New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Writing

Mary Booth: Writer, Translator, and Founding Editor of Harper’s Bazzar

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long island history project logoIt’s never been easy to make your way as an independent, career-minded woman in New York City. Mary L. Booth did it in the 19th century, forging a career and establishing a reputation as a writer, translator, and the founding editor of Harper’s Bazzar.

Learn more about this Long Island native as we talk to Tricia Foley, author of Mary L. Booth: The Story of an Extraordinary 19th-Century Woman, on the lastest episode of the Long Island History Project. [Read more…] about Mary Booth: Writer, Translator, and Founding Editor of Harper’s Bazzar

North Country Books Closing After 55 Years

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North Country Books LogoNorth Country Books, a Utica publisher and major wholesaler and distributor of books throughout Upstate New York and Northern New England, is expected to close by the end of the year according to company owner Rob Igoe Jr.

The firm is a victim of COVID-19 Pandemic Igoe told the New York Almanack, but noted that times have been tough since their biggest clients, Borders and Walden Books, closed in 2011. [Read more…] about North Country Books Closing After 55 Years

A Modernist Merry-Go-Round

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Cresset Library logoSaid to be born somewhere in “America” on September 11, 1905, Kathryn Hamill is an intriguing figure whose presence has been strangely ignored.

Typically mentioned in the context of her fling with novelist Patricia Highsmith, little else is known about her. Even photographic images appear to be missing. A one-time Ziegfeld dancer, she married a British publisher, studied medicine in Cambridge, lived in one of London’s iconic modernist houses, and committed suicide. A biographer’s challenge. Surely. [Read more…] about A Modernist Merry-Go-Round

Biography And A Biographer’s Work

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ben_franklins_worldHave you ever had one of those really interesting conversations where the person was so fascinating that you wished the conversation didn’t have to end?

In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Flora Fraser joins us for one of those conversations. We’ll talk about biography, and in doing so, she’ll tell us what it was like to grow up as the daughter and granddaughter of two famed, British biographers and about the genre of biography and how it developed in the United Kingdom. [Read more…] about Biography And A Biographer’s Work