While doing research in the John Herrmann collection during her fellowship at the Ransom Center, Sara Kosiba found a manuscript of an unpublished 1925 novel. Titled Foreign Born, it tells the story of Ernst Weiman, a German immigrant living in the fictional town of Fairbanks, Michigan during World War I. [Read more…] about A novel discovery
war
Poetry and War: A Reading and Conversation
Commemorate World Poetry Day with a reading and conversation between two award-winning contemporary poets whose lives and writings have been impacted by war. [Read more…] about Poetry and War: A Reading and Conversation
American publishing during the Cold War
In Amanda Laugesen’s new book, the novel is an object of war. In Taking Books to the World: American Publishers and the Cultural Cold War (University of Massachusetts Press, 2017), Laugesen tells the story of Franklin Publications, a publishing company created in 1952 as a joint project between American publishers and the USIA. Amid the scramble for influence during the Cold War, Franklin was tasked with disseminating books that promote American ideals throughout the developing world. [Read more…] about American publishing during the Cold War
The textual “truth” behind Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried
Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. [Read more…] about The textual “truth” behind Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried
Celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Things They Carried
2015 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. [Read more…] about Celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Things They Carried
Paul Gottschalk: the German bookseller who anticipated a contentious Nazi-era elections legacy
The Ransom Center’s recently-processed archival collection titled “1932 German Elections Ephemera Collection” was assembled in the 1930s by the German-American book seller Paul Gottschalk. The sequence of events that the collection documents—that is, the rise of Adolf Hitler to [Read more…] about Paul Gottschalk: the German bookseller who anticipated a contentious Nazi-era elections legacy