Great news: James McGrath Morris's new biography on journalist Ethel Payne, Eye on the Struggle, is now available in the Schomburg Gift Shop! The book follows the life of one of the most significant figures of the civil rights era. Known as the “First Lady of the Black Press,” Payne was appointed the Washington Correspondent for the Chicago Defender in 1953, and became a key presence in presidential news conferences, famously pressing then president Dwight D. Eisenhower on the issue of segregation. She also covered other historical moments like the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the war on crime.
Schomburg Director Khalil Gibran Muhammad reviewed Eye on the Struggle on the New York Times website. Below is an excerpt from his review:
Unsurprisingly, Payne established herself in a sea of white male reporters as a vocal and deft interlocutor of presidential news conferences. Ike liked her at first; she seemed safe and unassuming. She was, as Morris puts it, “the White House’s favorite Negro reporter.” That didn’t last long. Over and over again, she put Eisenhower on the spot. “You said then that you would have an answer later for this,” she once told him in regard to housing policies. “May I cite to you the situation at Levittown in Pennsylvania as an example where members of minority groups are being barred?”
Learn more about Payne's influential life and career by purchasing a copy of Eye on the Struggle, now on sale at the Schomburg Gift Shop.
Tavis Smiley's daily podcast Tavis Talks is a popular news and opinion program from BlogTalkRadio. He also currently hosts Tavis Smiley on PBS and The Tavis Smiley Show on PRI. But Smiley has been a well-known personality since 1991, becoming an important media figure, author, editor, and entrepreneur. In 2008, he received the Du Bois Medal from Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Recently, Smiley appeared at Books at Noon and we're pleased to present the talk for this week's episode of the New York Public Library podcast. In this episode you'll hear Smiley discuss his long friendship with the late Maya Angelou.
Maya Angelou and Tavis Smiley
Tavis Smiley spoke about a pivotal trip to Africa he took with Maya Angelou:
“That trip, being exposed to Maya and all these other personalities that I mentioned earlier, sitting and listening and talking to her: I'm a twenty-something year-old kid, and for young black men this just doesn't happen. This just doesn't happen that young black men are told that their lives matter. It's a much larger conversation, given what we are witnessing every day in this country, in New York, and beyond. I won't get into that now. But to be told that you matter and to be told that your opinions matter, and to be asked what you think about this, that, and the other, and to be invited to interrogate this world class intellectual, to be invited to disagree with her (she wants to know why you feel this way; she wants this exchange): who does that? Who has this experience as a twenty-something year-old black man in this country? And who has this up against Maya Angelou? That just doesn't happen. So the journey of me figuring out that there was something in the world for me to do, that I had a voice, that I had a gift, and that I had to use that, that whole journey begins in this two week period when we're in Africa.”
There were a number of subjects Smiley and Angelou discussed during their twenty-eight year relationship, and sometimes the two did disagree on topics such as Clarence Thomas and the N word. Smiley noted that one of the reasons they were able to have great conversations is that they admitted inquisitiveness and plasticity into their talks:
“What great conversation does, and I attempt to do this every night on PBS, I think what great conversation does is it challenges us to reexamine the assumptions that we hold. It helps us to expand our inventory of ideas. That's what great conversation does. And so, Maya Angelou was never afraid to have her assumptions reexamined. She was always interested, as a curious person, in expanding her inventory of ideas and perhaps rethinking her worldview. She was always open to that.”
Part of the magic of Smiley's relationship with Angelou was her ability to connect him with those he admired, even when it was no longer possible to meet them:
“Maya was a sort of cosmic connection to all of the people who I wish I had known. She was my cosmic connection to James Baldwin, her dear friend. She was my cosmic connection to Malcolm X, her friend. My cosmic connection to my hero, Dr. King, who was her friend. And how special does that make Maya that she was friend to both Malcolm and to Martin? Think about that. She's my connection to Nina Simone… On, on, on the list goes.”
You can subscribe to the New York Public Library Podcast to hear more conversations with wonderful artists, writers, and intellectuals. Join the conversation today!
The cathedral spire "transformed into crystal." Detail of plate 7
On October 5, 1744, the city of Strasbourg threw a party that would last through the five following days. There were processions, ceremonies, arches of triumph, costumed children, music, dancing, banquets, fireworks, jousting, water games, allegorical figures, decorated barges, and pageantry of all sorts. Some fourteen hundred Strasbourgers were recruited as "citizen troops" and dressed up in colorful military uniforms of scarlet, blue or pearl-gray, trimmed with gold and silver. The great Gothic cathedral and other public buildings were illuminated so brilliantly at night that the cathedral spire "seemed transformed into crystal."
Red and white wine spurted from fountains and loaves of bread were tossed from carts to the huge crowds thronging the squares, who could also feast on a whole roasted ox dished up in front of City Hall. Members of various guilds paraded through the streets with oversized tuns of wine and an enormous cake and hauled a stupendous catch of fish from the River Ill. It was a most splendid party.
Fireworks over the River Ill. Detail of plate 5
Fountains of wine. Detail of the final vignette
The guest of honor was none other than the king of France, Louis, the fifteenth of that name, called (by some of his subjects, at least) "le bien-aimé." Strasbourg had become a French possession in 1681, when Louis XIV, great-grandfather and predecessor of the reigning monarch, had marched in and proclaimed it annexed to France, and not since that day had a French king set foot within its walls.
Louis XV, after Parrocel, Chevalier and Lemoyne. Detail of the large portrait
The occasion that had brought the king and his armies to that part of the world in 1744 was a military campaign, an episode in the War of the Austrian Succession that occupied much of Europe during the 1740s. He would have made it to Strasbourg sooner, but he was stricken with a mysterious illness in Metz and lay at death's door for several weeks. The festival in Strasbourg had a twofold purpose: to celebrate the "well-beloved" king's recovery, and to welcome the French monarch into the former Free and Imperial City.
Engineering the festivities was an amiable scoundrel, François-Joseph de Klinglin (1686–1753), who held the key municipal office of préteur royal, or royal praetor. Before the French annexation, Strasbourg, as a free city subordinate only to the Holy Roman Emperor, had been largely self-governing, and most of its centuries-old institutions had been allowed to remain intact, but now the king needed to keep a finger in the pie. That finger belonged to the royal praetor, his title borrowed from ancient Roman history. He represented the king in the assemblies of the Strasbourg Magistracy, where he exercised a veto power. In turn, he was expected to further local interests with the court in Versailles. The office was sometimes passed from father to son, and François-Joseph was the second of three generations of Klinglins to hold it. Unfortunately, this Klinglin had a fondness for luxurious living and no scruples about dipping into municipal coffers to indulge it. Greased palms, misappropriated funds and general financial chicanery were his stock in trade. A decade earlier, he had used municipal money to build a sumptuous mansion, then convinced the city to buy it from him so it could serve as an official residence for … the royal praetor.
François-Joseph de Klinglin (no. 4) at the head of the "citizen troops." Detail of plate 1, below
On this occasion, the lavishness of the festivities he arranged, and of a book that would document them, had a twofold purpose: to demonstrate to the king the loyalty and devotion of his subjects in this remote, recently annexed frontier city (still largely German by culture and Lutheran by religion), and to curry favor at court with powerful people who could—so Klinglin hoped—intercede for him, as by this time some of his misdeeds were beginning to catch up with him.
