Congratulations to @mayorwu.boston.gov for celebrating her second inaugural yesterday! We were honored to be a part of this historic moment, as she again chose the “Bible of the Revolution” from our Special Collections for her second swearing-in ceremony.

.@dorothyjberry on the bizarre and complex history of “Black America”, a theatrical show which saw a Brooklyn park, for the summer of 1895, transform into a replica of a Southern cotton plantation: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/black-america-1895 #BlackHistoryMonth

The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.

returning to Boston after a week visiting family in our native Florida and my husband I are ecstatic with gratitude, like George Bailey at the end of It's a Wonderful Life: "Merry Christmas sidewalks and bike lanes! Merry Christmas you old wonderful MBTA! Hey! Merry Christmas feral turkeys!"

so many thanks to @cejacobson.bsky.social! two little pieces of her annual Emily Dickinson black cake were waiting for me when I returned home from winter travels

delighted to see QLB's beautiful reprint of The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (with introduction and afterword by @mollybrrown.bsky.social and me + cover design by the great Anthony Russo) is on the @strandbookstore.bsky.social's Holiday Gift Guide: www.strandbooks.com/home-maker-9...

A #tinyjoy to take you into the weekend. I just learned that 13- year-old Charlotte Brontë's TINY book, A Book of Ryhmes [sic] (it measures 9.5 cm by 6 cm) contains a poem titled "A Thing OF fourteen Line's. commonly called a" (& her tiny handwriting made the next word illegible.) #BookHistory

". . .but I never despaired about my students, who, when our conditions allowed it, showed me again and again how close reading requires and multiplies both trust and strength." Thank you @johannawinant.bsky.social for this ♥️ www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

somehow never not thinking about Henry James—anyone else experience this

haven't posted here in a bit but here's an update: my fridge is full of leftovers, my sweet babe is asleep, and I'm in my pajamas writing about Henry James with a cup of coffee mixed with Berdick's cocoa. loose plans to take my daughter to the MFA Ruysch show this afternoon. I am contented!

longtime LRB reader and supporter, but this review made me see red. (so much so, considering writing my first letter to the editor.) why would LRB choose someone with so much clear disdain for his subject to review her biography?

would watch the Howard Hawks version

#tinyjoys #abstraction Is this, in miniature, the most Henry Jamesian exchange EVER? "But isn't he tremendously deep in ---." He hesitated. "Deep in what?" "Well, in what's going on, beneath the surface. Doesn't he belong to things?" "I'm sure I don't know what he belongs to" (Princess Casamassima)

Hey, Bostonians & more far-flung friends, the Novel Theory seminar I co-convene at Harvard has a cool line-up for the fall: a roundtable on the Novel in the Age of AI, Margaret Cohen on Claire de Duras, JC Cloutier on Nick Drnaso. You are so welcome to join us! (occasionally even on Zoom)

in which @tricialockwood.bsky.social refuses to see the glass flowers at Harvard's natural history museum after too many of us insist that she go (we really are like that I'm afraid) (I sympathize with her completely)

Rent our Vandercook No. 4 flatbed presses! The Tulsa (1948) is open to all; the Nahant (1951) is for production renters. Slower but super precise—great for deep impressions and perfect for beginners. Contact us via Linktree or website to learn more! #letterpress #bostonprinter #letterpressrental

Well, @sibyllacumae.bsky.social and I are back (on schedule), with a longer-ish issue - we're talking about bindings! Read it here: 📜 #bookhistory open.substack.com/pub/twohalfs...

"I think it is the very best story of diablerie which I have read for many years." In August 1897, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a letter to Bram Stoker to let him know how much he enjoyed #Dracula. Today you can read the letter here @ransomcenter.bsky.social! (HT @ecolleary.bsky.social) #booksky 🗃️📜🦇

well this knocked me right down to the ground www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

how incredible is this? typewriter as piece of type! 📜

Ten* (could only get to nine) authors by whom I’ve read more than five* (actually in most cases I've read *just* five) books Lev Tolstoy Fyodor Dostoevsky Henry James Jane Austen The Bronte Sisters (cheating!) Raymond Chandler Barbara Pym Zadie Smith Gary Shteyngart

The printing press is not responsible for launching Europe into modernity, nor did it transform society overnight. Folks like Sam Altman & other tech boosters are obsessed w this misperception bc it provides a precedent for AI. A recent article I wrote touches on this. Abstract & links in replies.

