"If it's Truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall."

Today is the 414th birthday of Rene Descartes!  Perhaps best known as the cogito ergo sum guy, the works of Descartes were rooted in methodic doubt: grinding one's own beliefs and sensory input up against rigourous skepticism.  Only by pounding away the falsehoods of irrational thought could one attempt to discover Truth.


More importantly (sorry, philosophy majors), the guy kinda invented analytic geometry, laid the foundation for modern calculus, discovered the law of reflection (and first published the law of refraction), and devised exponential notation.  For a guy who spent most of his time thinking his basic senses were lying to him, he was kind of a genius.

That's why the early Library Society picked up a 1664 copy of his Principia Philosophiae.  Before Descartes' Principia Philosophiae, European colleges were teaching physics with the works of Aristotle.   Think about that the next time you see a middle school complaining about thirty-year old civics books (not that I can remember a teacher ever getting past WWII, anyway).

How to get young males interested in physics:

put Wisdom in a tight breastplate and have her show some midriff.

FACTS: The CSO has suspended operations, but the concerts scheduled for the Library Society this spring are still going to happen.  The first one is Friday, April 9th.  Tickets are $15, available though the CLS.  Also, Gordon Rhea is giving a lecture here on April 15th.  There's no cover, and if you like War-Between-the-States history, you should be there.  Call 843.723.9912, or email us at info@charlestonlibrarysociety.org.

This Post, by Clifford Jacobs (with Maxine Paetro)

It's March 22nd!  Happy 63rd birthday James Patterson, and a happy day to the dozens of other babies born on other dates but celebrating "collaboratively" under his name.

Last week was the last week of Bret Lott's Writing Salon here at the Library Society.  It was, by all accounts, a runaway success: if there was a problem, it was only the disappointment of the people who discovered its existence too late to sign up.  To make sure that problem doesn't repeat itself, we are announcing the next two groups for this "Lifelong Learning" series months ahead of time.  This fall, Bret Lott will return for another Writing Salon; and Nan Morrison, former chair of English at The College of Charleston, will host a six-week course on the tragedies of Shakespeare.  We couldn't be more excited about both programs...

 Keanu Reeves as Don Juan: actual Shakespearean tragedy, dude.

When the seersuckers come back to St. Phillip's...

"When the swallows come back to Capistrano,
That's the day I pray that you'll come back to me"
                             -"When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano", Leon René

It's St. Joseph's Day, the day the cliff swallows (in theory) return to San Juan Capistrano.  Charleston might not have petrochelidon pyrrhonota punctually popping in, but we do have our own sure signs of the season... Mr. Michaux's camellias start to bloom; tourists clot every crosswalk; CofC coeds treat Marion Square like a beach teach Wendell Gilliard about the first amendment...

Leon René might never have written a song about the onset of spring here in the Holy City, but it is very nice nonetheless.  Also nice?  Upcoming Library Society Events!

NEXT WEEKEND: Book Sale!

NEXT MONTH:  CSO Brass Ensemble, evening of the 9th.  Later, on April 15th, we're hosting a talk by attorney, author, and guy-who-knows-more-about-Grant-and-Lee's-Overland Campaign-than-anyone-else-on-the-planet, Gordon Rhea.  Mr. Rhea will be sharing the story of Charles Whildon.  An unsung hero during the American Civil War, Whilden grew up on Magazine Street, and his father was editor of the Carolina Gazette, begun in about 1820. Whilden fought in Virginia and his story was movingly told in Rhea's book, Carrying the Flag.  More info soon.

Bestriding the narrow world...

Happy Ides of March!  It's been 2054 years since Julius Caesar took a trip to the theatre, and 24 hours since your loyal blogger took a (pre-)St. Pat's trip to Savannah...  Happily (for me, if not for Republican Rome), I made it through my trip in better shape than Caesar did his.  Sorry, Julius, the fault wasn't in your stars, but in yourself.

Last Thursday's lecture and book signing for Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America was a massive success.   A big thanks both to John Avlon for lecturing, and to all of our members who attended for attending.  And not to preach, but last Thursday should also be a reminder of the increasing importance of RSVPing early: I think the days of having empty chairs at lectures are now long gone!