Ah, the book. The Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library possesses two copies of it, and it is truly a wonder to behold. Titled Représentation des fêtes données par la ville de Strasbourg pour la convalescence du roi, à l'arrivée et pendant le séjour de Sa Majesté en cette ville, it measures some twenty-five inches tall by nineteen inches wide, and it weighs in at more than seven and a half pounds. It contains eleven exquisitely detailed double-page plates depicting the principal events of the festival. Each is nearly three feet wide and approximately twenty inches high, including the engraved legend beneath each scene of revelry. There is also an ornamented title page, followed by an equestrian portrait of His Majesty against a background of the city he was about to enter (a detail is shown above). The volume concludes with twenty pages of text describing the costumes and the festival events, and every word is hand-engraved, rather than printed from type. The whole is opulently bound and ornamented with the royal arms impressed in gold. Most of the edition of two thousand copies was destined to be presented by the city of Strasbourg to the king, to members of the extended royal family and royal household, and to powerful courtiers, ministers, princes of the church and others of exalted estate—as well as to a number of public and private libraries.
The royal cortege approaches Strasbourg. Plate 1, greatly reduced
The book was almost certainly undertaken at Klinglin's initiative. It was produced under his guidance and that of the Strasbourg Magistracy, which (naturally) stood for the expenses, and it took almost four years to complete. The artist responsible for recording the festive scenes to be preserved as engravings was Johann Martin Weis (1711–1751), a Strasbourg native. He was also entrusted by the Magistracy with supervising the entire enterprise: plates, ornaments, portrait, text and binding, as well as the technical details of engraving and printing. In the drawing that became the first plate (shown above), he included a "selfie," in the form of a small figure in the left foreground sketching the royal entrance.
Weis sketching the royal entrance. Detail of plate 1, above
After his preliminary drawings were finished and approved, in June of 1746, Weis was sent to Paris with instructions to find the best workmen for the task of engraving them, and to watch over their work to ensure its accuracy and faithfulness to nature. He duly asked around and examined sample prints by the foremost craftsmen of the day before settling on one of the most prominent, Jacques-Philippe Le Bas (1707–1783), who rejoiced in the title of "graveur du Cabinet du roi." Le Bas has been called "the most complete incarnation of eighteenth-century engraving" (Portalis and Béraldi; see Sources, at end). He had a large workshop, and many of his pupils became celebrated engravers in their own right. In fact, it was known that his pupils usually executed the greatest part of the works he signed, though his finishing touches were often enough to add distinction to ordinary workmanship.
When he heard the price Le Bas was asking for ten double-page plates (Weis had already engraved one plate himself as a sample), Weis nearly fainted. It was considerably higher than the ten thousand livres the Magistracy had consented to allow. He was able to bargain Le Bas down a bit by arguing that artists usually granted discounts to other artists, but the contract he eventually arrived at was still two thousand livres more than foreseen. The Magistracy consented to the additional sum, though they grumbled that Weis could have found a capable but cheaper engraver. Weis demurred, citing his instructions to employ only "the best."
Seven other artists (besides the anonymous pupils of Le Bas) are known to have shared in creating the pictures and text included in the volume. The long-lived Martin Marvie (sometimes spelled Marvye) (1713–1813) engraved the ornamental title page border and two small festival scenes at the beginning and end of the text, depicting respectively the king's return from inspecting the Rhine bridge and a scene of revelry around a temporary arch of triumph adorned with fountains of wine. The first of these is reproduced farther down the page, while a detail of the second is near the beginning of this post. The exquisite rococo borders surrounding the text pages, and probably also the ornamented coats of arms beneath each plate, are the work of Pierre-Edme Babel (approximately 1710–1775), a noted ornamental engraver who was also a master woodcarver; among his commissions were furniture pieces for the palace of Versailles. He was for a time director of the Paris artists' guild, the Académie de Saint-Luc, where in the late 1760s he weathered a conflict between the guild's "artists" and "artisans," coming under attack because he was not a sculptor or painter.
Sample of Babel's and Le Parmentier's work, from page 11 of the text
The text, including the title page and picture captions, was engraved by a specialist in this work, Le Parmentier, about whom almost nothing is known, not even his forename(s). His surname alone appears as the engraver on the title pages of a couple of instructive works on calligraphy, or the "art of writing." (You can see one of these here.) In our book, he uses the curious title "graveur ordinaire du Roy pour ces [ses] finances" I have no clue as to what his duties in the royal "finances" might have been (bonds, at a guess), but as one of the king's "graveurs ordinaires," he was entitled to lodgings in the Louvre palace or the Gobelins tapestry factory, among other privileges.
Finally, the equestrian portrait of the king that precedes the large plates is a collaboration among several artists, including Le Parmentier, who signed the especially ornate caption. The figure of the king in battle dress on a rearing horse was painted by Charles Parrocel (1688–1752), a specialist in horses and military accoutrements who admittedly wasn't good at faces. Accordingly, the "teste" (tête, or head) is by Jean Chevalier (approximately 1725–1790), a portrait specialist who was here following the work of yet another artist, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (1704–1778), a sculptor noted for his lifelike portrait busts, including many of the king.
The finished portrait was engraved by Johann Georg (or Jean-Georges) Wille (1715–1808), German-born but living in Paris from his twenty-first year. In later life, he would be a noted art collector and dealer as well as a prolific printmaker, but at the time he was still making a name for himself as a portrait engraver and a protégé of the great portraitist Hyacinthe Rigaud. He would go on to operate one of the largest Parisian printmaking workshops, comparable to that of Le Bas, which would become a gathering place for artists, collectors and dealers, as well as the training grounds for a generation of young German artisans whose wanderlust had brought them to the City of Light. Unlike Le Bas, however, Wille actually executed the prints he signed, including this one (here, he spells his name "Will").
The artists' signatures under the portrait
The portrait was rather an afterthought. Klinglin may have noticed that the figure of the king in the festival scenes was conspicuous by its inconspicuousness, hidden in the royal carriage or indistinguishable on a crowded balcony. Only in Plate 4 (with the help of a numbered key) can the king's form be discerned with certainty, and he also appears in the vignette on the first page of the text, though he's only recognizable by the fact that his is the only caparisoned horse and by the general direction of the crowd's gestures (I've added a red arrow to the version shown below). The king and other intended recipients of the commemorative volume would surely appreciate a more triumphalist image of the monarch heading up the suite of prints.
The vignette at the beginning of the text, with the king at center marked by the red arrow
The king as seen in the vignette above
But when it was finished, Klinglin wasn't satisfied. As late as January 1748, he complained to Andrieux, the Strasbourg chargé d'affaires in Paris who was assisting with the administrative side of the project, that the portrait didn't look like the king—in fact he had never seen a portrait that so little resembled him. He wanted the plate retouched. But Andrieux replied that the final proof had been corrected by "the famous Lemoyne and Parrocel," and engraved by Wille, whom some thought the most skilled craftsman in all Europe. Klinglin had to let it go, reasoning that the engraving process can never produce as good a likeness as a painting.
The king (no. 1) received by Cardinal de Rohan (no. 2) in the portal of the cathedral. Detail of plate 4
When the costs of the additional engravings (title page, portrait, text) were added to the 12,000 livres promised to Le Bas for the ten plates, the expense rose to just under 20,000 livres for the engraving alone. To this, the Magistracy had to add Weis's fee of 5,400 livres and sums for the purchase of materials such as the huge copper engraving plates and the reams of fine paper, as well as the cost of the actual printing and of lodging the printer, Laurent Aubert, on the floor above Weis's Parisian abode, along with his press. This last was necessitated by the fact that the Magistracy had originally stipulated that all printing would be done in Strasbourg, the better to keep an eye on the process and ensure that no single copies of the prints leaked out on the open market. When the time came to begin the printing, in late 1746, Weis persuaded the Magistracy to let the printer stay in Paris, but he had to promise to watch the operation like a hawk. Of the paper samples Weis sent to Strasbourg for the Magistracy's approval, the most expensive was chosen, following Klinglin's recommendation that they should use the finest paper that was to be found in Paris. All this drove the total expenses for the project up to 40,660 livres by the end of 1747, when the printing was finally completed.
