Curatorial intern Brian Flota has been searching the Library’s modern British literature holdings in order to track down items from the Tom Turner collection of British literature, purchased by Gordon Ray in the 1950s. In the process, Brian discovered many previously unknown association copies and a number of fine press poetry chapbooks. In this post, […]
Non Solus Blog
Newly Discovered Association Copies
September 20, 2012
Artemus Ward and The Woman in White (823 C69w 1860b)
September 12, 2012
Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1860. In the Civil War era few American humorists were as popular as Charles Farrar Browne (1834-67), a vagabond reporter and lecturer better known by his pseudonym–Artemus Ward. Starting his career as a typesetter for Boston’s Carpet-Bag in 1851, by the middle-fifties Browne was […]
The Rambler’s Magazine: A Puzzlingly Popular Periodical
August 30, 2012
The rambler’s magazine, or, The annals of gallantry, glee, pleasure and the bon ton. London: Printed for the authors, and sold by G. Lister, no. 46, Old Bailey; Mr. Jackson, at Oxford; Mr. Hodson, at Cambridge; Mr. Frobisher, at York; Mr. Slack, at Newcastle; Messrs. Peason and Rawlinson, at Birmingham; Mr. Crutwell, at Bath; and all […]
Heads Will Roll! Echoes of the French Revolution in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library
July 15, 2012
A visit to our library by the Urbana High School French Club this past spring sent me to the Rare Book & Manuscript Library vault in search of materials from the French Revolution era. On this Bastille Day week-end, let’s take a look at some of my (re)discoveries. Official documents Acte constitutionnel : précédé de […]
“Endlesse fame shall crowne thy well-ment actions with applause”: An Olimpick Curiosity, 400 Years On
June 21, 2012
Michael Drayton, et al. Annalia Dubrensia: vpon the yearly celebration of Mr. Robert Dovers Olimpick Games vpon Cotswold-Hills. London: Robert Raworth, for Mathewe Walbancke [i.e. Printed for Dr. Thomas Dover], 1636 [i.e. 1720?] While working on a project to create detailed catalog records for items of interesting provenance, I came across an 18th-century type-facsimile of […]
Adventures in Poetry: The Modern Poetry Collection at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library
May 30, 2012
An exhibition curated by Chloe Ottenhoff, Adam Doskey, Rosemary Trippe, and Linda Bial. Marshall Gallery & North-South Hallway: July 1-31, 2012 Rare Book & Manuscript Library: July 20-September 7, 2012 Tickets for Michael McClure’s play The Beard, designed to look like a boxing match ticket. This summer the Rare Book & Manuscript Library will be […]
Poem in Sir John Franklin’s Narrative Identified
May 18, 2012
Martyn Beardsley, author of Deadly Winter: The Life of Sir John Franklin, has brought to my attention that the poem written in the University of Illinois’s copy of Franklin’s Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea is in fact by Franklin’s first wife, Eleanor Porden. In his research, Beardsley examined unpublished […]
Unpublished Poem by Sir John Franklin on the Difficulties of Writing (Q. 919.8 F85n)
May 8, 2012
John Franklin. Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1819, 20, 21, and 22. London: John Murray, 1823. In 1966, the University of Illinois purchased a significant group of manuscripts and books from the personal collection of Sir John Richardson (1787-1855). Richardson was a naturalist and surgeon who […]
Distinctive Ownership Inscriptions in an Incunable (Incunabula Q. 473 M28p 1482)
February 7, 2012
Guiniano Maggio. De priscorum proprietate verborum. Venice : Octavianus Scotus, 3 June 1482. While cataloging a copy of De priscorum proprietate verborum (“On the propriety of ancient words”) by the 15th-century Neopolitan grammarian Guiniano Maggio, I came across two contemporary or near-contemporary ownership inscriptions by one Ludovicus de Galliardis. One inscription is on the first […]
Contemporary Line-Drawing and Couplet in an Incunable (Incunabula 475 Z42l 1490)
January 11, 2012
Wilhelmus Zenders de Wert. Lilium grammaticae. Cologne: Heinrich Quentell, 1490 While cataloging a quarto edition of the Lilium grammaticae of Wilhelmus Zenders de Wert, I ran across an interesting drawing on the title-page. This quaint illustration in black ink shows a man in armor with a head of curly hair, clutching a small sword or […]