Posted in From the Stacks, Literature on March 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
One of the surprises lurking in the stacks of the North Carolina Collection is Master of the World by Jules Verne. We have both the original French edition and an English translation. Sacre bleu, you say. What does the creator of Captain Nemo and his submarine, Nautilus, have to do with North Carolina? Verne never [...]
Posted in New Books on March 23, 2007 | 9 Comments »
When I began buying books for the North Carolina Collection, I was amazed and delighted to see the role that trust plays in the buying and selling of rare and out-of-print books. Sellers trust me to be the person I represent myself to be, and I trust them to describe honestly the books they are [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, Tar Heelia on March 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
As some state officials and many private citizens try to prevent the Navy from establishing an outlying landing field in Beaufort and Washington counties, readers might be interested to know that in an earlier time North Carolina civic leaders courted a different aviation facility. The North Carolina Collection has a copy of An Invitation to [...]
Posted in Tar Heelia on March 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
In the neverending quest to find the true origins of North Carolina barbecue, I submit this image from the North Carolina Collection’s new online exhibit of hand-colored Theodore De Bry engravings: I know what the purists will say: that’s grilling, not barbecue, and it has to be pork to count. Nonetheless, I hold firm that [...]
Posted in Tar Heelia on March 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
So if we can’t rightfully claim Andrew Jackson, who has appeared on the twenty dollar bill since 1928, does that mean that no North Carolinian has ever been featured on a piece of federal currency? I’ve looked, and the only Tar Heel I could find on a bill or coin was Guilford County native Dolley [...]
Posted in History, Tar Heelia on March 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Happy Birthday to Andrew Jackson–the president claimed as a native son by North and South Carolina, but who was elected while a resident of Tennessee. As a person who was educated entirely within the confines of and by the State of North Carolina, I was convinced that our southerly neighbor’s claim to Old Hickory was [...]
Posted in History, Tar Heelia on March 13, 2007 | 1 Comment »
This year is the 50th anniversary of McGuire’s Miracle…32-0…the perfect season…UNC’s 1957 NCAA National Championship. On March 23, 1957, the Tar Heel men’s basketball team, coached by Frank McGuire and led by All-American Lennie Rosenbluth, defeated Wilt Chamberlain and the University of Kansas Jayhawks in a triple-overtime thriller in Kansas City, Missouri. The North Carolina [...]
Posted in History, New Books on March 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I continue to enjoy my wanderings through those two excellent new reference works, Encyclopedia of North Carolina and South Carolina Encyclopedia. Lately I have been musing on alcohol – the drinking kind. Surely the subject is relevant to both states. After all, perhaps the best known joke about the two Carolinas is “What did the [...]
Posted in Postcards, Tar Heelia on March 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Hillsborough, the one-time state capitol and current center of statewide literary activity, has been named by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of the country’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations for 2007. It’s been a few years since a North Carolina town has made it onto the list. The National Trust has been publishing its [...]
Posted in From the Stacks, Recipes on March 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The Jargon Society, founded by North Carolina poet Jonathan Williams, has been publishing fine press editions of innovative poetry and art for more than half a century. But apparently that’s not all they do. I ran across White Trash Cooking (Jargon Society, 1986) in the North Carolina Collection stacks this afternoon. Of all of the [...]