And that was before binding. Though books in the eighteenth century were often sold unbound or in a simple binding supplied by the bookseller, the nature of this project meant that the Magistracy would have to go for luxury in the outer dress of the volumes as well as the interior. Therefore their choice fell on the most celebrated binder of the day, Antoine-Michel Padeloup, called Padeloup le jeune (1685–1758), "relieur ordinaire du roi de France" since 1733 and one of the first binders to sign his work, by means of a small label usually on the inside of the front cover. Here, it is mounted on the title page, beneath the printer's name, signaling that the binding was an important part of the presentation.
Padeloup's binder's ticket on the title page
Padeloup was noted for his work with this kind of oversized volume of prints. Because of their size, he worked with large plaques to impress the gilt decoration, rather than the small tools used on ordinary volumes. Originally, the plan was to have him bind all 2,000 copies, but that would have cost more than the amount spent on everything else to date, so it was decided that half the edition would be issued in plain paper wrappers. For the other thousand copies, Padeloup's bill came to almost 22,000 livres, bringing the project's total cost to the Magistry to 62,595 livres. This was about three-quarters of the annual sum brought in by the Stallgeld, a direct tax on capital levied by the city.
Historical currency comparisons are difficult, but some sources indicate that around 1750, a French day laborer would have been paid less than a livre a day on average. One figure I came up with has 62,595 French livres worth £2,608 in 1750s British currency, which is reckoned as the equivalent of around $532,143 in modern US dollars. Calculating it another way, at that time the official value of a livre was set at 0.312 grams of pure gold (to use the modern unit of weight). In April of 2015, a gram of gold is selling for about $38.55, which would give us a sum of $752,868. In any event, it seems probable that the production costs for the edition of 2,000 copies would work out to several hundred modern dollars per volume.
Detail of the binding
There were five classes of binding of various orders of luxury depending on the prominence of the intended recipient. The first three classes (223 copies) were of morocco, with gilt borders and the royal arms in the center, like the Spencer Collection copies; some had the Strasbourg arms or personal arms as well. The two cheaper classes (777 copies) were of calf, but still with gilt ornaments and the royal arms. All of this work was done in the opening months of 1748, which suggests that Padeloup's workshop in the Place de la Sorbonne must have employed many assistants.
In April of 1748, the wondrous volume was finally ready, and of course the first copy would go to the king. And who better to present it than the préteur royal himself? On April 30, he breathlessly informed the Magistracy:
"I have reason to think that it would be very satisfying for you to be apprised that on the 24th of this month ... I traveled to Versailles; that the minister admitted me to a private audience with the king, just back from the royal hunt, and that there, in the midst of the most populous and most brilliant court, I had the honor to present to His Majesty, in your name and on your behalf, Messieurs, the book containing the prints and the description of the festivities celebrated in 1744 on the occasion of the king's recovery and on His Majesty's arrival and during his visit. This presentation was made in the presence of the dauphin, the princes and ministers, and other grandees of the court ...Their Majesties and the royal family, and very distinctly the king himself, deigned to show much satisfaction with this new proof of your zeal, Messieurs, and with the magnificence of your book, as likewise the beauties of the contents were admired by the entire court."
The volumes were then duly distributed to the intended recipients, including everyone whose influence was deemed potentially useful to the city of Strasbourg or to Klinglin personally. Important Strasbourgers also got copies, especially if they were Klinglin's friends. The distribution continued for several years, but eventually efforts were made to sell the remaining copies, with mediocre success.
Members of the bakers' guild show off their military skills. They also presented a huge cake to the king. Detail of plate 11
Both Klinglin and Weis were rewarded for their efforts in this cause. Klinglin obtained the assurance that his office of préteur royal would be passed on to his son, and Weis was granted the right to style himself "graveur de la ville de Strasbourg," which is how his name appears on the title page of our book and in his signature beneath each plate. However, long-term benefits were scant. Klinglin's chicaneries finally caught up with him. Accused of gross malfeasance, he was arrested and thrown into prison in the citadel of Strasbourg on February 25, 1752. He died the next year before his case could come to trial. His son and successor, François-Christophe-Honoré de Klinglin, was also brought down in his fall. He was arrested a month after his father and also died in prison, in 1756. Meanwhile, Weis, his health broken (as he said) by his indefatigable labors on the book, had died a year before Klinglin's arrest, just three years after the publication of the fruit of his efforts. He was only forty.
Not everyone enjoyed the party. This unfortunate ox is about to become roast beef for a multitude. Detail of plate 6
Sources
Most of the illustrations in this post are details of the plates in one of the Spencer Collection copies. A couple of larger images are from a copy belonging to the French Institut national de l'histoire de l'art that has been digitized. It may be viewed online, or you can download your very own copy as a .pdf file. If you have a large enough monitor, you can get some idea of what the prints look like when viewed "in real life." I do not recommend viewing them on your phone!
My main sources for the text are a lengthy article from an Alsatian art journal, published in 1923, and a thesis from 2003. Both quote extensively from Strasbourg archival sources, including the correspondence of Klinglin (in French) and Weis (in German). They are:
Hatt, Jacques. "La Représentation des fêtes données par la ville de Strasbourg pour la convalescence du roi en 1744: histoire d'un livre." Archives alsaciennes d'histoire de l'art, année 2 (1923), pages 140–166.
Mangin, Jacqueline. L'entrée royale de Louis XV à Strasbourg: le livre et les festivités. Thesis, Université de Haute-Alsace, 2003. PDF available online.
For background on the artists and craftsmen, I've used standard reference sources such as the Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon (the online version is available at all NYPL locations) and Oxford Art Online (available onsite at NYPL and from anywhere for NYPL cardholders). In some cases, information I found there led me further afield. Here are a few sources for more extensive information:
Devauchelle, Roger. La reliure en France, de ses origines à nos jours. Paris: Jean Rousseau-Girard, 1959–1961 (3 volumes). ("Padeloup, Antoine-Michel, relieur du roi Louis XV," volume 2, pages 37–45.)
Goncourt, Edmond de, and Jules de Goncourt. Portraits intimes du dix-huitième siècle. Paris: G. Charpentier, 1880. Available online via HathiTrust. ("Le Bas," pages 287–314, including some marvelous anecdotes about Mme. Le Bas, who once dared to shush the great Voltaire himself when he talked during a performance in the Comédie française.)
Portalis, Roger, and Henri Béraldi. Les graveurs du dix-huitième siècle. Paris: Damascène Morgand et Charles Fatout, 1880–1882 (3 volumes). Available online via HathiTrust. (Entries on Babel, Le Bas, Marvie, Parrocel, and Wille.)
Finally, for information on the singular institutions and traditions of mid-18th-century Strasbourg and the career and downfall of François-Joseph de Klinglin, see: Livet, Georges, and Francis Rapp, editors. Histoire de Strasbourg des origines à nos jours, tome III, Strasbourg de la guerre de Trente Ans à Napoléon, 1618–1815. Strasbourg: Éditions des Dernières nouvelles de Strasbourg, 1981. (In particular, livre IV, "Institutions, traditions, et sociétés," by Georges Livet, pages 253–375.)
If I told you that we had diverse books at the library, what kinds of books do you think I mean? Would they have multicultural characters from different parts of the world? Who speak different languages? Who have different sexual orientations? Who have disabilities?
YES to any or all of the above!
