Showing posts with label Alain Robbe-Grillet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alain Robbe-Grillet. Show all posts
Monday, September 23, 2013
Late September Acquisitions / From Discover the Circle to Astrology
The newest batch of acquisitions all belong to the Robert Smithson Personal Library. The latest books to join the Library are (clockwise from the top):
Discovery of the Circle by Bruno Munari
The Hopi Indians by Ruth DeEtte Simpson
The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America by Leo Marx
Principles of Geomorphology by Don J. Easterbrook
The Erasers by Alain Robbe-Grillet
Astrology by Louis MacNeice
The beautifully designed and printed Astrology's contents page hints the treasures inside, from (Chapter 1) The art of the stars to (Chapter 6) The loss of respectability and (Chapter 9) Predictions and Pronouncements. The above spread shows a woodcut from a 1527 edition of The Kalendar of Shepherds and the heliocentric universe from Copernicus' De Revolutionibus.
Copernicus' revolutionary idea of a heliocentric universe leads us perfectly to the lovely Discovery of the Circle by Bruno Munari. The above spread is discussing optical effects of circles, while the spread below is centered on rings.
Below is a spread from Easterbrook's Principles of Geomorphology, with topographical maps and photographs.
Last is a highlighted spread from The Machine in the Garden. Highlighted on the left-hand page:
(What perplexes us here is) Emerson's ability to join enthusiasm for technological progress with a "romantic" love of nature and contempt for cities.
For any questions about the Library, Collections or books, please contact the Librarian at personallibraries{at}gmail{dot}com.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
February 2011 Reading Room & New Acquisitions

The February Reading Room Hours bring to an end the era of the small-bookcase for the Library. I am diligently sanding, staining & finishing the bookshelves for the Library to grow into. Look for the new shelves & Library room next month!
In addition to another successful Reading Room, the Library continues to grow in members and books.

The newest acquisitions include:
The Cyclical Night: Irony in James Joyce & Jorge Luis Borges by L. A. Murillo (Smithson Collection)
The Varieties of Religious Experiences by William James (Borges Collection)
Monsieur Teste by Paul Valery (Calvino Collection)
Also, are two more books to add to the Flaubert contingent!:

The amazing covers of Flaubert's The Temptation of St. Anthony and Victor Brombert's The Novels of Flaubert, from the Borges & Smithson Collections, respectively.

And lastly is Snapshots, by Alain Robbe-Grillet, from Smithson's Personal Library. The Library's edition has this amazing sheet taped in the back, showing Haslam's Bookstore's acquisition of the book on February 25, 1975. The Personal Libraries Library has now accessioned the same book almost exactly 36 years later! A beautiful parallel & paratext.
Please contact the Library at personallibraries{at}gmail{dot}com with queries about the books or membership. Also, please browse the Catalogues to see other books in the Library.
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