In my checkered and rarely (blessedly) checked career as student and teacher, I had the pleasure and distinction of meeting two of our Poet Laureates. Richard Wilbur (born 1921) was a classmate at Amherst of L. Edward Willard, Chairman of English at Hebron Academy for nearly forty years. I was a student at Hebron when Ned (later I taught in his department along with my late wife) got Dick Wilbur to deliver the Cum Laude  address in 1962. At the time I did not know any of Richard Wilbur's poetry, and I regret that now I cannot remember what poems he read to us. I seem to recall that one had clotheslines in it, but I can't find it, and I spent the latter third of my career teaching students who didn't know what a clothesline is. I am so old as to be not part of the Development that here in Kennebunkport bans them, but I could raise one tomorrow, should I wish to do so! Grandfathered! For years I offered to my Advanced Placement classes Wilbur's brilliant poem “In the Smoking Car,” until two smart girls two years in a row wrote that the poem was about an awful automobile accident—quite reasonably, for, unfortunately, we had reached an era in which smoking cars were a thing of the past, unknown to their virgin lungs and nostrils. … more

A bookseller I know once told me he rents a house on Jekyll Island for several months each winter so he can escape some of the snow and cold of New England, be within easy driving distance of southern book fairs, and play golf with his friends the rest of the time. Not a bad plan if you like golf (or fishing). … more

You know what a Waldorf Salad is. Yes, you do. It’s that old-fashioned crunchy salad with bits of chopped-up apple and celery and walnuts, all nicely lubricated with mayonnaise. Now you remember! Even if privately you prefer something with a bit more guts, like a Caesar Salad, with bacon and anchovies. But let me not digress. You probably also know what a Waldorf School is—unless you are English or Australian, in which case “Waldorf Schools” will be more familiar to you as “Steiner Schools.” … more

A few years from now when you buy a book from Amazon and put it on your credit card, you might have to remember to keep charging it. The “Kindle”, the brainchild of Jeff Bezos and Amazon, is the latest must-have electronic reading gadget that's supposed to replace the book. From what I've read, it fits comfortably in the hand, is book-sized (8vo), presents familiar type-faces, and attempts to simulate the normal reading experience. It will also allow readers to increase font size – a feature that should make it appealing for some people. Title downloads will cost $9.99, books available in paperback or part of the public domain considerably less. What's more the Kindle will be able to store a small library of several hundred books. … more

On the 29th of January, 1258, the Abbasid caliph Mustasim could look eastward over the walls of Baghdad and contemplate his place as the symbolic head of all Muslims throughout the world and the ruler of a vast city which was the focal point of Islamic learning and wealth. The next day that view suddenly changed as he beheld 100,000 Mongol warriors under the leadership of Hulagu, the grandson of Jenghiz Khan. Within 15 days, Mustasim, his court and over 99% of Baghdad’s population were dead and most of the city burned. Baghdad was transformed into a village of ruins and it would be almost seven centuries before it began to recover its place in history. … more

One of the more interesting areas of ephemera is tied to both published and unpublished government documents. A lot of it, published in book form, finds its way into something called the “Congressional edition,” or more commonly, the “serial set.” A few of the more iconic (non-ephemeral) government documents from the past include Herndon and Gibbon’s Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon (published as a Senate Executive Document), various separate publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology, the Annual Reports and General Appendices of the Smithsonian Institution, the Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route … (also known as the Pacific Railroad Survey), and other monuments of 19th century Americana. … more

In this era of weekend jaunts to Paris, it is difficult to imagine conditions nearly two centuries ago when the pleasures of foreign travel were first extended to the middle class.  With the development of the railroads, people began to go abroad in great numbers, visiting the ruins and statues long celebrated in the memoirs of the Grand Tour. … more

The “back-to-the-land” movement of the late ’60s and early ’70s reflected the counter-culture’s disaffection with the high cost of going along with industrial-based consumerism. The idea was nothing new—every other generation or so, in this country at least, has witnessed a revival of the romantic view of a simpler life in the country. … more

In 2006, fifty years after its publication in Fall 1956, the City Lights paperback of Howl and Other Poems cost $6.95, up from its original price of 75 cents. Appearing much the same as it did half a century ago, the later copy is one of 965,000 in print. The poem was produced earlier in 25 mimeographed copies on May 16, 1956 as Howl for Carl Solomon. Author Allen Ginsberg paid for them to give free to friends. The Ahearns’ 1998 guide to values identifies this as the author’s first book with a mimeographed “first edition” valued at $15,000. Fame, acclaim, and angry condemnation hike prices. … more

Children figure out they have two hands, two feet, two ears, two eyes, and so forth, and many, if not most, tend to grow up with a built-in bias in favor of symmetry. Whether it’s innate, acquired or a combination of influences really isn’t the point, but it sometimes takes a lifetime to get over it. … more