Library of Congress's Blog, page 140

Library in the News: September 2015 Edition

In September, the Library of Congress had some big headlines – from the announcements of new collections to celebrating the 15th annual National Book Festival and the inaugural reading of the new poet laureate.

The Library received a very special visitor and a very special book to add to its collections last month. During his tour of Washington, D.C., Pope Francis visited the Unites States Capitol. In his honor, the Library was given the Apostles Edition of The Saint Johns’ Bible, which was a gift from Saint John’s Abbey and University. The Bible is currently on view in the Library’s Jefferson Building though Jan. 2, 2016.

News outlets nationwide were covering the papal visit to the nation’s capital, including his stop at the Library.

“The bible isn’t particularly old or historically significant,” wrote Allison Meier for hyperallergic.com. “What the Saint John’s Bible represents is an effort to create artistic bibles in the mode of illuminated books of yesteryear, except reflecting present-day life and society.”

“This is some Bible,” wrote Steve Kraske for The Kansas City Star. “There are only 12 like it. It’s 1,130 pages. It contains 160 illustrations. It measures 2 feet by 3 feet when open. And it’s the first handwritten Bible commissioned in more than 500 years.”

“The pope also has received an Apostle’s edition, but we have an entirely different copy,” Mark Dimunation, chief of the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division, told WTOP.

In September, the Library also acquired the papers of comedian Jerry Lewis.

The Daily Progress (VA) spoke with the Library Moving Image Curator Rob Stone.

“It’s unlike a lot of collections where you get somebody’s films and they’re the films that everyone has seen and it’s great to have, but with this collection it goes much deeper because he sometimes turned on the camera just to turn it on,” he said of Lewis’ collection. “So the things you capture were really unique.”

Also running stories were the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and the Washington Times.

The 15th annual National Book Festival received lots of news coverage.

NBC News highlighted the festival’s Hispanic programming, calling it a “vibrant Latino presence.”

“Optimism about the future of American storytelling was the mood of the day, even among traditional publishers,” wrote Bridey Heing in her coverage of the festival for The Guardian.

Novelist Louise Erdrich was presented with the Library of Congress American Fiction Prize at the festival.

“I’m writing out of the mixture of cultures,” said the mixed-race Native American author to her festival audience. Her presentation was also covered by The Guardian. “Knowing both sides of my family really infused my life with a sense that I lived in many times and in many places as many people. It was never just me. I was always filled with the stories, the humor, the loss. Because, of course, we are all part of this great loss that occurred.”

Other festival coverage came from CBS News, WTOP, Blogcritics, School Library Journal and Fine Books & Collections Magazine, among many others.

Juan Felipe Herrera, the nation’s new poet laureate, was also a featured presenter at the book festival. There, he launched his project, La Casa De Colores.

“Herrera hopes La Casa de Colores will draw out diverse voices and experiences from across the U.S. to create a single, collaborative poem,” wrote Kristian Wilson for bustle.com.

Herrera followed his festival debut with his Library debut a couple of weeks later, launching the Library’s literary season.

“If there were any doubt, Herrera, the first Mexican American U.S. poet laureate, made it clear Tuesday night that he’s bringing a new sense of wonder and drama to the position,” wrote Ron Charles for The Washington Post. “His inaugural reading was infused with humility and graciousness, but it was also an elaborately choreographed event informed by his years as a teacher and activist.

“Along with Herrera’s expressive poetry readings about exiles, civil rights, immigration and unity, it was the ‘corrido,’ a Mexican ballad, performed with Juan Díes from the Sones de Mexico Ensemble, about the death of Sandra Bland that filled the more than 300-member audience with emotion,” said Grace Toohey for MClatchy News Service.

Herrera stopped by NPR before his lecture at the Library and read an excerpt from a poem he was writing for the evening.

10 Stories: Cat Tales! Chronicling America

In celebration of the release of the 10 millionth page of Chronicling America, our free, online searchable database of historical U.S. newspapers, the reference librarians in our Serials & Government Publications Division have selected some interesting subjects and articles. We’ll be sharing them in a series of Throwback Thursday #TBT blog posts during the next few weeks.

Today we not only celebrate our 10 millionth page of Chronicling America, but we honor the patron saint of the Internet, the humble feline. You think people are obsessed with cat videos today? Here are 10 high-profile newspaper stories concerning the not-so-common house cat.