This week: the NEGHS event is this Thursday: more info here. 

Next week: Steve White, director of the Karpeles Manuscript Museum and founder of the Charleston Historical Society, amongst other things, will be giving a talk on March 25th at 7:00 PM up at the Karpeles (68 Spring Street) on Irish president Eamon DeValera's 1920 visit to Charleston.  Steve's been doing a good bit of the research for this stuff down here at the Library Society, and has kindly treated your loyal blogger to some early insights from his work... lemme say now, this is going to be a great lecture.

Week after that: Spring Book Sale...  see you at the Barnwell Annex, Saturday the 27th!

Next thirty days: Charleston Symphony Orchestra's Brass Quintet will be here, the Charleston Bible Society will have a big anniversary bash, and a lecture from noted American Civil War historian Gordon Rhea.

From the collections: Happy 264th, Andre! edition

While I should plunge right into reminders of this month's full event's schedule, I'll put that off for tomorrow.  More importantly, it's the 264th birthday of French botanist Andre Michaux.  While Michaux had some formal education early in life, his great botanical skills were developed working on his father's farm near Versailles.  This proximity to the royal palace, coupled with Michaux's ability to grow almost anything, brought him to the attention of the French court.  He was sent to learn under the best botanists in the country, and soon sent to work as a botanist in the field.

It's this field work that brought Michaux into contact with the Library Society.  After a three-year trip through the Middle East, he was named the Royal Botanist, and sent to North America.  He spent some time in Philadelphia: hanging out with Ben Franklin, establishing a research garden.  After about a year, he sailed south for Charleston.  He grew his experimental plants- crepe myrtles, mimosas, camellias- at Middleton Place; and he met with the foremost scientific minds in Charleston - the intellectual heirs to Alexander Garden and John Lining- here at the Library Society.


Though further travel led him all across North America, he kept a home base here in Charleston until his return to France in 1796.  From the time of his arrival here, until his death in 1802, Michaux would send books and manuscripts back to Charleston.  One of these, the Ikhtiyarat-i Badi'i, is pictured here:

 The leg-bone's connected to the thigh bone...

The Ikhtiyarat-i Badi'i, written in 1492, is one of the oldest manuscripts the Society possesses.  It is a medical textbook from Isfahan, Persia, written at what, in the 15th century, was the world's most advanced hospital.  Today it's available for viewing here at the Society (and available for reading if you can read middle Farsi...), so come by soon and ask for the Ikhtiyarat-i Badi'i by Haji Zayn al-Attar, Zayn al-Din 'Ali ibn al-Husayn al-Ansari (but be sure to pronounce it right so we know what you're talking about).

"Thanks to Heinz Baked Beans, every day is a super day!"

John Avlon has sold out.

Not "sold out" like the Stones during the Windows 95 launch, or Dennis Hopper with those blasted Ameriprise commercials, or Led Zeppelin selling Cadillacs, mind you.  There are just no longer tickets available for his event here at the CLS on the 11th.  Sorry, Charlie, should have RSVP'ed sooner.

"Sorry, Charlie" copyright StarKist Co.  

Mmm... StarKist Tuna, the official tuna of the Charleston Library Society.  Buy some, today!

"Pass before my eyes with curiosity..."

Last week, you were warned our Dubose Heyward display was on its way out.  This week, FYI, George Washington is in!  So, as the tourist season slowly begins to warm up, and Betty and Jim from East Nowhere, Kansas wander in, looking resplendent in their KU sweatpants (and a little winded from their trip up the steps), your loyal blogger (happily) has this conversation dozens of times:

"Yes, this is a real library."
"Yes, 'normal' people are allowed in here."
"Yes, that is a card catalog."
"Yes, we have movies, and John Grisham novels, and computers and all that."

At this point, Betty and Jim become visibly more comfortable, realizing that this is just like the Nowhere County Library back home, just a little bigger and older, and with marble floors instead of commercial-grade carpet... and then:

"Oh, and over there are our George Washington letters."

