Random House announced that it will be starting a new television division to develop scripted programs based on its books. This is not Random House's first foray into the movie and television industry. Unbeknownst to me, and probably many others considering it has only released two films thus far, the publishing house entered the movie business in 2005 with the launch of Random House Films. Random House Television will follow the model established by their film division, which works with Random House editors, authors, and author's agents to obtain dramatic rights to titles in addition to working on potential movie projects with authors. Random House Television was made possible through a partnership between the US division of the publishing house and FremantleMedia, a television production and distribution company. Both companies are owned by Bertelsmann AG. Peter Gethers, who currently runs the film department will also oversee the new television branch, both of which will fall under the newly created Random House Studios. Jeffrey Levine, a former development executive at Spring Creek Productions, has been named Head of Television for Random House Television. I would be really interested to hear what readers think about a publishing house's expansion into film and television, and your general feelings about turning books into movies. Since I was young, I've been intrigued to see if a director's interpretation of a novel matched my own imagination, but the past few years thea... [more Random House Launches Television Division]

First Edition Cover Art The very rare first edition of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which I previously posted about, brought in �30,000 ($46,737) at auction in London last week. The book was inscribed by 'Jack' Lewis and was originally estimated to be worth �19,000 ($29,600.10). Rare Chronicles of Narnia book sells for �30,000 [more Update: First Edition Narnia Book Inscribed by 'Jack' Lewis]

One publishing house is trying to ride the wave of erotic fiction that broke with the overwhelming popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey by producing erotic rewrites of classic literature. Jane Eyre, Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea are just a few tomes that will get the erotic treatment from UK publisher Total-E-Bound. Dubbed "Clandestine Classics", the publisher writes that in these reworked novels: "The old fashioned pleasantries and timidity have all been stripped away, quite literally. You didn't really think that these much loved characters only held hands and pecked cheeks did you? Come with us, as we embark on a breathtaking experience—behind the closed bedroom doors of our favourite, most-beloved British characters. Learn what Sherlock really thought of Watson, what Mr Darcy really wanted to do to Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and unveil the sexy escapades of Mr Rochester and Jane Eyre. We'll show you the scenes that you always wanted to see but were never allowed. Come on, you know you can't resist&open the pages and delve inside." Hilarious. And, based on the amount of erotic fan fiction I've heard about lately, there certainly seems to be a market for this material. The cover at the left is for Eve Sinclair's reworking of Jane Eyre, entitled Jane Eyre Laid Bare. In the novel, the Guardian reports that "the timid governess is told in no uncertain terms: 'My penis is hard, Jane. That is what kissing you does to me. My body is f... [more Literary Classics Get Fifty Shades of Grey Treatment]

There's a great article in this morning's NY Times about Rare Book School, check it out! UPDATE: A companion piece in the NY Times Arts Blog about the Hinman Collator is also worth a read. Rare Book School [more NY Times Profiles Rare Book School]

ABAA members James Bryant of Carpe Diem Fine Books in Monterey, CA and Edward Nudelman of Nudelman Rare Books in Seattle, WA recently received some attention in the press. Carpe Diem was written about by Cynthia Haven of Stanford University who dubbed the shop "the best bookstore I've never seen", and Rebecca Rego Barry of Fine Books & Collections magazine profiled Ed Nudelman. Congrats to James and Ed! [more Members in the News: Carpe Diem Fine Books & Nudelman Rare Books]

First English edition of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, 1640 (image via Keys) The first English edition of Niccolo Machiavelli's seminal work The Prince, dated 1640, was recently discovered during a collection evaluation in Norfolk, UK. Andrew Bullock, the head of the book department at Keys auction house was combing through a late collector's books when he was drawn to a particular shelf. "The Machiavelli was on a shelf hidden amongst a number of Common Prayer books, but some sort of sixth sense asserted itself, and I took it down to take a closer look,” Bullock said. No matter what 'sixth book sense' brought Bullock to his discovery, he and many collectors are very happy that it did. Bullock called it an "extremely exciting find" as "it is very rare for an English first edition of such an important work to come to auction." The book is 300 pages long and measures only 14.5cm x 9cm (5¾in x 3½in), but is expected to bring in �25,000 to �30,000 ($30,992 to $46,488) when it is auctioned this Thursday, July 26. Extremely rare first edition of Machiavelli's The Prince, found in Norfolk, to go under the hammer in Aylsham [more First English Edition of Machiavelli's 'The Prince' Goes to Auction Thursday]

