More important than the following blather: happy birthday Pat Conroy!

It's always interesting to browse the minutes of old CLS board meetings.  262 years of mostly boredom interspersed with virulent fighting.  Perhaps my favourite: a particularly heated record of one late 1950's meeting at which a trustee suggested smoking be allowed in the Main Reading Room. 

As every television/film Eisenhower/Kennedy period piece has taught me, in the late 1950's, EVERYBODY smoked.  Grandmothers, titans of industry, Blue Collar Joe, Presidents of the United States, newborn babies...  from the offices of Sterling Price, to NASA's Mission Control, to the office of your very own doctor, everybody smoked.

But not at the Charleston Library Society.  Thanks to the valiance (and vehemence) of trustee Mrs. I'on Rhett, it was not to be.  The motion went from near passage by acclimation, to a long, (one-sided) bargaining for "half the room" to "part of the room" to "one smoking chair", to the cold hell of being infinitely tabled.  The anger and the yelling of the whole affair really does come right through all the stuffy, formal language of board meeting minutes...

So that's why, sixty years later, the Main Reading Room doesn't reek of cigarette smoke.  Kudos, Mrs. Rhett.

 

Remember, smoking is not attractive.  Except on Mad Men... then it's cool.

Another interesting thing from the minutes is the hours of operation the Library has held.  While I've never seen a record of us being open on Sunday, the other 144 hours of the week have been fair game.  Open at five, open at six, open at eleven in the morning; closed at three, closed at six, closed at nine at night... as customs evolved  (and indoor lighting, and air conditioning, and the standard 9-5 business day came into existence), we've changed our hours of operation.

And as of tomorrow, we're doing it again.  Every Wednesday through the end of cotillion season, the Library Society will remain open after 5:30 until 8:30.  Circulation will remain open, through research services- i.e., trips to the vaults - will not be available.  We hope you'll stop by and grab a book, have a cup of coffee, and enjoy the peace and quiet of the South's oldest cultural institution during our new "after work, during cotillion" hours.

Also, Norwich F.C. has soccer's oldest fight song. Pretty cool.

Patrick McMillan's here Thursday night with a Speakers Series lecture entitled Nature On the Move: Reclaiming Our Place In the World.  Patrick is host of the ETV series Expeditions with Patrick McMillan, a terrific naturalist, and the director of the Campbell Museum at Clemson University.  We hope you'll be able to make it to this event, co-sponsored by the Coastal Conservation League.  Thursday October 21st, 7PM.  Free.

Mid-day Thursday we'll have the fourth installment of our Wide Angle Lunches as Geoffrey Van Orden, MBE MEP, joins us for a lunchtime lecture.  Van Orden is a member of European Parliament, a member of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, a former British Army Brigadier-General, and likely the first Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers to lecture before the Library Society.  The View From Europe: Turkey and Its Relationship With the West is this Thursday, 12:15-1:30 PM (lecture starts at 12:30), $10 for members, $14 for non.

And from the hills of Clemson, to the East of England and the Middle East, we move on to one more exotic* locale: Palermo, Sicily.  Home to Italy's largest opera house, di Lampeduesa's magnificent The Leopard, and the city from which your loyal blogger's patrilineal predecessors set forth for America. 

On November 8th, we'll host a lecture concerning one of Palermo's most notable sons, the Duke Fulco di Verdura.  Born in Palermo in 1898, Verdura moved to America as a young man.  When he wasn't hanging out with buddies like Cole Porter, he was making exotic jewelry for the likes of Coco Chanel, Greta Garbo, Wallace Simpson.  Ward Landrigan of Verdura jewelers will be visiting the Library Society to give a presentation about the Duke and his company that will include rare pieces and original designs from the collection.  Verdura and Women of Style is November 8th at 7PM.  Admission is free, but please RSVP (843.723.9912 or rsvp@charlestonlibrarysociety.org)

*Okay, the "hills of Clemson" aren't all that exotic.  And neither, for that matter, is the East of England.  Though the Magic Roundabout is there.  And Stephen Fry spent some time in Norfolk growing up.  So they've got that going for them.

