Johnny Depp (image via Wikipedia) HarperCollins announced today that Johnny Depp will partner with the publisher to create his own literary imprint, called Infinitum Nihil (the same name of the production company Depp started with his sister in 2004). HarperCollins said the new imprint, which means "nothing is forever', will publish titles that reflect Mr. Depp's eclectic tastes and seek "authentic, outspoken and visionary ideas and works." In a statement, Depp said, "I pledge, on behalf of Infinitum Nihil, that we will do our best to deliver publications worthy of peoples' time, of peoples' concern, publications that might ordinarily never have breached the parapet." Infinitum Nihil already has two projects in the works. One is The Unraveled Tales of Bob Dylan, a biography by historian Douglas Brinkley. Based in part on interviews Brinkley conducted with Dylan, the book "aims to set the record straight on the songwriter's enigmatic life and career." It is scheduled for release in 2015. Brinkley will also have a hand in Infinitum Nihil's other project, the publication of a novel by Woody Guthrie. The novel, House of Earth, was written by Guthrie in 1947 but the manuscript was only recently discovered. It focuses on economic disputes between ordinary and wealthy Texans in the 1930s. Depp and Brinkley will edit the book together and write an introductory essay. House of Earth is slated for publication in 2013. Thoughts? Johnny Depp Starts New Literary Imprint at Harper Johnny ... [more Johnny Depp, Publisher]

Earlier this year, a German citizen purchased a thin brochure inscribed with the name “Brücke” for €5 at a local flea market. It turns out this was quite a find; the brochure was a catalogue for a 1912 travelling exhibition of the Die Brücke collective. Die Brücke ("The Bridge") was a German artists' group formed in 1905 by four architectural students in DresdenErnest Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Enrich Heckel, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. (Later members included Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, and Otto Mueller.) The group aimed to discover new methods of artistic expression and to "free themselves from the traditional academic style of the time." Through doing so, they strived to create a bridge between the past and the present (hence the name of the group). The resulting artistic style is what we refer to today as Expressionism, which has the signifying trait of presenting the world "solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas." In addition to developing their own individual art, Die Brücke had two other major objectives: to establish contact with artists with similar sensibilities and to introduce their new art to the public through collective exhibitions. The brochure that was found was a catalogue for one of these showcases and it has an interesting backstory. Apparently it wasn't long after the exhibition went on tour that members of Die Brücke discovered that fellow artist Max Pechstein had a... [more Die Brücke Catalogue with Original Woodcuts Found at Flea Market]

The Seventh Annual NY Art Book Fair was held two weeks ago at MoMA PS 1, and I'm sorry that I missed it. Organized by Printed Matter, the fair had more than 200 local and international exhibitors and also included screenings, lectures, musical performances, and book signings. ABAA member Adam Davis of Division Leap (Portland, OR) was exhibiting at the fair for his fourth consecutive year. Division Leap, which just moved to a great new location last month, specializes in zines, artists' books, the Mimeograph Revolution, radical Americana, and a host of other printed miscellany. Adam spoke with Capital New York about technological advances and the future of the book, a topic that is on everyone's mind. He made the following thoughtful and astute observation: I think that the changes in technology—lifting the burden of having it be a purely informational transfer—will lead to people paying attention to what is really important about books and what it is you can't get from . The aura, the presence of it, the feeling that you're actually holding a work from an artist. That's really apparent with handmade books or books that the artist made themselves. You pick it up, you get a shock, you feel what's going on here in a way that you don't reading about on a website. I'm incredibly optimistic about the future of independent publishing. I'm a cheerleader in the face of gloom and doom. I couldn't agree more. I can only surmise, as many others have, that as we become increasingly ac... [more Member in the News: Adam Davis of Division Leap (Portland, OR)]

Jorie Graham has the distinction of being the first American woman to win the Forward Prize for Poetry. Her book P L A C E was awarded Best Collection, a prize that was last awarded to a woman in 2004. P L A C E "explores the ways in which our imagination, intuition, and experience - increasingly devalued by a culture that regards them as 'mere' subjectivity - aid us in navigating a world moving blindly towards its own annihilation and a political reality where the human person and its dignity are increasingly disposable." It is Graham's twelfth collection of poetry. Judges described the collection as "startling, powerful, never predictable" and a "joy" to read. Leonie Rushforth, Chair of the judging panel, said that Graham's collection was a "happy unanimous choice for the judges." "It is a challenging collection of unusual force and originality, forging connections between inner experience and a world in crisis," Rushforth said. Click here to read selected poems from P L A C E . This is not the first time that Graham has broken through a glass ceiling. In 1998 she replaced Seamus Heaney as Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University. This appointment followed Graham's Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1996 for The Dream of the Unifired Field: Selected Poems 1974-1994. The U.S. Poetry Foundation has said that Graham is "perhaps the most celebrated poet of the American post-war generation." This year's other winners of Forward Prizes were Sam Riviere, who won ... [more First American Woman Wins 2012 Forward Prize for Poetry]