From “In Praise of Cats,” illustration by Elizabeth F. Bonsall, Washington Evening Star, Sept. 15, 1907.

“Science Explains Why the Cat Comes Back”

Though not exactly like a homing pigeon, you may – or may not – rely on your cat to return, said the Washington Times on Oct. 1, 1922.

“Cat Saves Lives of Nine Sailors”

A hero cat leads the way to safety when a boat founders out of Firth of Fourth, Scotland, as reported the Klamath Falls (Ore.) Evening Herald of April 2, 1920.

“Shall We Kill Every Cat in U.S.?“

Horrors! But two sides got equal time in the Bisbee (Ariz.) Daily Review of Nov. 27, 1921.

“Your Cat Will Come Back in Furs“

An unpleasant speculation upon the fate of cats made homeless in the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, from the San Francisco Call of July 22, 1906.

“Cat Succeeds Monkey in New York Society”

A much finer fate awaited the urban felines highlighted in the Odgen City (Utah) Standard of Sept. 18, 1915. But the poor monkey!

“Pets of British Sailors on the H.M.S. Lenox”

Here the cat and the monkey lived together in harmony. “During the recent naval fight the cat stayed on deck, but the monkey hid in a fish kettle,” said the Washington Evening Star on Dec. 10, 1914.

“Ed Is a Highbrow Tabby”

Here at the Library we appreciate Ed, who enjoyed a good read, according to the Free Trader Journal and Ottawa (Ill.) Fair Dealer on June 16, 1922.

“Pacific Cat Exhibition Brings Out Handsome Felines”

The cartoonists got into the act with this comedic review in the San Francisco Call of August 31, 1900.

“Cat Traces Ancestry to Middle Ages”

An entry from the classic Chicago Day Book, July 4, 1912.

“In Praise of Cats”

Now we’re talking. Glowing prose from Agnes Repplier, sumptuous illustrations by Elizabeth F. Bonsall, in the Washington Evening Star of Sept. 15, 1907.

Launched by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 2007, Chronicling America provides enhanced and permanent access to historically significant newspapers published in the United States between 1836 and 1922. It is part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a joint effort between the two agencies and partners in 40 states and territories. Start exploring the first draft of history today at chroniclingamerica.loc.gov and help us celebrate on Twitter and Facebook by sharing your findings and using the hashtags #ChronAm #10Million.

Going Inside the Library on Instagram

(The following is a post by Gayle Osterberg, director of communications for the Library of Congress.)

The visual richness of the Library of Congress never ceases to amaze me – from the extraordinary architecture of its Thomas Jefferson Building, to the diverse public programs, to the collections themselves.

Many Americans will never have the opportunity to visit the Library in person, so we are always looking for ways to share the Library with them – from digitized online collections to web videos of Library programs.

What better way to give people a snapshot of the institution than through a social media community devoted to images – Instagram! It is a great way to provide a glimpse of contemporary life at the world’s largest library, from exhibitions to concerts, with the occasional historic image thrown in for good measure. Find us on Instagram at @librarycongress.

This Monday, the Library opens its Main Reading Room for our traditional Columbus Day Open House — a chance for individuals who aren’t researchers to come into the historic room, take pictures and learn a little more about how they can use the library themselves on a regular basis.

It is a great time to follow the Library on Instagram. If you haven’t been to our Main Reading Room, it is a feast for the eyes – and the camera. Our own photographer, the very talented Shawn Miller, will be capturing and posting images.

It is also a great time to visit the Library and post your own photos using the hashtag #LibraryOpenHouse. We’ll pick three of our favorites from the day to feature on this blog next Wednesday.

Instagram is just the most recent way to connect with the Library on social media. We have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and iTunesU – all in an effort to throw open the doors even wider.

Rare Book of the Month: Agrippa Von Nettesheim and Things That Go Bump in the Night

(The following is a guest blog post written by Elizabeth Gettins, Library of Congress digital library specialist.) 

Frontispiece portrait of Agrippa Von Nettesheim from “De Occulta Philosphia.” 1533. Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Agrippa Von Nettesheim. Now that is a name with heft! This mouthful of a name is attached to a very interesting thinker who might be a good candidate for “father of Halloween.” He would fit right in with witches, black cats, tombstones, bats, ghouls, ghosts and things that go bump in the night. His lifelong passion, of all things, was the study of the occult.

