This blog post was written by Andrew White Finding a letter in The Rosenbach archive written in the hand of the great Alain LeRoy Locke was quite an event here on Delancey Place. The letter came to light while we were looking through Rosenbach Company files for information on our manuscript of Batuala, a novel by the French …
This blog post was written by Andrew White Could a poem inspired by an obscure folly, no matter how beautiful, hope to be anything but an obscure folly itself? Case in point: the masterful sonnet written by Robert Browning in honor of Helen’s Tower, a 19th century architectural folly built by an Anglo-Irish aristocrat in …
This blog post was written by Andrew White January 25 is Burns Night, when we celebrate the works of Scottish poet Robert Burns, the Bard of Ayrshire. It’s also a tradition here on Delancey Place, where our celebration features a night of readings, music, and whisky. The Rosenbach is home to the largest extant collection of …
This blog post was written by Andrew White I’ll admit it. Not only am I a tea fanatic, I will try a tea just because the name is cool—even if I don’t expect to like it. Green tea is not my favorite—I think it tastes like a grass stain—but I’ve brought home Dragon Well and …
This blog post was written by Andrew White On the first page of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, unsuspecting young solicitor Jonathan Harker, on his way to meet his new client, stops by the Hotel Royale in Klausenburgh—now Cluj-Napoca—and has a satisfying chicken dinner. Bram Stoker somehow thought it would be fine to send Dracula into the …
This blog post was written by Andrew White With a beautiful Vale Press book (Wilde’s House of Pomegranates) on display in the Rosenbach’s current Of Two Minds exhibit, William Morris has been on my mind; Morris’s renowned Kelmscott Press was a significant influence on Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon when they created Vale Press. This week …
The Rosenbach is proud to co-sponsor (along with AbeBooks) the second annual Honey & Wax Collecting Prize, which honors the work of young female book collectors. From the announcement: Here at Honey & Wax, we take a particular interest in the evolving role of women in the rare book trade, on both the buying and selling sides. …
This blog post was written by Andrew White 18th-century acting superstar David Garrick has a birthday on February 19; he would have been 401. Though he may no longer be a household name, Garrick is partly responsible for contemporary culture’s reverence of Shakespeare, as well as for the genesis of the Rosenbach’s Shakespeare collection—which visitors …
On January 25, 1759, the poet Robert Burns was born in Ayrshire, Scotland. The anniversary of his birth is celebrated all over the world with scotch, songs, and poems by the prolific writer. Robert Burns holds a special place in the Rosenbach: our collection houses some remarkable early editions (including a stunning Kilmarnock edition that …
This post was originally published at the Free Library of Philadelphia blog. Nearly 100 years ago today, on February 2, 1922, bookstore-maven-cum-publisher Sylvia Beach stood anxiously waiting on the platform at the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris for the arrival of some very precious cargo on its way from Dijon: two copies of …