If you read or collect modernist literature or focus on the early twentieth century in any capacity, you’ve likely heard of the Hogarth Press. While the press is still in operation today after a relaunch of sorts in 2011, it originally operated from 1917 until 1946. As you might already know, novelist and writer extraordinaire Virginia Woolf established the Hogarth Press with her husband, Leonard Woolf, in 1917 to publish great works of modernism by writers of the time.
There are many places to shop for rare books in the United States, and rare book collectors often think about major cities and urban areas where antiquarian bookstores are open for browsing and antiquarian book fairs come to town annually. Yet there are also many smaller towns and cities across the country that can be exciting locations for rare book shopping. We want to introduce you to used and rare bookstores, as well as special collections libraries, in some of America’s best-loved college towns.
With hundreds of years of literary canon under its belt, horror literature is more popular now than ever before. Numerous subgenres, such as psychological horror, gothic fiction, and supernatural horror, there are all kinds of terrors to explore. Horror fiction finds its roots in religious stories and folklore in which death, the afterlife, and evil often transpose these concepts onto people or creatures, thereby creating many of the core tenets of horror today, like witches, monsters, ghosts, and other such staples. These creatures and spirits appear in classical Greek and Roman texts. Gothic fiction arose in the 18th century with classic books like The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. Horror as we know it took off in 19th-century fiction with the popularity of novels and novellas like Frankenstein by Mary Shelly, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, generating a buzz around the budding genre. Horror fiction exploded in the 20th century, gaining new traction with the advent of motion pictures and has become an enduring staple of modern collections thanks to popular writers such as Stephen King and Anne Rice. Let's take a look at a compilation of terrifying quotes from the best books throughout the history of horror:
Certain presses might automatically come to mind when you’re thinking about book collecting, such as Virginia and Leonard Woolf's Hogarth Press in England, Shakespeare and Company in Paris, or Losada in Buenos Aires. Larger presses also published some of the great works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Yet we rarely think about academic press books when discussing collectible or rare books.
William Shakespeare is arguably the most influential playwright in the English canon. Born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, he moved to London sometime in the 1580s, where he began a career as an actor and eventual playwright. Most of his works were performed between 1590 and 1630, after which he returned home and passed away at forty-nine. Shakespeare's career spanned histories, comedies, tragedies, and poems that not only captured the imagination of the common folk but also two different monarchs: Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. His works have inspired generations of writers not just in theme, but that's not the only impact of his work. Shakespeare is credited with coining hundreds of phrases still part of the English language today. Join us as we take a look at the origin of some of the common Shakespeare phrases you've likely heard or even used recently:
Are you thinking about making a life change in 2022? Whether you’re planning to change jobs or careers, or you’re simply considering that makeover you’ve been putting off for years or decades, now is the time to find yourself anew. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that life is short, and everyone’s time is limited. So why not make the best of it by being the version of yourself you’ve always been seeking? Let’s get the New Year started the right way, literature-wise, with some of the best works of fiction about making a life change. We want to be clear: these aren’t a list of self-help books, or a list of how-to books designed to help you choose a career. Rather, they’re works of literary fiction in which one or more of the characters takes the possibilities of a new year and a new start to heart, for better or for worse.
Janet Evanovich was born in South River, New Jersey in 1943. Evanovich has become a household name thanks to her much beloved adventure series featuring bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. A prolific writer, she has published over sixty novels, many of which have topped the New York Times Best Sellers list. Her novels are published all over the world and have been translated into more than 40 languages. In celebration of this writer's amazing career, here are five things you might not know about one of America's most loved adventure novelists.
March 2 marks the birthday of legendary children's author and illustrator Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. Check out this collection of articles about Geisel's background, influences, and evolutio.
Winter is one of the best times of year to curl up with a good book. The nights are longer, darker, and colder, and many of us spent the winter months inside trying to keep warm and turning to indoor forms of entertainment. There's just something comforting about a winter evening spent under a blanket while it's snowing outside. The following books all have something to say about the quieter, colder part of the year. If you're like me and want to spend the winter reading, let this list of some of the best literary quotes about winter serve as a potential reading list as you decide which books you'll cozy up to this year:
Let’s say you found a rare book you want to add to your collection, and the bookseller’s description says it has a bookplate. You might be wondering precisely what a bookplate is, whether it is a newer addition to the book, and how it affects the value. These are all good questions, and there’s not a single answer to any of those inquiries. In all cases where a book contains a bookplate, it depends. We’ll give you some basic information about bookplates to help you understand how these additions to books came to be and how they can affect the value of an object. We’ll also tell you a little bit more about sources for discovering new information about bookplates if you get particularly interested. In the end, you could decide to establish an entire rare book collection around the bookplate, seeking out objects that contain them or seeking out the bookplates themselves.