And once upon a time, this chick was in charge... awesome.  [Though I prefer more blue paint and red hair.]

Stoop, angels, hither from the skies! It's blood book time.

Today your loyal blogger realized (with some help from the handy search field in the top left of the blog) that he has never never shared the Henry Timrod Death Manuscript story on the pages of Shh!.  And since today marks the Henry Timrod Death Manuscript's first day on display this season... here goes.  [Fair warning: it's the long version, so stick with me.]

William Ashmead Courtenay would be on anyone's shortlist of Great Charleston Mayors, should anyone be so inclined to write such a list.  [I think Johann A. Wagner is my vote for the Worst Charleston Mayor, which would would probably be more interesting list, but I digress.]  Courtenay came to power in a city hemorrhaging money and overly focused on its antebellum glory.  He fixed one of those problems.  [Then he paved the major streets, and developed Colonial Lake and Marion Square, and saw the city through a major hurricane and the Earthquake of 1886 and their recovery efforts... heck of a guy.]

Though a modernizer and an ardent proponent of the idea of the "New South", Courtenay was nevertheless a great fan of pre-war Southern arts and letters.  As a result, he purchased every book of poems, every scribbled couplet, every jot and tittle of work produced by 19th century Southern writers that he could get his hands on.  And when those hands were stilled by death in 1908... he left his library of Southern letters to the Charleston Library Society.

So some original stuff by Simms, and P.H. Hayne and James Ryder Randall, amongst others, are all in our collection thanks to dear Mayor Courtenay.  But perhaps the crown jewel of his collection is the Henry Timrod Death Manuscript.

Henry Timrod, the walrus-mustache wearin', Bob Dylan inspirin', Poet Laureate of the Confederacy was a very, very sickly man throughout his stay upon this mortal coil.  So sickly the Confederacy sent him home.  The same Confederacy that was desperately conscripting old men and young boys basically said "Henry, we'd rather lose the war than carry you around while you cough on everybody.  Go home and write!"

And write Henry did, penning "Ode to the Confederate Dead", "Ethnogenesis", and our state song, "Carolina".  But Henry continued to cough.  Big, bloody, tuberculosis-filled expectorations.  Then, late one night in 1867, with one final sanguinary convulsion, he hacked up his last.

 

Gesundheit!

And, according to the story, that's it.  Right there on the page.  Hank T.'s last sputtering of life.  Tasteful chaps that we are, it traditionally goes on display here at the Library Society every October.

(And don't forget, if you want to see something equally historical, but a little less morbid, the Mouzon Map Unveiling is this Saturday at 7:30.  $15 conservation contribution, please.  Hors d'oeuvres by Rue de Jean.  843.723.9912 for more info)

Komm, gib mir deine geld

As you most likely already know, tomorrow night is the second concert in the Unedited series, Unedited: Beatles, Bach &; Beer.  [7PM, Main Reading Room of the CLS, $15, get em online here.]

Dear reader, your loyal blogger is resisting the temptation to turn this blog post into one long string of Beatles puns... and opening up iTunes and seeing that I've got 604 tracks tagged "Beatles" is not helping.  I mean, "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", "Come and Get It", "Please, Please Me"... these things are begging to be punned upon!

But I won't.  Instead, how about a preview of tomorrow night's terrific setlist: "Something", "Hey Jude", Bach's chorale no. 6, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and a whole lot more.  Music, beer, audience participation (you'd better be prepared to bark and howl during "Hey Bulldog"), and even a little door prize (somebody's getting a Charleston County Parks Gold Pass, good to get you into any county park for a year fo' free).  Be there.

[And if you can't be there, you can still support the series.  Go here to make a donation to Unedited via PayPal.  'Cause quality arts programming is not cheap.  And what says quality like "Why Don't We Do It In the Road" performed on a cello?]

We all work in a Yellow Library...

Other music news: the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Leagueis having a black-tie fundraiser this weekend - details here - and Charleston Library Society members who wish to purchase a table at the event can get $250 off the price.  If you're interested in this night of dinner, music, mingling, and a $200,000 silent auction, call Tara Scott, 843 723-7528, extension 102.

