Manuscript Digest – June 2020 – 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

Double Dealer
New York Post, May 2, 2020
Forgery. Arson. Stolen property. Rare book dealer John Jenkins lived quite a life. He died the same way. A new book by the Manuscript Society’s Michael Vinson tells the tale.

The Papyrus Trail
The Atlantic, June 2020
Was the piece of papyrus a fragment of a first-century gospel? Or part of a scandal that’s swept in scholars and collections on both sides of the pond?

Back from the Dead
Smithsonianmag.com, May 18, 2020
They were supposed to be blank. Tiny bits of the Dead Sea Scrolls tucked away in library storage. Then a sharp-eyed scholar saw the shadow of a letter.

Paper Thin
New York Times, May 5, 2020
When old paper needs big help, who you gonna call? Paper conservators go to a papermaker in Japan. Discover its secrets of making the thinnest paper on the planet.

Incendiary Topic
Sydney Morning Herald, May 29, 2020
Virgil. Proust. Kafka. All gave instructions for their papers to be burned. Not everyone listened. What was saved, what was lost, and who has the last word on a writer’s work?

O Say Can You See …
New York Times, May 28, 2020
… that bid and raise it? The first dated printing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” is up for auction. Why the American Antiquarian Society put this copy on the block.

Focus on the Opticks
Daily Mail, May 29, 2020
One of 180 copies of Newton’s treatise on light is going under the hammer. It’s even inscribed. By the author. To a friend. In Latin. And it’s pegged to go for a mere …

Paris Match Book
Hyperallergic, May 12, 2020
A French journalist bought a vintage Hermès pocket diary on eBay. The names jotted in looked familiar. Breton. Chagall. Balthus. Who would have known all those artists?

Book Value
What Investment, May 27, 2020
Rare books: passion or investment … or both? A London book dealer gives his two cents, er, pence, on buying, securing, and insuring titles you won’t find in the remainders bin.

Zooming In
Inc., May 6, 2020
The pandemic shutdown has opened up a new line of business for an old Boston shop: supplying curated titles to line the bookshelves of execs on video calls. Look smart!

From Our Blog

Colonists, Citizens, Constitutions — Gone Virtual

From the start, Americans saw the importance of putting their rights in writing. That idea is at the heart of an exhibition at the New-York Historical Society. The coronavirus may have closed its doors, but the show goes on, complete with a virtual tour and curator commentary. Explore the exhibits, all from the collection of Manuscript Society member Dorothy Tapper Goldman.
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Book Talk: Booksellers talk shop in a short film on lexical lingo > Watch

New at the Beinecke: Check out the latest in Yale’s digital RBML > See