Wharton's Mount Saved, This Week anyway

In the ongoing saga of the attempt to keep Edith Wharton's The Mount intact and open to the public... From Bloomburg, dateline April 24:

"The 97-year-old estate where the Pulitzer Prize-winning author penned ``House of Mirth'' and found inspiration for ``Ethan Frome'' has temporarily avoided foreclosure after raising $800,000 by today's deadline, Susan Wissler, the executive who runs the property, said in an interview. "


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=atVOyeqqiENY&refer=muse

50 Top Cult Books Telegraph UK

The Telegraph has published a list of the Top 50 Cult Books, which they tried to define but neded up with..."What is a cult book? We tried and failed to arrive at a definition..." But probably everyone one has read at least one book on this list. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was one of my favorites, Number One Son is a fan of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Hunter S Thompson, and I think I probably still own my paperback copy of The Master and Margarita. Words & images always has a least one copy of Gibran's The Prophet on hand. But I can't see anything on this list that the LanternGuy probably read. Hmmmm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/04/26/nosplit/boanotherlist126.xml&DCMP=ILC-traffdrv07053100

Edith Wharton's Home, Again

An associate professor at University of Cincinnati (right up the road, so to speak) weighs in on the issue of "The Mount" and the financial difficulties that the foundation supporting it faces.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/opinion/12clarke.html?th&emc=th

Thomas Jefferson Library at Library of Congress

Washingon Post today has an article on the re-creation of the contents of Jefferson's library.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/10/AR2008041004241.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter

The Book Store is The Big Box Store

A story in Washington Post on Saturday discusses the latest shift in the book selling world--to the Big Box discounters. The history of the move from independent stores to the 'category killer" to the neighborhood Wal-Mart or Costco is detailed. In some eyes the recent news that B&N may be looking at buying Borders smacks of deja vu all over again at the next level up.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403540_2.html?wpisrc=newsletter