Suffice it to say, Betty and Jim are impressed.  This is slightly cooler than, say Carrie Nation's hatchet or George Custer's boots (they're at the Kansas Museum of History, check them out next time you're in Topeka!), if for no other reason than Nation and Custer were jerks, and ol' George was awesome.

Yep.  George Washington was AWESOME.

Anyhow, the good President G.W.'s stuff is now on display here at the Society.  Don't forget, John Avlon, a guy who has a thing or two to say about presidents and politicians himself, is here March 11th.  Tickets are 10 bucks for members, 15 for non-members: RSVP today, 843.723.9912.




P.S.  Sorry, Jayhawkers.  And yes, I know you're the state of Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Clyde Tombaugh, Hattie McDaniel, William S. Burroughs, Dust in the Wind, Dennis the Menace, John Outland, Dean Smith, the Koch brothers, Superman, Buster Keaton, Bill Kurtis, Miss America 1997, and the (almost-as-good-as-a-Krystal) White Castle burger... so, thanks, Kansans, no harm, no foul!

From the collections: clandestine plug edition.

After spending half of last fall, and the whole of January on display, we're returning DuBose Heyward's original handwritten manuscript for "Porgy" to the vault this week.  If you haven't seen it, look at the image directly above... not as satisfying as coming in to see the real thing, is it?  Well, it's still out today, so hurry by.

Other things to come and see: John Avlon (more of a person than a thing, really) will be here to discuss his new book on political wingnuts (more things than persons, really), memorably entitled Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America.  7 PM, March 11th: tickets are selling briskly, so RSVP now.  A week later on March 18th, we'll be hosting the New England Genealogical and Historical Society for a day of conferences.  Registration is $30 (if postmarked before March 1, 2010); $40 (if postmarked after March 1, 2010).  Contact NEHGS's Joshua Taylor, Director of Education and Programs by phone, 617-227-1226, or e-mail, jtaylor@nehgs.org, for more info.

Spring Book Sale: Announced.

The date for the Library Society's Spring Book Sale has now been set: the weekend of March 27th.  You may now make your springtime plans around it.

Between now and then- donate your old books and CD's.  What we can't use for the collection goes to the sale, so you're helping out the Library no matter what.  Also between now and then: Phi Beta Kappa reception (March 5), John Avlon lecture (March 11th), St. Patrick's Day (March 17th), and the New England Historical and Genealogical Society Meeting (March 18th).

Not that we're doing anything for St. Pat's, but your loyal blogger will most likely be on the front steps watching the parade instead of sitting inside working, so... that's kinda an event, right?

Deo Vindice...

Your loyal blogger has acquired a new work computer after about three years of begging, so please pardon any delays in blog posting or updating the website.  It's taking some time to transfer years of photos, fonts, bookmarks, address lists, applications, etc. from The Underpowered Compaq From Hell to my shiny new Mac, hallowed be its name.

And since there's Young Professionals tonight, and a new brochure that needs to be mocked up, and event photos to tag, and in a few minutes, it'll be Children's Storytime downstairs, I'll just share a quick anecdote about work at a 262 year old institution:

This morning, your loyal blogger was called upon to help satisfy the need of a certain federal agency to prove that the Charleston Library Society is, truly, an ancient and venerable eleemosynary library, and not a sinister terrorist front.  And to be fair to the diligent fellows of the DHS, the Society has held a copy of the Qur'an for longer than we've been "Americans"... our Qur'an dates from 1762, twelve years before the founding of this country.

So we get a call this morning that we need something- anything really- that shows our organization's legal incorporation, and proves we're real, live, nephews of our Uncle Sam, born on the Fourth of July.  Which would be easy enough, if we weren't chartered by the monarch of another country, Mr. George the II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Hannover, Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire.

This little issue required going back and finding out if His Highness's Royal Charter is still good enough to prove we're not terrorists.  Apparently it is (I suppose it does indicate we're not IRA members, at least).  So now that it's approved, your loyal blogger must make a copy of the document to send in.  One doesn't just stick a Royal Charter in the Xerox machine, especially since the chances of getting a new one from ol' Liz Windsor are slim-to-none.  So I also got permission to use "the first reprint of the charter that is in good enough shape to photocopy".

