Pictures of Poets

 Joseph Brodsky

The Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the University of Pennsylvania has digitized and made available over 2,000 photographs of poets that originally appeared in the pages of the American Poetry Review between 1971-1998.

Anne Sexton

Though many poets pictured have faded a bit from view and are worthy of a 'Where Are They Now' segment the archive is still packed with a plethora of "A" list poets of the last quarter-century.

Hayden Carruth

There are also multiple shots of a number of poets, like Hayden Carruth above, that offers one a peek at  poets at different stages of their career.

Carolyn Forche

Clearly a tremendous resource and one in which you can easily get lost.

Thanks to harriet the blog of the Poetry Foundation for the lead

Haiku by the Road

 Roadside Haiku by John Morse is a series of 10 original haiku’s created by Morse and printed on bandit signs.

50 signs for each haiku were created and were placed along the various well-traveled roadways in Atlanta.

“Morse transforms the familiar bandit sign into a delivery device for poetic snapshots of the urban condition presented and consumed within the brief seconds of stop and go traffic.”

Roadside Haiku is the latest from Flux Projects: "An organization supporting artists in creating innovative temporary public art throughout Atlanta. The organization produces new platforms for artistic experimentation that engage a broad  audience in their daily lives, beyond the walls of traditional arts venues."

Google Map of where the signs are located 

Thanks to Neatorama for the lead

A Landmark in Book Design

In 1834 John Murray published  Bubbles from the Brunnens of Nassau. It was the first cloth-bound book ever published with a full pictorial cover.

In his book The Collector’s Book of Books Eric Quayle says:

“By 1834 the battle was won, and it was then that the first fully cloth-bound book appeared which featured pictorial covers. This was a landmark in book design, and must have caused a considerable stir in the publishing world. The idea seems to have been the brain-child of the author, the eccentric Sir Francis Bond Head."

The image above comes from Princeton University's recently acquired copy of the first edition. Interestingly enough, their copy is in full vellum and not cloth leading me to wonder if it also the first book bound in vellum that sports a full pictorial cover.

It's a Book and the first annual Unplug Day

A mouse, a jackass, and a monkey walk into a bookstore....

Well not really, but Lane Smith's latest book, It's a Book, features these three characters grappling with the ever-changing world of books and technology.

The publisher calls it "a delightful manifesto on behalf of print in the digital age" and it is a welcome addition to the p vs. e debate.



To celebrate the release of the book, Macmillan has created the first annual Unplug Day and is urging everyone on August 31st to "unplug. unwind. recharge. read a book!"

click to enlarge

 I'm in.

Facebook group for Unplug Day

Church Plans on Burning the Qur'an on 9/11

 Here they go again.

This time it is the Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville, Florida who have declared 9/11, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, "International Burn a Koran Day."

Outside of the guaranteed publicity, The Dove World Outreach Center supplies these ten reasons on why burning the Qur'an is a righteous act. The Church also offers "free shelter and food for women who want to escape from Islam."

Their request for a permit to hold the book-burning has been denied by local fire officials but the church still plans on proceeding. In an email to followers the church proclaimed : "City of Gainesville denies burn permit -- BUT WE WILL STILL BURN KORANS," 

There is no word yet if they are affiliated with the Amazing Grace Baptist Church of Canton, North Carolina who held last year's Halloween Book Burning fiasco.

Article in the Gainesville Sun, Dove World told it can't burn Qurans

Facebook page for  "International Burn a Koran Day"

For more on the leading role religion has played in the death of books I would suggest picking up a copy of  Fernando Báez's seminal book A Universal History of the Destruction of Books which has just been released in paperback by Atlas & Co.

Previously on Book Patrol
A Halloween Book Burning: Only God's Word Will Survive
About That Halloween Book Burning
Church Releases Video of Halloween Book Burning
Thoughts on the Book Pyro
Act 2: Kansas City Book Pyro Ignites Another Batch
The Chinese Book Burner and the Great Wall of Books 
Burning Books to Stay Warm 
Digital Book Burning 

Image via

The Library of America Goes Wordless: The Novels of Lynd Ward

In what just might be one of the publishing surprises and hi-spots of 2010, The Library of America will release a 2 volume boxed set featuring the six woodcut novels of Lynd Ward.

God's Man, Ward's first book published on the eve of the stock market collapse of 1929, was the first wordless book-length novel to be published in the United States. By the end of 1937 Ward would publish five more novels in woodcuts:

 Madman's Drum (1930) 
Wild Pilgrimage (1932) 
Prelude to a Million Years (1933) 
Song Without Words (1936)
Vertigo (1937)

If one is looking for the origins of the graphic novel in the United States one must begin with Ward. His work has influenced a generation of artists, poets and illustrators and continues to inspire those seeking justice and equality for all.

The Library of America edition is edited by Art Spiegelman who also contributes an essay "Reading Pictures." The edition also includes nine essays by or about Ward. All the images reproduced are taken from prints pulled from the original woodblocks or first-generation electrotypes.

Though due out in October, you can pre-order the set at the Library of America website. They are currently offering 20% off and free shipping.

And don't forget the Library of America offers you the tax-deductible opportunity to buy this important book and gift it to a library of your choice.

GPS Meets Ayn Rand

Nick Newcomen really likes Ayn Rand. He believes that if "more people would read her books and take her ideas seriously, the country and world would be a better place - freer, more prosperous and we would have a more optimistic view of the future."

So what did he do to let the world know?

He drove 12,238 miles, across 30 states, using a GPS logger (Qstarz BT-Q1000X) to "ink" the message. He began his trip in Marshall, Texas, and he turned on the device when he wanted to write a letter and turned off the device between letters. The recorded GPS data was loaded into Google Earth to produce the image above.

"The first word I wrote actually was the word ‘Rand', then I went up North to do the word ‘Read' and finished it with ‘Ayn,'" says Newcomen.

Story at Gizmodo, Man Scrawls World’s Biggest Message with a GPS ‘Pen’

Thanks to @brainpicker for the lead