Von Nettesheim, (1486-1535) wrote “De Occulta Philosophia” and a number of other works that address the supernatural and occult phenomenon. Published in Cologne in 1533, the work was considered to be the ultimate compendium of occult philosophy.

Using ideas from previous scholars to advance and formulate new and serious academic inquiry, Von Nettesheim joined the burgeoning Renaissance movement by melding concepts of science and magic in an to attempt to explain life’s mysteries. His ideas conflicted with the teachings of the church as they either brought up inconsistencies or introduced new explanations that were counter to Christian dogma. However, Von Nettesheim believed that one could arrive at Christ through the practice of magic and contemplation of philosophy. Essentially, one could understand the divine by practicing magic.

Born in Germany, Von Nettesheim was a jack of many studies, including theology, astrology, alchemy and magic. He was considered a controversial figure because he supported many radical thinkers of his time like Johannes Trithemius, who was a cryptographer and occultist. Not one to shy away from his convictions, Von Nettesheim publically espoused Trithemius’ doctrines and was accused of heretical thinking. However, he was shrewd enough to avoid serious persecution by not publishing “De Occulta Philosphia” for a number of years. Initially it was only available in manuscript form.

Illustration from “De Occulta Philosophia.” 1533. Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Interestingly, Von Nettesheim appeared to recant his occultist beliefs later in his life. It is not known if this was a political maneuver he used to protect himself or if he had changed his ideas from his youth to a softer, more inclusive cannon of thought.

“De Occulta Philosophia” is just one work of many that the Rare Book and Special Collections Division holds on the topic of the occult and magic. The McManus-Young Collection and the Harry Houdini Collection offer seminal works and make the Library an important source for the study of magic. The McManus-Young Collection is particularly strong in publications and pictorial material relating to magic and magical apparatus, including works on conjuring, ventriloquism, fortune-telling, spiritualism, witchcraft, gambling, hypnotism, automata and mind reading. The Harry Houdini Collection includes publications, scrapbooks and other material relating to spiritualism and magic. In particular, the Houdini Collection contains a number of magic books inscribed or annotated by well-known magicians. Also in the collection are prints, playbills, printed ephemera, periodicals and many volumes of pamphlets on such topics as card tricks, mediums, hypnotism, handcuff escape methods and chalk-talking.

Harry Houdini. 1905. Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

The Rare Book and Special Collections Division’s digital page Materials on Science, Magic and Mathematics offers a broad view of samplings from early thought regarding the mechanisms behind the functioning of man’s world around him to works on modern legerdemain (or sleight of hand). In the spirit of those that had the courage to explore and question the things that go bump in the night, take a scroll through this antiquated world of rudimentary science, old magic and the modern illusion!

Other Resources at the Library of Congress

Variety Stage: Digital collection that includes Harry Houdini

Magic Videos from the Motion Picture and Recorded Sound Division

Magic Posters Images from the Prints and Photograph Division

The Fantasy and Folklore of All Hallows: An essay from the American Folklife Center

Halloween in Chronicling of America: Articles from the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room

A Ghostly Image: A blog post from the Prints and Photographs Division

Resources for Witchcraft at the Library of Congress: The John Davis Batchelder Collection and A Train of Disasters; Puritan Reaction to New England Crisis of 1680-90s

Other sources: Digitized works of Trithemius: Polygraphiae Libri Sex Ioannis Trithemij and Steganographia qvæ Hvcvsqve a Nemine Intellecta, both from the George Fabyan Collection

Books in Action: The Armed Services Editions

(The following is featured in the September/October 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. John Y. Cole, director of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, wrote the story. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) 

When books went to war, many American soldiers and sailors discovered the joy of reading.

Between 1943 and 1947, nearly 123 million copies of flat, wide and easily pocketable paperbacks were distributed by Army and Navy Library Services—free of charge—to U.S. service members around the world.

How did this happen? In 1942, U.S. Army librarian Ray Trautman and Army graphic arts specialist H. Stahley Thompson approached a publisher with their idea to distribute inexpensive paperback editions overseas. They enlisted support from the Council on Books in Wartime, a nonprofit coalition of trade publishers, booksellers and librarians who viewed books as “weapons in the war of ideas.” The council turned a good idea from the U.S. Army into an efficient cooperative enterprise that involved the Army, the Navy, the War Production Board and more than 70 publishing firms.

