Movie Posters

 

Better Than The Oscars

   The Oscars are on tonight and it seems as though many people are not enthused and are more likely to watch reruns of Schitt’s Creek up here in Canada or Gunsmoke below the border. I offer another option - movie posters - which were always, mostly better than the movies. They are found in a research library, but you can view them from home.

   I have lamented the fact that many university libraries are getting out of the library business, but that is not true of The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas. Ever since the oil money started pouring into their budget, they have been accepting, collecting and buying just about anything of value, and many things that most Texans would agree are not valuable at all. Like old movie posters. 

   Although the Ransom Center has been digitizing words and images for many years, the movie poster project began in 2018 and there are 10,000 available, of which about half are now online and viewable and searchable. More are coming.

   To learn more and view them go to the Movie Posters Collection, where you will also see a link to the other Film Collections at Ransom. I told you they had a lot. For just one example in this genre, you can have a look at all of the material they have about and from the actor Peter O’Toole. 

The Bonus:
   The Harry Ransom Center probably has more Canadian material than any Canadian library. They have, for example, the papers of a chap who passed through London a few years back. Perhaps you have read one of his books or seen the movie, The English Patient. 
See: "Archive of Michael Ondaatje, Author of "The English Patient"", Acquired," Suzanne Krause, Ransom Center Magazine, Sept. 25, 2017. 

Little Toller Books

Little Toller Books is a little publisher located in West Dorset and if you choose to go walking in England you can stay at their shop. If you are looking for new or classic books relating to nature, visit the Little Toller website. Here is a recent endorsement from Michael Ondaatje:







Michael Ondaatje, "By the Book," New York Times, June 14, 2018.
“What was the last truly great book you read?"
“Actually I am still reading it. Gilbert White’s “The Natural History of Selborne,” published by the wonderful Little Toller Books in Dorset, which keeps great books on nature in print. Written in 1798, it has the atmosphere and many of the qualities of a great English novel, except that the Bennet family has been replaced by weather and landscapes, as well as the seasonal arrival of visiting insects, all of them faultlessly described. White’s writing, with his depiction of a returning rainstorm or the slow wanderings of his tortoise, is great literature at a perfect pace, every creature dressed and portrayed in quick-witted adjectives; and he enthralls us with his knowledge of crickets, who are a “thirsty race,” who “open communications from one room to another” and who can sometimes foretell the death of a near relation or the approach of an absent lover. The book is a classic and has never been out of print since its first publication.”

The title of one of Little Toller's new books was puzzling to me: Orison For A Curlew. 'Orison' is an archaic word for 'a prayer' and the subtitle of the book is, In Search of a Bird on the Brink of Extinction.

If you go to the Little Toller website you can order a set of their books and probably get them in time for Christmas. If you would like to sample the wares first, go to their site and read some of the essays in The Clearing, their online journal.

Post Script
Unfortunately the curlew is not the only bird on the verge of extinction. If you choose to read The Clearing you will find within it a very good essay by Anita Roy: "Vultures on the Brink." You may recall that I posted about this subject a while back. See: "Vanishing Vultures."