Chapter Two in an emerging tradition...

Fry up your stubble-goose and bake up some bannockbread: it's Michaelmas! Term starts at Oxbridge and the Inns of Court, accounts are settled, reeves are elected for the shire, and (just like last year) the Library Society announces it's big Christmas season event! If you were at last year's Cocktail Party with Pat Conroy, you know what a wonderful night we had. So for chapter two, we announce,

A Special Evening with Bernard Cornwell, OBE.

Bernard's now a part-time Charleston resident; you might have had the privilege of hearing him at this year's Annual Meeting of the Library Society. If you did, then I'm sure you're skipping this part to get straight to the date/time/ticket info. If you missed him, then you missed a lecture at once erudite and compelling, but also witty and lively and just exceptionally, utterly enjoyable. And he's got a new book out, too, just his second on the American Revolution. Bernard+lecture+cocktails+Library Society at Christmas... It's going to be a great evening.

The Details: It's going to be 7PM on December 9th. Tickets will go on sale in late October. Prices and exact date of sale TBA. Look for it here first.

GIS for "Michaelmas". Seriously, England? Snape Kills Dumbledore,
Harry marries the hot chick, Universal builds a theme park... it's over.

And think of how cool trance music would sound with mandolins!

As the ever-brilliant webcomic xkcd recently pointed out, "there's no reason to think that people throughout history didn't have just as many inside jokes and catchphrases as any modern group of high-schoolers."  Tonight at the Library Society, we'll see another riff on the same theme.  Dr. Nic Butler will present "Concert Night in Colonial Charleston; Or, How to Snare a Mate With Music".  Nic wrote the excellent Votaries of Apollo: The St. Cecilia Society and the Patronage of Concert Music in Charleston, South Carolina, 1766-1822 (USC Press, 2007), and probably knows more about Charleston nightlife circa 1770 than anyone else around.

So if you're ready to find out about the colonial equivalent to our modern club scene, you need to get down here.  Personally, I'm enjoying the mental image of a illuminated underfloor dancing surface, a la Club Light over on East Bay Street, existing in the 1700's.  Fire, metal grating, etc.... it might actually be an improvement over the real Club Light.

7PM tonight, in the Main Reading Room.  Free.  There will be audio and visuals accompanying the talk, which Nic promises "will be light, fun, and just a little scandalous."

As an added bonus, we won't yell at you like those guys at Moe's Southwest Grill. So there.

Wide Angle Lunches.  Starting a week from today (September 21st), the Library Society will host the first of its new lunchtime lecture series.  Targeted at young professionals looking to get out of the office and kick their brain into a different gear during their midday break, this fall's Wide Angle Lunches will feature six great speakers on six diverse topics - Nigel Redden talking about Spoleto, a Brit MEP discussing Turkey and the EU, the president of the SCHS on Reconstruction in Charleston... all sorts of interesting people taking on any topic.

It's fresh, it's challenging, it's engaging, and it comes with a sandwich and a soda.

It all starts Thursday September 21st.  All lunches run from 12:30 to 1:30, and are $10 for members, $14 for non-members.  Drop ins are okay, but please try to let us know in advance if you're coming... we want enough lunches to go around!  843.723.9912 or rsvp@charlestonlibrarysociety.org to reserve a seat, or for more information.

Unedited (and very brief).

If you missed it, you messed up.  Last night's concert, Unedited: Favorite Arias and Duets was by far the best fifty minutes of your loyal blogger's week (and it's been a pretty good week).  If you missed Thursday, then we expect to see you for Unedited:Beatles Bach and Beer.  It's October 2nd.  Tickets are already available at the Library, and will be available online by the start of next week.

Okay, I'm off to set up those ticket sales.  And get ready for the next big event announcement... look for it next week.

Occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things...

