Christine Jacobson
@cejacobson.bsky.social
Associate Curator of Modern Books & Manuscripts @ Houghton Library, Harvard University
newsletter on cultural heritage x fashion: luxelibris.substack.com
writing, projects, frivolity, etc: linktr.ee/cejacobson
newsletter on cultural heritage x fashion: luxelibris.substack.com
writing, projects, frivolity, etc: linktr.ee/cejacobson
"To uphold our dedication to truth, we must do three related things: understand what is happening; speak about it plainly; and remain in honest dialogue with ourselves."
We can have free inquiry and reject authoritarianism at the same time. We just need to insist on honest dialogue with ourselves.
Free Inquiry and Authoritarianism | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson
We live today in an authoritarian country, run by an overtly fascist government. What does it mean to teach, learn, and research, to think at a university under these conditions?
www.thecrimson.com
January 31, 2026 at 1:20 AM
"To uphold our dedication to truth, we must do three related things: understand what is happening; speak about it plainly; and remain in honest dialogue with ourselves."
How fantastic!
For 2026, the John Carter Brown Library is hosting a series of events about the important relationship between journalism and history. 1/4
January 30, 2026 at 1:07 PM
How fantastic!
extraordinary
Congrats “RHAPSODY, REIMAGINED” by Andrea Hale 🎶 First Place winner of the Internet Archive’s 2026 Public Domain Film Remix Contest 🥇
A fabulously fun, rhythm-driven triumph of archival remix.
Full film ➡️ archive.org/details/rhap...
🧵 1/2
#PublicDomain #PublicDomainDay
A fabulously fun, rhythm-driven triumph of archival remix.
Full film ➡️ archive.org/details/rhap...
🧵 1/2
#PublicDomain #PublicDomainDay
January 29, 2026 at 2:26 AM
extraordinary
Reposted by Christine Jacobson
The world feels so bleak and frightening right now. I am full of grief for people in Minneapolis and Lewiston and Kiev and (&c). But it is Burns Night, and we do have this recording of Jean Redpath singing his "Green Grow the Rashes, O'". Do take a moment to listen.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=djTU...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=djTU...
Green Grow The Rashes, O
YouTube video by Jean Redpath - Topic
www.youtube.com
January 25, 2026 at 1:47 PM
The world feels so bleak and frightening right now. I am full of grief for people in Minneapolis and Lewiston and Kiev and (&c). But it is Burns Night, and we do have this recording of Jean Redpath singing his "Green Grow the Rashes, O'". Do take a moment to listen.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=djTU...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=djTU...
Reposted by Christine Jacobson
Congratulations to @mayorwu.boston.gov for celebrating her second inaugural yesterday!
We were honored to be a part of this historic moment, as she again chose the “Bible of the Revolution” from our Special Collections for her second swearing-in ceremony.
We were honored to be a part of this historic moment, as she again chose the “Bible of the Revolution” from our Special Collections for her second swearing-in ceremony.
January 6, 2026 at 8:24 PM
Congratulations to @mayorwu.boston.gov for celebrating her second inaugural yesterday!
We were honored to be a part of this historic moment, as she again chose the “Bible of the Revolution” from our Special Collections for her second swearing-in ceremony.
We were honored to be a part of this historic moment, as she again chose the “Bible of the Revolution” from our Special Collections for her second swearing-in ceremony.
Reposted by Christine Jacobson
.@dorothyjberry on the bizarre and complex history of “Black America”, a theatrical show which saw a Brooklyn park, for the summer of 1895, transform into a replica of a Southern cotton plantation: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/black-america-1895 #BlackHistoryMonth
January 10, 2026 at 3:15 PM
.@dorothyjberry on the bizarre and complex history of “Black America”, a theatrical show which saw a Brooklyn park, for the summer of 1895, transform into a replica of a Southern cotton plantation: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/black-america-1895 #BlackHistoryMonth
Reposted by Christine Jacobson
The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.
January 7, 2026 at 8:26 PM
The “prosecute the former regime at every level” candidate has my vote in 2028.
returning to Boston after a week visiting family in our native Florida and my husband I are ecstatic with gratitude, like George Bailey at the end of It's a Wonderful Life: "Merry Christmas sidewalks and bike lanes! Merry Christmas you old wonderful MBTA! Hey! Merry Christmas feral turkeys!"
January 7, 2026 at 9:22 PM
returning to Boston after a week visiting family in our native Florida and my husband I are ecstatic with gratitude, like George Bailey at the end of It's a Wonderful Life: "Merry Christmas sidewalks and bike lanes! Merry Christmas you old wonderful MBTA! Hey! Merry Christmas feral turkeys!"
