“The literary value, if I may say it, of this span of empty space on the page, which mentally separates groups of words or words themselves, is to periodically accelerate or slow the movement, the scansion, the sequence even, given one’s simultaneous view of the entirety of the page…” (Stéphane Mallarmé, “Observation Relative au Poème Un Coup de Dés jamais n’abolira le Hasard,” Cosmopolis, May 1897, p. 412 [trans.]) [Read more…] about Meticulous free verse: Mallarmé’s Un Coup de Dés and Ellsworth Kelly
George Macy’s illustrated editions of Charles Dickens’s Christmas classic
Between July 1937 and March 1938, Nonesuch Press—under the direction of George Macy—set out to publish what it billed as the most extensive collection yet made of Charles Dickens’s writings. It had already been an energetic few years. Macy founded the subscription-based Limited Editions Club in 1929, and the Heritage Press in 1935, before acquiring London-based Nonesuch Press in 1936. Nonesuch’s practice of teaming up a small hand press for design and commercial printers for production allowed for a wider circulation of its fine-press quality books. [Read more…] about George Macy’s illustrated editions of Charles Dickens’s Christmas classic
Exploring Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” in the Ransom Center’s collection
On January 6, 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered a powerful State of the Union address. In it the president explained his decision to supply arms and materials to the Allied war effort. Occurring 11 months prior to U.S. entry into World War II, Roosevelt’s speech described the support as a crucial reaction against the threat of a “new order of tyranny that seeks to spread over every continent today”—one that “the American people have set their faces unalterably against.” [Read more…] about Exploring Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” in the Ransom Center’s collection