Tuesday the 31st: August is now at a close, and all Fall stands before us.  It's also the 588th anniversary of the death of Henry V, and with over fifty events taking place at the Library between now and year's end, we can repeat the chorus's question from Shakespeare's eponymous play: Can this cockpit hold the vasty fields of France? Or may we cram within this wooden "O" the very casques that did affright the air at Agincourt?  

Well, we're not presenting live theatre (yet), but our "wooden O" will host half-a-dozen concerts, Toddler Tuesdays, a new film series, three exciting Lifelong Learning Series classes (including the Bard's tragedies, led by Nan Morrison), and a whole lot more.

Tomorrow night: a pair of films on architecture in Venice and Northern Italy.  Drayton Hall is leading a tour group to the Veneto in September, and, in preparation, has some short films to show about the sights to be visited.  Screenings will be here at the Library Society, and members of both organizations are invited to attend.  6-7:30 PM, Wednesday the 1st and Wednesday the 8th.  Free for members.  Please RSVP, 843.723.9912 or shoot us an email.

On sale now: tickets for Unedited: A Concert Series with Laura Ball and Friends.  Tickets for Favorite Arias and Duets, the September 9th concert, and the whole series are currently available.  Get them at the Library, over the phone (843 723 9912), or via the interweb by clicking here.  $15 for one, $85 for all seven.  Cheap.  Get 'em quick.

Not on sale for much longer:  Lifelong Learning Series classes start next week.  More info here.  Both are almost sold out, so if you want in, call us ASAP.

Final random fact for the day: it's Dubose Heyward's 125th birthday.  Perhaps you should celebrate by visiting the CLS's "Rabbit Hole", dedicated to his children's classic, The Country Bunny.

Lisztomania (not Lizstomania, stupid), like a riot, like a riot, ohh...

And so it begins, the first Monday of the rest of our lives (or at least the rest of our Fall events season).

Only two events this week: Thursday morning we're hosting a Darkness to Light Stewards of Children training session.  This is a free training session addressing the issue of child sexual abuse.  No registration is needed, and everyone is welcomed and encouraged to attend.

Thursday evening we're hosting Morsza, a voice and piano recital concert.  Pianist Oszkar Morzsa and soprano Eva Morzsa, along with local violinist Nicholas Bentz will perform a program of Mozart, Chopin, Verdi-Liszt, Puccini, and Lehar in the Main Reading Room of the Charleston Library Society.  Twenty bucks, cash only, at the door.

As for Lisztomania (and my apologies to the Morszas, Franz Liszt, and everyone else with the "sz" construction... bocsánat, bocsánat, bocsánat.  Heaven knows how many times I have transposed those letters in the past few weeks.)... we hope you'll make it to the concert; we hope you're wildly excited about how great the concert is: but, we will have to ask that no one bottle the performers' coffee backwash...

Good morning, Tweetnam!

So there are just under fifty days marked, for some reason or another, on the Library's events calendar between now and the end of the year as having some sort of Official Library Function.  Plus, there's new construction aplenty around here- the revamped Research and Writing Center is largely complete (new doors just passed by my desk a few minutes ago).

 Notice the chop saw in the new Librarian's Office... this is going to come in handy.

And as if that wasn't enough... well there's wine and goat cheese in the staff break room right now.  'Cause we're the library that dials the cool up to 11.  Except for in the vaults, of course, they're permanently set at 22.2 degrees C.  Anyhow, we're busy, and we're happening, and all the cool kids these days are doing it, and I wanted to use the atrocious stolen pun in this post's title... you can now follow the Library Society on Twitter, at #librarysociety.

Me and you, your momma, and your cousin too...

It's hot, it's rainy, and now the elevators are dead.  The minsis horribilis continues.  SCE&G has swapped a transformer on our block, and until we get compatible motors, our elevators are just a pair of storage closets with electrically actuated doors.  Oh well: the good folks at SCE&G are on top of it, so the elevators should be back posthaste.

But the bitter always comes with the better.  Butter.  Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.  How many boards could the Mongols hoard if the Mongol hordes got bored.  Irish wristwatch.  Arg!

