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An American collector is planning to donate rare early editions of Shakespeare’s plays to London’s Globe Theatre, which specializes in performing the Bard’s works.

A spokeswoman for the theatre said the collection of 16th, 17th and 18th century play texts was “priceless.”

It includes a complete Shakespeare first folio, a 900-page volume of his works published in 1623 that would have first sold for just one pound at the time.

Only around 200 copies survive, and good quality examples have sold for as much as $5.2 million.

Yeah, I think I have one of those sitting in a box somewhere.  I’ve been meaning to eBay it.  Snark snark.

Published alongside the previously announced 384-page paperback edition … this definitive, expanded 544-page hardcover edition contains a plethora of additional materials–essential information for scholars and serious photo enthusiasts alike. Both editions are authored by the preeminent Frank scholar and National Gallery of Art curator Sarah Greenough, and both contain engaging essays by Anne Tucker, Stuart Alexander, Martin Gasser, Jeff Rosenheim, Michel Frizot, Luc Sante and Philip Brookman. However, the expanded edition also contains all of Frank’s contact sheets for The Americans, additional letters and manuscript materials, a chronology (and map) of Frank’s trips across America, a selected exhibition history and a preliminary sequence for the book with a chart comparing various editions in The Americans’ long international publishing history.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d ever get to see Frank’s contact sheets.  This is going to be a treat, I tell you.  A TREAT.  Also, once the book is published, it’s only a matter of time before another photographer uses the included chronology and map of Frank’s trips across America to re-create the journey and market is as a “50 years after The Americans“-type photo essay.  He/she will visit the same cities/venues Frank did (if they still exist).  Call me cynical, but people are that predictable.

Margaret Atwood has just published a book entitled Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.

Her timing couldn’t be better.

From Times Online:

Payback is Atwood’s contribution to the Massey Lectures - a prestigious annual event that has been hosted by Martin Luther King and J. K. Galbraith - and once the book is published she will tour her native Canada reading from it. It has been hard explaining what it is about, though, or why she, a novelist, should be tackling economics: “It was never just about money: it was about owing. Money is the form in which we have embodied this but … [w]hat we’re really talking about is imbalances of obligation, which is what debt is.” [The new book] Payback casts its net far and wide, taking in Ancient Egyptian heart-weighing, the bizarre practice of “sin eating”, Mesopotamian debt slavery, simian trading habits, Scrooge, Faustus, Get Shorty and Jung.

I’ll soon be seeing Ms. Atwood speak about this very subject.  She’s giving a talk at the Chan Centre here in Vancouver on October 15th.  Tickets are general admission, and are available through Ticketmaster.

(photo: Jim Allen)

She rips him a new one!

From The Globe and Mail:

[Stephen Harper's] idea of “the arts” is a bunch of rich people gathering at galas whining about their grants. Well, I can count the number of moderately rich writers who live in Canada on the fingers of one hand: I’m one of them, and I’m no Warren Buffett. I don’t whine about my grants because I don’t get any grants. I whine about other grants - grants for young people, that may help them to turn into me, and thus pay to the federal and provincial governments the kinds of taxes I pay, and cover off the salaries of such as Mr. Harper.

Yeah.

What she said.

Behold! Some crappy screenshots from the book in progress, Monuments of Distinction Since 1900. Some of these photographs you may have seen before, but I guarantee that the book contains many photos you haven’t seen. And yes, I’m in the book too (in fact, the photos of me are very out of character). And so is Deli-Cat. And so are other people. It’s not merely a “landscapes n’ sunsets”-type thing. And altogether, it will be approx. 280-300 pages. Thick. You could kill someone with it!

When will it be ready, you ask? I’m aiming for March 2009. Also, know this: I won’t be making a penny on it. I’m looking to donate any proceeds to charity, and already have a few ideas in mind in that regard.

]]> http://www.14giants.com/2008/08/13/monuments-of-distinction-since-1900-preview1/feed/ http://www.14giants.com/2008/08/09/miles-of-margaret/ http://www.14giants.com/2008/08/09/miles-of-margaret/#comments Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:32:17 +0000 admin http://www.14giants.com/?p=387

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I bet this film would look amazing in high-def on Blu-ray. The cinematography is gorgeous. (Which reminds me. If you get the chance, check out the re-release of Gattaca that came out a while back. Stunning.)

]]> http://www.14giants.com/2008/08/09/solaris/feed/ http://www.14giants.com/2008/07/31/stuff-white-people-like/ http://www.14giants.com/2008/07/31/stuff-white-people-like/#comments Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:55:44 +0000 admin http://www.14giants.com/?p=335

If you remember that it’s only satire, it doesn’t seem so wrong.

I’m speaking, of course, about Stuff White People Like. Originally a website, it’s now available in book form too.

I own this book.

It makes me laugh.

Hard.

Still, how come this guy (who only launched his website in January) already has a six-figure book deal? Where my book deal?! Hmmm?