Friday, June 19, 2020


Harriet Monroe (1860–1936) was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet, and patron of the arts.  She is best known as the founding publisher and long-time editor of Poetry magazine, first published in 1912.  As a supporter of the poets Wallace StevensEzra PoundH. D.T. S. EliotWilliam Carlos WilliamsCarl SandburgMax Michelson and others, Monroe played an important role in the development of modern poetry.  Her correspondence with early twentieth century poets provides a wealth of information on their thoughts and motives.  She became a freelance correspondent to the Chicago Tribune, and was commissioned to write a commemorative ode for the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America.  Though Century magazine published her poem, "With a Copy of Shelley," in 1889, she became disillusioned by the limited earnings available for poets, saying:  "The minor painter or sculptor was honored with large annual awards in our greatest cities, while the minor poet was a joke of the paragraphers, subject to the popular prejudice that his art thrived best on starvation in a garret."  Her financial hardships were alleviated after she sued the New York World for publishing the Colombian ode poem without her consent and she was awarded $5,000 dollars in a settlement.  With help from publisher Hobart Chatfield-Taylor, Monroe convinced one hundred prominent Chicago business leaders to sponsor the magazine Poetry by each committing to fifty dollars for a five-year subscription.  The $5,000, coupled with her own settlement, was enough to launch the magazine on September 23, 1912, while upholding its promise to contributors of adequate payment for all published work.  Monroe was editor for its first two years without salary, while simultaneously working as an art critic for the Chicago Tribune.  By 1914, the magazine work became too much for her to accomplish while working other jobs, so she resigned from the Tribune and accepted a salary of fifty dollars per month from the magazine.  For more than ten years she maintained herself on this stipend, raising it to one hundred dollars per month in 1925.  Monroe was a member of the Eagle's Nest Art Colony in Ogle County, Illinois, and is mentioned in Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City.  In 2011, Monroe was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Monroe

Delicately suspended in the Urban Room of the Salt Lake Public Library floats "Psyche,” a hallucinatory synthesis of literature, nature and technology.  Comprised of nearly 1400 component parts, including several hundred subtly moving elements, the piece employs a sort of three-dimensional Pointillism wherein numerous small sculptures coalesce into a large composite human head.  The small components depict six different book forms, ranging from closed books articulating the front of the face, and progressing to completely open books at the back of the head.  In the more open books, over a dozen species of butterflies emerge from the pages, resulting in scores of actively kinetic, variously colored butterflies-on-books comprising the cranium.  See illustration at https://culturenow.org/entry&permalink=19914&seo=Psyche_Ralph-Helmick-and-Stuart-Schechter

June 15, 2020  Bad Form, the quarterly literary review magazine, is launching a new prize for young black, Asian, Arab and other non-white fiction writers based in the UK, with support from across the publishing industry.  The Bad Form Young Writers’ Prize is intended to help provide practical support to British authors from underrepresented backgrounds, helping them to break into the business.  The winner of the prize will receive one-to-one meetings with agent Catherine Cho of the Madeleine Milburn Agency, publisher Joel Richardson of Michael Joseph, and author Okechukwu Nzelu of The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney (Dialogue Books).  Katherine Cowdrey 

Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture.  Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.  See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section "What Works Are Protected."  Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases.  In some cases, these things may be protected as trademarks.  Contact the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, TrademarkAssistanceCenter@uspto.gov or see Circular 33, for further information.  However, copyright protection may be available for logo artwork that contains sufficient authorship.  In some circumstances, an artistic logo may also be protected as a trademark.  See more at https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html

The first time I heard about babka was in the 90s while watching Seinfeld.  The episode also features a black and white cookie, so I think that distracted me from learning more about babka at the time.  (Side note:  Here is Joanne’s recipe for black and white cookies.  I’ve made them, and they’re incredible.)  Fast forward to earlier this year when I found chocolate babka at Trader Joe’s.  All of those Seinfeld memories flooded back.  It was delicious, but I was told by several people that it wasn’t “real” babka.  Which my mind translated thusly:  I had no choice but to make it at home.  Bridget Edwards  Find recipe and pictures at https://thepioneerwoman.com/food-and-friends/chocolate-babka/  16 servings

Encyclopedia Brown is a series of books featuring the adventures of boy detective Leroy Brown, nicknamed "Encyclopedia" for his intelligence and range of knowledge.  The series of 29 children's novels was written (one co-written) by Donald J. Sobol, with the first book published in 1963 and the last novel published posthumously in 2012.  The Encyclopedia Brown series has spawned a comic strip, a TV series, and compilation books of puzzles and games.  Sobol's first Encyclopedia Brown book was written in two weeks; subsequent books took about six months to write.  Find formula, style, and list of books at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_Brown

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”  Theodore Roosevelt 
Continuous effort--not strength or intelligence--is the key to unlocking our potential.  Winston Churchill  
All things are difficult before they are easy.”  Thomas Fuller
Knowing is not enough; we must apply.  Willing is not enough; we must do.”  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe   
 Thinking well is wise; planning well wiser; doing well wisest and best of all.”  Persian Proverb

"Since the library closed on March 16, 2020 we've had about seven thousand people register for library cards," says Richard Reyes-Gavilan, Executive Director for the District of Columbia Public Libraries.  "We've had over 300,000 books borrowed since mid-March, which is astounding considering that our collections are limited."  By the library's accounting, that's 37% higher than the same period in 2019, and DC isn't alone in an uptake in digital usage:  Weekly library e-book lending across the country has increased by nearly 50 percent since March 9, according to data from OverDrive, a service used by many libraries to let patrons check out media for e-readers, smartphones and computers.  Audiobook check-outs are also up 14%—not quite as large a shift, likely because fewer people are in their cars commuting to work.  Across the country, while physical lending remains closed, five of Seattle's library buildings have been opened for restroom-only access since late April, in part hoping to slow the spread of COVID-19 by making handwashing easier for the homeless.  In DC, Reyes-Gavilan is excited about being able to physically open the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, which has been closed for renovation since 2017, especially given the current background of race-related protest.  "We'll be offering socially-distant services the likes of which the city has never seen from a public library," he says.  Thomas Wilburn  https://www.npr.org/2020/06/16/877651001/libraries-are-dealing-with-new-demand-for-books-and-services-during-the-pandemic

WORD OF THE DAY FOR JUNE 19  Juneteenth  proper noun  (US) Also more fully as Juneteenth Day:  a holiday celebrated in many states on June 19, commemorating the end of slavery.  On June 19, 1865, Union Army General Gordon Granger read out General Order No. 3 in GalvestonTexas, to enforce President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862 stating that all previously enslaved people in Texas were now freehttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Juneteenth#English  Read General Order No. 3 at https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/juneteenth.html#:~:text=Juneteenth,to%20the%20people%20of%20Galveston.

The Juneteenth flag is the brainchild of activist Ben Haith, founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation (NJCF).  Haith created the flag in 1997 with the help of collaborators, and Boston-based illustrator Lisa Jeanne Graf brought their vision to life.  The flag was revised in 2000 into the version we know today, according to the National Juneteenth Observation Foundation.  Seven years later, the date "June 19, 1865" was added, commemorating the day that Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, and told enslaved African Americans of their emancipation.  Harmeet Kaur  See illustrations of symbols and descriptions of their meanings at https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/19/us/freedom-day-juneteenth-flag-meaning-trnd/index.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2287  June 19, 2020

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