Okay, no more of that rubbish.  The better = Unedited: A Concert Series with Laura Ball and Friends, which premiers about a month from now on September the 9th.  A series of seven unique concerts, Unedited will present a wide spectrum of artists and styles, captained by inimitable soprano Laura Ball.  September 9th is Favorite Arias and Duets, featuring a selection of film soundtrack favorites.  Single event tickets are $15, and series tickets are $85 (about a twenty percent discount from single event price).  Get 'em via paypal through our website, linked above, or call us, 843.723.9912.

But the real problem is the 7.2 inches of average monthly rainfall.

August is a deplorable month.  Perhaps its the heat, or the grinding boredom of the tail end of summer; whatever it is, August is the sweating, stinking cesspool of human history.  Just pick a random August date - let's use today's,  2nd - and you'll find nothing but trouble.  August 2nd, 216 BC: Roman defeat at Cannae.  August 2nd, 1934: Hitler becomes führer.  August 2nd, 1939: the Einstein–Szilárd letter kicks off the atomic bomb project.  August 2nd 1964: Gulf of Tonkin incident.  August 2nd, 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait.  It's the death date of Caruso, Raymond Carver, Steven Vincent, and (the mournfully underrated) President Warren G. Harding.

In short, August is rubbish.

Except: the Library Society is kicking off its fall event season here in just a few weeks, and it's all going to start in August.  So mark your calendar: August 26th, at 7 PM, we're hosting Morza, a voice and piano recital concert.  Pianist Oszkar Morzsa and soprano Eva Morzsa, along with local violinist Nicholas Bentz will perform a program of Mozart, Chopin, Verdi-Lizst, Puccini, and Lehar in the Main Reading Room of the Charleston Library Society.  Twenty bucks, cash only, at the door.

 

It doesn't make up for August and its heat, its rain, and its apparent propensity for terrible historical events, but it's going to be a heck of a concert.  More info on our upcoming events page, as always.

WGH sez: be there.

Things I've said today

It's July 26th, the birthday of novelist Aldous Huxley, and the death date of King Offa of Mercia, the guy who established the border between England and Wales (likely in an attempt to keep England safe from excess l's and y's, rarebits, and rogue Methodist men's choirs).  It's also the 46th birthday of A Hard Day's Night, possibly your loyal blogger's favourite Beatles album.

It's also the one-week birthday of the Research and Writing Center's new construction project: a new office and a smaller, quieter, dedicated research room.  Construction is moving along very quickly, and we'll be moving into the space before you know it.

They've been workin' like a dog...

"A thousand twangling instruments / Will hum about mine ears..."

At least that's how Caliban put it in The Tempest.  And it's not just true on Shakespeare's windswept isle, but true as well in the Library's Research and Writing Center.  The Center is being thoroughly renovated, with new offices and reading bays in their own private, quiet space.  The project is on schedule, and should be completed and ready for use by next week.

Until then, the twangling of power tools and hanging drywall and painting will hum about your ears, if you're in the other half of the Research and Writing Center.  The rest of the Library, including the Main Reading Room, is as calm as ever.


In "The Spirit of Music", Geddy Lee reminded us the "machinery making modern music / can still be open-hearted, / not so coldly charted; / It's really just a question of your honesty."  And- honestly- that little snippet of Canadian prog-rock might describe the renovation even better than the Bard.  And, it's what the construction workers were listening to yesterday, so it's stuck in my head...

Rush: Canada's Shakespeare

Still waiting for our first Bar Mitzvah...

Hotter than hades outside, fewer patrons inside, and no events on the calendar 'till September: summertime means project time around the Library.  Latest result:

 

That's the front room of the Barnwell Annex, once home to audio books and lots and lots of beige.  Now?  It's a snazzy conference room; home to the Library's collection of French books; our 1825 Jean Alexandre Bouchon map of South Carolina; and this fall, home to our restored Mouzon map of South Carolina.  It's a great space finally getting put to great use.

Speaking of using space around here, there is now a dedicated page on our website covering the basics of renting our rooms for your events.  The info is also available in the downloadable .pdf on said page, if you'd prefer it that way.  We've hosted parties, investment groups, genealogical conferences, a couple of weddings, and all sorts of other stuff here before: if you've got a get together, we'd love to host it.