In the late 19th century, librarians and conservationists began silking manuscripts in an effort to best preserve the materials. It was thought that this process would help strengthen the paper, making it less susceptible to damage. Silking involved cleaning the manuscript and then applying paste and a silk gauze, sometimes referred to as crepeline, to either one or both sides of the leaf. However, it did not take very long for conservationists to realize that this was not an adequate method of preservation. Over time the silk became brittle; discoloration occurred; it could separate from the document; some silks had a rapid rate of deterioration; and silking generally "failed to render the document any more resistant to the enemies of paper" than untreated pages (William Barrow, 1939 Newport News (Virginia) Daily Press article). Which brings us to the process of de-silking, through which the silk gauze is very carefully removed. The Morgan Museum & Library had to de-silk their manuscript of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol last year in anticipation for their exhibit Dickens at 200. The procedure is explained in the informative video below and is also summarized on their website. [more De-silking 'A Christmas Carol']

Below is a beautifully produced video that takes you through the basic steps of letterpress printing. Letterpress from Naomie Ross on Vimeo. [more Letterpress Process]

Sourcebooks publishing house has recently released a line of ebook/iPad apps called The Shakesperience. Using the iPad's technological capabilities, these books provide a multimedia experience that allow readers to interact with Shakespeare's plays. Each play features an embedded glossary of approximately 2,000 terms; video and audio commentary, interviews, and introductions by thespians; classic scenes and performances by respected actors like Orson Welles, Paul Robeson, Sir Laurence Olivier, and Dame Judy Dench, to name a few; presentations analyzing the historical and social context of selected scenes; production notes from past performances that include costume and set design, and stage directions; interviews with the full casts and directors of productions; and, finally, "interviews with voice coaches on how to approach the Bard's various characters." Dominique Raccah, CEO of Sourcebooks, said that the app was developed with input from teachers and theatre professionals, specifically in regard to the difficulties they encounter teaching and relating Shakespeare to students and modern audiences. The glossary and other elements that deal with Elizabethan language were a central focus because "getting into the language of Shakespeare" was identified as a universal hurdle for educators. Audio content took precedence over video, as teachers felt that audio forces students to engage with the text, whereas videos present a more passive experience. "We've taken what has traditio... [more Shakespeare On Your iPad]

We came across a fun list of novels and histories compiled by Andre Braugher in this week's New York Times Magazine. [more Actor Andre Braugher Talks Sea Captain and Espionage Books in the NYT Magazine]

Two recently published titles focus not on the fatalistic claims that we are closing in on 'the end of the book', but rather examine what the future holds for books, in both the private and public sectors. In This Is Not the End of the Book, Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carriere have a lively intellectual discussion about books, "reading, the Internet, book collecting and odd byways of literary and cinematic history." Michael Dirda reviewed the book in the Washinton Post on Friday, and it sounds like a highly engaging and interesting read. David Culbert, President of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS), also just edited a book on a corresponding subject. The Future of the Books & the Public Interest, published by the William Clements Library at the University of Michigan in conjunction with FABS, is a collection of essays and includes a thoughtful introduction by Mr. Culbert. The "end of the book" is an understandable concern, as technology advances and the publishing industry and very modes of reading change, but still a ridiculous notion in the eyes of this bibliophilethe book isn't going to disappear as a relic of the past! These advances and changes in the literary landscape will affect how we read, though, and how we view the book as a physical object. In my opinion, the emphasis on the physicality of books will only increase because of these changesa plus for booksellers, especially those dealing in rare and antiquarian material! [more NOT the End: Two New Titles on the Future of Books]

The New York Public Library currently has an exhibit on display in its flagship building entitled Charles Dickens: The Key to Character. The exhibit "celebrates the power of Dickens's characters to be imagined ever anew, examining important precedents for his art of characterization as well as intersections between his personal and his literary creations." A few of the items on display are artwork by over twenty illustrators, the memoranda book Dickens used to jot down possible character names, and his 1867 pocket diary that contained the code Dickens used to communicate with his mistress. Flavorwire noted a very interesting part of this exhibit that the NYPL website did not mention: a replication of Dickens's 'fake library'. After moving into Tavistock House in 1851, Dickens apparently wanted to fill a space in his study with fake books, the witty titles of which he came up with himself, and "wrote to a bookbinder with a list of 'imitation book-backs' to be created specially for his bookshelf." For the current exhibit curators at the NYPL recreated some titles from Dickens's imitation library, which included titles such as Jonah's Account of the Whale, Kant's Ancient Humbugs, Captain Parry's Virtue of Cold Tar, The Art of Cutting the Teeth, and Drowsy's Recollections of Nothing. (Additional images and titles can be found at the link.) I swear, every time I read something about Dickens, I learn something new; what a fascinating man! Check Out Charles Dickens' Library of Fake ... [more Charles Dickens's Fake Library Replicated in NYPL Exhibit]