FROM the Library of Congress:  Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1924 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.  http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

COMING FROM the Library of Congress:  "As part of its web archiving program (https://www.loc.gov/webarchiving/), the Library of Congress is harvesting the Twitter account of Donald J. Trump as part of a collection for the 2016 election.  The Library of Congress anticipates continuing to harvest this Twitter account if President Elect Trump continues to use it in addition to, or perhaps instead of, the existing POTUS Twitter account.  These targeted web harvesting efforts are separate from the Library’s acquisition of the wider body of Twitter content.”  http://www.bespacific.com/lc-to-harvest-twitter-account-of-donald-j-trump/

A SHORT HISTORY OF DENIM ©2014 Lynn Downey Levi Strauss & Co. historian   A fabric called “serge de Nimes,” was known in France prior to the 17th century.  At the same time, there was also a fabric known in France as “nim.”  Both fabrics were composed partly of wool.  Serge de Nimes was also known in England before the end of the 17th century.  The question then arises:  is this fabric imported from France or is it an English fabric bearing the same name?  According to Ms. Gorguet-Ballesteros, fabrics which were named for a certain geographic location were often also made elsewhere; the name was used to lend a certain cachet to the fabric when it was offered for sale.  Therefore a “serge de Nimes” purchased in England was very likely also made in England, and not in Nimes, France.  There still remains the question of how the word “denim” is popularly thought to be descended from the word “serge de Nimes.”  Serge de Nimes was made of silk and wool, but denim has always been made of cotton. What we have here again, I think, is a relation between fabrics that is in name only, though both fabrics are a twill weave.  Then, to confuse things even more, there also existed, at this same time, another fabric known as “jean.”  Research on this textile indicates that it was a fustian--a cotton, linen and/or wool blend--and that the fustian of Genoa, Italy was called jean; here we do see evidence of a fabric being named from a place of origin.  By the 18th century jean cloth was made completely of cotton, and used to make men’s clothing, valued especially for its property of durability even after many washings.  Read more at http://www.levistrauss.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/A-Short-History-of-Denim2.pdf

QUOTES from The Last Bookaneer, a novel by Matthew Pearl  "Nothing in the world—not a ton of bricks—feels as heavy as books being moved.”   “Strangers talking over piles of books do not remain strangers for long.”  "The high seas of literature swarm with plunderers."

Bookaneer was coined by the poet and author Thomas Hood in a letter in The Athenaeum of 22 April 1837 under the title Copyright and Copywrong:  “If a work be of temporary interest it shall virtually be free for any Bookaneer to avail himself of its pages and its popularity with impunity.”  The extent of the problem was described in an American publication at the middle of the century:  No sooner is a literary venture of Bulwer, Thackeray, or Dickens afloat, than a whole baracoon of “bookaneers,” as Hood called them, rushes forth to seize it.  The Metropolitan (Baltimore), March 1853.  A barracoon was a rough barracks used for the temporary confinement of slaves or criminals.  Matthew Pearl writes in The Last Bookaneer:  “Bookaneers would not describe themselves as thieves, but they would resort to almost any means to profit from an unprotected book.”  Dickens had a very public battle with piratical American periodicals and satirised their activities in Martin Chuzzlewit, the serial parts of which were reprinted in the very publications he was lambasting.  http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-boo3.htm

What we term "copyright" is understood as as international system that legally protects the rights of an author or owner of published and unpublished works, including letters and playscripts, against plagiarism, or other unauthorised reproduction or publication of that work.  No sooner had William Caxton set up his printshop in London that an act (I Richard. 3 c. 9) was passed to regulate the British book-trade.  This Tudor statute permitted the importation of foreign books because the legislators of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth England believed that such a practice would encourage the growth of learning.  Until 1709 copyright was legally available only to printers and publishers, who regarded copyrights as perpetual investments.  The 1709 Statute of Queen Anne first made it legal for anyone--even a writer--to own a copyright, but only for fourteen years (or twenty-eight, if the author survived the first fourteen).  The Copyright Acts of 1709, 1814, and 1842 increased the duration of protection from fourteen, to twenty-eight, to forty-two years respectively.  George III re-established the concept of perpetual copyright in law, but only for the universities of the United Kingdom, whose libraries enjoy the right of "demand"--i. e., the right to require from a British author a copy of his published work.  Between 1735 and 1875, no less than thirteen parliamentary acts governed the legal application of copyright in the United Kingdom.  In 1896 the American Congress joined the international copyright union, after petitions directed at it by such noted British novelists as Maria Edgeworth, Benjamin Disraeli, and Charles Dickens, beginning in 1837.  Their pleas had fallen on deaf ears in the American government until joined by those of Americans such as Mark Twain, who complained that he was fed up with publishers' ignoring American works in favour of those of English writers, whose books could be re-printed more cheaply because there were no royalty costs.  A further point of exacerbation for Twain was Canadian piracies of his works, which he attempted to prevent by establishing temporary residence in Canada on the date of publication of each of his works.  Read much more at http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/pva74.html

Within two weeks of the publication of A Christmas Carol, volumes reportedly were selling on the streets of New York for pennies.  Charles Dickens’s objection to the loss of income as a result of America’s disrespect for the ownership rights in his creations was loud and bold.  American writers fared no better in Great Britain.  The works of Edgar Allen Poe and Henry Wordsworth Longfellow found no protection in London and its environs.  The United States simply did not honor the copyrights of authors who were not American citizens and, as a result, Great Britain would not honor the copyrights of American authors.  With a treasure trove of English literature free for the taking, American publishers simply didn’t pay authors, especially unknown American authors, for their work.  Without a day job, writers would starve (think Edgar Allen Poe) or go bankrupt (think Sir Walter Scott).  Dickens’s advocacy of copyright law was punished by the American Press as an attempt to upend the publishing industry and attack their profit center—royalty-free content.  They set out to ruin his reputation.   Surprisingly, even Walt Whitman jumped on the anti-copyright, Dickens-is-an-evil-agent-of-the-British crusade.  Dickens ended his first visit to America surprised and dismayed at how the popular tide had turned against him.  When he returned in 1867, he had mastered a way to generate alternative income streams based on his celebrity status.  He performed readings of his work to packed houses and collected the receipts from the door.  He also gave the exclusive rights to his next novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood to the American publishing house that sponsored his reading tour.  He was ultimately unable to take advantage of that deal.  Dickens died in 1870 before he finished the book.  Kathryn Goldman  http://www.charmcitylegal.com/charles-dickens-and-the-american-copyright-problem/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1663  December 12, 2016  On this date in 1787, Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, five days after Delaware became the first.  On this date in 1897, Belo Horizonte, the first planned city in Brazil, was founded.  Word of the Day  cockalorum  noun  (1)  A menial, yet self-important person; a person who makes empty boasts.  (2)  Boastful speech, crowing.  (3)  A game similar to leapfrog.