I may have to get that one just on principle. –Litographs
I loved The Toast article – and the comments are fun, lots of requests for recommendations.
Powell’s also has a Ferguson Library wish-list; books purchased will be sent directly to the library. They have gone through their third list, but hopefully another will be put up in the next day or two.
Excellent news about the library in Ferguson after the grand jury’s decision not to indict DW based on unreliable witnesses who committed perjury and lack of physical scientific evidence. Those poor people who didn’t riot, burn, and steal need all the support they can get.
“Those poor people who didn’t riot, burn, and steal need all the support they can get.”
Can I draw your attention to this
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/11/guest-post-riots-racist
And suggest that people protesting (a very large number of justifiably angry and distressed people) should not be conflated with the much small number of people (some of whom were white troublemakers, and likely racists causing trouble) who caused property damage. I also draw your attention to the fact that in plenty of places, protesters were entirely peaceful despite intense provocation from authorities, and in many cases, stood to defend business owners from looting.
Making nice, safe distinctions between deserving and undeserving in this situation is not helpful. And since the library was acting as a safe haven for children, there’s no decent way to distinguish between deserving and undeserving there either.
@Love Romance:
When you state “unreliable witnesses who committed perjury and lack of physical scientific evidence” that may have occurred on both sides, where the police dept admitting allowing Darren Wilson to handle his own evidence (the gun, and I shouldn’t have to explain why that raises a red flag) as well as trained professionals admitting their dept couldn’t take crime scene photos because a camera battery died and also this response regarding the shooting distance (something that did prove to be crucial during the case, contrary to this statement):
“I got there, it was self-explanatory what happened,’’ said the investigator, whose name was not released, in his grand jury testimony. ‘‘Somebody shot somebody. There was no question as to any distances or anything of that nature at the time I was there.’’
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/26/us/ferguson-grand-jury-weighed-mass-of-evidence-much-of-it-conflicting.html?_r=0
i posted that link and quotes because I doubt if my lone opinion would be enough. I’ve also downloaded and gone over many of the documents that were released to the public. However, the NYTimes is not the only review of the evidence that at the very least, raises questions on the tactics of the prosecutor’s office and police. From challenging witnesses who didn’t line up with Wilson’s account:
““Basically just about everything that you said on Aug. 13, and much of what you said today, isn’t consistent with the physical evidence that we have in this case, O.K.?” – This statement is from one of the prosecutor’s speaking to a witness.
Yet those who matched Wilson’s story appear to have been given more credibility by both the Grand Jury and the questioning prosecutor. Please also keep in mind that Wilson’s account was never challenged, but then, this wasn’t supposed to be a court case, but simply a review to see if the case could move into the next phase.
I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t there. But I can understand why there are still protests, as this isn’t simply about Michael Brown’s murder. One can only hope that with time, the whole community of Ferguson will find a way to heal.