Designed to appeal to a wide variety of reading tastes, the Armed Services Editions included best sellers, classics, mysteries and poetry. A total of 1,324 titles were published in the series. The Library of Congress holds one of only a few complete sets that survive today.

The first title in the series was “The Education of Hyman Kaplan,” a collection of humorous stories by Leo Rosten. The author received these words from a grateful serviceman:

“I want to thank you profoundly, for myself and more important, for the men here in this godforsaken part of the globe. … Last week we received your book on Mr. Kaplan. … As an experiment, I read it one night at the campfire. The men howled. Now they demand I only read one Kaplan story a night: A ration on pleasure.”

The volumes were designed and printed to be read and discarded. While paperback volumes date to the late 15th century, the Armed Services Editions were a harbinger of the postwar mass-market approach that revolutionized American book-buying and reading habits.

Author Wallace Stegner was proud that his work, “The Big Rock Candy Mountain,” was part of “that first great experiment in the mass production and mass distribution of books.” He added, “The paperback revolution that followed owed an incalculable debt to the Armed Services Editions.”

Author Irving Stone, whose works “Lust for Life” and “Immortal Wife” were included in the series, believed the book-distribution program to be “one of the most significant accomplishments of our war effort.” He recalled letters from soldiers who credited the project with their desire to “read a book straight through for the first time in their lives.”

Authors who served overseas took particular pride in the inclusion of their books. David Ewen (“Men of Popular Music” and “The Story of George Gershwin”), who served in the armed forces during World War II, said he “knew only too well what a solace books could be.”

“I myself not then being too long a civilian remember my pride at seeing the small paper edition and thinking of it going out to beguile the time of soldiers and sailors,” said novelist Herman Wouk about his work “Aurora Dawn.”

Serviceman Arnold Gates carried a copy of Carl Sandburg’s “Storm Over the Land” in his helmet during the 1944 Battle of Saipan. “During the lulls in the battle I would read what he wrote about another war and found a great deal of comfort and reassurance.” Years later, Sandburg inscribed the book for him.

Author Kay Boyle learned from retired servicemen that her book “Avalanche: A Novel of Love and Espionage” was “more or less required reading for them before they took part in missions over France.”

Amid concerns about government distribution of titles that might favor the re-election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to a fourth term, Congress passed Title V of the Soldier Voting Act of 1944. The law banned some titles from being distributed to the armed forces. A temporary ban was placed on E. B. White’s “One Man’s Meat,” though White recalled that “the boys overseas told me that my essays about life in New England reminded them of home and made them feel good about what they were doing.”

Distribution of 155,000 copies of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” to the armed forces during World War II helped spur the novel to a level of success it had not achieved in the author’s lifetime. To date, the book has sold more than 25 million copies.

“‘The Great Gatsby’ endures because it’s our most American and our most un-American novel at once: telling us the American Dream is a mirage, but doing so in such gorgeous language that it makes that dream irresistible,” says Maureen Corrigan, author of “So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures.”

How better to inspire the troops to victory?

And the Word Was Made Beautiful

Pope Francis has moved among us, here in Washington, D.C., for a time—and one lasting result of his visit can be viewed, starting Saturday, at the Library of Congress: a breathtakingly beautiful Apostles Edition of The Saint John’s Bible, the first Bible entirely hand-made and illuminated in more than 500 years.

The rare Bible was presented to the Library of Congress and the American people by Saint John’s Abbey and University in Minnesota, which oversaw the creation of the hand-drawn and illuminated original, completed in 2011. The gift, in honor of the Pope and commemorating his visit to the United States, was made possible by GHR Foundation. The Pontiff blessed it as it was presented to Librarian of Congress James Billington today.

The Pope blesses the gift Bible. On left, Abbot John Klassen, Sen. Blunt and Dr. Billington; on right, Monsignor Mark Miles, Speaker Boehner, SJU President Michael Hemesath and GHR Foundation CEO Amy Goldman. Photo by Heather Reed, Office of the Speaker

Also present at the ceremony in House Speaker John Boehner’s office were Speaker Boehner, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), who heads Congress’ Joint Committee on the Library of Congress, Saint John’s University President Dr. Michael Hemesath, Abbot John Klassen, OSB and GHR Foundation CEO Amy Goldman.