And with 12 hours to spare I've finished my paper and slide deck! 3:30PM! tomorrow! come learn who typed the poetry and prose of Emily Dickinson, Henry James, T.S. Eliot, & Vladimir Nabokov. Plus! Erin McGuirl talking secretary manuals and Dale Stinchcomb on broadway script production! #SHARP2025

Printing a broadside at #sharp2025 This is a reproduction of The North Star, 1848 from Frederick Douglas, originally printed about a mile away in Rochester, NY.

hey #SHARP2025 good news, I have started work on my slides for my presentation that starts in *checks notes* 48 hours

Getting my presentation on 1990s zines & small magazine distributors ready for the #SHARP2025 conference next week, super excited to be part of a zine panel.

seeking advice on bringing babies to conferences! (well, in my case, just the one.) replies or dms welcome.

learning to like late Henry James is like learning to like jogging— the beginning is a struggle, you have to take lots of breaks, and progress is slow. but when it clicks, you're locked in and soaring!!

Movies that feature women typists/working on typewriters? so far I have: The Best of Everything Kitty Foyle His Girl Friday Woman of the Year Desk Set Christmas in Connecticut Meet John Doe More than a Secretary The Spiral Staircase Working Girl 9-5

took my daughter to Harvard Square to meet (a historic reenactor playing) Elizabeth Glover, the woman who established the 1st printing press in the colonies. was a little surprised to see her in Edwardian attire handing out balloons but very little is known about Glover so who am I to judge! 📜

the exhibition I am working on could easily be called "flowers and typewriters" --> just read a detail that Henry James would place a fresh bouquet picked from his lamb house garden next to typist Mary Weld's typewriter each morning

found joy and courage from this image of Vivienne Eliot (first and ill-treated wife of TS) I came across in the stacks this week; sharing in case it helps buoy others. just look at that defiant pose! and the unapologetic femininity she brought to her workspace. this was a dame.

requested again a book I ILLed last year and to my surprise a few of my brass page tacks were not only left by me (whoops) but also left in place by the ILL and Yale librarians! Lucky break for me; I was looking for this exact passage 📜

happy Father’s Day to my husband whose very funny historical screwball novel has been excerpted again, this time online over at @keep-planning.net 👇

cheers to my wonderful former colleague Dale Stinchcomb and his co-curator Juliette Wells on the wonderful coverage of their Morgan Library exhibition in the New York Times 📜 www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/a...

Harvard agrees to relinquish early photos of enslaved people, ending a legal battle 📜 www.yahoo.com/news/15-batt...

tomorrow evening I’ll be giving a talk on my Barbara Pym collection for the Ticknor Society. If you’re a bookish person in the New England area I really recommend joining the Ticknor society. It’s great for intergenerational community, behind-the-scenes field trips, and more. ticknor.org

garden plot update: brown-eyed susans, lavender, thyme, roses, and to my surprise, the peony bush survived the winter. finally got new rosemary, dahlia bulbs, nasturtiums, and zinnia in the ground and added lemon balm, linaria, calendula, milkweed, cosmos, lavender lady, and Mexican sunflowers

Once again, SO proud of our courageous, eloquent undergraduate journalists: www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

I read the introductory note for Ryan’s excerpt and was immediately hooked. Read the first chapter in the new KLR—and someone please publish this novel! I can’t wait to read more from it.

my husband wrote a very funny warm screwball comedy of a novel and the first chapter is out this month from @malarkeybooks.bsky.social Still looking for a publisher though!

Thank you, Dr. Carla Hayden, for your leadership and commitment to ensuring access to knowledge for all. Your service as Librarian of Congress has inspired a generation of librarians, archivists, and readers. Photo: Dr. Hayden meets with Internet Archive founder @brewster.kahle.org, 2017.

come sit by me once you've read this 👀

Floral representation of the month of May 🌷 from Robert Furber's 'The Flower-Garden displayd.' London, 1732. I saw this at @nhmlibraryarchives.bsky.social while taking a course with @ies-sas.bsky.social Art & Science: The Art of Natural History. #naturalhistory #rarebooks #botanicalart #flowers 📜

I just hope Monica Miller has a great great night

tonight ! I strongly suspect this will be a much-needed respite ♥️

back at it 😎

hello!! I know everyone is busy/the news remains bad, but if I may distract for a moment? There's a man named Ander Louis from the Yarra Valley whose sincere passion project is translating War & Peace into Bogan Australian. He's done Books 1 & 2. This is not a spoof. www.amazon.com/dp/108730656...