Haley Burke is excited, yet anxious, about her first public event as curator: a literary salon evening with author and tutor at a London college Arthur Fish. He graciously agreed to speak on “Fifty Ways to Murder,” and in exchange for the opportunity to sell his own books, he would waive his lecture fee. So, a win—win for both the First Edition Society and Fish himself.
In a world filled with social media sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and a nearly endless supply of others, one small mailing list has remained popular for more than twenty years. Known as “DorothyL,” the list began after a 1991 meeting between two librarians, Diane Kovacs and Ann Okerson.
If you choose to see the New Year in with amateur sleuths Lord Peter Wimsey, Christine Bennett or professional Edward X. Delaney, count on a body turning up for the holiday. Whether our investigators’ services are requested or they just happen to be in the neighborhood where a body is discovered, each is relentless in pursuit of the truth in his or own fashion. As he tells Harriet Vane when they meet in prison, Lord Peter simply enjoys “investigating things.”
Have you ever heard of, much less read, a pastiche that pleased all readers? I have not. As we know, even the original classics have their detractors. Some readers are over-the-moon to get a chance to re-enter the world of a beloved author and are generous in their assessments of those who attempt to carry on in the tradition of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte or Dorothy L. Sayers. Other readers will urge pastiche readers to get themselves back to the original authors, to eschew all imitations and to be satisfied with whatever canon as penned.
We can thank the bawdy Geoffrey Chaucer and the not-so-bawdy tradition of courtly love for our modern celebration of Valentine’s Day--when couples become the focus of attention. As for St. Valentine himself, church historians have martyrs named Valens, Valentin, or Valentinin but the favorite attribution is that of a Christian priest, Valentine. In the third century AD, he performed marriages for soldiers, all of whom were forbidden to marry by Rome.
Walk into your favorite library. Breathe in the odors: paper and ink. The musty scent of thought translated into words. Generations of ideas, ideologies, fears, evils and of course truth and goodness all orderly shelved according to Dewey's decimal system.