The volume will be on view on the north side of the Great Hall in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building at 10 First St., S.E., in Washington, D.C. Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015 through Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016. The Bible can be viewed Monday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

There are only 12 sets of the Apostles Edition in existence (each set takes seven volumes to encompass the full Bible), including the one donated to the Library. A separate set was presented to the Pope and is available to scholars at the Vatican Library. The original Saint John’s Bible manuscript is in the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at Saint John’s Abbey and University. The Bible is a work of art with more than 1,130 pages and 160 illuminations that reflect life in the modern era, measuring 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide when open.

The illuminations bring to life familiar scriptural passages from a modern perspective, both in terms of conveying a multicultural humanity and representations of science, technology, and space travel, in addition to other more contemporary historical events.

St. John’s and GHR Foundation stated that the gift was made in acknowledgement of the Pope’s “devotion to scripture; his concern for the poor, sick and marginalized and for the dignity of all people; his care for creation; and his commitment to justice for all. “

The Library is the home of an extensive array of materials reflecting the world’s broad and varied religious heritage. Its holdings range from a Gutenberg Bible and a collection of more than 1,500 other Bibles to Jewish Talmuds, Tibetan texts, ancient Buddhist scrolls and rare editions of the Qur’an.

Forgive Us, Yogi, If We Laugh Through Our Tears

The beloved Yankees catcher and phrase-mangler Yogi Berra is with us no more.

The man who famously said “You can observe a lot by watching” amused us a lot, by speaking. And, as an 18-time All-Star who played on 10 championship World Series teams, won three MVP awards, hit 358 home runs and held the record for most hits in World Series play (71), he was a giant in the game of baseball. (Thanks to David Olney of ESPN insider for those stats).

Although we grieve his passing, it is not possible to think of Yogi and the many wonderful phrases he left behind without a chuckle. Things like:

“It’s déjà vu all over again.”

“If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.”

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”

“The future ain’t what it used to be.”

“I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.”

“I never said most of the things I said.”

And, on a more serious note: “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Well, for Mr. Berra, it’s over. But if you want to remember him in the future, one resource is the Sports Byline USA audio collection, here at the Library of Congress, which contains this interview with Ron Barr on March 23, 1998.

Let us leave you with this Yogi Berra quote:

“I think Little League is wonderful. … It keeps the kids out of the house.”

 

 

The Joy of Reading

The following is an article, written by Jennifer Gavin of the Library’s Office of Communications, for the September/October 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, from left, acting Surgeon General Boris D. Lushniak, NFL Hall of Famer Warren Moon and Chef Pati Jinich participate in a “Let’s Read! Let’s Move!” event at the Library of Congress. Courtesy of U.S. Department of Education.

The Library of Congress promotes the pleasure and power of reading.

Thomas Jefferson famously stated, “I cannot live without books,” but he didn’t think the nation should have to live without them, either. So, in 1815, he offered his collection of 6,487 volumes–the finest private library in the U.S.–to Congress to replace its books and maps, destroyed by British arson during the War of 1812.

The Enlightenment concept that a free people–if well-informed–could be their own best masters was an idea close to Jefferson’s heart. And it is a major reason the Library of Congress, in addition to being Congress’ touchstone for research and the de facto national library of the United States, also considers literacy promotion to be part of its mission.

LITERACY PARTNERSHIPS

Through public and private partnerships, the Library’s literacy-promotion efforts have a wide reach. Since its establishment by Congress in 1977, the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress is at the heart of the Library’s work for reading and literacy promotion. The center sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages–nationally and internationally. It provides leadership for affiliate centers for the book (including the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The center also works with its 80 nonprofit reading-promotion partners–from the Academy of American Poets to the early childhood learning group “Zero to Three.

The center sponsors a number of reading-promotion contests for young people. Letters About Literature, the Library’s national reading and writing program, asks young people in grades 4 through 12 to write to an author (living or deceased) about how his or her book affected their lives. With private support, more than a million students have participated in this program over the past 20 years.

