On National Bookmobile Day, the American Library Association celebrates the 930 bookmobiles in the United States that provide library services to their communities, an important form of library outreach that has been ongoing for more than 100 years. [Read more…] about Parnassus on Wheels
On survival and freedom in 1958 America: Mike Wallace and Reinhold Niebuhr
In April 1958, the American Broadcast Company (ABC) began a special 13-part series of The Mike Wallace Interview devoted to “discussing the problems of survival and freedom in America.” Wallace’s first guest in the series was Reinhold Niebuhr, who Wallace introduced as “a Protestant minister, one of the most important and challenging religious thinkers in the world.” [Read more…] about On survival and freedom in 1958 America: Mike Wallace and Reinhold Niebuhr
A newly identified work by writer and poet Fenton Johnson
In the midst of research for The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door exhibition, my former colleague Molly Schwartzburg alerted me to an unpublished manuscript she had located in the collection of writer and editor Christopher Morley (known today for his novel Parnassus on Wheels and his work on the editorial board of the Book-of-the-Month Club). [Read more…] about A newly identified work by writer and poet Fenton Johnson
Frederick Douglass and the Mass Meeting for Civil Rights
February 20, 2017, marks the 122nd anniversary of Frederick Douglass’s death. Douglass (1818–1895), an abolitionist and activist for civil rights, was a gifted writer and orator. [Read more…] about Frederick Douglass and the Mass Meeting for Civil Rights
Claude McKay and “The White House”
This February saw the release of a previously unpublished Claude McKay novel, Amiable with Big Teeth (Penguin Classics). [Read more…] about Claude McKay and “The White House”
A young Lewis Carroll, “musing on milk” and “reasoning on rubbish”
Through its digital collections portal, the Harry Ransom Center has made available a remarkable example of juvenilia from its Charles Lutwidge Dodgson collection. [Read more…] about A young Lewis Carroll, “musing on milk” and “reasoning on rubbish”