“What a large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life, by him who interests his heart in everything, and who, having eyes to see what time and chance are perpetually holding out to him as he journeyeth on his way,...
You with the Darkness - Slingshot, you with the stone: It is over evening, I throw light behind myself. Fetch me down, take us Seriously. Four Poems Paul Celan (1920-1970) New York: Granary Books, 1999 PT2605 E4 S313 1999Paul Celan was born Paul Antschel in Czernovitz, Romania to German-speaking Jewish parents. His surname was later...
Virginia Woolf said “…the pursuit of reading is carried on by private people.” So, too, is the pursuit of fine bookmaking. As the quality of bookmaking declined in the nineteenth century due to mass production, a few dedicated book lovers became book makers in order...
O Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed The winged seeds, where they lie cold...
Humans have been compiling information to answer an infinity of questions for thousands of years. From Ptolemy to Izaak Walton, the best minds have annotated, edited, translated, measured, arranged, and defined what it means to live a life of wonder. From facsimiles of medieval encyclopedias, almanacs...
"Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d!" -- Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road Peter and Donna Thomas are book artists from Santa Cruz, CA. Since 1977 they have worked both collaboratively and individually; letterpress printing, hand-lettering...
"An object is not an object. It is the witness to a relationship" -- Cecilia Vicuña The Rare Books Department invites you to view its most recent virtual lecture, "Armchair Indigeneity: Memory, Language, Dissolution, Exile, Extinction."We look at writings by and about indigenous peoples in Mexico,...
To you, my children, These lovely flowers I give. Prune ye my vines and fig trees, With care my flowers tend, But keep the pathway open Your home is at the end. from "God's Garden" -- Robert Frost The first Mesopotamian writings on clay tablets included information about plants. Ancient pharmacopoeias recorded...
“We prefer crude vigor to polished banality.” from Anvil, Jack Conroy, 1933In recognition of Banned Books Week, Rare Books invites you to view its most recent virtual lecture, "Radical!" - an accompaniment to our latest digital exhibition.from Songs of the Workers; On the Road, In the Jungles, and...
"Do not believe more than what you see with your eyes." -- Montezuma to Cortés, according to Cortés, 1519 Rare Books invites you to view its most recent virtual lecture, "What You See With Your Eyes."Why are texts written? and for whom? Why are texts recorded...