If you follow social media like Twitter and Tumblr, you’ll notice lots of posts about books that include the tag #WeNeedDiverseBooks. This is a way that people can promote books that reflect the different types of readers in the world. One of the advantages of finding diverse books is that they’ll include characters who reflect YOU. But one of the other advantages is that they can be about characters who are nothing like you at all.
I’d already started working on a #WeNeedDiverseBooks reading list a while ago. Then I had several conversations with the kids in my Teen Advisory Group about diverse books, and they gave me some more great suggestions. They talked about how diverse books opened their eyes to what it would be like to live under very different circumstances. These books helped them imagine what it would be like to live in another country, or what it would be like to spend every day in a wheelchair unable to talk to other people who assume that if you can’t speak then you must be stupid. My TAG members also reminded me of several books in which the characters change between different bodies as the stories progress, so in some ways those are the ULTIMATE diverse books!
The Crossoverby Kwame Alexander
Twin brothers Josh and Jordan face some tough challenges, both on and off the basketball court.
The Changers series by T. Cooper and Allison Glock-Cooper [Book One: Drewand Book Two: Oryon]
Ethan wakes up on the first day of high school to discover that he has transformed into a girl ... and that this is the first of four transformations.
In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang
Anda is an American teenager who loves the adventure, the treasures, and the thrill of teaming up with her friends to defeat her enemies in the Coarsegold Online videogame. But who ARE those friends and enemies, really?
Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
Melody is smarter than almost everyone around her, but because she can’t walk or talk, nobody else knows what’s really going on inside her head.
Every Day by David Levithan
A is sixteen years old, and has never been the same person twice. Every morning, A wakes up in the body of a different sixteen-year-old: a boy, a girl, an athlete, an addict, a star student, a burnout. Then A falls in love, and things get REALLY complicated.
Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern
This is an unusual friendship/romance book that mixes elements of YA bestsellers like The Fault in Our Stars and Eleanor & Park. Amy has cerebral palsy and Matthew has OCD, so it also puts an extra spin on the whole idea of teen problem novels.
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
This story is told from the point of view of a girl whose biggest concerns used to be dealing with her family, her school, and her job. But then she upsets a bully without realizing it, and soon all of her other problems start to seem small in comparison.
Gabi: A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero
Gabi writes about trying to deal with the challenges in her life. That means dealing with her drug addict father, looking for love and acceptance while trying to be a "good girl," and trying to find her own true voice.
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
A bi-curious teen tries to deal with a giant insect apocalypse, with the help of his best friend and his girlfriend.
Blue Gold by Elizabeth Stewart
This is the story of three teenage girls on three different continents who would normally have nothing in common. But the “blue gold” used to make cell phones connects all of their lives in ways they’d never expect.
A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman
A young Indian dancer has to decide if she’s strong enough to rebuild her life after she’s crippled by a tragic accident.
Hold Tight, Don’t Let Go: A Novel of Haitiby Laura Rose Wagner
A teenage girl named Magdalie survives the Haitian earthquake of 2010, along with her cousin Nadine. The two girls have grown up as closely as twin sisters, but in the aftermath of the earthquake their paths suddenly diverge.
The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew
Hank just wants to live a normal life and work in his parents’ grocery store in Chinatown. But his mother wants him to be a superhero instead, and she won’t take no for an answer.
Dorothy loved books and people, so she combined the two interests into a career. She attended college and then library school. She was then ready to be a librarian, but she and her husband moved to a lovely rural area. Unfortunately, there was no library in the community. Dorothy missed librarianship, but then the people had a town meeting in which it was brought up that they used to have a rolling library. Dorothy was delighted by the idea, and she was happy to use the collection money to start a mobile library.
Donations of books also abounded, and Dorothy lugged the books out to the green truck in order to neatly stack them on its shelves. Her bookmobile visited schools, farms, stores, churches, etc. She loved all of her clientele, but the kids especially, who so appreciated her dogged devotion to finding them awesome books.
Eventually, a reader was generous enough to donate an old house for use as a library. The community converged on the building, fixing it up and preparing it for use. Years later, former customers sent Dorothy letters of appreciation for her devotion to getting them reading material.
When we asked people to share books related to the theme of “new beginnings” at our Open Book Night last week we got a really wide range of fiction and nonfiction book recommendations. We heard about spiritual, nutritional, philosophical, emotional, geographic, artistic, political, physical, and meteorological new beginnings from a diverse group of avid readers. Come join the fun at the next Open Book Night on May 8, when the theme will be nature.
Now we’d like to pass along our patrons’ "new beginnings" recommendations to you. Everyone talked about their books for a few minutes and answered questions, and we also asked the readers to write a sentence or two about the books they chose to share:
We started the evening with fiction. Marie chose Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín, a character study of of a widow learning to adjust to life without her husband, who rediscovers a part of herself through music. “I could see Nora's struggle and acceptance of change via re-discovering part of her S-E-L-F.”
Janet was thinking hopefully about changes in the weather when she chose to share E.B. White’s classic essay, Here is New York . “Mr. White tells us what makes New York ‘tick.’ He wrote this in the summer of 1948 during a heat wave. This book is HOT!”
Jairo told us a bit about Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and his Meditations. “It's a book that goes deeper into being able to look at yourself in a very challenging way. Being able to examine your life and what one observes is something that few might be able to do. What made me decide on reading Meditations is being able to express your emotions and feelings to examine yourself.”
Joon recommended Sweet Poison by David Gillespie. “This book unveils the misery of modern diseases. The answer is probably not as intuitive as ‘fat makes us fat’. The writer says that sugar is the poison. A page-turner with detailed explanations.” The NYPL does not currently own any copies of Sweet Poison, which was published in Australia, but there are a number of books on sugar free diets available. Eva Schaub’s family memoir, A Year Without Sugar, offers a combination of personal experience and clear nutritional information, which is what Joon admired in Sweet Poison.
One of our participants was a book lover who had just arrived from South Korea for a two month stay in New York. She recommended a book she read in English that will be published soon in Korea in translation, In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides. She told us that she likes reading adventure stories as well as stories about people who encounter rough seas. “It's a story about the polar voyage of USS Jeannette, a young naval officer, and America's Gilded Age.”
Joan was immersed in Ramachandra Guha’s Gandhi Before India. She wrote that this biography “provides a panoramic history of the development of Ghandi's political ideas during his time in South Africa.”
Kelly described an illuminating memoir, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolle Taylor. "Dr. Taylor is a talented and persevering neurologist who shares her knowledge about the function of the brain from a personal perspective. After suffering a stroke, Dr. Taylor has to relearn how to read, write, talk, and interact with people. She takes us through her journey of rediscovery."
I chose The Blazing World: A Novel by Siri Hustvedt to tie in with the new beginnings theme. “There’s still time to change things,” words spoken by her therapist, spur recently widowed artist Harriet Burden into a new phase in her life. Her artwork has long been overlooked by the established art world, so she conducts an experiment to test how the art world perceives and values art, which involves showing her work under the names of three male artists. This fascinating novel of ideas offers memorable characters and an intriguing puzzle.
Would you like to share book recommendations with other readers? Please join us for an Open Book Night at the Mid-Manhattan Library. The complete 2015 schedule is listed below. We meet on the second Friday of the month at 6pm in the Corner Room on the First Floor. We'd love to see you there!
