In May, the Ransom Center acquired two volumes of Ambrose’s Opera (or Works) in Latin. The edition was published in Basel in 1567. What is most compelling about these particular books, however, is less the writings of the Church Father, as such, and more their story as books. [Read more…] about A baroness and her bookshelves in an English parish church
Books + Manuscripts
Public has access to archive of Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro
The Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin holds the archive of novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, the recent recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature for 2017. [Read more…] about Public has access to archive of Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro
Coming out of the archives
Coming Out of the Archives is a selection of materials curated by students in my spring 2017 Queer Archives class. The materials can be seen in the Ransom Center’s Stories to Tell exhibition that features rotating highlights from the collections. [Editor’s note: the items are no longer on view, as the display cases have rotated] [Read more…] about Coming out of the archives
A nomad’s writing finds a home
Q&A with Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje began his career as a poet but is best known as the author of the 1992 Booker Prize-winning novel The English Patient, which was made into a critically-acclaimed motion picture. He was born in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) in 1943; he moved to Canada at age 18. [Read more…] about A nomad’s writing finds a home
Instructions for reading aloud in the Gutenberg Bible
As many readers of this blog will know, Johann Gutenberg and Johann Fust’s Biblia latina (Mainz, 1454–1455) represents the first substantial book printed from moveable type on a printing press. Without question, it is a milestone in information technology. And yet, it is important to remember that [Read more…] about Instructions for reading aloud in the Gutenberg Bible
The computer poetry of J. M. Coetzee’s early programming career
Writer J. M. Coetzee’s early poetry is almost undecipherable. That’s because it was written in computer code.
Coetzee’s global reputation rests on his literary output, for which he received a Nobel Prize in 2003. Before he embarked on a career as a scholar and writer, the South African–born writer was a computer programmer in the early years of the industry’s development (1962–1965). I believe that this experience, while short, was vital for the development of Coetzee’s writerly project. While visiting the Ransom Center on a research fellowship, I examined Coetzee’s papers, which offer tantalizing clues about his neglected “other career.” [Read more…] about The computer poetry of J. M. Coetzee’s early programming career
