In order to understand the Gutenberg Bible, it is critical to remember that it is a medieval book that was designed to satisfy the needs of medieval readers. Today, we expect pages in most books to be black and white. To navigate what we read, we rely on variations in typography, centered text, indents, and other creative uses of white space. [Read more…] about Printing manuscripts
Books + Manuscripts
Notebooks illuminate creative process behind Billy Collins’s poem “The Names”
This story originally appeared January 21, 2014.
Among the papers in the recently acquired Billy Collins archive are materials related to his poem “The Names,” which was written to commemorate the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Interspersed throughout the poem are the names of 26 victims of the attacks, one name for each letter of the alphabet, from “Ackerman” through “Ziminsky.” [Read more…] about Notebooks illuminate creative process behind Billy Collins’s poem “The Names”
Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient wins the Golden Man Booker Prize
Congratulations to Michael Ondaatje, whose 1992 novel The English Patient was awarded the Golden Man Booker Prize on Sunday, July 8. Ondaatje’s archive was recently acquired by the Harry Ransom Center and contains extensive materials relating to the award-winning novel. [Read more…] about Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient wins the Golden Man Booker Prize
Scholarship, time machines, and madness
by Beth Burns, Hidden Room Theatre Artistic Director
John Wilkes Booth’s promptbook for Richard III
“Ready trumpet. Boy ready with armor. Take time. More piano. Long flourish continued till discovery, next Sc. – and do not W Till Mr Booth is on stage.” [Read more…] about Scholarship, time machines, and madness
Interview with Ian McEwan
The Harry Ransom Center spoke with Ian McEwan in 2014 about archives, contemporary British fiction, science and the humanities, and where to find paradise on earth. McEwan’s archive is accessible at the Ransom Center. [Read more…] about Interview with Ian McEwan
Fellows Find: Multilingual readers in Shakespeare’s England
I visited the Harry Ransom Center last July to research bilingual and multilingual dictionaries, grammars, and language manuals printed in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. [Read more…] about Fellows Find: Multilingual readers in Shakespeare’s England