Alison K. Frazier, Editor
The Saint between Manuscript and Print in Italy, 1400–1600
University of Toronto Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, July 2015
The 12 essays in this volume identify mutually interactive developments in media and saints’ cults at a time and in a place when both underwent profound change. Focusing on the Italian peninsula between 1400 and 1600, authors analyze specific sites of intense cultural production and innovation. The volume invites further study of saints of all sorts—canonized, popularly recognized, or self-proclaimed—in the fluid media environment of early modernity.
In preparing this book, Frazier consulted the incunables and early books and manuscripts collections at the Ransom Center.
David AttwellJ. M. Coetzee and the Life of Writing: Face to Face with Time
J. M. Coetzee is one of the world’s most intriguing authors. Compelling, razor-sharp, erudite: the adjectives pile up, but the heart of the fiction remains elusive. Attwell explores the extraordinary creative processes behind Coetzee’s novels from Dusklands to The Childhood of Jesus. Using Coetzee’s manuscripts, notebooks, and research papers, Attwell produces a fascinating story. He shows convincingly that Coetzee’s work is strongly autobiographical, the memoirs being continuous with the fictions, and that his writing proceeds with never-ending self-reflection.
In preparing this book, Attwell consulted the J. M. Coetzee papers at the Ransom Center.
Barry Day, EditorWorld of Raymond Chandler
This book shows how Raymond Chandler precariously balanced the values of a classical English education against those of a fast-evolving America during the years before the Great War; how he adopted Los Angeles as his home after WWI, with Hollywood in turn adopting him (and adapting his works); how his detective hero and alter ego Philip Marlowe evolved over the years; and, above all, what it is to be a writer, and in particular one writing in the “other language” of hardboiled fiction. Day deftly interweaves images and text, using quotations from Chandler’s novels, short stories, letters, and interviews, to craft a unique portrait of the mystery writer’s life and times.
In preparing this book, Day consulted the Alfred Knopf, Inc. photographs and records at the Ransom Center.
Scottish Photography: The First Thirty Years
This lavishly illustrated book discusses the relationship between art, science, and technology, which, around 1840, laid a fertile groundwork for photography to flourish in Scotland. It looks at the early professionals including David Octavius Hill, Robert Adamson, James Valentine, and George Washington Wilson, plus practitioners not previously mentioned in any publication, as well as more radical photographers such as Thomas Annan in Glasgow and William Carrick in Russia, and the visit to Edinburgh of the controversial Oscar Rejlander. Julia Margaret Cameron’s encounter with Scotland is also described, as is the work of Scottish photographers abroad visiting Europe and the Near East and those who went further afield in the service of the Empire.
In preparing this book, Stevenson and Morrison-Low consulted photographs of David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson in the Ransom Center’s Gernsheim collection. Stevenson’s research was supported by a David Douglas Duncan Endowment for Photojournalism fellowship from the Ransom Center.
Sara KosibaIntroduction to reissue of John Herrmann’s What Happens (1926)
Originally published in France in 1926 and seized by U.S. Customs for violating the 1922 Tariff Act, which banned the importing of obscene materials from foreign countries, the novel has never been published in the United States—until now. What Happens tells the coming-of-age story of Winfield Payne, a young man from a wealthy Michigan family. Winfield’s struggles to make his way in the world are complicated by his awakening sexuality and fickle affections.
In preparing this book, Kosiba consulted the John Herrmann collection and Morris Leopold Ernst papers. Her research was supported by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Research Fellowship from the Ransom Center.
John BidwellGraphic Passion: Matisse and the Book Arts
A pioneering member of the Fauves, a supreme colorist, a remarkable draftsman, and a creative genius: this is the Henri Matisse known and admired by many with even a passing interest in modern art. But few know Matisse as an artist who designed and illustrated his own books. Graphic Passion recounts the publication history of nearly 50 books illustrated by Matisse. Drawing on unpublished correspondence and business documents, it contains new information about his illustration methods, typographic precepts, literary sensibilities, and staunch opinions about the role of the artist in the publication process.
In preparing this book, Bidwell consulted the Ransom Center’s rare book, Carlton Lake, George Macy Companies, Inc., and Limited Editions Club collections. His research was supported by a Limited Editions Club Endowment fellowship from the Ransom Center.