February 13, 2015 - Love See the Patron Picks List from Open Book Night, February 2015
April 10, 2015 - New Beginnings See the Patron Picks List from Open Book Night, April 2015
Poesía es el arte de componer las palabras para comunicar el sentimiento. La poesía es considerada una de las artes literarias más antiguas en la historia del ser humano y puede ser utilizada e interpretada de diferentes maneras. Para muchos la poesía es considerada como el refugio del alma, para otros una forma literaria de expresar el sentimiento sublime. La siguiente lista selectiva presenta obras poéticas, y poesías bilingües, además de historias recientes donde los protagonistas utilizan la poesía como medio de expresión y refugio de sus emociones. He aquí algunas obras que nos inspiran a celebrar cada día ¡el mes nacional de la poesía! Esta lista también está disponible en formato PDF.
All the Odes
Neruda Pablo
Una colección bilingüe del primer libro que recopila todas las diversas composiciones poéticas del género lírico del gran poeta.
Canto hondo: Deep song Francisco X. Alarcón
"Esta es una colección de 100 poemas en inglés y español inspirada por el poeta español Federico García Lorca " -Cubierta.
El Diablito y La Rosa: Poemas De La Lotería=The Little Devil and the Rose: Lotería Poems Viola Canales
A través del juego tradicional de la lotería mexicana, estos poemas expresan el sentimiento de crecer México-americano, desde los aperitivos de la tarde, trepar por los árboles, compartir las tradiciones católicas, hasta lidiar con la discriminación.
La dulce venganza de Celia Door
Finneyfrock, Karen
Celia, se siente dolida por la separación de sus padres, la pérdida de su amigo, y la crueldad de uno de sus compañeros de clase, y se refugia en la poesía en busca de consuelo.
Opio en las nubes
Rafael haparro Madiedo
Esta obra que ganó el Premio Nacional de Literatura, contiene poemas con historias marcadas por la droga, el rock, el sexo y la derrota.
El profeta
Kahlil Gibran
De una manera poética, el autor cuenta la historia del profeta Almustafa, quién después de vivir por 12 años la isla de Orphalese, está a punto de ir de vuelta a casa en barco. Pero antes de marcharse un grupo de gente lo detiene, y él les enseña los secretos de la vida.
Reiki: los poemas recomendados por Mikao Usui Johnny De'Carli
125 poemas seleccionados como "alimento espiritual," y utilizados tradicionalmente durante la práctica del Método Reiki.
Rigo es amor: una rocola a dieciséis voces Por medio de la poesía y la prosa, dieciséis voces comparten sus experiencias con el destacado cantante mexicano , Rigo Tovar, quien fue conocido por introducir la cultura de música pop, tales como la música rock y soul, a través de infundir la música tradicional mexicana y latinoamericana con instrumentos modernos como la guitarra eléctrica y el sintetizador.
Sol para las doce: antología poética Pedro Mir
Una selección de poemas del renombrado poeta dominicano laureado por el Congreso de la República.
The Unknown University
Roberto Bolaño
Para sorpresa de muchos lectores, el renombrado escritor de 2666 y otras novelas destacadas también escribía poemas bilingües. Y cuando se presentó la oportunidad de preguntar a Roberto Bolaño: ¿Qué le hacía creer que era mejor poeta que novelista? " Bolaño respondió:" La poesía me hace sonrojar menos." ("La poesía ", a su juicio, " es más valiente que nadie. ")
Versos del pluriverso: poemas que han sido añadidos a Cántico Cósmico Ernesto Cardenal
La ciencia y la poesía se combinan para generar poemas de amor que se agregan al “Cántico Cósmico” del gran poeta Ernesto Cardenal.
You may be setting out on your own as a freelancer or small business owner, but you don't have to do it alone. You have the world-class resources of The New York Public Library to help you every step of the way, from the planning stages all the way through to retirement. The Science, Industry and Business Library offers a wide range of classes and programs in addition to resources listed below. Subscription databases are available for finding articles on business topics. For online video courses from lynda.com, please log in first through our website with your library card number.
Chigozie Obioma comes to Books at Noon next Wednesday, April 22 to discuss his latest work, The Fishermen. We asked him six questions about what he likes to read.
When and where do you like to read?
I read almost everywhere I find some measure of serenity. I don’t do well with noise, especially organized noise. But I mostly read on my couch in my one-bedroom apartment. For some reason, I find it hard to read on my bed, in my room. So I read either on the couch, or on the dining table, or, rarely, at my desk.
What were your favorite books as a child?
I was fascinated by the works of Amos Tutuola, especially the first African novel in English, The Palm Wine Drinkard. Since Nigeria was once a British child, I had relative easy access to the works of British masters. But amongst this gallery of faces, I found extreme delight in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’urbervilles, which, even now, I still regard as the masterwork of the 19th century literature. But most of all, I found a stronger affinity with the works of African writers: Chinua Achebe, for Arrow of God, a harrowing, sweeping novel; Wole Soyinka, for The Trials of Brother Jero; Cyprian Ekwensi, for An African Night’s Entertainment; Camara Laye, for The Dark Child, and D.O Fagunwa, for Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmale, which I read in its original Yoruba version. And lastly, I devoured and was fascinated with mythology, the Greek myths. I read Homer’s The Odysseyat age fourteen, over the course of three months because the library at my school could not let me take it out.
Would you like to name a few writers out there you think deserve greater readership?
I am still trying to understand why some people do not know about the American writer, Shirley Hazard. She is a fascinating writer, and one of the great prose stylists of the 20th century. Begin with her novel, The Transit of Venus. There’s the Australian writer, Amanda Curtin. It might sound biased since she is a friend, but The Sinkingsis an ambitious, original novel, even if slightly weighty. She deserves a readership outside of Australia at least! Perhaps because he has written more plays and memoirs than fiction, not many have read the Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka. Yes, I know he has won the Nobel, but I think people should seek out his work. Read his version of Bacchae of Euripidesand you thank me for pointing you to this great of greats.
I am looking much forward to sinking my teeth into What Burns Away by Melissa Falcon Field, even as I am slowly re-reading Eleanor Catton booker-winning The Luminaries. After these, by my bedside, lies, bidding me read it, Humboldt’s Giftby Saul Bellow—my first Saul Bellow.
The New York Public Library has an enormous amount and variety of collection materials, and those collections require care to help them last. But the Library also has a Preservation Division to care for its collections. You have collections at home—drawers full of video tapes, shelves packed with CDs, DVDs and books, files stuffed with photos and documents, hard drives filled with data… How can you take care of your own collections, to make sure they're protected, to make sure they last?
As a part of the American Library Association's Preservation Week, NYPL staff will teach you how. Through a series of presentations for the public during the week of April 27–May 1, 2015, librarians, conservators, digital archivists, and preservation specialists will provide valuable information on a variety of different formats: audio and moving image materials, digital archives, art, books, papers and photographs. There will also be screening from the Reserve Film and Video Collection. Join us during Preservation Week and learn to take care of your collections at home!
Enrollment Now Open! SAGEWorks Boot Camp. This two-week long, intensive training course will provide participants with essential skills to lead them toward job placement. The first session starts on Monday - Friday, from April 27 to May 8, 9 am - 2 pm. Participants must attend every day at the SAGE Center, 305 7th Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10001.
All Metro Health Care will present a recruitment on Tuesday, April 21, 2015, 10 am - 2 pm, for Registered Nurse (5 openings), Licensed Practical Nurse (5 openings), Certified Home Health Aide (50 openings), Home Health Aide certification required, at New York State Department of Labor - Workforce 1 Career Center, 250 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
Time Warner Cable will present a recruitment for Field Technician ( 8 openings ) on Tuesday , April 21, 2015, 10 am - 2 pm, at the New York State Department of Labor, 9 Bond Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
Allwel will present a recruitment for Home Health Aide (20 openings) on Thursday 23, 2015, 10 am - 2 pm, at the New York State Department of Labor, 9 Bond Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
The New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCE&TC) is an association of 200 community based organizations, educational institutions, and labor unions that annually provide job training and employment services to over 750,000 New Yorkers, including welfare recipients, unemployed workers, low-wage workers, at-risk youth, the formerly incarcerated, immigrants and the mentally and physiscally disabled. NYCE&TC Job Listings.
