Shelf:Life - what's new in the world of books and book collecting, links to the news stories that matter, and occassional comments by TheBookGuide.  Archived Stories.

14.03.05 Chaworth Roll to stay in the UK. A magnificently illustrated 700-year-old manuscript describing the early history of the English monarchy is to stay in Britain, after it was bought by a British private collector on the opening night of an exhibition at manuscript dealer Sam Fogg's gallery in London...more  Add a comment.

14.03.05 Orange longlist announced. Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat and one of the five judges of this year's Orange Prize for Fiction, this morning announced the names of the authors on the 2005 longlist at an event at the London Book Fair...more  Add a comment.

14.03.05 Would-be royal heirs bid for royal hairs. Locks of Queen Victoria’s hair stuck in an album of keepsakes have triggered an extraordinary bidding war between would-be members of the Royal Family who want to conduct a DNA analysis of the monarch’s follicles...more  Add a comment.

14.03.05 Jules Verne: mythmaker of the machine age. His literary reputation is being rehabilitated but, 100 years after his death, France is no closer to fully understanding him...more  Add a comment.

13.03.05 New Potter Book Casts Spell over City. Exeter is the pottiest place in Britain about the new Harry Potter book, high street chain WH Smith announced today. Shoppers in the Devon city have placed more pre-orders for the next instalment than anywhere else...more  Add a comment.

13.03.05 Trash or treasure? ustrailia's National Gallery of Victoria is about to host an exhibition of Andy Warhol's Time Capsules - boxes filled to bursting with relics of his life and times. But is it art? ...more  Add a comment.

13.03.05 British Writer Chosen for Peter Pan Sequel. British author Geraldine McCaughrean fought off 100 writers from around the world on Sunday to land a daunting literary challenge -- writing the authorized sequel to Peter Pan...more  Add a comment.

12.03.05 'Casino Royale' first edition sells for £21,000. An inscribed first edition of Ian Fleming's 1953 James Bond novel, Casino Royale, sold for £21,000 ($40,454 USD) as part of Bloomsbury Auctions Continental and English Literature and Modern First Editions sale held on February 24, 2005. The final sale was transacted after the auction had ended...more  Add a comment.

12.03.05 Stalin's secret Hitler book to be published. A secret biography of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler commissioned by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin is to be published later this month, the book's British publisher said today...more  Add a comment.

12.03.05 China plans mammoth effort to popularize ancient literature overseas. A Chinese publishing giant is planning an unprecedented effort to share the Chinese cultural pith with the world by publishing a giant collection of Chinese classics in English...more  Add a comment.

12.03.05 Festival fairytale start for City of Literature. Edinburgh is to host a celebration of the life and work of one of the world’s greatest storytellers. The ten-month Hans Christian Andersen Festival will see special events held across the city, including exhibitions, talks, film screenings, live music and storytelling sessions...more  Add a comment.

12.03.05 The great self-saboteur. There is no excuse for what happened to Flann O'Brien. He died in 1966 at 55, a bar-stool celebrity in a dirty old town. Dublin raised a glass in his memory while secretly toasting the poetic squalor of his demise.
    His friend Patrick Kavanagh, equally gifted and equally betrayed, would expire nearly as badly three years later. Few artists lived or died well in Ireland back then...more  Add a comment.

11.03.05 Web squeezes specialty shops. "The out-of-print, collectible books business has been changed dramatically by the Internet," said Hessel, whose store specializes in rare out-of-print books. "The Internet opens up the marketplace to anyone who has a computer"...more  Add a comment.

11.03.05 Uncompromising Welsh author dies. Alice Thomas Ellis, a leading Welsh figure in 20th century literature, has died aged 72. Among her most famous novels is The Sin Eater, about a divided family gathering in Wales to await the demise of a patriarch...more  Add a comment.

11.03.05 Shabby UK public libraries need lottery boost, say MPs. National lottery funding should be introduced to tackle the "scandal" of Britain's shabby and neglected public library services, according to a report yesterday which says that well-stocked, attractive shelves, rather than IT terminals, are the bedrock of its future...more  Add a comment.

11.03.05 Divine inspiration or earthly editing? People will be able to judge for themselves changes to the world's oldest Bible - the Codex Sinaiticus - when experts complete work to make the text available in digital form...more  Add a comment.

11.03.05 Bookshop's last word a sign of the times. You turn left at the post office and there it is, the empty bookshop. You look through the windows and think of all the good quality second-hand books that were there only a few weeks ago...more  Add a comment.

10.03.05 Convicted killer `reviews' book about his case. Danny Pelosi, convicted last year of fatally beating millionaire investment banker Ted Ammon in his East Hampton mansion, submitted a critique to Amazon.com commenting on a recently released book about the case...more  Add a comment.

10.03.05 Victories sweet at St. Petersburg book fair. It is a terrible truth that the book you remember most fondly is the book you never bought. Two years ago I passed up an opportunity to buy a first edition of Robert W. Chambers' bizarre horror short stories, The King In Yellow, for $40. That book is like a fish-hook in my heart today. I can still see it in my mind. The agony of losing it! ...more  Add a comment.

