12 Authors Write About the Libraries They Love  Read heartwarming stories from authors including Barbara Kingsolver, Neil Gaiman, Amy Tan and Annie Proulx and see pictures at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/books/review/public-libraries.html

The F. W. Woolworth Company (often referred to as Woolworth's or Woolworth) was a retail company and one of the original pioneers of the five-and-dime store.  It was arguably the most successful American and international five-and-dime business, setting trends and creating the modern retail model that stores follow worldwide today.  The first Woolworth store was opened by Frank Winfield Woolworth on February 22, 1878, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" in Utica, New York.  Though it initially appeared to be successful, the store soon failed.  When Woolworth searched for a new location, a friend suggested Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Using the sign from the Utica store, Woolworth opened his first successful "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" on July 18, 1879, in Lancaster.  He brought his brother, Charles Sumner Woolworth, into the business.  The two Woolworth brothers pioneered and developed merchandising, direct purchasing, sales, and customer service practices commonly used today.   Despite its growing to be one of the largest retail chains in the world through most of the 20th century, increased competition led to its decline beginning in the 1980s, while its sporting goods division grew. The chain went out of business in July 1997, when the company decided to focus primarily on sporting goods and renamed itself Venator Group.  By 2001, the company focused exclusively on the sporting goods market, changing its name to the present Foot Locker, Inc., changing its ticker symbol from its familiar Z in 2003 to its present ticker (NYSE: FL).  Retail chains using the Woolworth name survive in Austria, Germany, Mexico and, until early 2009, the United Kingdom.  The similarly named Woolworths supermarkets in Australia and New Zealand are operated by Australia's largest retail company, Woolworths Limited, a separate company with no historical links to the F. W. Woolworth Company or Foot Locker, Inc.  However, Woolworths Limited did take their name from the original company, as it had not been registered or trademarked in Australia at the time.  Similarly, in South Africa, Woolworths Holdings Limited operates a Marks & Spencer-like store and uses the Woolworth name, but has never had any connection with the American company.  The property development company Woolworth Group in Cyprus began life as an offshoot of the British Woolworth's company, originally operating Woolworth's department stores in Cyprus.  In 2003, these stores were rebranded Debenhams, but the commercial property arm of the business retained the Woolworth's name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._W._Woolworth_Company

Mario Buatta, the interior decorator hailed for decades as the Prince of Chintz because of the cheerful flowered fabrics that were a signature element of his English country–style rooms, died in New York City on October 15, 2018 five days short of his 83rd birthday.  Born and raised in Staten Island, New York, a son of violinist and bandleader Phil Burton (née Felice Buatta, aka Felix Buatta, aka Phil Buatta) and a grandson of Italian immigrant craftsmen—one grandfather was a carpenter, the other was a plasterer—the future decorator grew up disenchanted with all things modern.  Mitchell Owens  Read extensive article and see pictures at https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/mario-buatta-prince-of-chintz-obituary

Anthea Bell, translator, born 10 May 1936; died 18 October 2018   In 1970 Anthea Bell found herself with the tricky task of translating Asterix in Britain.  The eighth adventure in the comic book series rested on a French view of the English that was not directly translatable, involving warm beer, rugby louts and tea.  A whole strand of humour rested on the English inability to tell tu from vous, while the bowler hat did not lend itself to fruity puns in quite the same way as the chapeau melon.  So Bell transported the story to a Wodehousian England “with much:  ‘I say, jolly good, old fellow, what!’”  And though she herself was never very satisfied with the result, René Goscinny, co-creator of Asterix, was overheard muttering to himself, “Ah, vieux fruit. I wish I’d thought of that one!”  It was not the first time that Bell had upstaged the creators of one of the world’s most famous comics.  It was she, working with the academic Derek Hockridge, who changed the name of Obelix’s small, evil-tempered dog from Idéfix to Dogmatix and who named the local druid Getafix, giving rise to decades of debate as to the precise nature of his herbs.  But her 35 Asterix translations culminating in Asterix and the Picts in 2013 were only a fraction of an oeuvre that ran into several hundreds of titles, and she was appointed OBE for services to literature and literary translation in 2010.  One reason for Bell’s prolific output was her ability to move fluidly between children’s and adult publishing.  On the children’s side, she reunited with Goscinny on his Le Petit Nicolas series, as well as translating books by Erich Kästner and the fairytales of Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen.  An early adopter of new technology, who regarded age as no barrier, she hit the bestseller charts again in the noughties with Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart trilogy.  She won the Mildred L Batchelder award, which recognises the year’s “most outstanding” children’s book translated into English and published in the US, seven times--more than anyone else--for her translations from German, French and Danish, the last of which languages she taught herself over a single Christmas.  Bell also translated Freud, Kafka and a polemic against world armament by the German statesman Willy Brandt.  Her longstanding love affair with German culture was rewarded, in 2015, with the Cross of Merit for her “invaluable contribution to furthering understanding between Germany and the UK”.  Claire Armitstead  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/18/anthea-bell-obituary

