Thursday, 27 September, 3pm in The Rare Book & Manuscript Library Tales of Ise, 1608: The First Japanese Illustrated Work of Literature A Lecture by Colin Franklin, author, bibliographer, and book-collector Colin Franklin is an important English collector of Asian materials, a bibliophile and the author of numerous books on printing history, including Exploring Japanese […]
Non Solus Blog
Two Events to Celebrate the University Library’s 13-Millionth Book: The First Illustrated Japanese printed book!
September 24, 2012
First Illustrated Japanese Book Added as 13-Millionth Volume
September 24, 2012
Ise monogatari 伊勢物語 (Tales of Ise). Kyoto-fu (Saga): Suminokura Soan, with Nakanoin Michikatsu and Hon’ami Kōetsu, 1608. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has added its 13-millionth book, maintaining our status as the largest public university library in America. The 13-millionth volume is the Ise Monogatari of 1608, the first illustrated Japanese printed book. It is also […]
Newly Discovered Association Copies
September 20, 2012
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, […]
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 […]