Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 Dec 1865 - 18 Jan 1936) died in England at the age of 70, the most famous and highly paid writer of his time. Born to Victorian parents who named him after Staffordshire's Rudyard Lake, Kipling split his boyhood between the markets of Bombay India and an abusive English foster home. His life of travel and tragedy led to two near nervous breakdowns, but made his creative work accessible to both the aristocracy and the everyman.
The Nobel Prize in literature has had an interesting and often controversial history since first awarding the prize in 1901. The year 1964 is perhaps one of the more intriguing stories of the Swedish Academy’s tradition.
Excitement has been building about this year's Nobel Prize in Literature! The winner is traditionally announced the second week of October. The Nobel Prize is certainly the most prestigious award in literature, and it's been conferred on the world's best authors since 1901.
This week we celebrated the birthday of Henry Graham Greene. The playwright, explorer, poet, and spy was above all one of the most widely read novelists of the 20th century. He wrote 24 novels, nearly all of which were adapted to film. His works include The Heart of the Matter, The Power and the Glory, Brighton Rock, and The End of the Affair. Despite several nominations, Greene never won the Nobel Prize.
On October 1, American author Tom Clancy passed away in Baltimore, Maryland. Renowned for his ability to create stories from the raw material of real-life conflict, Clancy was one of the few authors who built a multi-media empire. Clancy's books found their way into film, television, and even video games.
The field of Americana is incredibly wide, spanning not only multiple centuries, but also the entire Western Hemisphere. For the rare book collector who wishes to specialize in Americana, this means that the first step is choosing an area of specialization (discussed in Part One). Then you can start building your collection around that focus. A meaningful, valuable collection of Americana often has multiple layers: primary sources, secondary sources, and bibliographical materials.
The term "Americana" can seem a nebulous one, especially to new rare book collectors. It encompasses much more than simply American history; experts often define Americana as any written items produced in the Western hemisphere from the time that Columbus and his contemporaries arrived in the Americas. So if the term "Americana" applies to books, manuscripts, and ephemera produced over the course of nearly six centuries, over multiple continents, where the heck should a collector begin?!?
On September 25, 1897, William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi. Despite lacking both college degree and high school diploma, Faulkner established himself as one of America's preeminent authors. The Nobel laureate's life holds a few surprises for most of his readers.
You might have seen it with our earlier blog posting today:cour blog format has changed! We'd like to hope it improved, though a couple of little bugs are still being worked out.
Set your notification frequency - You now can determine how often and in which format you want to get our blog postings. You can select those in the top right area of our blog, "Notification Frequency":
"From the first, second, third, and fourth editions, all sound and sane expressions of opinion must be left out. There may be a market for that kind of wares a century from now. There is no hurry. Wait and see."
- Mark Twain, to his editors (1906)
The much awaited second volume of The Autobiography of Mark Twain was released this week.. The autobiography offers a new--and often surprising--view of Mark Twain, often called the most American of American authors.