It's not like our event calendar isn't free at the moment.

E pur si muove...

It's June 22nd, the 377th anniversary of Galileo's forced abjuration of heliocentrism.  Obviously neither Galileo nor the inquisitors were correct: the Earth and the Sun are consubstantial!  Proof?  Here in Charleston, it's 95+ degrees all week, with 70%+ humidity.  Earth=Sun, Q.E.D.

Still, we're used to it, right?  And warm weather will be no excuse come next Monday, as we march in the Carolina Day parade.  3 PM, Washington Park... be there!

ALSO HOT: our Fall events schedule!  Programs with Nic Butler, Jack Weatherford, Patrick McMillan, and more!  The return of our Lifelong Learning series, with Nan Morrison and Bret Lott!  Concerts galore!  Dates, times, and more info as it becomes available...

 

Also, I'm fairly sure the universe revolves

around Scottish actress Karen Gilian.

Prove me wrong, "science"!

Love letters from Mountain View

You like us, you really like us!

Okay, sorry for (mis)quoting Sally Field and her Places In the Heart Oscar speech.  [Besides, everyone knows her career peaked with Smokey and the Bandit.]  No, your loyal blogger is gushing because we're now a Favorite Place on Google.   During recent testing period, the CLS was one of the most popular local businesses on the ubiquitous search engine/knowledge repository/future artificially intelligent Emperor of Earth (all hail Google!).  And we've now received our official "You're a Favorite Place" kit from the Googleplex.  Now you can come in with your smartphone, scan our "Favorite Place on Google" sticker, and read reviews about us or access special coupons.

Of course, we don't have any special coupons, and and it doesn't look like anyone's written a review of us (hint, hint).  But it's still nice to be liked, and even better when people codify exactly how much they like you, whether it's being voted President of the US, or becoming Miss Boiling Springs, SC, to merely being top 1% of businesses searched in the US (that's us!).



ALSO NICE: We're less than two weeks away from Carolina Day!  Join us June 28th, at Washington Park, at 3PM for the march on to White Point Gardens.  And don't forget the seersucker!

It worked for Joakim Noah!

Heat index: 103. Inside the library: 74. Where should you be right now?

The Piccolo Spoleto Literary Festival was a terrific success.  A big thanks to our sponsors, Duvall Catering and Wachovia/Wells Fargo; to our Programs Committee, especially the indefatigable Dr. Jane Tyler; and, of course, to the six speakers -John McCardell, Louis Rubin, James Kibler, Farrell O'Gorman, Dacre Stoker, and Bob Anderson- who were the stars of the event.  And, of course, one last huge "thank you" to all of y'all who came and paid your fifteen-dollars-for-the-event-plus-one-dollar-processing-fee and enjoyed the Festival.  We can't wait for next year's series.

 Are you in the photo above?  If so, thanks!

But, with our part of Piccolo Spoleto over, it is officially summer around here.  We've no events; no speakers; Toddler Tuesday is on hiatus... other than marching in the Carolina Day parade(seventeen days to go!), there's not much doing around here.

So stop by and grab a DVD or some light summer reading!  We're all still here, and happy to help (except on the mornings of June 18th and 23rd, when the USA has World Cup games... then you can check out your own bloody books.)  And don't forget, we're hard at work planning a great fall schedule, and we'll be announcing Autumn's events as we finalize them...  Exciting speakers?  Extended hours?  Washed-up D-list celebrity guest librarians?  A small green alien only Fred, Barney and Pebbles can see?  Tune in next time to find out!!!

Only a few more months 'till we get Bernard back...

For those of you who missed his excellent speech at this year's Annual Meeting of the Library Society, here's part-time Charleston resident, full time friend of the Library Society, and all-around awesome guy Bernard Cornwell, delivering the commencement speech for Emerson College. Not many commencement speakers manage to keep their audience awake... Bernard got them on their feet, earning a standing ovation by the end of his address. If you've got ten minutes, spend it watching this: