boydellbrewer-blog

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"I burn, I pine, I perish." 

William Shakespeare, the world's greatest dramatist, was born on this day in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. He also died on this day in 1616 at the age of 52.

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Today marks the 455th birthday of the world's greatest dramatist, William Shakespeare!

With 74 onstage deaths in Shakespeare's plays, the bard has a bloody predilection for leaving very few characters standing at the end.

Would you make it out alive? Use your birth date to find out your fate and let us know how you fared... ⚔️ 😵 🗡️

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In the second of our blog posts on the minimalist composer Julius Eastman, author Mary Jane Leach discusses the re-discovery of Eastman’s compositions, including his trio of pieces Crazy Nigger, Evil Nigger, and Gay Guerrilla - now available from Blume via SoundOhm: https://boybrew.co/2MbA4iJ

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Looking for a new read to titilate the mind this new year? Here are our five biggest titles hitting the shelves this month – from the role of the occult in Nazism to the neglected aspects of Ralph Waldo Emerson: https://boybrew.co/2Fdn5wo

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“A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.”

Inspired by Anglo-Saxon mythology and the Welsh language, J.R.R. Tolkein, the father of modern high fantasy was born on this day in Bloemfontein, South Africa in 1892.

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February 20th, 1949 – Ezra Pound was announced as the first ever recipient of the Bollingen Award for Poetry for Pisan Cantos, sparking an outcry that would extend across the United States and inspire inflamed rhetoric in the pages of newspapers and the halls of Congress.

Investigating the years before the controversy as well as its long-reaching legacy, Ezra Pound and the Career of Modern Criticism: Professional Attention re-discovers this previously untold story and poses important questions about the relationship between Pound’s politics and poetry, and about reception histories more broadly.

Why it has become routine for reception histories to distinguish between professional and public responses to figures like Pound? What are the costs of privileging one over the other, and who gets to make that distinction?

This illuminating study takes on a controversial figure in the history of American poetry and the role of Pound studies in shaping modern literary study: https://boybrew.co/2x1Ti33

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How did queen consorts, especially those married to powerful kings of larger than life character, attempt to shape their own image at court? Dr Michelle L. Beer explains how she was drawn to this matter of queenship, discussed in detail in her new book: https://boybrew.co/2C8y8UL

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Just how "mindboggling" was WWI to those in charge of it? Dr Olmstead uncovers the influence of diplomacy on America’s decision to enter the First World War: https://boybrew.co/2LakWS9

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Ever wondered what happened between the classical age and early modern era in the history of birdwatching? Michael J. Warren discusses the Anglo-Saxon fascination with birds and how bird sounds influenced place names: https://boybrew.co/2QlQBoB

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Just published: the latest volume of the Haskins Society journal. Volume 29 includes: an inquiry into documentary production in Northern France; Anglo-Saxon servitude; Norman ducal estates; a study of Winchester cathedral priory and the Codex Wintoniensis; equestrian symbolism; royal political strategy during the interregnum crisis of King Stephen; a prosopographical analysis of Robert Curthose's crusade curiales; and a comprehensive survey of the scholarship on the Domesday Book. 

Contributors include Stephen Baxter, Paul Bertrand, Stephen D. Church, Alexander Dymond, Jennie M. England, Thomas Foerster, S. Jay Lemanski, Simon Thomas Parsons, Chiara Provesi.

📚 https://boybrew.co/2P4aWKE

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JUST PUBLISHED: Sir John Fortescue and the Governance of England, by Margaret Kekewich. This is the first comprehensive biography of arguably the most important political thinker of C15th England, a man who rose from relative obscurity to hold high office and write, among many works, the treatise known as The Governance of England, a work which would set the tone for debates about the extent of royal and parliamentary power for centuries to come. 

📚 https://boybrew.co/2QmYfz6

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New: How can we understand being human in a world increasingly divided by hatred of other human beings? In Race, Decolonization, and Global Citizenship in South Africa (University of Rochester Press, 2018), Chielozona Eze looks at how South Africa’s historic transition to democracy inspires cultural theorists, poets, and novelists to work to overcome the legacy of apartheid and to engage in global citizenship. Along with political figures like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, J.M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Zakes Mda, Njabulo Ndebele, and Antjie Krog share a cultural and moral investment in ethical participation in the world.  Eze’s book seeks to answer important questions about what global citizenship means in our modern world.

📚 https://boybrew.co/2Kt7kRN

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“It is always fatal to have music or poetry interrupted.”

On this day in literary history, George Eliot, one of the leading novelists of the 19th century was born in Nuneaton in 1819.

Explore the major contributions to our understanding of George Eliot's fiction in Russell Perkin's 'A Reception-History of George Eliot's Fiction'. Offering extended and perceptive discussions of Adam Bede and Daniel Deronda but also Eliot's most underrated novel Felix Holt, the Radical.

📚 https://boybrew.co/2R499H5

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Today is the feast day for St Cecilia, the patroness of musicians. In the 17th Century composers and poets such as Henry Purcell and John Dryden wrote for the annual celebrations held in London.

Read Bryan White's blog post about the history behind St Cecilia’s Day: https://boybrew.co/2R4wPeA

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NEW: We are delighted to have published the first English translation of The Annals of Dunstable Priory, edited by Harriett R. Webster (University of Wales Trinity Saint David) and translated by David Preest. 

The Annals present detailed insight into the workings of a medieval religious community and their connections to the wider world in turbulent thirteenth-century England. Alongside local concerns they record the crisis of the Second Barons' War and the conquest of Wales under Edward I. All recorded, Dr Webster assures us, with humour, truthful detail and outrage (so perfect for the early 21st century!). Look out for an interview with Dr Webster in a future issue of the Medieval Herald.

📚 https://boybrew.co/2BoREvL

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NEW from DS Brewer: A Critical Companion to John Skelton, edited by Sebastian Sobecki (University of Groningen) and John Scattergood (Trinity College, Dublin). An ideal introduction to Skelton and all aspects of his work and reception, it gathers together the vibrant strands of existing research and opens up new avenues for future studies. And what a handsome cover too.

📚 https://boybrew.co/2PI7smi

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Discover some of the main themes behind Joan Abela's study of Malta's development in the 16th Century, not least its role as the hub of a large, complicated trading network in our latest blog post: https://boybrew.co/2A4gH5s