St. Nicks Alliance Workforce Development provides Free Job Training and Educational Programs in Environmental Response and Remediation Tec (ERRT). Commercial Driver's License, Pest Control Technician Training (PCT), Employment Search and Prep Training and Job Placement, Earn Benefits and Career Path Center. For information and assistance, please visit St. Nicks Alliance Workforce Development, 790 Broadway, 2nd Fl., Brooklyn, NY 11206, 718-302-2057 ext. 202.
Brooklyn Workforce Innovations helps jobless and working poor New Yorkers establish careers in sectors that offer good wages and opportunities for advancement. Currently BWI offers free job training programs in four industries: commercial driving, telecommunications cable installation, TV and film production, and skilled woodworking. BWI is at 621 Degraw Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217. 718-237-5366.
CMP (formerly Chinatown Manpower Project) in lower Manhattan is now recruiting for a free training in Quickbooks, Basic Accounting, and Excel. This training is open to anyone who is receiving food stamps but no cash assistance. Class runs for 8 weeks, followed by one-on-one meetings with a job developer. CMP also provides Free Home Health Aide Training for bilingual English/Cantonese speakers who are receiving food stamps but no cash assistance. Training runs Mondays through Fridays for 6 weeks, and includes test prep then taking the HHA certification exam. Students learn about direct care techniques such as taking vital signs and assisting with personal hygiene and nutrition. For more information for the above two training programs, please Email: info@cmpny.org, call 212-571-1690 or visit 70 Mulberry Street, 3rd Floor, NY, NY 10013. CMP also provides tuition-based healthcare and business trainings for free to students who are entitled to ACCESS funding. Please call CMP for information.
Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW) trains women and places them in careers in the skilled construction, utility, and maintenance trades. It helps women achieve economic independence and a secure future. For information call 212-627-6252 or register online.
Grace Institute provides tuition-free, practical job training in a supportive learning community for underserved New York area women of all ages and from many different backgrounds. For information call 212-832-7605.
Please note this blog post will be revised when more recruitment events for the week of April 19 are available.
Otto is a book bear. He loves books, and he also lives inside one. However, when no one is looking, he leaves his book to walk around the house, read other books and write his own stories. Then, one day Otto expands his adventures to the great world outside. He meets seagulls on rooftops, people bustling through the city and street cats. Best of all, he discovers the local library, which houses thousands of books, and he meets many creatures who enjoy reading and writing.
The Jerome Robbins Dance Division is proud to announce that the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Inc, records, Additions is now open. This collection is 141.44 linear feet comprising 315 boxes, 41 tubes and 116.1 gigabytes of electronic records and digitized content.
From the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Inc, records.
Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) was a dancer, choreographer, and founder of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The Cunningham Dance Foundation was established in 1964 to support the company and advance Cunningham’s work. This collection holds administrative files, company management and technical files, development files, and repertory files, as well as publicity materials, programs and photographs. This collection came to the Library as part of the Cunningham Dance Foundation’s Legacy Plan which addressed how the company could transition to a post-founder existence and to ensure his creative legacy. This material complements an earlier acquisition that came to the Library in 2001 titled the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation, Inc. records which is 43 linear feet and 84 boxes.
Additionally, we would like to announce that another important Cunningham collection, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company Choreographic records, were also recently processed. The Choreographic records contain materials relating to over 100 of Cunningham's original works. These primarily reflect pieces created for the Company, but there are some notes relating to Cunningham's early compositions created between 1942-1952. The Choreographic records require permission of the Trust for access.
These three large paper collections comprise the Merce Cunningham Archive, along with moving image and audio materials that are being individually cataloged. As they are cataloged, these audio and moving image items are being made available to patrons at the library.
Lea Jordan, who processed the Additions, described the process.
“When the records arrived, they consisted of over 100 large boxes of material as well as a computer hard drive and over 200 floppy and compact disks. The hard drive and the disks were forensically imaged for preservation. After that step, I was able to consider the collection as a whole unit in order to identify the way the records were created and used together.
“Processing the collection was rewarding and informative. While I was familiar with Cunningham’s work, I was unaware of his specific approach to the creative process. In the artists’ files, I discovered his requests for art or a backdrop—giving the artist free rein to create whatever they saw fit without knowing anything about the dance it would accompany. His work “EyeSpace” required the audience to bring their own iPod (or borrow one) and shuffle music at random while viewing the performance. His focus on collaboration through chance is well documented in these records."
There’s great joy to be gleaned from using and understanding words with precision. For the linguistically inclined, it can be the pleasure of reading and writing. It can also be an obsession. Recently, for example, a man named Bryan Henderson made headlines for editing thousands of Wikipedia pages to eradicate the phrase “comprised of” in favor of “composed of.” Of course, even amongst avid readers, there are a handful of words that often are confused and misused. So we've rounded up some of these tricky word pairs and their definitions, adding sentences to help you remember the distinctions. Join in the fun by commenting with your own mnemonic sentences that include these words. Twins - Female twins posing in hats. Image ID: 1685125eminent v. imminent
eminent: adj. famous and respected within a particular sphere or present to a notable degree
imminent: adj. about to happen She was an eminent author, winning prestigious awards and accolades. At the moment, what she was most anticipating was not the National Book Award ceremony, however; it was the imminent arrival of her breakfast burrito.
substantive v. substantial
substantive: adj. having a firm basis in reality and so important, meaningful, or considerable
substantial: adj. of considerable importance, size, or worth My point is substantive, derived from thorough research, and it is this: Your substantial chocolate stash takes up an entire drawer, so you should be willing to share.
censure v. censor
censure: v. express severe disapproval of (someone or something)
censor: v. examine (a book, film, etc.) officially and suppress unacceptable parts of it They wanted to censor the film, removing the sex scenes. So we censured the decision in a scathing op-ed article called, "Give the People What They Want!"
indeterminate v. indeterminable
indeterminate: adj. not exactly known, established, or defined
indeterminable: adj. not able to be definitely ascertained, calculated, or identified The goodie bag's contents were indeterminate until we opened it. There we found a coupon worth "a gajillion hugs," a number of hugs that was indeterminable.
denote v. connote
denote: v. signify the literal meaning
connote: v. (of a word) imply or suggest (an idea or feeling) in addition to the literal or primary meaning According to the dictionary, the word denotes strength. Unfortunately, when he used the word to describe my perfume, it seemed to carry a negative connotation, especially once he began coughing.
elude v. allude
elude: v. escape from or avoid (a danger, enemy, or pursuer), typically in a skilful or cunning way; fail to be attained by (someone)
allude: v. suggest or call attention to indirectly; hint at He eluded the trip to see the horror movie by playing sick, but the following day, when his friends alluded to the scene when the zombie attacks, he actually felt ill.
ambiguous v. ambivalent
ambiguous: adj. open to more than one interpretation; not having one obvious meaning
ambivalent: adj. having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone She was ambivalent about the date because he was funny but also hogged the popcorn during the movie, which would give anyone mixed feelings. When he sent her an ambiguous text message that she couldn't decipher, she decided she preferred watching Downton Abbey to dating.
Access Oxford Reference Online with your library card for more language and subject reference works.
Happy Immigrant Heritage Week! Since 2004, New York City has celebrated Immigrant Heritage Week around April 17, coordinated by the Mayor's Office of Immmigrant Affairs. April 17, 1907 is the date that New York’s immigrant receiving station, Ellis Island, saw its busiest day ever, processing a record 11,747 new arrivals in a single day. This year, New York City Immigrant Heritage Week is April 17–April 24. Many free events celebrating our cultural diversity are scheduled for this week in NYPL branches and other locations throughout New York City.