In partnership with Saint Mary’s College of California’s Center for Environmental Literacy, the Library participates in River of Words–an international poetry and art contest for youth (K-12) on the theme of the environment.

The “A Book That Shaped Me” Summer Writing Contest encourages rising 5th- and 6th-graders to reflect on a book that has made a personal impact on their lives. Administered through the summer reading programs of local public library systems in the Mid-Atlantic region, the program honors its top winners at the Library’s National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.

ONLINE RESOURCES

The Library of Congress recognizes that in the modern, media-driven world, reading online–or in any genre or format–must be at the center of its literacy-promotion efforts. To that end, the Library’s reading-promotion website, Read.gov, offers online resources ranging from booklists to interactive video games.

Photo by Shawn Miller.

The full texts of more than 50 classic books for young people are available on Read.gov. These e-books range from “Aesop’s Fables” and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” to “Treasure Island” and “A Christmas Carol.”

“The Exquisite Corpse Adventure,” a zany story created by multiple children’s authors and illustrators, is presented on the site in an episodic fashion. “Readers to the Rescue” is a visual game set inside a library inhabited by a cast of storybook characters. Players will view as many as 36 unique animated short films and access 51 classic books they can read online. “Readers to the Rescue” is a collaborative project of the Library of Congress, Brigham Young University and the Ad Council.

The site also offers parents and educators online resources that can assist them in their reading-promotion efforts, including information about programs offered in their local area.

ACCESS FOR ALL

“That All May Read” is the credo of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), part of the Library of Congress since 1931. The program provides braille and “talking-book” materials–free of charge–to eligible

U.S. residents (including American citizens living in foreign countries) and lets those unable to use standard print materials due to visual impairment or physical handicap sign up through a network of local libraries. Today, program members also can download their books, magazines or music through their computers or even their cellphones.

LITERACY AWARDS

Since 2013, the Library of Congress Literacy Awards have provided monetary prizes to three organizations annually, in the U.S. and abroad, that do exemplary, replicable work alleviating the problems of illiteracy (inability to read). Annually, a “best practices” document is produced and distributed.

“Literacy opens doors to life’s great opportunities,” said philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who supports the awards and the National Book Festival. “Literacy is the basis for success in life.”

AMBASSADORS FOR READING AND VERSE

With the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader, the Library is the national cosponsor of the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, a major children’s or teens’ author who advocates for youth reading. The ambassadors, each of whom chooses a theme for his or her tenure, visit children in reading-related venues all over the nation. The current ambassador is Kate DiCamillo, whose platform is “Stories Connect Us.”

Eugene Roh and Ann Brenner work in the African and Middle Eastern Division Reading Room. Photo by Shawn Miller.

The Library’s Poetry and Literature Center promotes those arts and advises the Librarian of Congress in naming the nation’s Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. Like the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, each Poet Laureate has a unique project or platform that promotes the reading and writing of verse. Juan Felipe Herrera, the Library’s 21st Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry and the first Hispanic poet to hold the position, begins his term in September.

A PLACE OF THEIR OWN

The Library of Congress is open for research to those over the age of 16. Younger readers have a place of their own–the Young Readers Center in the Thomas Jefferson Building. Children, their families, caregivers and teachers visiting the Library of Congress can come to the Young Readers Center to use computers and enjoy a broad selection of books on-site, participate in author talks and other special programming, and attend story times for young children. The center sponsors special appearances by popular children’s authors such as Jeff Kinney (“Diary of aWimpy Kid”), Katherine Paterson (“Bridge to Terabithia”), Lois Lowry (“The Giver”) and Octavia Spencer (“Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective”).

Page from the Past: A Sailor’s Map Journal

(The following story, written by Center for the Book intern Maria Comé, is featured in the September/October 2015 issue of the LCM, which you can read in it’s entirety here.)

Sept. 2, 1945, marked the end of World War II, following the surrender of the Japanese to the Allied forces. Seventy years later, researchers can access the eyewitness accounts and memorabilia of those who served in the war, which have been collected by the Veterans History Project (VHP) in the Library’s American Folklife Center.

One of the more unusual acquisitions, pictured above, is a combination journal and map kept by Homer Bluford Clonts, a Navy signalman who served in the Pacific on the USS Eldorado from 1943 to 1945. Under the command of Adm. Kelly Turner, the ship and its crew helped capture the island of Iwo Jima. Were it not for the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that hastened the war’s end, Clonts and his shipmates might have been part of the U.S. mission to invade Japan, set to begin on Nov. 1, 1945.