Authors and translators the Muser is grateful for

Camilla Läckberg  (born Jean Edith Camilla Läckberg Eriksson August 30, 1974)  Swedish writer of crime fiction, cookbooks and shildren's stories

Steven T. Murray (born October 7, 1943)  American translator of Swedish, German, Danish, and Norwegian who has worked under the pseudonyms Reg Keeland and McKinley Burnett 

Henning Mankell (1948–2015) Swedish crime fiction writer best known for the character Kurt Wallender which he created

Gregory Rabassa (1922–2016) was an American literary translator from Spanish and Portuguese to English who taught for many years at Columbia University and Queens College.

Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (1927–2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist.  García Márquez waited three years for Gregory Rabassa to schedule translating One Hundred Years of Solitude.  He later declared Rabassa's translation to be superior to the Spanish original.  See also https://lans.ua.ac.be/index.php/LANS-TTS/article/viewFile/135/77 and  http://funtranslations.com/

Crazy Rich Asians is a 2013 novel by Kevin Kwan.  Kwan stated that his intention in writing the novel was to "introduce a contemporary Asia to a North American audience".  He claimed the novel was loosely based on his own childhood in Singapore.  The novel became a bestseller and was followed by two sequels, China Rich Girlfriend in 2015 and Rich People Problems in 2017.  A film adaptation of the novel was released on August 15, 2018.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Rich_Asians   Crazy Rich Asians and its two sequels are all listed on the bestseller list of paperback fiction in the October 21, 2018 issue of the Toledo newspaper. 

After obtaining his first degree in creative writing from the University of Houston, Kevin Kwan moved to Manhattan to pursue a BFA at Parsons School of Design.  Kevin's early years in the city were spent working for Martha Stewart Living, Andy Warhol's Interview magazine, and M & Co, the legendary design firm founded by Tibor Kalman.  In 2000, Kevin established his own creative studio, where he specialized in producing high profile projects for clients such as the New York Times, the Museum of Modern Art, Rockwell Group, and TED.com.  Many unforgettable experiences followed, like creating the ultimate publishing tribute to Oprah Winfrey's groundbreaking television show, handling Elizabeth Taylor's fabled jewel collection while producing Elizabeth Taylor:  Love Affair with Jewelry, and serving as the visual consultant for the re-launch of the TED website, which exceeded a billion views in November 2012.  http://www.kevinkwanbooks.com/

Tibor Kalman was a renowned American graphic designer of Hungarian descent.  He is recognized for his position at Colors magazine as editor-in-chief.  He also authored numerous books on the subject.  His accomplishments were legend within the field and widely known outside as well.  Born on July 6, 1949 in Budapest, Hungary and later moved to United States with his family, attaining the residency in 1956.  His family escaped Hungary under dire circumstances which involved the Soviet invasion.  They permanently settled in Poughkeepsie, New York.  There he studied at the New York University, although he dropped out a year after, attending journalism classes.  During 70s he did a stint at a small New York City bookstore which would become one of the nation’s leading bookstores, Barnes & Noble.  Soon after, he was appointed the supervisor of bookstore’s in-house design department.  Subsequently, in collaboration with Carol Bokuniewicz and Liz Trovato, Kalman founded the design firm M & Co.  The studio managed the corporate work providing a diverse range of solutions to their clients.  The company dealt with various clients including the new wave group Talking Heads, Restaurant Florent in New York City’s Meatpacking District and the Limited Corporation.  The American Institute of Graphic Arts presented him with the highest honor of graphic art, AIGA Medal, in 1999.  http://www.famousgraphicdesigners.org/tibor-kalman

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1973  October 22, 2018  295th day of the year