The Byrdcliffe Library Project Has a New Home
The Byrdcliffe Library catalogue is now up and running on LibraryThing. Please come visit us there for updates, cover art, and additional author information.
The Byrdcliffe Library Project Has a New Home
What They Read at Byrdcliffe
Candace Wheeler: How to Make Rugs
I was lucky enough to locate the original Byrdcliffe copy of Candace Wheeler’s How to Make Rugs. Not only does it have the Byrdcliffe bookplate, but it also has Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead’s signature on the flyleaf. l I have found no evidence that anyone at Byrdcliffe ever used the book to actually make a rug,
Candace Wheeler: How to Make Rugs
Textiles and Dyeing at Byrdcliffe: Marie Little and The Looms
Dyeing and Tissue-Printing by W. Crookes, F.R.S. is one of many books on textile manufacture that have the Byrdcliffe bookplate. Another in my collection is How to Make Rugs by Candace Wheeler, which bears Ralph Whitehead’s signature as well as the Byrdcliffe bookplate. Candace Wheeler is such a towering figure that she warrants an entire
Textiles and Dyeing at Byrdcliffe: Marie Little and The Looms
Francis T. Palgrave and Collection as Literary Criticism
This post began life as a post on Henry Morley and Francis T. Palgrave as two classic examples of 19th century literary scholars. However, my happy discovery of the Byrdcliffe edition of The Golden Treasury courtesy of Lowell Thing, bookseller and fellow collector, changed my focus — but only slightly. I have long been fascinated
Francis T. Palgrave and Collection as Literary Criticism
Two New Byrdcliffe Books!
This weekend, I was lucky enough to find not one, but two new Byrdcliffe books. I also was lucky enough to make the acquaintance of the collector and bookseller, Lowell Thing. Mr. Thing is an expert on decorated bindings, in particular those of Margaret Armstrong. He has given talks on the subject at the New
Beverley Nichols: A Dark and Stormy Garden Writer
Winter is coming fast, and it’s time to abandon the garden for a warm fire and a pile of cozy mysteries. I’d feel that way even if the deer had not broken in and eaten everything this year. I tell myself they were just saving me on cutting back the plants for winter. So in
Beverley Nichols: A Dark and Stormy Garden Writer
What They Made at Byrdcliffe: John Duncan
John Duncan has been one of my favorite painters ever since I happened across this rather constipated-looking Tristan sharing the Love Potion with Isolde, while I was teaching a course in Arthurian romance. John Duncan (1866-1945) was born in Dundee, Scotland to a cattleman father. John, however, had no interest in farming and turned to a career in
What They Made at Byrdcliffe: John Duncan
What I’m Reading at Byrdcliffe: The Burglar who Met Frederic Brown
Whenever I’m asked to describe my new Watson & Doyle series, I begin “No-one ever said ‘I want to write a detective series based on Tsvetan Todorov’s literary theories’… but I did.” So imagine my pleasure when I discovered Lawrence Block had long since beat me to it with his Bernie Rhodenbarr series. Todorov argued
What I’m Reading at Byrdcliffe: The Burglar who Met Frederic Brown
Elizabeth von Arnim
Elizabeth von Arnim was not a garden writer, but she was a writer whose garden made her famous — as well as being the source of her name. She is now most famous for her novel The Enchanted April, which was made into a 1991 movie featuring Joan Plowright, Polly Walker, Miranda Richardson, and Josie
Sidney McCall: The Breath of the Gods
Sidney McCall (Mary McNeil Fenollosa) was one of many novelists concerned with the “Woman Question” who found her way into the Byrdcliffe Library. The most famous of these today is Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a journalist whose short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is considered a classic depiction of post-partum depression. But McCall was a considerable feminist
Sidney McCall: The Breath of the Gods