Asters, Spores & Silent Spring / January 2014 Acquisitions

The first books accessioned to the PLL in 2014 include:

The Earth and Man: Lectures on Comparative Physical Geography, in its Relation to the History of Mankind by Arnold Guyot (Maria Mitchell Personal Collection), and

Vasari's Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari (Robert Smithson Collection);

both seen below, with cartography on display.

 

 

Also new to the Robert Smithson Collection:

The Waste Land and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot,
The Invisible Pyramid by Loren Eiseley,
A Concise History of Modern Painting by Herbert Read

A lovely spread from The Invisible Pyramid, displaying a woodcut at the beginning of The Spore Bearers chapter:

Connected illustrations are seen from new books from the Anne Spencer Collection:

Helena Rutherfurd Ely's A Woman's Hardy Garden, and
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring:

Other new books:

Representative Men: Seven Lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and

A Concise History of Modern Painting by Herbert Read.

For any questions about the Library, Collections or books, please contact the Librarian at personallibraries{at}gmail{dot}com. 

The Second PLL Collection: Robert Smithson!

The Personal Libraries Library is happy to announce the beginning of its second collection: the Robert Smithson Personal Library.

The Library was recently reminded (thanks Lacey!) that the personal library of Robert Smithson was catalogued shortly after his death. The catalogue, compiled by Valentin Tatransky, can be found in Robert Smithson, organized by Eugenie Tsai with Cornelia Butler (The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.) This catalogue is not comprehensive in itself, but is quite extensive. Some books from Smithson's personal library are also currently in the Library's librarian's personal library and have seamlessly become the beginning of the Robert Smithson Personal Library. These include Gunter Grass' The Tin Drum, Jorge Luis Borges' Ficciones and Labyrinths, as well as Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea and Bachelard's The Poetics of Space. Due to this fortuitous overlap, the catalogue set forth by Tatransky, and the Library's interest in Smithson, he seemed like the perfect second collection.



Interestingly enough, there was not only cross-over in Smithson's and the librarian's libraries, but also that of Maria Mitchell! Emerson's Essays and The Marble Faun can be found in the Maria Mitchell- and Robert Smithson Personal Library. Please note the multiple book cards.


Please peruse the Robert Smithson Personal Library Catalogue to see the Library's holdings. Also, check the Robert Smithson Wish List if you want to donate a book, or find a book and care to alert the Library. Contact the Library at personallibraries{at}gmail{dot}com

Personal Libraries Library's First Books: Emerson's Essays, The Marble Faun & Paradise Lost

The Personal Libraries Library has acquired the first books of the Maria Mitchell Personal Library collection; the first being Emerson's Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This book is particularly special because it is also the inaugural book of the entire Personal Libraries Library.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Maria Mitchell were good friends; when he lectured in Nantucket he was welcomed into the Mitchell household above the Pacific Bank on Main Street. Mitchell also found herself defending the work of Emerson to Dr. Whewell, the Master of Trinity College in 1857.




The PLL has also acquired The Marble Faun, Volumes I & II by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Paradise Lost by John Milton. Maria Mitchell traveled to Italy with Hawthorne and his family in 1858; after which Hawthorne wrote The Marble Faun. Mitchell also had a close connection with Paradise Lost, as she wrote an essay titled "The Astronomical Science of Milton," regarding the epic poem.

Members are invited to check out the inaugural books.