Library of America editor in chief Geoffrey O’Brien mines a trove of historical records and documents to illustrate the real-life events surrounding the 1873 murder of Mansfield Walworth in The Fall of the House of Walworth: A Tale of Madness and Murder in Gilded Age America (Henry Holt, 337 pgs). During the summer of 1873, Mansfield was shot by his 18-year old son, Frank, in a hotel room in New York city. Frank immediately surrendered to police and a murder trial followed amid a flurry of media attention. The burning interest of the press was stoked by the prominence of the Walworth family in the city of Saratoga Springs, NY. Mansfield’s father, Judge Walworth, had built his fortune and cemented the family’s elite status in the courtroom, but Mansfield’s erratic and violent behavior towards his wife and children, and the homicidal actions of his son tarnished the family name. Mansfield had long abused his wife, Ellen, and even after they divorced, wrote her letters threatening physical harm and even death. O’Brien argues that Frank killed his father in order to protect his mother from further harm.
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Young boy near Cincinnati, Ohio. John Vachon (1942 or 1943).

In the years following “The Greatest Generation”, the events of the Great Depression and World War II were often imagined in a series of snapshots and newsreels. The muted shades of gray or sepia dividing the facts of history from the full color present. In January 2008, the Library of Congress began a pilot program using Flickr to share thousands of color photos taken in the 1930′s and 1940′s, to bring the immediacy and vibrancy of America’s past into a modern day social network. According to the Library of Congress website, “1,600 color images from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, 1,500+ images from the George Grantham Bain News Service, selected panoramic photographs, portraits of jazz musicians and personalities by William P. Gottlieb from the Library of Congress Performing Arts Reading Room, and other photos from the Library of Congress collections” are currently available for viewing on Flickr. Possessing a Flickr account is not necessary for viewing these photos, but is required for commenting and/or tagging images. The goal of sharing these invaluable photos is to “increase awareness of these collections with the general public” and invite people to share any pertinent historical or biographical information they might have regarding the images. Read more…

Jonathan Franzen’s latest novel, Freedom hits shelves tomorrow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 576pgs), though the media has been furiously buzzing about the title for weeks. The New York Times has published two rave reviews about the tale of a dysfunctional family; Sam Tanenhaus proclaims the books “a masterpiece of American fiction”, while Michiko Kakutani applauds Franzen’s “ability to throw open a big, Updikean picture window on American middle-class life.”  Earlier this month, the author was featured on the cover of Time magazine as a “Great American Novelist”, and President Barack Obama got an early copy of the book to take on a recent vacation. Yet, with all this love, there are some, like authors Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner, who feel the “Franzenfrenzy” coverage, especially in the New York Times, is overblown and biased. They also feel that the media would do better by focusing on the works of a wide range of authors, with varied backgrounds, instead of one literary star. The pair have turned to Twitter to voice their opinions on the subject using the hashtag #franzenfreude. “Would love to see the NYT rave about authors who aren’t white male literary darlings,” tweeted Picoult. Weiner asked her Twitter followers to suggest “non-Franzen novels about love, identity, families”, such as her pick, Digging to America by Anne Tyler. Read more…

Scott Simon writes openly and lovingly about the adoption process that he and his wife went through in order to bring their two daughters home from China in Baby, We Were Meant For Each Other: In Praise of Adoption (Random House, 180pgs). The author, known on the airwaves as the host of NPR‘s Weekend Edition, and his wife Caroline, had tried for years to conceive before deciding to adopt a child from overseas. Simon tells of their first “adopto-tourism” trip to China, anxiously seeing the sights with a group of adoptive parents, nervously waiting for the big moment when they’ll finally meet their child. The fulfillment of a dream, becoming parents, is both joyful and terrifying. At first sight, they immediately fall in love with the little girl they name Elise, though the euphoria is tempered with moments of panic and fear. “What have we done? What were we thinking? We’ve ripped a baby away from the only place she’s ever known, to bring her some place on the other side of the world that might as well be the moon. What kind of people are we?”
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First edition cover, 1941

