Sunday, July 08, 2007

Links & Reviews

- The Patriot-News reports on some upcoming Audubon festivities in Pennsylvania, including a 17 July sneak preview of PBS' American Masters episode "John James Audubon: Drawn from Nature", which will premiere nationally on 28 July (9 p.m.). The Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art in Millersburg will host the early viewing, to complement their ongoing exhibit "The Mysterious John James Audubon," which runs until 29 September.

- Paul Collins was on NPR's "Weekend Edition" yesterday discussing the novels of John Philip Sousa (yup, that Sousa). He's got more on the subject here at Weekend Stubble.

- Tim points out "A Hipper Crowd of Shushers" in today's New York Times, about a group of young librarians in New York City.

- Sarah Schweitzer reports in the Boston Globe on a new translation of a firsthand account of Lafayette's visit to America in 1824-1825.

- Nigel offers part two of his series on celebrity book collectors: today's profiles include Madonna, Keith Richards, Richard Attenborough, and Jay Leno.

- From BibliOdyssey, illustrations from the 1690 work Magnetologia Curiousa, and a collection of Jean le Pautre ornamentation engravings from the 1750s.

- Lincoln's Melancholy author Joshua Wolf Shenk reviews Ferguson's Land of Lincoln in the NYTimes. Also in the Times, Christopher Caldwell comments on two recent Tocqueville books: Hugh Brogan's Alexis de Tocqueville (my review here) and Joseph Epstein's shorter biography of the same name.

- Other reviews: Michael Harris on Andro Linklater's The Fabric of America in the LATimes; Randy Dotinga on John Ferling's Almost a Miracle in the CSMonitor; Desmond Bryant on Michael Stephenson's Patriot Battles in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

- Michael Lieberman comments on the premiere of "The Hollywood Librarian" at the recent ALA conference in D.C., as well as the rather unorthodox distribution plan for the film.

- LibraryThing recently hit another milestone, passing Harvard's book count. A celebratory bash is planned for 28 July in Cambridge.

- A new film, "William and Miguel," speculates that Shakespeare and Cervantes met during their lifetimes. The producer says of the film "Our story is something of a fiction based on facts, but it certainly could have happened."