Born in Selma, Alabama, Ann Vaughan Weaver drew from the time she was five-years old and received her first sculpting tool at age eight.  Like many young artists, Ann moved to New York to study at the National Academy of Design, the Arts Student League of New York and Cooper Union.  She studied with artists William Zorach, Leon Kroll, and Jose de Creeft.  She apprenticed with John Hovannes and was a studio assistant to Alexander Archipenko.  While in New York, Ann’s work was well received and she participated in group shows at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.  She was the recipient of two Carnegie Traveling Fellowships.  During her career she participated in solo and group exhibitions at the Schneider Gallery, Rome; The Musée Rodin, Paris; Bodley Gallery, New York; Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York; Lowe Museum of Art, Miami; The Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach; and the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach.  In 1977 Ann Weaver Norton had the foresight to establish a foundation:  Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens, Inc.  Ann sought to preserve and conserve the historically significant art studio, the sculpture gardens, and the architecture that comprise this unique national and local treasure.  Ann lived and worked at 2051 S. Flagler Drive, West Palm Beach for 34 years until the time of her death in 1982.  The Gardens is now operated as a 501 (c)(3) foundation supported by an open membership and an elected Board of Trustees.  Available services include exhibitions, guided tours of the gardens and Ann Norton’s original sculpture studio, guest lecturers, and educational programs.  See pictures at https://www.ansg.org/ann-norton/ 

The numerous forms of the term 'spitting image' - spit and image, spitten image, the dead spit of etc., are likely to be to someone who is so similar to another as to appear to have been spat out of his mouth.  That idea, if not the exact phrase, was in circulation by the end of the 17th century, when George Farquhar used it in his comic play Love and a bottle, 1689:  "Poor child! he's as like his own dadda as if he were spit out of his mouth."  A version is in Andrew Knapp and W. Baldwin's The Newgate Calendar, 1824–26:  "A daughter . . . the very spit of the old captain."  'Spit' or 'dead spit', with the meaning of likeness, appears in print several times in the 19th century.  Here 'dead' means precise or exact, as in dead ringer.  Other languages have their own versions of this phrase; for example, French:  "C'est le portrait craché de son père" ("He's the spitting portrait of his father") and Norwegian:  "som snytt ut av nesen paa" ("as blown out of the nose of").  These are difficult to date and may pre-date the English version or may derive from it.  Toward the end of the 19th century we find 'spit and image'.  In 1895, an author called E. Castle published Lt. of Searthey, containing the line:  "She's like the poor lady that's dead and gone, the spit an' image she is."  Finally, we get to the first known use of 'spitting image' - in A. H. Rice's Mrs. Wiggs, 1901:  "He's jes' like his pa--the very spittin' image of him!"  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/spitting-image.html  Thank you, Muse reader! 

What Is Hardscape?  From Paths to Patios by David Beaulieu  Updated 10/30/19  Hardscape consists of the non-living elements of landscaping, such as a brick patio, a stone wall, or a wood arbor.  It is one of the two major subcategories of landscaping, the other being softscape.  Common examples of hardscape materials include concrete, brick, stone, wood, and metal.  Hardscaping can include almost any type of decorative or practical structure in a landscape, from driveways to fences to benches.  Hardscape is a critical part of landscape design, providing definition and a sense of organization to the natural areas and features.  Hardscape elements can also define the use of a space, such as with a driveway, or it can lead visitors through different zones of softscaping, as with a gravel path that winds through a grassy area and into a secluded garden.  https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-hardscape-2131060 

The Ohio Literary Trail, presented by the Ohioana Library Association, shines a spotlight on Ohio’s role in shaping culture and literature worldwide.  Visitors will discover the state’s rich literary landscape through landmark destinations, historical markers that recognize literary achievements, and book festivals dedicated to readers and writers.  Organized by the state’s five geographic regions for a convenient self-guided driving tour, the Ohio Literary Trail encourages exploration by tourists planning a literary-themed outing, as well as Ohioans who want to discover literary treasures they never knew existed in their own backyard.  Find information and see pictures at http://www.ohioana.org/resources/the-ohio-literary-trail/ 

Books are becoming everything to me.  If I had at this moment any choice in life, I would bury myself in one of those immense libraries . . . and never pass a waking hour without a book before me.  Thomas Babington Macaulay  https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/298101-books-are-becoming-everything-to-me-if-i-had-at 

Parnassus on Wheels is a 1917 novel written by Christopher Morley and published by Doubleday, Page & Company.  The title refers to the Mount Parnassus of Greek mythology; it was the home of the Muses.  Parnassus on Wheels is Morley's first novel, about a fictional traveling book-selling business.  The original owner of the business, Roger Mifflin, sells it to 39-year-old Helen McGill, who is tired of taking care of her older brother, Andrew.  Andrew is a former businessman turned farmer, turned author.  As an author, he begins using the farm as his Muse rather than a livelihood.  When Mifflin shows up with his traveling bookstore, Helen buys it—partly to prevent Andrew from buying it—and partly to treat herself to a long-overdue adventure of her own.  The first of two novels to be written from a woman's perspective, as well as the prequel to a later novel (The Haunted Bookshop), Parnassus on Wheels was inspired by the novel The Friendly Road by David Grayson (pseudonym of Ray Stannard Baker), and starts with an open letter to Grayson, taking him to task for not concerning himself (except in passing) with his sister's opinion of and reaction to his adventure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parnassus_on_Wheels 

Take a Virtual Tour of This Belgian Sourdough Library--Sourdough librarian Karl De Smedt has traveled the world to gather more than 120 jars of starters by Theresa Machemer   About 87 miles southeast of Brussels, the residents of a living library are fermenting away.  Some 125 mason jars of bubbling sourdough starters—mixtures of flour, water and microbes—sit in the refrigerated cabinets of the Puratos Sourdough Library in St. Vith, Belgium.  Each jar is numbered, and many are named.  Sourdough librarian Karl De Smedt, a confectioner and baker by training, has traveled the world to build the library’s collection.  He oversaw the venue’s opening in 2013 and has gathered up to a few dozen starters each year since.  Visitors can learn more about De Smedt’s “quest for sourdough” by taking the library’s virtual tour.  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/take-virtual-tour-belgian-sourdough-library-180974668/ 

How Books Became Cheap--a timeline of bookmaking technology by Lapham’s Quarterly  About 220, the earliest type of printing involved carving a relief pattern into blocks of wood, which would then be inked and pressed onto cloth, and later paper.  A woodblock could be reinked and stamped many times, saving labor compared to scribal work, despite the initial investment of labor in carving the block.  The earliest extant examples are from China; the technology spread from there to Japan and other parts of the world.  Color woodblock printing began in China in the fourteenth century, initially with only the addition of a single color, usually red.  A technique for five-color printing called nishiki-e became widespread in Japan in the 1760s.  Read about developments in movable type (1040), pocket-size books (about 1500), stereotyping (about 1700), steam press (about 1814), clothbound books (about 1830), paperback books (about 1845), and hot-metal typesetting (about 1884) at https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/how-books-became-cheap 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2248  August 25, 2020