The Fascinating Phonebook
The phrase "I'd rather be reading the phonebook" as a (mildly) preferable alternative to boring tasks has given telephone directories a bad reputation. One that I admit I never thought to put to...
View ArticleTransmissions from the Timothy Leary Papers: Season’s Greetings from William...
Timothy Leary first made acquaintance with William S. Burroughs in Tangier, Morocco in the summer of 1961.[1] During this heady time, Leary was reaching out to beat poets and artists for participation...
View ArticleThinking about Grad School? NYPL Can Help!
As the year is coming to an end, many of us are already planning for new and exciting changes in the upcoming year. Some people may consider different vacation spots, career changes or even returning...
View ArticleWinter Fun for Kids and Cats
This snowy Saturday afternoon has brought to mind a couple of scenes from nineteenth-century children's books in the Rare Book Division. First, a scene of "Wintervergnügen" (winter fun) from...
View ArticleBooks I Read in 2012
It's amusing to keep track of the critters, and helps me read more non-fiction, novel-hound that I am. The Library has most of these books, but I've only linked a few, as not to clutter and overburden...
View ArticleFive Questions for… William Moeck, curator of NYPL's Charles Dickens: The Key...
Charles Dickens: The Key to Character, on view through January 27, 2013, at the Schwarzman Building, explores the men, women, and children who populate the fictional universe of English author Charles...
View ArticleArnold Schoenberg and Haiku
I play the piano a little bit and am working on AS's Six Little Pieces, op. 19. Little they are — all six take less than five minutes to play. Easy they are not — the slightest error in nuance ruins...
View ArticleHaiku Redux
Fang and I were very, very lucky during the hurricane. We were out of power for only 24 hours, during which I wrote the three haiku below: "On the Advantages of the Absence of Electricity."Haiku is one...
View ArticleJust Who Was DeWitt Wallace, Anyway?
In the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, there is a reading room with high wooden carved ceiling called the DeWitt Wallace Periodical Reading Room. You may have seen the...
View ArticleClinging to Books: Reading List 2012
During my vacation from the library, between Christmas and New Year's Day, I learned a remarkable lesson. You can get along very well without NEWS. For a full week, I entered a blissfully news-free...
View ArticleEnglish Nature Writers: Gilbert White
I'm a literary Anglophile. There — I've confessed and we can move on. One of their really cool genres is nature writing. They do it in such a quiet and smooth style, as if they've lived in field and...
View ArticleEnglish Nature Writers: Charles Waterton
Most recently discovered, just last week, is Charles Waterton (1782–1865). I've not read enough to evaluate him as a writer (of which all authors tremble in dread), but he certainly led an interesting...
View ArticleR.I.P. Ed Koch
I'll miss him, for he was such a quintessential New York, and a terrific ambassador for the City. I met my colleague MN in the hallway (no, not at the hydration station, formerly water cooler) and we...
View ArticleHappy Birthday Grand Central Terminal!
Did you know that Grand Central Station (also known as Grand Central Terminal) recently turned 100?Opened in 1871 on 42nd Street between Park and Lexington avenues, the station was renovated and...
View ArticleHistory in Print: Harriet Walden and the New Yorker Records
Harriet Walden may not be a household name. But for forty years she was, as former New Yorker magazine fiction editor William Maxwell wrote in a letter bemoaning her retirement, "the pin that [kept]...
View ArticleChinese New Year Memories
As I prepare for the upcoming Chinese New Year, my thoughts often go back to my favorite childhood memories of our family celebrations.The best part of Chinese New Year was being allowed to stay home...
View ArticleAnti-Valentine? Join the Club!
If you are like me, then the one thing you would like about Valentine's Day is the day after: chocolates on sale!Godiva, Ferrara, chocolate truffles, M&Ms, you name it — all those brand name sweets...
View ArticleCamouflaged Anti-Nazi Literature
In the early eighties, rare book librarian John Rathe pulled down a dusty box, wrapped in twine, from a remote corner of the Rare Book room. Attached to the box was a label that said: "Do not open...
View ArticleVegetable Drolleries
Have you seen the Library's long-running exhibition "Lunch Hour" yet? If not, this is your last chance, for it closes on Sunday, February 17. To whet your appetite, I'd like to present a delightful...
View ArticleLeon Dabo’s Notebook: An Interview with Frank Goss
In 1955, the artist Leon Dabo (d. 1960) donated a thin manuscript volume to The New York Public Library. Prolific during his time, Dabo is perhaps best known as a muralist and landscape painter. Dabo...
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