So the (fully approved) document now on file, the one that shows we're no threat to the "homeland", is the Library Society's Act of Incorporation... printed by A.J. Burke, 40 Broad Street, Charleston, C.S.A, 1861... NHS, osculare pultem meam.

That's it.  Young Professionals tonight, library's closed on the 15th, and check us out in the latest issue of Charleston Magazine!

Notes for a busy St. Brigid's Day...

Today is St. Brigid's Day,  number three on the list of "Patron Saints of Ireland", behind Saints Patrick and Columba.  Also the birthday of Children's Library favourite Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries; and the happy 145th anniversary of the signing of the Thirteenth Amendment (Immediato v. Rye Neck and the draft notwithstanding).  Around the Library Society, it's a day of painting (lots of blue!), replacing (lots of videos!), and preparing (lots of invitations for Spring events!).

First Event: Thursday, February 4th, our monthly Young Professionals' series resumes after a brief winter hiatus.  We'll have artist Whitney Kreb as our featured guest, and some of her work will be on display.  Those of you who have visited our Children's Library recently have already seen some of Whitney's work.  Those of you who haven't are in for a treat.

Also coming up, the New England Historical and Genealogical Society will be at the CLS for an afternoon of genealogical education on Thursday, March 18th  This event will include a session on techniques for finding a wife's maiden name, using DNA in your genealogical research, and a reception.  For more information, contact D. Joshua Taylor, Director of Education and Programs by phone at 617.227.1226, or e-mail.  Registration for the event is $30 (if postmarked before March 1, 2010), or $40 (if postmarked after March 1, 2010).

Toddler Tuesday, the activity/storytime for kids 18mo. to 5 years, held here at the Library every Tuesday at 10:15, now has an afternoon counterpart!  Every Thursday at 3:30 PM, CLS and Gibbes members can bring the little ones in their life for a fun story and free play in our Children's Library "the Rabbit Hole".

Also on deck this season: the Charleston Bible Society, the CSO's Brass Ensemble, John Avlon, and a whole lot more.  So, come in, check out the latest round of remodelling, check out some Meg Cabot,  and have get ready for a some great Spring events.

Sharpe's Lunch

As the 177 of you who where there last night know, the Annual Meeting was a huge success.  The speaker was entertaining, the food was good, and the business end of things was wonderfully brief.  Bernard Cornwell was gracious and charming in his address to the meeting, while signing books, and when mingling with the very excited attendees: in short, he's the opposite of Obadiah Hakeswill in every way.


Now, pardon my brevity, but your loyal blogger is headed to the staff room to attend to the business of "putting away the leftovers"...

"O! thou hast damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint."

Your loyal blogger was up last night reading Marjorie Garber's Shakespeare and Modern Culture, an occasionally excellent set of essays on our evolving contemporary perceptions of the Bard's plays.  I must admit a bias towards Garber's work, stemming from her defence of the 1996 movie Romeo + Juliet as just-as-good-if-not-better than the 1968 film adaptation.  As anyone else who was in school when Baz Luhrmann's utterly charming, painfully witty, and visually epic R+J was released remembers, it was wrongfully yet universally despised by English teachers nationwide as mere pop pablum.

A rose by any other name might smell as sweet, but apparently a Southern California setting, and an MTV-approved soundtrack disqualify the Bard's work from the status of "great art".

Perhaps more interesting in Shakespeare and Modern Culture is Garber's ambitious look at Henry V as an example of Jacques Derrida's concept of iterability.  Remember: he is not just his in own eponymous play, but he's Henry IV's disappointing lowlife son, Prince Hal.  In Henry V, he is the same character written by the same playwright in the same series of histories, but a new iteration of himself: once the young gadabout is now the mature hero of Agincourt.

And now for another illustration of iterability: our 262nd Annual Meeting is tomorrow night, at 5PM.  While it won't be as lavish as the 20th iteration (1768, for which our records show a price tag of just under a million dollars in today's money), it will have wine (unlike, say, the 259th iteration), and it will have Bernard Cornwell -a man who knows a little something about Agincourt- as guest speaker, making it the first iteration to be addressed by an Officer of the Order of British Empire (at least, the first time since we stopped being a member of the British Empire).  It's also the first time parking will be available at the SCE&G lot adjacent to the Library.

