Manuscript Digest – October 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

For the Record
HuffPost, September 22, 2017
Word is that a Book of Mormon manuscript just sold for $35 million. That would beat the record $30.8 million Bill Gates paid for the Codex Leicester. Of course, there’s an asterisk.

Breakfast at …
National Jeweler, September 29, 2017
Little black dress. Big black sunglasses. Yes! Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Her script from the fabled film just fetched a fortune at auction. Who bought it? One guess.

Voynich Manuscript: Mystery Solved
Times Literary Supplement, September 5, 2017
The Voynich manuscript is an enigma and then some. Is it in code or …? One scholar said he’d found the elusive solution, and the venerable TLS gave him room to run with it.

Not So Fast: Medieval Scholars
The Atlantic, September 10, 2017
No sooner was the new Voynich theory out of the bag than a slew of others scholars pounced on its logic, its Latin, and its lean evidence. See some of the smackdowns.

Man With the Past
Village Voice, September 20, 2017
The story behind the Hamilton-Burr duel … New York’s lost burial ground … mysterious deaths among the world’s wealthiest tribe. Meet the man who knows their secrets.

Finding His Voice
New York Times, September 25, 2017
George Moses Horton lived in slavery and spoke in poetry. The poems he wrote made history. Now a long-lost essay in his hand has surfaced. What it says and what it means.

Zero Sum Game
The Guardian, September 13, 2017
We’ve just learned something about nothing. Those diminutive dots in an old text at the Bodleian Library? They grew up to be a big, fat zero. And they’re older than anyone thought.

The Beats Go On
New York Times, September 27, 2017
Neal Cassidy wrote a letter to Jack Kerouac, and the voice of the Beats was born. Or so Kerouac said. Then the letter was lost, found, misfiled, fought over, and now …

Spelunking in the Archives
Kansas City Star, September 20, 2017
Deep in the caves by Kansas City, the National Archives keeps tons of records. The Wright Brothers’ missing patent. JFK assassination artifacts. A KC reporter asked to have a look.

Words of War
Tampa Bay Newspapers, September 26, 2017
The Million Letters Campaign has a mission: collecting letters by veterans of every major American war from the Revolution on. Find out how it started and where it’s going.
Say Yes to NOLA

Manuscript Society Annual Meeting
April 18–22, 2018 · New Orleans
Celebrate the big 3-0-0 in a city that knows how to party. Go way down yonder to New Orleans for a special tricentennial tour with the Manuscript Society. It’s members-only, but no worries; joining is easy and affordable.

On the Menu
A taste of Victoriana: Cornell’s culinary trade card collection
> Bon appétit!

On the Screen
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library’s star turn
> Check it out