A great way to learn about and celebrate the histories and contributions of New York City’s diverse immigrant communities is by reading their stories. Here are some vivid representations of the New York immigrant experience in fiction, as well as a few memoirs and biographies of New Yorkers past and present, who arrived here from all over the world and made their mark on our city.
Please note that only books that take place partly in New York have been included, so many wonderful books about the immigrant experience, such as Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and The Namesake by Jumpa Lahiri are not on this list. Please recommend your favorite immigrant experience books in the comments section below.
Memoirs and Biographies of New York Immigrants
Very few of the immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island or at JFK International Airport have published their stories, so we are fortunate that some wonderful writers have shared their immigrant experiences in their memoirs. If you would like to listen to some first-hand accounts, Ellis Island's Oral History Project has been recording the recollections of immigrants who passed through the immigration station between 1892 and 1954, and you can listen to hundreds of recordings online. Here are a few memoirs and biographies of immigrants who chose to make New York their home.
97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman (2010) explores the food traditions and habits of five families who lived at 97 Orchard Street in the 19th century: the Glockers (Germany), the Moores (Ireland), the Gumpertzs (Germany), the Rogarshvskys (Lithuania) and the Baldizzis (Italy). 97 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan is now the site of The Tenement Museum.
Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas (1967). In his classic memoir, Nuyorican poet Piri Thomas describes growing up on the perilous streets of Spanish Harlem in the mid 20th century.
When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago (1993). The author tells the story of her childhood in Puerto Rico and her teenage years in New York in this coming of age classic. Her story continues in Almost a Woman.
‘Tis: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (1999). In the sequel to the international bestseller Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt describes his life in America, beginning in 1949 with his arrival in New York at the age of 19. His story continues in Teacher Man.
Out of Egypt: A Memoirby André Aciman (2007). Distinguished professor and author André Aciman also came to New York at the age of 19. This is a memoir of his childhood in Alexandria, Egypt and the story of three generations of his peripatetic Sephardic family.
Purpose: An Immigrant’s Story by Wyclef Jean (2012). The rapper, songwriter, producer describes growing up in Haiti, Brooklyn and Newark, his rise to fame with the Fugees, and his involvement in politics and relief efforts in Haiti.
Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina by Raquel Cepeda (2013). Journalist, filmmaker, and writer Raquel Cepeda explores her Latin American roots in this memoir, the first to be published by a Dominican American.
Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart (2014). Acclaimed novelist Gary Shteyngart, born Igor Shteyngart in Leningrad, recounts his experiences as a Russian-Jewish immigrant growing up in Queens in this moving and funny memoir.
These novels describe the experiences of immigrants who arrived in New York during the 19th and 20th centuries from many countries. Despite the different points of origin, these stories share many common themes, such as the struggle for survival in a new and unfamiliar place, feelings of alienation, a search for identity and community, and often, hopes for the future and the next generation.
Maggie, A Girl of the Streets(1893) An Irish immigrant family struggles to survive on the Bowery in late 19th century New York.
Call it Sleep by Henry Roth (1934) recounts the experiences of an Austrian-Jewish family living on the Lower East Side in the early 20th century.
Christ in Concrete by Pietro Di Donato (1939) examines the sometimes brutal life of Italian immigrants in lower Manhattan in the 1920s.
Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall (1959). A young woman comes of age in a close-knit community of Barbadian immigrants in Depression era Brooklyn.
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Loveby Oscar Hijuelos (1989). Two musician brothers leave Cuba in 1949 and dream of becoming Mambo stars in New York.
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991). A family moves from the Dominican Republic to the Bronx in the 1960s, and a linguistic and cultural gap develops between generations.
Typical Americanby Gish Jen (1991). Three Chinese students become permanent immigrants in New York during the Communist Revolution.
Breath, Eyes, Memoryby Edwige Danticat (1994) A twelve-year old girl confronts culture shock and painful family secrets when she leaves her village in Haiti to rejoin her mother who has been living and working in New York.
Native Speaker(1995) Becoming a "native speaker" is not so simple for a Korean American man who tries to assimilate into mainstream American society but has been raised with different cultural norms.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (2000). Joe Kavalier escapes from Prague in 1939 and creates comic superheros with his Brooklyn born cousin, Sammy Clay.
Frank Sinatra was, as the Library for the Performing Arts exhibition attests, an American icon. The project, a collaboration of LPA and the GRAMMY Museum with Frank Sinatra Enterprises, focuses on him as one of the great artists of recorded sound—in his work with Columbia, Capitol and Reprise Records. Not just as a singer but as an A&R man, connecting the artist with the best repertory for his voice as it changed and matured.
The project also allows us to reveal his work on radio, as preserved in our Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. There are two public programs—the first this weekend—of listening to Sinatra on the radio, as thousands of Americans would do every week. The first session focuses on an episode of Songs by Sinatra, broadcast on April 24, 1947 over CBS. It pays tribute to Irving Berlin’s forty years of songwriting and came to us as part of the Irving Berlin Collection of Non-Commercial Recordings. During the repartee with Sinatra before singing his first published song “Marie from Sunny Italy,” Berlin complains that he has to accompany himself on an old piano, while there are “a half-acre of strings” for Sinatra and his other guests.
Radio shows don’t stop for footnoting—that’s what blog posts are for, so here goes. Berlin’s comment refers to his well-known inability to play instruments other than piano and that only in one key. But it also refers to the musical journey that Sinatra took with arranger Axel Stordahl in the 1940s. As is illustrated in the exhibition, Sinatra’s earliest successes were as a vocalist with the big bands—of Harry James, Benny Goodman and, most importantly to his career, Tommy Dorsey. The big band sound performed and recorded by these popular ensembles was created by reed, brass and percussion instruments. Depending on the leader’s specialty, they generally had banks of 4 saxophones, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, piano, bass and drums, a small vocal ensemble, and a vocalist.
When Sinatra left the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, he and Stordahl experimented with alternative instrumentations to support his voice and the repertory for Columbia Records. This voyage of discovery can be traced in three LPA collections. You can listen to the original 78s or LPs and hear for yourself the difference between the big bands and Stordahl’s symphonic instrument sound (Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound). You can look through the half-dozen photographs by Bill Gottlieb of a Sinatra/Stordahl recording session at the Liederkrantz Club studio in 1947 (Music Division Iconography).
Also here at LPA and on display in the exhibit is a very unusual sources of musical documentation. Among the Billy Rose Theatre Division collections about performance in NY’s great picture palaces, there are stage manager’s records for the Paramount (Paramount Theatre Stage Managers Records *T-MSS 1989-015). In them, Paul Bracco carefully documented the band stand layouts for every ensemble that played the Paramount in the 1940s on the floorplans. You can see the conventional big band layout in band stand footprints (rectangles) and instrument names for Dorsey’s ensemble. But walk around the case and look at the layouts for Sinatra’s headlining bookings backed by the Gracie Barrie Orchestra (May 26 – June 22, 1943) and the Jan Savitt Orchestra (November 1945). Bracco drew and noted the massed strings and, for Savitt, even a harp on stage.
Songs by Sinatra had a live orchestra, whose members probably chuckled at Berlin’s joke. The audience may have been mystified, but the musicians understood that it was a tribute to Stordahl’s orchestrations and service as Sinatra’s music director, and also at the experimentation that it represented.