10.03.05 Happy Birthday, Jack Kerouac. Wish Jack Kerouac "Happy Birthday" Saturday in the first-ever Bay State recognition of the celebrated author of "On The Road." Events for Jack Kerouac Day will be held in Lowell where he was born and raised and Nashua, N.H., a source of the writer's French-Canadian roots...more  Add a comment.

10.03.05 Sadako Kurihara, A-bomb poet, dies. Hiroshima--Staunch anti-war poet Sadako Kurihara, herself a survivor of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, died at her home here Sunday night, family members said. She was 92.
    Kurihara is best known for her moving anti-war poem about a baby's birth amid the devastation...more  Add a comment.

09.03.05 Da Vinci faces Dylan in book race. The Da Vinci Code will go up against books by Bob Dylan, Bill Bryson and Michael Palin to be named book of the year at the British Book Awards...more  Add a comment.

09.03.05 Mexican officers brought to book. Police in Mexico City, one of the most crime-ridden capitals in the world, have been told they must read at least one book a month or forfeit promotion...more  Add a comment.

09.03.05 A$1.25m for journals. A Dutch book dealer has paid almost A$1.25 million for two rare volumes on the discovery of Australia. The dealer paid A$768,900 for a 24-page book -- more than A$32,000 a page -- published in 1701...more  Add a comment.

09.03.05 Christie's to present library of Bernard Breslauer. New York - On March 21, an evening sale followed by four day-sale sessions on March 22 and 23, will present the magnificent library of Bernard Breslauer, the legendary New York-based book dealer and collector. The sale will offer a spectacular collection of the fine books and historic and artistic book bindings. A second part of the collection will be offered in June...more  Add a comment.

08.03.05 Retired blind librarian dies. Lawrence Foushee London had been blind since childhood but his great interest was incunabula, books published from 1450 to 1500, said Roberta Engleman, assistant curator of rare books at the University of North Carolina...more  Add a comment.

08.03.05 Libraries may ask smelly readers to go. Libraries in San Luis Obispo County have had their own rules banning offensive body odor since 1994, but the policy became law after the Board of Supervisors last month adopted an ordinance that lets authorities kick out malodorous guests...more  Add a comment.

08.03.05 Newton's inspiration. California - "All Was Light: Isaac Newton's Revolutions", opens today and traces the alternately revered and reviled mathematician and physicist's progression through thought and experiment, which led to an understanding that ultimately altered not only the scientific arena but the general intellectual climate.
    Drawn mainly from the Huntington's own history of science collection, the exhibit features about 70 Newton manuscripts, sketches, personal belongings and other related items...more  Add a comment.

08.03.05 Diane Arbus celibrated at The Metropolitan Museum. For the first time in more than 30 years, a major retrospective of the work of the legendary photographer Diane Arbus (1923-1971) will go on view in New York City...more  Add a comment.

08.03.05 Imprisoned Iranian writer receives award. Cairo, Egypt -- An imprisoned Iranian writer has received an award from Human Rights Watch in recognition of the 17 years he has spent in jail for his views...more  Add a comment.

07.03.05 Party celebrates writer Thompson. A private party to celebrate the life of writer Hunter S Thompson was held in Aspen, Colorado, on Saturday night, with only friends and family invited...more  Add a comment.

07.03.05 Dallas probably will be site of Bush library. Momentous policy calls lurk ahead for President Bush - Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Social Security. But the other big-time decision of his second term - where to put his library - is all but settled...more  Add a comment.

07.03.05 When did the barbarians last read a book?. The BBC, properly sceptical of ludicrous cultural hoo-ha, celebrated last week's World Book Day with a provocative Culture Show programme about the end of civilisation in book publishing...more  Add a comment.

06.03.05 New book claims Hitler had nuclear bombs. Hitler's scientists tested a battlefield nuclear bomb and were close to deploying the so-called "wonder weapon" towards the end of the war, according to a book to be published in Germany this month...more  Add a comment.

06.03.05 Auction speaks volumes. Described by Jonathan Wantrup, executive director of Australian Book Auctions, as the most important collection to be offered for sale by auction in Australia, there will be at least three sales, with tonight’s covering publications up to 1810...more  Add a comment.

06.03.05 Confessions of a rare and interesting book fiend. Yes, I like to buy books and sell them online or donate them to schools overseas. I like to buy books and see what interesting tales they have to tell. I like finding cool books, ones I'd never heard of, like "Dear Dad, Letters from the Philippines" written in the 1920s, or the one that had inscriptions and spells from Egyptian sarcophagi...more  Add a comment.

06.03.05 The life and tomes of Howard K. Smith. Washington - Books lined the walls of the late Howard K. Smith’s suburban living room - more than a thousand hardbacks, exquisite leather bindings and classic titles neatly juxtaposed on dark wood bookshelves...more  Add a comment.

05.03.05 Rare books found at Goodwill store. Two rare French books have turned up at at a Goodwill store in St. Louis. The 18th-century books were found in the back rooms among the boxes and bins. They sat untouched for more than 20 years before an employee discovered them and began to investigate...more  Add a comment.

