Manuscript Digest – July 2017 – This complimentary e-digest, launched in 2012, covers significant acquisitions and sales, manuscripts lost and found, rare books and ephemera, document conservation, and more.

In the News

Lincoln Melodrama: Intermission
Illinois Times, June 15, 2017
Intrigue. Innuendo. The drama continues in the Papers of Abraham Lincoln Project. Now the search for material at the National Archives is on hold. The next act is anyone’s guess.

The Smoking Gun
Las Cruces Sun-News, June 16, 2017
Found in New Mexico county records: the death report that IDs the man who shot the man who shot Billy the Kid. Also in the sights: a land contract that may have triggered the killing.

The Pittsburgh Inquirer
Trib Live, June 6, 2017
Inquiring minds want to know. What were the records of Pittsburgh’s earliest years doing in Philadelphia? It’s an open question, but Steel City’s new archivist has forged a solution.

Abfab Find
The Guardian, June 3, 2017
For A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess created his own slang-uage. Then he started a real slang dictionary. The lost draft has finally been uncovered. So to speak.

Biblio-Italiano
New York Times, June 13, 2017
If Michelangelo designed a library, what would it look like? That’s just one of the wonders to discover on this tour through six historic biblioteche.

In Dublin’s Fair City …
Irish Times, June 1, 2017
The Book of Kells isn’t the only game in town. Four other rare manuscripts, freshly restored, are all on view at Trinity College. Competition? Call it the illumination round.

Grisham Meets Gatsby
NPR, June 4, 2017
John Grisham’s latest is a novel about one-columna manuscript heist — F. Scott Fitzgerald’s manuscripts. What would it take to break them out of Princeton? Is Grisham telling?

Fake (Autograph) News
KGTV, June 7, 2017
A new law was supposed to protect Californians against fake autographs. Instead, it’s a headache for bookstores and autograph dealers. Why they’re saying, “Give me rewrite!”

The Covfefe Quandary
Time, June 12, 2017
Remember Trump’s late-night — and later deleted — tweet about “negative press covfefe”? It’s spurring an act that could put a new onus on POTUS posts.

Score!
Cleveland.com, June 15, 2017
Heading to the ballpark this summer? An autograph collector gives 13 tips for scoring signatures at sports events.

Road Trip
Top 10 museums in Street View
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