In a column posted on the American Libraries Magazine website earlier this month, Jennifer Burek Pierce argues that children’s books, like the ever popular Curious George series, should garner more literary merit. “To represent the world for children involves skillful choices based on training, research, and lived experience.” Often times the simple words and captivating imagery of a 32-page picture book impart important life lessons or cultural themes. Such is the case with Curious George, the creation of husband and wife Margret and H. A. Rey. As German Jews, the couple was forced to flee France in 1940 as the Nazi army rolled toward Paris. They escaped on bicycles, and carried among their few belongings several manuscripts of children’s books, one of which featured a mischievous monkey named Fifi. Read more…

Author Naomi Hirahara based her crime-solving protagonist, Mas Arai, on an unassuming role model: her father, who started a landscaping and gardening business in the L.A. area after World War II. With no police or military background, a 72-year-old Japanese American gardener may seem an odd choice for an amateur detective, but from the start, the series has won acclaim from both readers and critics. “I’m basically making a character like my father a hero,” says Hirahara in an interview with NPR. “I think all the times I complained that my dad was a gardener and we couldn’t afford this trip or that trip, I’m trying to make up for it by creating this heroic, iconic figure that’s underestimated.” Read more…

The Sistine Hall in the Vatican Library.

After three yeas of extensive remodeling, the Vatican Library will finally re-open its doors to researchers and scholars on September 20, 2010. According to the Rome Reports website, the majority of the remodel was focused on upgrading library security, and now all books will be tracked electronically using RFID tags. “Each book is identified by a computer code, a tag with an electronic chip. Then, according to the user, there may be places accessible or forbidden depending on the volume and the person who takes the book,” explains Msgr. Cesare Pasini, Director of the Vatican Library. Now the location of every book will be known at all times, and any unauthorized removal of a book from a restricted area, or even the library premises, can be prevented. RFid Gazette has identified the electronic tags used in the library as Texas Instruments’ Tag-it™ models. Additionally, cameras and security arches have also been installed in each room.
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Fledgling wine label takes a design cue from traditional library cards.

Twitter has entered the wine business with its Fledgling label and proceeds from the sales will benefit Room to Read, a non-profit organization committed to bringing education and literacy to children in need throughout the world. “The Fledgling Initiative embodies two things that are at the core of Twitter’s mission: providing access to information and highlighting the power of open communication to bring about positive change,” announced Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams on the initiative’s website. The label will soon offer limited vintages of 2009 Fledgling Chardonnay and 2009 Fledgling Pinot Noir, created by the winemakers at Crushpad, using grapes from California’s premier vineyards. The wine can be pre-ordered, and the bottles will sell for $20, with $5 going directly to Room to Read. Bottling will begin August 25th.
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Photo by Alan Light, 1975.

Ray Bradbury, author of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451 and numerous short stories, is widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s most important writers. As his 90th birthday approaches later this month, Bradbury reflects back on his life, work and the gift that allows him to conjure “the monsters and angels” of creativity, in an interview with CNN.com. Of his talent he says, “It’s a God-given thing, and I’m so grateful, so, so grateful. The best description of my career as a writer is, ‘At play in the fields of the Lord.’ ” Fellow writer and friend Sam Weller has recently published a collection of interviews, Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews (Stop Smiling Books, 336pgs), that focuses a whole chapter on the author’s faith. A self described, “delicatessen religionist”, Bradbury doesn’t adhere to one singular religion, but draws inspiration from both Western and Eastern faiths. The foundation of his belief in a higher-power has always been love. “…I love all people. I love the world. I love creating. …Everything in our life should be based on love.”
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Before there was Don Draper and Mad Men, real-life ad man Jerry Della Femina was living it up on Madison Avenue. Della Femina’s 1970 memoir From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor (Simon & Schuster, 288pgs), one of the sources of inspiration for the hit television show, was reissued this month. The book, named after a tongue-in-cheek slogan rejected by Panasonic, exposes the true hijinks and excesses of advertising’s heyday. In an interview with NPR, Della Femina discusses his time as an ad executive. “Advertising was fun,” he explains. “I wrote that it was the most fun you could have with your clothes on — and we’ll never see it again.” Comparing the antics of the characters on Mad Men with his real life experiences, he claims the show has toned down the debauchery on Madison Avenue. “Obviously it was not politically correct, but everyone took part in it and we were just enjoying doing what we were doing,” he admits. “We thought the fun would never end.”
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