Stephen Colbert's manuscript for his recently published children's book I Am a Pole (And So Can You!) will be on display at the Rosenbach Museum and Library and will reside next to James Joyce's manuscript for Ulysses. (No, I'm not kidding.) Colbert conceived of the book during an interview with Maurice Sendak earlier this year. Coincidentally, the Rosenbach is the major repository for Sendak's works. As one ABAA member commented, "If you are a James Joyce fan, you will cringe", and yes, I did cringe a little, but the video is hilarious. Besides, any talk of rare books and manuscripts in popular culture is pretty awesome. [more Strange Bedfellows: Stephen Colbert & James Joyce]

The New Orleans Public Library and the Southern Food and Beverage Museum (SoFAB) have partnered to open the largest culinary library in the South. The two organizations have been in talks about the project since 2010, but the museum had to be "mature enough to acquire a building", said SoFAB president Liz Williams. The museum currently has over 9,000 cookbooks, menus, recipes, archival documents, and literature about food, all of which will be housed at the new library. In addition, there will be a collection of children's materials related to the culinary arts, food, and nutrition. Library director Charles Brown said that, once completed, this children's culinary collection will be the most comprehensive of its kind. Brown also stated the library's intention to become a repository for "the papers of people in the culinary world." The library has already received its first donation of papers from Southern kosher cookbook author Mildred Covert. SoFAB lost its collection of more than 2,000 books and the computer that housed the collection database during Hurricane Katrina, but donations of from all over the world came in after the catastrophe, making the robust collection that exists today. The library is scheduled to open in 2013 and will be located at 1609 O.C. Haley Blvd, just down the street from SoFAB's new location (also set to open next year). The library will be free and open to the public, but the collection will not circulate. No taxpayer dollars will be used for the... [more New Orleans Set to Open Largest Culinary Library in the South]

A new anthology of Latin American fiction has been printed in a very unique way: publishers used a special ink so that the entire text will fade in two months time. The book, appropriately titled El Libro que No Puede Esperar (The Book That Can't Wait), was produced by Eterna Cadencia, an independent Argentinian publishing house, in conjunction with DraftFCB, an advertising agency. It comes in a sealed package and the ink begins to fade as soon as it makes contact with air and light, giving the reader eight weeks to read and enjoy the text before it disappears completely. El Libro que No Puede Esperar is a special edition of The Future is Not Ours: New Latin American Literature, an anthology of stories from twenty-three Latin American writers who were born between 1970 and 1980. The aim of the publication, which is expanded upon in the video below, is to motivate people to read the book quickly. More specifically, to read new authors quickly, because "if people don't read their first books, they'll never make it to a second." This is clearly a pretty innovative marketing plan, but the explanation reagrding urgency for new authors is very real. I am intrigued by this concept and want to get my hands on a copy of the book to check it out! The Book That Can't Wait Book with an expiration date El libro que no puede esperar [more Speed Read: Latin American Anthology Published in Disappearing Ink]

UFA colour lithograph poster for 'Metropolis', Designer - Heinz Schulz-Neudamm, Berlin, 1927. Items from or pertaining to Metropolis, Fritz Lang's 1927 silent science-fiction tour de force, have a high collectible value; seven years ago an original movie poster for the film sold for $690,000. One can only imagine the excitement then that an antiquarian book firm experienced upon uncovering a 32 page program from the film's London premiere (and the added surprise of discovering it among their own inventory!). The film premiered at the Marble Arch Pavilion and the program was created especially for the event. The program is comprised of anecdotes about filming; photographs; firsthand accounts on the backstory of the movie, including the perspective of the director and his wife and colloborator, Thea von Harbou; and essays about the making of the film and themes it explores. (It sounds like the bits on the special effects in the film would make for quite an interesting read on their own.) Peter Harrington, the London firm that rediscovered and currently has the program, said that only three surviving copies are known to exist. Click here to view the complete booklet. A few interesting facts about the film: More than 37,000 extras were used in the film, including 1,100 bald men (The 'Tower of Babel' scene required 6,000 bald men, but since they could only hire 1,000, the bald extras had to be filmed six times to create the illusion.) The film took 2 years to shoot and is one of ... [more 'Metropolis' Program from Film's 1927 London Premiere Unearthed]