Derrida wrote:

iterability makes possible idealization- and thus, a certain identity in repetition that is independent of the multiplicity of  factual events- while at the same time limiting the idealization it makes possible: broaching and breaching it at once.

Which, I think means, that while we won't have a spiral sliced ham or those little pastel mints, there will be tasty little egg rolls, and Bernard Cornwell, which is pretty close to ideal.  So, as Derrida himself, and all the dead knights of Agincourt might say, vous devez être là!

Good news, everyone!!!

The SCE&G Parking lot- the huge lot directly above our own will be availabe for CLS members next Tuesday afternoon for the Annual Meeting.  This should solve lots and lots of the parking hassles that always come with (otherwise wonderful) CLS events.

 Good news everyone!  Your memberships are all cancelled.

Strap on your tiny gold shoes...

January 20th!  St. Sebastian's Day, the 227th anniversary of the end of the American Revolutionary War, and the ACLU's 90th birthday.  Sure they don't care about the 2nd, 9th, or 10th amendments; and haven't done so great in protecting the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th... but I can still burn a flag, and I've never had a soldier attempt to quarter in my house during peacetime, so... thanks, ACLU!

Jokes aside: don't forget the Children's Library Open House is tomorrow.  There will be cookies and candies and drinks from 3:30 PM 'till 5:00.  We hope you and your associated little ones will drop by and see "The Rabbit Hole", have some snacks, and learn more about the exciting new children's programs and events we've set up around here.

From the Collections: Finding Midshipman Easy Edition

Announcement of the 1890 Annual Meeting, Guest Speaker, the Hon. Senator Strom Thurmond.

I know it's a day late, but at least its a little more interesting than the standard FtC fare.  Today's "From the Collections" is Manuscript #29, the c.1840-c.1890 Library Society Scrapbook.  Though its content is mostly from post-war time period (most of the 1840's documents are the "pay your fines (or we break your thumbs)" sort of letters), it covers what might be called a "Silver Age" of CLS history.  The 1874 merger with the Apprentices' Library; the subsequent search for a new library building; and a very aggressive series of growth and development programs.  These include a half-dozen pieces in the News and Courier aimed at increasing donations or membership, info and tickets from a series of lectures and concerts, and even a early membership brochure.

Expect some of this stuff to make it into the CLS history display in the Main Reading Room soon.  Until then: this stuff, like everything else in the historic collection, is available for all patrons to view and study- just ask!

Hearing C.C. Pinckney talk about Scotland in 1890 cost 25 cents more

than hearing Bernard Cornwell two weeks from now.  Think about it..

Please support the new Children's Library, (circa 1885.)

Rabbit, Run

As your loyal blogger is just returning from some time off, we're preempting "From the Collections" for following news bulletin:

Toddler Tuesdays are here(!): every Tuesday from 10:15 to 11:00 AM in the new Children's Library here at 164 King.  Our very first was this week, and, was by all accounts both storytimetacular and fingerpainttastic.  It's also free for all 3-5 year old kids with the accompaniment of CLS or Gibbes Muesum members.

If you have yet to see the "Rabbit Hole", as we're affectionately calling it, we've got a Children's Library Open House on Thursday, January 21st from 3:30 'till 5:00 PM.  We hope you'll drop by to see the exciting new digs (especially the ever-evolving Country Bunny mural Whitney Kreb is painting).

Don't forget, the 262nd Annual Meeting is Tuesday, January 26th, at 5:00 PM.  Bernard Cornwell, OBE, is the guest speaker.

It's like they double in numbers every time you turn around!

FtC will be back tomorrow, with something good, I promise; you should be here too.

From the Collections: "Taking the Root Off" Edition

A former City of Charleston lawman (and longtime CLS member) stopped by the Library for a very pleasant visit this week, which got me to thinking about a good candidate for "From the Collections".  It's one of my favourites: the 1970 autobiography of longtime Beaufort County Sheriff J.E. McTeer, High Sheriff of the Lowcountry.  With a local printing and only two small publication runs, the book is fairly rare (we still have it in circulation, though!), but when it comes to nonfiction about the South Carolina coast, it's nothing short of classic.

