BOOKPATHS

Near Sawrey, Ambleside, Cumbria, England

Beatrix Potter
July 28, 1866 – December 22, 1943

“Once upon a time there were four little rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail and Peter. They lived with their mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big fir tree. 'Now, my dears,' said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, 'You may go into the fields and down the lane, but don’t go into Mr. MrGregor’s garden.'” – from The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter

At Home with Beatrix Potter : the Creator of Peter Rabbit, by Susan Denyer (New York : Harry N. Abrams, 2004)

The beautifully illustrated At Home with Beatrix Potter : the Creator of Peter Rabbit, invites readers into her life, home, and landscape. Potter purchased Hill Top Farm, in England’s Lake District, in 1905. During the 37 years of her residency, the property grew to over 4,000 acres. Hill Top Farm is now owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.

“I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.” – from Journals, by Beatrix Potter

Related websites

Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

Hill Top Farm

Beatrix Potter Gallery

Beatrix Potter Society

World of Peter Rabbit

List of Online Texts

Project Gutenberg

Fayetteville, Arkansas

The American Booksellers Association profiles Nightbird Books, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, this week.

“Lisa Sharp, the owner of Nightbird Books, which opened in April in Fayetteville, Arkansas, a college town of more than 65,000, has been pleasantly surprised by the lengths that people have gone to show their support for her new bookstore.” – ABA Website

Nightbird Books Website

Spain

In the Independent, Christina Patterson talks with writer Javier Marias, “tipped as a future winner of the Nobel Prize.”

“King Xavier I knows a great deal about irony. He knows a great deal about writing, too. He is better known, in fact, as Javier Marias, the Spanish novelist tipped as a future winner of the Nobel prize. Sales of his books worldwide have now topped five and a half million - and it's not hard to see why. Once bitten by the Marias bug - a mesmerising mix of fantasy, meditation and memory - readers are hooked.” – from “Javier Marias : In Search of Lost Time,” by Christina Patterson, The Independent

Dan Mullan, author of Gordon Banks : a Hero Who Could Fly, “chooses his top 10 books on his other heroes” for the Guardian.

London, England

In the Guardian, Maev Kennedy writes about the protests surrounding the filming of Monica Ali’s Brick Lane.

“This week Monica Ali was behind the blue shutters of her Portuguese second home, relaxing with her family, as discontent among a vocal minority in the Bangladeshi community boiled over into an explicit threat to block filming of her successful first novel, Brick Lane.” – from “In a Sense, If You Come Under Fire from Those Conservative People, You Must Be Doing Something Right,” by Maev Kennedy, The Guardian

“The writer’s job is to write, and write the truth – but he also has the moral obligation to get down in the dust and the sweat and lend not only his name but his voice and body to the tiresome contest.” – Edward Abbey, Letter to Barry Lopez (1987)

Read some of the incomparable Edward Abbey’s “long lost letters” in the July/August Orion or on their website. The letters are pulled from Postcards from Ed : Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast, to be published by Milkweed Editions in September.

“I am weary of the old and tiresome and banal question ‘Why save the wilderness?’ The important and difficult question is ‘How? How save the wilderness?’ I am not much concerned with the state of the world a thousand years from now, for in that long-range view I am an optimist: I think that the greed and stupidity of industrial culture will save us from ourselves by self-destruction. What I am concerned about is the world my children will have to live in, and maybe, if my children ever get around to it, the world of my grandchildren.” – Edward Abbey, Letter to George Sessions (1979)

Iran

Listen to Akbar Ganji, “one of Iran’s most prominent champions of human rights and freedom of expression,” on PEN’s website.

David McKie praises “publishers who revive books that should never have gone out of print.”

“There are certain books which in any sentient society would never be out of print.” – from “In Pursuit of Lost Classics,” David McKie, The Guardian

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

“This, then, is the Sheenjek country. The Arctic wilderness of the Brooks Range. Will we have the wisdom to cherish such places? To leave such parts of the earth in their natural state, humbly and with appreciation?” – Mardy Murie

Listen to Elizabeth Arnold’s podcast of her recent expedition to The Arctic Wildlife Refuge. Organized by John Waterman and including the “world-renowned naturalist with the Wildlife Conservation Society,” George Schaller, the expedition returned to the site of Mardy and Olaus Murie’s 1956 expedition. Schaller provides a link with the past, having been a “young field biologist” on the 1956 expedition, and a voice for the future, urging continued protection for this vast and fragile landscape. The podcast, a video of Olaus and Mardy Murie’s “Letters from Brooks Range”, photographs, additional information, and related links, can be found on NPR’s Radio Expeditions website.

“"One of the things that Olaus and Mardy left with me is that you must do something beyond yourself… And conservation is one of the most basic things you can do. For Olaus and Mardy's sake, I really wish that this will forever remain a memorial to their vision." -- George Schaller

Dublin, Ireland

“Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.” – George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw
July 26, 1856 – November 2, 1950

George Bernard Shaw was born at 33 Synge Street in Dublin on July 26, 1856. His birthplace is open to the public from May through September.

“’Author of many plays’ is the simple accolade to George Bernard Shaw on the plaque outside his birthplace. His Victorian home and early life mirror this simplicity. The first home of the Shaw family and the renowned playwright at 33 Synge Street has been restored to its Victorian elegance and charm, and has the appearance that the family has just gone out for the afternoon.” – Shaw Birthplace Website

In the Guardian, Sunder Katwala wishes Shaw “a very happy 150th birthday.”

“Perhaps Shaw was, after all, truly a hero for our times.” – from “Artist of the Impossible,” by Sunder Katwala, The Guardian

And Michael Holroyd explains why “we have need of Shaw” today in the Times.

“In such a climate of terrified legislation, we have need of Bernard Shaw – need of his stimulating incorrectitudes, need of his ability to show where dishonour truly lies and of his power to ridicule such absurdities out of court. It is time for Dionysos to go back and find him for us.” – from “Send for Shaw, Not Shakespeare,” by Michael Holroyd, The Times

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will." -- George Bernard Shaw