Name: Poblamiento del Continente Americano
ISBN: 978-9929-687-90-5

Architecture · Books · Monarchies · Society · Saint Petersburg

In 1922 a quatrain by Demyan Bedny was carved on the pedestal of the monument to Alexander III:

My son and my father were executed in their lifetime, And I have reaped the lot of posthumous ignominy: I stand here as a cast-iron scarecrow for a country That has cast off for ever the yoke of autocracy. Literal translation

NB! · Art · Books · Observations · Humour

Every morning I tell myself: one more day, one more chance to labour according to my strength and talents, like the little angel at the bookbinder's press in the engraving from Jean Leclerc's History of the Netherlands of 1728

Coming Up · Art · Books

The Hobbit to be published in September with more than 50 of Tolkien's own illustrations

In September an edition of The Hobbit with Tolkien's own illustrations will be published. It is the first edition to include an expanded selection of the author's own sketches: the book will contain more than 50 drawings, studies, maps, manuscript pages and paintings by J. R.

NB! · Books · People

We Can Hardly Hope to Match Brodsky

Post-mortem photograph of an elderly man with white hair and beard in an oval frame on a mourning card with a black border.

NB! · Archive · Books · People

Edmond About on Turgenev's service to Russia in his speech at the grave

At Turgenev's graveside, the French writer Edmond François About said: "Your heart belonged to all mankind. But Russia held the first place in your affections. It was Russia you served first and foremost"

Books · Monarchies · Mores · Humour

Writer Alexandra Churchill criticised the library in the home of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Churchill's granddaughter ridicules the wretched library in the home of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Alexandra Churchill, a writer and historian, drew attention to the half-empty bookcases, filled with dummy books and odd volumes that are destined to die alone on those shelves. By the lady'

Art · Books · Observations

The Rescue by the Eagles, Michael Hague's illustration for the 1987 edition of The Hobbit

Perhaps one of my very favourite book illustrations of all time

Books · Nature

Nikolay Gumilev’s poem “The Giraffe” about an exquisite giraffe on Lake Chad

Today, I see, your gaze is especially sad, And your arms especially thin as you clasp your knees. Listen: far, far away, on Lake Chad, An exquisite giraffe wanders. Graceful slenderness and languor are granted to him, And his hide is adorned with a magical pattern, With which only the

Faith · Art · Books · Observations · Humour

When They Ask What I Do with All These Books

Engravings by Albrecht Dürer, 1498, and Vasily Koren, 1690s. Saint John eating the book. Revelation 10:9 “And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the

Books · People

Byron on an enslaved land of vanished greatness and the battle at Thermopylae

A sorrowful land of vanished greatness, In your fall immortal, great. Oh, who will rouse your children with a cry, Who will free you from slavery? Your sons have now become other men. Not disputing with fate, a hopeless battle At Thermopylae they once awaited. Where now is that valour,

Cinema · Books · Observations · Mores

Reading Werner Herzog's memoirs "Every Man for Himself and God Against All", I have reached the chapter "Wives, Children", already nearing the end of the book, after the chapters on his youth, childhood dreams, film shoots and how he solved a puzzle in a

I am reading Werner Herzog's memoirs, "Every Man for Himself and God Against All", and have reached the chapter "Wives, Children". We are already close to the end of the book, after the chapters on his youth, childhood dreams, film shoots and how he

Books · Observations

Pavel Pepperstein's new novel “Barkhatnaya kibitka” on childhood in the USSR and family

I have received Pavel Pepperstein's new novel "Velvet Wagon" (Barkhatnaya kibitka), published by Alpina Non-Fiction. It is mostly about Pepperstein's own childhood, but in places also about childhood in general, about childhood in the USSR, about the childhood of a privileged cub. Besides