McTeer was appointed sheriff of Beaufort County at the age of twenty-two, and remained on the job until he was almost sixty.  High Sheriff includes forty years worth of his best stories: using gullah to trick armed bootleggers in a dark swamp; losing (and recapturing) a prisoner in the middle of New York City; and his many encounters -and occasional battles- with witch doctors (like Dr. Eagle excerpted above).  Combating hoodoo and the root was a real job for McTeer, and, if nothing else, gives his rural policing stories a dark and spooky edge Andy Griffith never had.

If you liked Ben Moïse's recent Ramblings of a Lowcountry Game Warden, you'll find much of the same stuff to love here.  At 101 pages, it's a quick read for a cold weekend, so consider picking it up (catalogue number IC M25) next time you're in.  Which should be soon!

"...some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them..."

It's Epiphany, better known Twelfth Night.  Which, as one of Shakespeare's best loved comedies, Twelfth Night recounts the tale of young Viola, who in mourning her brother, becomes a cross-dresser; Duke Orsino, who, though an Albanian tyrant, spends his days moping about the castle, pining for some girl who doesn't love him; the never-subtle Sir Belch (He's fat and has gastric issues, get it?); the old lets-trick-a-guy-into-acting-crazy-and-then-throw-him-in-a-dungeon thing; and, of course, twinned couples getting married to the wrong twin and not caring about it.

Your loyal blogger is certainly not badmouthing Shakespeare, but obviously, the what passes for comedy has changed in 400 years.

Actually, as someone who watches a lot of BBC, I suppose it hasn't.  This pretty much sounds like any given episode of Little Britain.  In fact, it is the exact storyline of the 2006 Amanda Bynes film She's the Man. Still, this is why I prefer the Bard's histories and tragedies to his comedies.

Though The Taming of the Shrew was pretty good when it was Ten Things I Hate About You.  But to be fair to Shakespeare, Ten Things... had Larisa Oleynik and Letters to Cleo in it.  It couldn't be anything other than great.


Speaking of things that are great, let us thrust this upon you: Thursday, January 21st, from 3:30 to 5:00 PM, we are having an Open House to rechristen the Children's Library.  In case you haven't been down here in a little while, the Children's collection is back in the Main Library Building, with a new room of its own (decorated with murals by the terrific Whitney Kreb).  We're going to have cookies, cocoa, and and creative story time, so we hope you'll drop by with your wee uns!

MMX

It's 2010, and we're back! We hope you've all had a wonderful holiday season, and are as excited about the new year as we are. First, a look back at one of our favourite 2009 memories, thanks to Heirloom Creative Photography: photos from December's Pat Conroy event.

We're already ready for a new year even better than the last (and, as you could see from those pictures, the last one was pretty good around here). This week, we've got a book signing with Quentin Whitwell this Thursday at 7, and we're hosting an event of the Poetry Society of South Carolina (PSSC members only, please) Friday at 7.

Next week is the start of two new programs: the CLS Writing Salon with Bret Lott, and Toddler Tuesdays with the Gibbes Museum. The salon is a ten week course led by NYT bestselling, Oprah Book Club picked, former editor of the Southern Review, Bret Lott. Mr. Lott will be guiding a small group to improve their own writing through discussion and critique of participant's individual work. For more info on the salon, contact Anne Cleveland here at the CLS, 843.723.9912. Toddler Tuesdays is a new storytime and activity program for 3-5 year olds every Tuesday here at the Library. It will run from 10:15-11:00 AM, and starts on the 12th. The program is free for CLS and Gibbes members, and children must be accompanied by an adult. For more info, contact Rebecca Williams at 843.722.2706 extension 41.

Tuesday the 26th of this month is the 262nd (I think) Annual Meeting of the Library Society. All members are invited to attend. This year's guest speaker is Bernard Cornwell. Yes, that Bernard Cornwell. Sharpe's, the Saxon Stories, Agincourt, about ten billion novels sold, et cetera, et cetera. Very exciting.

If you're not planning to attend the Annual Meeting, we will send Richard Sharpe to get you.