Christine Jacobson

cannot believe I missed Lockwood when she was in town recently (though according to my husband, she did wave at our daughter)

Patricia Lockwood · Arrayed in Shining Scales: Solving Sylvia Plath I was under no illusion that The Collected Prose would solve the mystery, or lay to rest the lie, of how Plath was...

well this knocked me right down to the ground

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

ad for the Oliver Typewriter. Copy reads "A DISTINCT TYPE. The OLIVER has certain superior features and unique improvements exclusively its own." Accompanying an image of a piece of type with the nicks on the left, "OLIVER" down the side and in place of a letter face at the top sits an Oliver typewriter.

how incredible is this? typewriter as piece of type! 📜

Ten* (could only get to nine) authors by whom I’ve read more than five* (actually in most cases I've read *just* five) books

Lev Tolstoy
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Henry James
Jane Austen
The Bronte Sisters (cheating!)
Raymond Chandler
Barbara Pym
Zadie Smith
Gary Shteyngart

Screenshot of the top of my article with the title, my name and then two epigraphs. It reads as follows: Queer Transmissions: English Manuscript, Italian Print and a Discomforting History of the Book Sonja Drimmer Confronted with this range of material and contextual complexity, the first scholars of fifteenth- century printmaking were definitely troubled by what they found.1 So let’s think about how it feels to be comfortable.

The printing press is not responsible for launching Europe into modernity, nor did it transform society overnight. Folks like Sam Altman & other tech boosters are obsessed w this misperception bc it provides a precedent for AI. A recent article I wrote touches on this. Abstract & links in replies.

And with 12 hours to spare I've finished my paper and slide deck!

3:30PM! tomorrow! come learn who typed the poetry and prose of Emily Dickinson, Henry James, T.S. Eliot, & Vladimir Nabokov. Plus! Erin McGuirl talking secretary manuals and Dale Stinchcomb on broadway script production! #SHARP2025

BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC NEW SERIES Book History for the Future SERIES EDITORS: Lisa Gitelman, New York University, USA Tom Mole, Durham University, UK Sarah Werner, Independent Researcher, USA Book History for the Future aims to define the cutting edge for a new generation of book historians, as book history enters a new chapter of its evolution. Books sit at a densely trafficked intersection of social relations, status negotiations, emotional investments, material possibilities, desires, aspirations, and dreams. They require an intellectual approach grounded in attention to physical artefacts and material conditions while also engaged in theoretical reflection, attentive to historical contexts while attuned to contemporary resonances. This series publishes books that eschew academic parochialism in favour of adventurous engagements with new theoretical developments, innovative methodologies, digital tools, and global contexts.

Exciting news, Bluesky! I’m editing a new book series for Bloomsbury with Tom Mole and Lisa Gitelman: Book History for the Future! Do you focus on material textual artifacts and innovative methodologies? We’re actively soliciting proposals, so give us a shout! www.bloomsbury.com/media/cecjzl...

holy smokes

Type on a type bed

Type on a Washington Press

Printing a broadside at #sharp2025
This is a reproduction of The North Star, 1848 from Frederick Douglas, originally printed about a mile away in Rochester, NY.

slide deck that reads, "Thanks for Typing Surfacing Women's Type Labor in the Archives" on the left and on the right a lithograph poster of a woman in a golden edwardian dress sits working at a typewriter on a table with books and a vase of flowers

hey #SHARP2025 good news, I have started work on my slides for my presentation that starts in *checks notes* 48 hours

Screenshot of presentation slide featuring advertisements for distributors Fine Print and Desert Moon from issues of Factsheet Five.

Getting my presentation on 1990s zines & small magazine distributors ready for the #SHARP2025 conference next week, super excited to be part of a zine panel.

I'm excited to meet you in person finally (right? I don't *think* we've met in person...)

this is very encouraging! my daughter is 7 months and is generally a happy social baby unless close to nap time or is hungry, so I'm hopeful she'll attend a couple panels. unfortunately, I need to take her solo since husband is ill (otherwise he'd be watching her while I was conferencing!)

seeking advice on bringing babies to conferences! (well, in my case, just the one.) replies or dms welcome.

oh this one wasn't on my radar! *adds to the pile*

learning to like late Henry James is like learning to like jogging— the beginning is a struggle, you have to take lots of breaks, and progress is slow. but when it clicks, you're locked in and soaring!!

Movies that feature women typists/working on typewriters? so far I have:

The Best of Everything
Kitty Foyle
His Girl Friday
Woman of the Year
Desk Set
Christmas in Connecticut
Meet John Doe
More than a Secretary
The Spiral Staircase
Working Girl
9-5

A woman in a pinstripe jacket and skirt and Panama hat holds a large pink balloon under a white canopy

took my daughter to Harvard Square to meet (a historic reenactor playing) Elizabeth Glover, the woman who established the 1st printing press in the colonies.

was a little surprised to see her in Edwardian attire handing out balloons but very little is known about Glover so who am I to judge! 📜

the exhibition I am working on could easily be called "flowers and typewriters" --> just read a detail that Henry James would place a fresh bouquet picked from his lamb house garden next to typist Mary Weld's typewriter each morning

black and white photograph of a woman (white, dark hair with bangs pulled back into a bun in a long dark dress and dark shoes) stands with her hands on her hips behind a desk with a corona typewriter and next to a beautiful hutch holding displaying fine china, a silver samova, and a vase of flowers

found joy and courage from this image of Vivienne Eliot (first and ill-treated wife of TS) I came across in the stacks this week; sharing in case it helps buoy others.

just look at that defiant pose! and the unapologetic femininity she brought to her workspace. this was a dame.

to clarify: I am charmed, but don't try this at home!

requested again a book I ILLed last year and to my surprise a few of my brass page tacks were not only left by me (whoops) but also left in place by the ILL and Yale librarians! Lucky break for me; I was looking for this exact passage 📜

happy Father’s Day to my husband whose very funny historical screwball novel has been excerpted again, this time online over at @keep-planning.net 👇

The Thrilling Evidence of Jane Austen’s Imagination

cheers to my wonderful former colleague Dale Stinchcomb and his co-curator Juliette Wells on the wonderful coverage of their Morgan Library exhibition in the New York Times 📜

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/a...

oooh what a lovely example. I keep meaning to dig into this too since they found these quilt squares with ms and printed paper backing at the Dickinson museum:

emilydickinsonmuseum.catalogaccess.com/objects/7657

Harvard agrees to relinquish early photos of enslaved people, ending a legal battle Harvard University will relinquish 175-year-old photographs believed to be the earliest taken of enslaved people to a South Carolina museum devoted to African American history as part of a settlement ...

Harvard agrees to relinquish early photos of enslaved people, ending a legal battle
📜 www.yahoo.com/news/15-batt...

following for recs! I am bereft

shoot me a DM!

dm me for the zoom link for my talk on Pym; it’s technically for Ticknors but I don’t think anyone would object to someone coming especially to learn more about the society.

tomorrow evening I’ll be giving a talk on my Barbara Pym collection for the Ticknor Society. If you’re a bookish person in the New England area I really recommend joining the Ticknor society. It’s great for intergenerational community, behind-the-scenes field trips, and more.

ticknor.org