05.03.05 From celebrity faces to creatures from children's books. "Works on Paper," the annual New York art fair now in its 17th year, needs waking up. Not that it isn't worth a visit, but it is just not as exciting as it could be, considering how much provocative art on paper churns through the contemporary galleries of New York and elsewhere every month...more  Add a comment.

05.03.05 Do look back: ‘Aperture’ visits the Aletti Archive. Fans of highbrow ephemera should check out the new issue of Aperture, which features selections from Village Voice arts editor Vince Aletti’s voluminous magazine collection...more  Add a comment.

05.03.05 Collector alert! 'SilverFin' first printing error. For those of you who care about this sort of thing...more  Add a comment.

05.03.05 Book that predicted bullet trains and TV now online. An obscure 1892 golf novel that predicted bullet trains, television, digital watches and driverless golf carts has been published online for the first time. The book, "Golf in the Year 2000; or, What We Are Coming To", made international news earlier this year when a collector paid more than $2,000 at auction for a rare first edition copy...more  Add a comment.

05.03.05 "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". In her speech at the Guardian World Book Day Forum last Thursday, Caroline Michel, publisher of HarperPress, considered the challenge to books presented by the electronic age. This is her speech in full...more  Add a comment.

04.03.05 Manuscripts offer dead puppy blood pimple cure. Two old manuscripts found at a British stately home, and coming up for auction, suggest some truly odd cures for everyday ailments...more  Add a comment.

04.03.05 Tome Time. Allan Stypeck remembers with amusement what it was like, in the spring of 1976, to set up his wares at a table on the first day of the first year of the Washington Antiquarian Book Fair...more  Add a comment.

04.03.05 Crime pays, says Oxfam. Crime pays, at least as far as Oxfam is concerned. The charity has launched a scheme to encourage people to take their unwanted crime novels into its shops to be resold in aid of people living in poverty overseas...more  Add a comment.

04.03.05 Praise for 'forest friendly' Potter. Bloomsbury announces that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the latest book in JK Rowling's Harry Potter series, will be printed on paper from sustainable sources...more  Add a comment.

04.03.05 Library’s £12.5million conservation centre. With one of the world's largest collections of rare and ancient books, the British Library has an uphill struggle to keep its priceless collection in good repair...more  Add a comment.

04.03.05 Book theft boss must pay damages. Ronald Jordan who sold stolen books from his market stalls has failed to have the amount of damages he was ordered to pay to retailers cut...more  Add a comment.

03.03.05 New York Public Library puts collection of images online. A collection of 275,000 images including maps, Civil War photos, illuminated medieval manuscripts and historic menus will be accessible online starting today, the New York Public Library announced...more  Add a comment.

03.03.05 Dispute swirls around pieces of ballet history. Butler University and heir to former ballet director's estate battle over ownership of treasures from the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Court records describe the collection, which includes a backdrop designed by Henri Matisse and another designed and partially painted by Salvador Dali, as unique and irreplaceable...more  Add a comment.

03.03.05 Dostoyevsky relative sues lottery over use of writer's image. A great-grandson of Fyodor Dostoyevsky is suing a Russian lottery for using the famed writer's image on tickets without permission, calling it particularly appalling because of the author's long addiction to gambling...more  Add a comment.

03.03.05 Don't judge an old book by its cover. Tia Ghose visits Twice Sold Tales, a quirky used bookstore in Seattle...more  Add a comment.

03.03.05 World Book Day. Giving and receiving a recommendation of a favourite book is a real pleasure and it’s never been easier. Pick up one of the eight special postcards from a bookshop or library, or visit the World Book Day website...more  Add a comment.

02.03.05 Surviving the literary shakeout means turning to the Internet. When Skyline Books owner Rob Warren opened his shop on New York's West 18th Street 16 years ago, there were a half dozen similar stores nearby.
    The glory days of "Book Row," the stretch of Fourth Avenue that held a dense network of used and antiquarian dealers in the mid-twentieth-century, were long gone, but independent shops could still draw in enough business to make the trade profitable...more  Add a comment.

02.03.05 Go-ahead for court battle over Rachmaninov music score. The High Court gave the go-ahead yesterday for a legal dispute over the ownership of an original Rachmaninov manuscript...more  Add a comment.

02.03.05 University criticised for keeping looted manuscripts. A decision by the University of Edinburgh court not to return looted manuscripts to Ethiopia was yesterday condemned as a "retrograde step" by a lobby group...more  Add a comment.

01.03.05 Poets' plaques rescued from skip. Plaques commemorating three historic Welsh figures have arrived home in Powys after they were discovered in a skip in north Wales...more  Add a comment.

01.03.05 DH Lawrence's wife 'was the real Lady Chatterley'. The affair at the heart of the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was inspired by a relationship between DH Lawrence's wife and an Italian soldier, a new biography of the author claims...more  Add a comment.

01.03.05 Atherstone Booktown Update. With Atherstone Booktown due to be publicly launched in mid-May 2005, James Hanna the driving force behind Blaenavon Booktown, talked to Atherstone-Online. The website also has a community forum were this article and a recent public meeting about the proposed book town are discussed. Many thanks to Clive Keeble for the links.  Add a comment.