I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit Bruges before it became completely Disney-fied by over tourism. Still, I never got to see the Belgian gem as viewed in these amazing Photochrom prints from the 1890s. This series of images is part of a wonderful collection available on the U.S. Library of Congress website.
n 1953, astronomer and physicist Kenneth Heuer wrote Men of Other Planets (Pellegrini & Cudahy, NYC) where he speculated on the forms of humanoid life that was possible on the other planets, moons and asteroids of outer space. In the early years of flying saucer sightings and shocking sci-fi films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still the public’s appetite for both solid space science and fictional musings was insatiable.
The times were ripe for Heuer’s heady mix of hard science and wild speculation about the cosmos.The full-page scratch board illustration by R.T. Crane added an aura to the quirky notions set forth in this book.
Probably the most startling concept in the book is Heuer’s suggestion that we may be their descendants. of space aliens. He floated the possibility that eons ago our ancestors came from outer space as human-like beings in space ships.
New Yorkers and tourists too can now visit a new museum entirely dedicated to the art of posters.The Poster House, located in Manhattan’s Chelsea district and which features an identity designed by Pentagram’s Paula Scher, will be the first museum of its kind anywhere in the United States.
The new museum is set to open to the public next month, it will house a staggering 7,000 posters sourced from around the world, covering everything from art nouveau romanticism , to 60s music advertising, to early Photoshop experimentation by young East Berliners in the early 1990s.
Poster House’s director Julia Knight says: “Design museums feature posters, but they’re used as supplemental materials. Here, posters are a focal point and not an accessory.”
The exhibition officially opens on June 20th, but look for preview events on the website.
Today is Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday . This offers an important opportunity to reassess his tremendous contributions to American life and literature at a time when our country is so polarized. The University of Pennsylvania Libraries and the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage have organized a region-wide series of cultural events to celebrate Whitman and underscore his continued relevance in American culture.
Whitman spent the last two decades of his life in Camden, New Jersey. He frequently traveled by ferry to Philadelphia to visit with friends and enjoy the city’s cultural life. The Whitman at 200 project situates Whitman in Philadelphia and its neighborhoods, connecting him to the life and art of the city and exploring what Philadelphia and Camden were then and are now.
You can get more information about the dozens of special events that are being held throughout the anniversary year at this dedicated website.
I recently ran across the wonderful 50th anniversary edition of the first U.S. publication of George Orwell’s Animal House. Issued in 1995, Animal House: A Fairy Story features 100 mindblowing illustrations by the inimitable Ralph Steadman.
Along with the addition of the brilliant illustrations, the commemorative edition included Orwell’s unpublished preface to the original edition titled “The Freedom of the Press.”
Sadly, the 50th anniversary edition from Harcourt Brace and Co. is no longer in print. However, there are quite a few reasonably priced used copies available from secondhand booksellers.
Map loving bibliophiles at In The Book designed this clever alternative London Tube map, replacing actual station names with titles from novels set nearby. Covering just zones one and two, the map features book titles from authors including Zadie Smith, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, Graham Greene and many more favorites.
Tom Matthews from In The Book said: “The map aims to give a comprehensive geographical guide to London’s diverse literary history.
“We’re all familiar with Charles Dickens, Martin Amis and Zadie Smith, but it’s also titles such as Lawless and the Devil of Euston Square and Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows that help colour areas of the city in their own unique way.
“It was created to showcase London’s rich literary history for both locals and tourists. As bookworms ourselves we feel that literature has a unique was of painting places like few other things can.
“For instance, we found it fascinating how certain genres and authors “owned” certain parts of the map: Dickens’ London dominates the Central Line, while Gothic Victorian works Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all haunt the Piccadilly Line.
via: In The Book
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
Travel Between The Pages 