“A rare signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation has been lent to the National Museum of American History by Washington financier David M. Rubenstein. The print, one of 48 signed by President Abraham Lincoln, was purchased by Rubenstein a few months ago in a private sale.”
Author: Laura Collins Hughes
Shrouded In Fog And Horror, Poe Approaches His 200th
“It remains to be seen whether anyone will read Poe in the distant future. As we approach the bicentennial of his birth on Jan. 19, however, it’s obvious that Poe is far from ‘nameless here for evermore.'”
Jazz Was A Midwife To The Civil-Rights Movement
Nat Hentoff argues that a Kennedy Center inauguration celebration’s “focus on jazz as well as President-elect Barack Obama (who, I’m told, has John Coltrane on his iPod) should help make Americans, including our historians, aware of the largely untold story of the key role of jazz in helping to shape and quicken the arrival of the civil-rights movement.”
SAG’s Red-Hot Casting Process
The Screen Actors Guild may be riven over the question of a strike, but casting — of the solid bronze statuette that is the Screen Actors Guild Award — continues as usual. Photojournalist Allen J. Schaben turns his camera on the process.
You Thought Bookstore Sales Bit In Nov.? You Were Right!
“November bookstore sales were as bad as people thought they were. Preliminary figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that sales dropped 13% in the month, falling to $1.05 billion.”
Dancer & Ballet Mistress Gage Bush Englund Dies At 77
“Gage Bush Englund, ballet mistress of ABT II, and a former dancer with American Ballet Theater and the Joffrey Ballet, and former ballet mistress of the Joffrey II Dancers, died on Monday at her home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.”
Those Low-Down, Mixed-Up, Overlooked Texas Blues
A look at (and listen to) a new oral history of the Lone Star version of the blues, a style that’s “lighter, more fluid, more eclectic than Delta blues. From the start, it contained bits of country, gospel, jazz, Tejano and zydeco.”
Baltimore Symphony Lays Off Five Staffers
“The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra laid off five of its 67 administrative employees and changed one full-time position to part-time today in an effort to reduce expenditures. Those moves, along with a decision not to fill select staff positions, will save the BSO about $500,000.”
London Auctions To Be A Shadow Of Their 2008 Selves
“Works by Lucio Fontana, Francis Bacon and Jeff Koons will fail to lift the total estimate of London’s contemporary-art sales next month above a quarter of 2008’s level. The evening auctions by Sotheby’s, Christie’s International and Phillips de Pury carry a total low estimate of 38.4 million pounds ($55.9 million), according to Bloomberg calculations. This is 23 percent of the 164.3 million pounds in equivalent sales estimates in 2008.”
Pulitzer-Winning Poet W.D. Snodgrass Dies At 83
“W. D. Snodgrass, who found the stuff of poetry in the raw material of his emotional life and from it helped forge a bold, self-analytical poetic style in postwar America, winning a Pulitzer Prize for his debut book, died on Tuesday at his home in Erieville, N.Y., in rural Madison County.”