November 23, 2010, Filed Under: Research + TeachingFellow uses astronomy collection to research novel John Pipkin, of Southwestern University and The University of Texas at Austin, discusses using the Herschel collection at the Ransom Center to conduct research for his forthcoming novel The Blind Astronomer’s Atlas. Pipkin’s research was funded by the C. P. Snow Memorial Fund and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Research… read more
November 18, 2010, Filed Under: UncategorizedAdditional Bernard Malamud letters, typescripts acquired by Ransom Center The Ransom Center recently acquired additional collection material for its Bernard Malamud collection, including 285 letters and 10 typescript stories from Malamud to his literary agent. This new collection complements the Center’s existing collection of Malamud papers. Malamud (1914–1986) was a novelist and short story writer, probably best known for… read more
November 16, 2010, Filed Under: Books + ManuscriptsThe Sweet Smell of Provenance Some books in the Ransom Center’s collections tell a story just by their smells. The Ransom Center’s Associate Director and Hobby Foundation Librarian Richard Oram and literary scholar Edward L. Bishop explain how a copy of Ulysses, which belonged to T. E. Lawrence, has a sweet, smoky scent that reveals… read more
November 9, 2010, Filed Under: Film, Theatre + Performing ArtsRonald McDonald swims to Cambodia: A first glimpse at Spalding Gray’s notebooks During the initial staff inspection of Spalding Gray’s papers at the Ransom Center some weeks ago, when each shipping carton was opened and its contents checked for condition, I passed my hands over multiple audio tapes, notebooks, and other documents marked with the single word “Swimming.” It had been around… read more
November 9, 2010, Filed Under: Theatre + Performing ArtsRansom Center acquires Spalding Gray archive The Ransom Center has acquired the archive of writer and actor Spalding Gray (1941–2004). Spanning more than 40 years, the archive traces the author’s career since the late 1970s, when Gray helped define a new era in theater where public and private life became an indivisible part of each new… read more
November 4, 2010, Filed Under: Research + Teaching‘What Every Girl Should Know’: The birth control movement in the 1910s Layne Craig, a lecturer in the Department of English at The University of Texas at Austin, recently used materials from the Ransom Center’s collections to supplement her class “Literature of the Birth Control Movement.” She writes about discoveries she made in the Center’s collections and how the materials were used… read more