Science-fiction and comic book writers have seized upon this quotation to preface their own works and, to be sure, it has a somewhat brutal intensity. Oppenheimer had an extensive knowledge of and interest in literature. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in March 1927 at age 23 at the University of Göttingen.
In “Two Men in Search of the Quark” by Lee Edson (April 27, 1977), collected in The New York Times Book of Physics and Astronomy, Oppenheimer's contemporaries look to works of literature to help them find a new lexicon for their discoveries. Murray Gell-Mann stated, “We started to get excited about a new theory and threw out words for our ideas. There have been some crazy ones in physics lately. The theory depended on a triplet of particles, with the right characteristics, and we needed a word for it. I started to say ‘squeak,’ ‘squark,’ and it came out ‘quark.’ We loved the word as soon as it was uttered. Much to my surprise, I found the line ‘Three quarks for Muster Mark’ in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Nothing could have fitted better.” (p. 85)
Later, on page 90, Edson goes on to write, “[…] Gell-Mann introduced two new concepts. The first, which had developed as early as 1952, was a quality which he called ‘strangeness.’ As with the quark, it had a literary counterpart, this time in Sir Francis Bacon’s line: ‘There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.’” Gell-Mann and Richard Feynmann created a scheme of a family of particles in a table. When the last was discovered, Gell-Mann called his chart the Eightfold Way, as in the Buddhist dictum: ‘This is the noble truth that leads to cessation of pain. This is the noble Eightfold Way—right views, right intentions, right speech, right action…’ More prosaic physicists call it the SU-3 theory because it is a symmetrical structure based on a triplet of fundamental particles.” (p. 91)
And, it seems that authors have likewise looked to physics for inspiration. In 1960, writer John Updike wrote in a poem:
Neutrinos, they are very small.
They have no charge and have no mass
And do not interact at all.
The earth is just a silly ball
To them, through which they simply pass
Like dust maids down a drafty hall. (p.140)
Libraries are commonly known as centers for books and learning, but sometimes you just want to vegetate on the couch for a few hours with some escapist television. We're happy to oblige, and will also take this opportunity to remind you that we can also recommend books and other media that are similar in theme to your favorite series.
Here is just a sampling of the many fine television shows in our collections available for you to borrow, along with our recommendations for further entertainment. Because after you finish up all three seasons, some binge-reading is probably in order.
What are you watching now? Let us know in the comments.
Casey the bear performs for KFC Original Recipe only. No other kind of chicken will do. Do not insult the bear's intelligence by offering him imitation chicken. Film staff have driven vehicles 90 minutes each way in order to obtain the non-negotiable treat. It's okay, Casey. We understand that it is important to get a refreshing delectable delight after toiling at work all day.
Cats can be trained to flush toilets. Trainers direct insects to travel in a certain direction. Everyone on the crew falls in love with canine and feline film actors. The human actors, fans and crew alike love walking around holding cuddly animals.
Actors that want to work with the animals are a joy for animal trainers. The awesome celebrities can participate in the scenes as trainers with the animals, and the bond between the animals and actors enhances their performance. However, if the actors are disinterested in the animals, they can be treated as props. In that case, the trainers and animals simply work around the actors. Sometimes, actors can get neat perks of the job, such as riding lessons if they must appear in a scene with a horse.
The American Humane Association has been working since 1940 to keep animals safe and not overworked in movies. Animal trainers love their jobs. Each animal character in film has several animals trained for the part in order to divide up the work. Food, as well as anything that the animals like, can be used as rewards for a job well done.
Animal actors are high energy creatures who sometimes fail as pets. They love having something productive to do, and they thrive on human attention and approval. Animals do not really "act" or feign emotions that they do not truly feel. On the contrary, the film directors and animal trainers must choreograph a series of behaviors for the animals to do that will make it appear as if they are thinking or feeling in certain ways. Many of these incredibly furry and hairy TV celebrities are rescued and brought to movie life from local animal shelters. Purebred animals can be obtained from rescue organizations and/or animal shelters.
Sometimes, I do not enjoy watching animal acting because it seems anthropomorphic. Directors want animals to do stunts that they think people will be amazed at or laugh at. I spend so much time around real animals that some of the "acting" looks decidedly fake to me.
Narrative or creative nonfiction is a somewhat newly recognized genre. Naturally, as librarians we have a great appreciation for the research, the primary source documents and interviews, but it is the narrative, the skillful pacing, the phrasing, and the insight that make it read like a thriller that set these books apart from other nonfiction. For this week's readers advisory practice we decided to pay tribute to the talented authors who do this well. We received such a strong response to the call out for favorites that we divided the list into four categories: journalism and social science, travel and adventure, science, and memoir. This is the science edition of our salute to great narrative nonfiction.
In the science category, I recommend The Ghost Map. Science + History for the win as a doctor in mid 19th century London has to unravel the mysteries of a cholera outbreak. In The Poisoner's Handbook several forensic mysteries are solved by NYC's early medical examiners. —Carmen Nigro, Milstein Division
I enjoyed Mary Roach's Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, in which she examines the history of scientific experiments that that explore the mysteries of death. —Lauren Bradley, George Bruce
Mary Roach's series of science-popularizing books including Stiff—what happens to the human body after death and Packing for Mars—life in zero gravity are both fun reading and full of fun facts. The World Without Usby Alan Weisman is a fascinating speculative account of what would happen to the earth and civilization's structures if humans suddenly disappeared. Interesting tidbits include how the subways, which are continually pumped, would flood right away, and how exactly the landfills will decompose over time. This might be a stretch, but for those interested in physics and cosmology for the layman, Stephen Hawking's books have contributed greatly to scientific literacy, wherein the mysteries of the universe and the story of how we've learn what we know unfold like a tantalizing drama: A Brief History of Time, A Briefer History of Time, The Theory of Everything, and The Grand Design. —Jeremy Megraw, Billy Rose Theater Division
Lee Gutkind's Almost Human: Making Robots Thinkis on my to-read list. Gutkind is the founder of Creative Nonfiction magazine. —Jenny Baum, Jefferson Market
Bill Bryson, Bill Bryson, Bill Bryson! He explains everything A Short History of Nearly Everythingand is as compelling as any thriller for my money. —Leslie Tabor, Associate Director for Neighborhood Libraries
If you follow social media like Twitter and Tumblr, you’ll notice lots of posts about books that include the tag #WeNeedDiverseBooks. This is a way that people can promote books that reflect the different types of readers in the world. One of the advantages of finding diverse books is that they’ll include characters who reflect YOU. But one of the other advantages is that they can be about characters who are nothing like you at all. 
Dorothy loved books and people, so she combined the two interests into a career. She attended college and then library school. She was then ready to be a librarian, but she and her husband moved to a lovely rural area. Unfortunately, there was no library in the community. Dorothy missed librarianship, but then the people had a town meeting in which it was brought up that they used to have a rolling library. Dorothy was delighted by the idea, and she was happy to use the collection money to start a mobile library.
The New York Public Library has an enormous amount and variety of collection materials, and those collections require care to help them last. But the Library also has a 
Otto is a book bear. He loves books, and he also lives inside one. However, when no one is looking, he leaves his book to walk around the house, read other books and write his own stories. Then, one day Otto expands his adventures to the great world outside. He meets seagulls on rooftops, people bustling through the city and street cats. Best of all, he discovers the local library, which houses thousands of books, and he meets many creatures who enjoy reading and writing.
Casey the bear performs for KFC Original Recipe only. No other kind of chicken will do. Do not insult the bear's intelligence by offering him imitation chicken. Film staff have driven vehicles 90 minutes each way in order to obtain the non-negotiable treat. It's okay, Casey. We understand that it is important to get a refreshing delectable delight after toiling at work all day.