“This is not what you’d consider a typical journal,” said VHP archivist Andrew Cassidy-Amstutz. “Clonts annotated the front of this oversized map of the Pacific Ocean with his ship’s arrivals and departures from various islands. On the reverse, he kept a detailed journal of the military encounters he and his shipmates faced. His entries illustrate the daily challenges and terrors of military deployment.”

“The Navy has lost more men here at Okinawa than the Army and Marines together,” Clonts wrote in an undated entry. “Ships have been hit every day, mostly by suicide planes.”

Journal detail of Clonts’ movements and battles from 1943-1945. Veterans History Project.

The map journal came to the Library jammed in a poster tube, covered in tape and water-stained.

Prior to extensive conservation treatment, the map was badly distorted from the tape and unusable. The paper was very fragile and more than 35 feet of adhesive tape used to repair tears in the map’s many folds had to be removed both manually and with solvents.

“This was a very challenging treatment,” said Heather Wanser in the Library’s Conservation Division, who painstakingly performed the work. “The colored inks used to print the map, and the pen ink that Clonts used, were soluble in some of the solvents that are used to remove tape and adhesive. Some of the tape was extremely tenacious.”

Following conservation treatment, the historically significant text is legible.

In September 1945, Clonts wrote, “The war is over.” His journal concludes with this entry on Nov. 10, 1945, “Discharged from U.S. Navy.”

Their Own Words, in Their Own Voices

To read a poem is a quiet joy. To read some authors’ prose is as wonderful as reading a poem. It’s just the poet, or the writer, and you. Right there, in black and white. What could be better?

How about hearing it “in color” as a poet or author reads to you from his own work, out loud?

You might get a whole different interpretation of a poem you thought you knew inside out.   You might get new insight into an author, hearing that author read her work to you.

Pablo Neruda records his work in the Library’s lab

The Library of Congress, as part of 2015 Hispanic Heritage Month, is going to give you that experience this year–because it has launched a new streaming website where you can hear selections from the Library’s Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape, audio recordings of world-famous authors and poets from the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America, the Caribbean, and U.S. Hispanics reading from their work. Most of the readings will be in Spanish, but some will be in Portuguese or other languages from places touched by Spanish or Portuguese influence.

I can still remember the first time I read Gabriel García Márquez (in the 1970s), and Octavio Paz and Pablo Neruda (in the ’80s). Their books, among my favorites, still wait for me at home. But now, I can hear them as they heard it in their own minds, as they wrote it to be heard.

Gabriel García Márquez reads an excerpt, recorded in 1977, from his novel El otoño del patriarca (The Autumn of the Patriarch); Pablo Neruda, who recorded in 1966, reads his poem “Alturas de Machu Picchu” (“Heights of Machu Picchu”). Here’s an excerpt from its Canto Xii, translated into English:

Look at me from the depths of the earth,

tiller of fields, weaver, reticent shepherd,

groom of totemic guanacos,

mason high on your treacherous scaffolding,

iceman of Andean tears,

jeweler with crushed fingers,

farmer anxious among his seedlings,

potter wasted among his clays–

bring to the cup of this new life

your ancient buried sorrows.

Show me your blood and your furrow;

say to me: here I was scourged

because a gem was dull or because the earth

failed to give up in time its tithe of corn or stone.

Gabriela Mistral reads, among her other writings, her poems “”Canción Quechua” (“Quechua Song”), and “País de la ausencia”(“Country of Absence”). She recorded these in 1950.

Octavio Paz, who recorded in 1961, reads from his books of poems Piedra de Sol (Sun Stone), Semillas para un himno (Seeds for a Hymn), Salamandra (Salamander), and ¿Águila o sol? (Eagle or Sun?). Here’s a little bit of his “Salamander:”

The salamander

a lizard

her tongue ends in a dart

her tail ends in a dart

She is unhissable        She is unsayable

she rests upon hot coals

queens it over firebrands

If she carves herself in the flame

she burns her monument

Fire is her passion, her patience

There is more, much more to the Library’s celebration this year of Hispanic Heritage Month. See the website for more activities and presentations.