Category Archives: History

How Books Have Helped

Posted on July 5, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Washington D.C. is blessed with an abundance of excellent bookstores. One of my favorites has long been the wonderful Second Story Books in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. Now they have partnered with the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress … Continue reading →

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A Declaration of Independence

Posted on July 4, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Back in 1971 the computer was barely understood by the average person and the concept of an ebook didn’t yet exist, but when Michael Stern Hart, a technologist and futurist, was given access to the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the University … Continue reading →

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Italian Old Style

Posted on June 27, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Frederic Goudy’s Italian Old Style typeface as published in the Lanston Monotype Machine Company’s Italian Old Style, A New Type by Frederic W. Goudy, designed by the eminent American typographer and type and book designer Bruce Rogers and printed in Mount Vernon, N.Y., in a second edition … Continue reading →

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An Honor Without Irony

Posted on June 24, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Last week, an outdoor sculpture honoring the iconic American author J.D. Salinger was dedicated on a hillside near his family’s ancestral home in Lithuania. The artwork celebrates the writer’s most acclaimed novel The Catcher in the Rye. Ironically, Salinger’s 1951 bildungsroman … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Books, Europe, History, Tourism, Uncategorized, USA, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Bookseller’s Lament

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

As a bookseller and collector, I occasionally lament the sale of a book. Sometimes it’s because I undervalued a title, but more often it’s nostalgia for the missing volume from my shelves. The other day I stumbled on a reference … Continue reading →

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Have you or a loved one been affected by persuasive cartography

Posted on June 18, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Although I am one of those odd people who actually took geography courses at university, Persuasive Cartography is a term I only recently encountered. It usually refers to propaganda art that uses cartography to make a point. An amazing collection … Continue reading →

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Notes on a native son

Posted on June 12, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

The unfolding events of recent weeks in the United States have fostered a long overdue interest in the writings of many Black American authors. Few African American writers have had the deep and lasting impact on our culture that James … Continue reading →

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How Dickensian

Posted on June 11, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

A big thanks and a tip of the hat to TBTP reader Lucy from the UK for sending me the marvelous Dickens cartoon (below) by the great Tom Gauld. If you follow this humble blog, you will be aware that … Continue reading →

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“From these garish lights I vanish now for evermore…”

Posted on June 10, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Yesterday marked the 150th anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens. Among the commemorations, there was this stunning sound and light installation which was projected onto Westminster Abbey’s iconic West Towers last weekend. The projection was created by light and … Continue reading →

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Freedom Suite

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

This striking performance (below)of North Carolina-born drummer Max Roach’s “Freedom Now Suite,” a medley of “Tears for Johannesburg” and the triptych “PRAYER / PROTEST / PEACE,” was recorded by a television station in 1964—the same year the Civil Rights Act … Continue reading →

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