James H. Billington, an eminent American scholar of Russian culture who led the Library of Congress for three decades as librarian of Congress, died Nov. 20 at a hospital in Washington. He was 89. An advisor to President Reagan, a skilled fund-raiser for the library, and force unto himself, Billington propelling the expansion of the world’s […]
This Member Spotlight shines on J. B. Muns, proprietor of J. B. Muns Fine Arts Books in Berkeley, California. J. B. specializes in musical autographs and manuscripts. She shared the story of how she started out, how the field has changed, and what’s coming next with Manuscript Society President Al Ottens. Please tell us a […]
Rocky and Bullwinkle, Smurfette, Crusader Rabbit, and Scooby-Doo are cartoon favorites of millions of children. Not every child however, has the chance to meet the voices! Society member Kevin Segall shares his story of his first autographs. My First Autographs By Kevin Segall I was nine years old in 1983 when I went with my […]
The recent events at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania highlight the challenges of any public or private institution that houses manuscripts. The desire to allow patrons to see, touch, and read manuscripts, letters, books, maps and other parts of the collection is at the core of a library’s mission. Yet, there are always those […]
Applications are due February 14, 2019, and decisions will be announced shortly after March 17. The $5,000 grant supports research expenses directly related to use of original manuscripts such as travel to manuscript repositories, photocopies, and user fees. Applicants must be graduate students—doctoral candidates are given preference—at an institution that belongs to the Manuscript Society. […]
Cristanne Miller (University at Buffalo, SUNY) and Domhnall Mitchell (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) are preparing a new edition of Emily Dickinson’s complete letters, to be published by Harvard University Press. We are making new transcriptions of every letter (last transcribed and edited by Johnson and Ward in 1958). To insure greatest accuracy, we […]
In April 2018, the Society had it’s annual meeting in New Orleans. Along with the amazing architecture, history and music there is the food, wonderful, glorious food. One of the attendees, Susan Hecht, a self described non-foodie, shares her travels through the gastronomy of New Orleans. Follow the Food: Whereby a non-foodie recounts the annual […]