Reposted by Christine Jacobson
so many thanks to @cejacobson.bsky.social!
two little pieces of her annual Emily Dickinson black cake were waiting for me when I returned home from winter travels
two little pieces of her annual Emily Dickinson black cake were waiting for me when I returned home from winter travels
January 5, 2026 at 11:49 PM
so many thanks to @cejacobson.bsky.social!
two little pieces of her annual Emily Dickinson black cake were waiting for me when I returned home from winter travels
two little pieces of her annual Emily Dickinson black cake were waiting for me when I returned home from winter travels
delighted to see QLB's beautiful reprint of The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (with introduction and afterword by @mollybrrown.bsky.social and me + cover design by the great Anthony Russo) is on the @strandbookstore.bsky.social's Holiday Gift Guide:
www.strandbooks.com/home-maker-9...
www.strandbooks.com/home-maker-9...
Buy Home-Maker Paperback by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Online
Order the Paperback edition of "Home-Maker" by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, published by Quite Literally Books. Fast shipping from Strand Books.
www.strandbooks.com
December 5, 2025 at 3:24 PM
delighted to see QLB's beautiful reprint of The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (with introduction and afterword by @mollybrrown.bsky.social and me + cover design by the great Anthony Russo) is on the @strandbookstore.bsky.social's Holiday Gift Guide:
www.strandbooks.com/home-maker-9...
www.strandbooks.com/home-maker-9...
Reposted by Christine Jacobson
A #tinyjoy to take you into the weekend. I just learned that 13- year-old Charlotte Brontë's TINY book, A Book of Ryhmes [sic] (it measures 9.5 cm by 6 cm) contains a poem titled "A Thing OF fourteen Line's. commonly called a" (& her tiny handwriting made the next word illegible.) #BookHistory
November 28, 2025 at 6:14 PM
A #tinyjoy to take you into the weekend. I just learned that 13- year-old Charlotte Brontë's TINY book, A Book of Ryhmes [sic] (it measures 9.5 cm by 6 cm) contains a poem titled "A Thing OF fourteen Line's. commonly called a" (& her tiny handwriting made the next word illegible.) #BookHistory
". . .but I never despaired about my students, who, when our conditions allowed it, showed me again and again how close reading requires and multiplies both trust and strength."
Thank you @johannawinant.bsky.social for this ♥️
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
Thank you @johannawinant.bsky.social for this ♥️
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
www.bostonreview.net
November 29, 2025 at 3:21 PM
". . .but I never despaired about my students, who, when our conditions allowed it, showed me again and again how close reading requires and multiplies both trust and strength."
Thank you @johannawinant.bsky.social for this ♥️
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
Thank you @johannawinant.bsky.social for this ♥️
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
somehow never not thinking about Henry James—anyone else experience this
November 29, 2025 at 3:12 PM
somehow never not thinking about Henry James—anyone else experience this
haven't posted here in a bit but here's an update: my fridge is full of leftovers, my sweet babe is asleep, and I'm in my pajamas writing about Henry James with a cup of coffee mixed with Berdick's cocoa. loose plans to take my daughter to the MFA Ruysch show this afternoon. I am contented!
November 29, 2025 at 3:10 PM
haven't posted here in a bit but here's an update: my fridge is full of leftovers, my sweet babe is asleep, and I'm in my pajamas writing about Henry James with a cup of coffee mixed with Berdick's cocoa. loose plans to take my daughter to the MFA Ruysch show this afternoon. I am contented!
longtime LRB reader and supporter, but this review made me see red. (so much so, considering writing my first letter to the editor.) why would LRB choose someone with so much clear disdain for his subject to review her biography?
‘Muriel Spark seems not quite jokingly to have thought of herself as writing the world into existence.’
Colin Burrow on Spark’s life, work and letters: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Colin Burrow on Spark’s life, work and letters: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Colin Burrow · World-Beating Buster-Upper: Muriel Spark’s Wickedness
The characteristic flavour of Spark’s writing was that of a Catholic ironist, for whom the terrible and the laughable...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 20, 2025 at 2:33 PM
longtime LRB reader and supporter, but this review made me see red. (so much so, considering writing my first letter to the editor.) why would LRB choose someone with so much clear disdain for his subject to review her biography?
would watch the Howard Hawks version
Purdue to the rescue of IU student newspaper, whose institution was attempting censorship. Details in alt!
October 20, 2025 at 12:21 PM
would watch the Howard Hawks version
Reposted by Christine Jacobson
#tinyjoys
#abstraction
Is this, in miniature, the most Henry Jamesian exchange EVER?
"But isn't he tremendously deep in ---." He hesitated.
"Deep in what?"
"Well, in what's going on, beneath the surface. Doesn't he belong to things?"
"I'm sure I don't know what he belongs to"
(Princess Casamassima)
#abstraction
Is this, in miniature, the most Henry Jamesian exchange EVER?
"But isn't he tremendously deep in ---." He hesitated.
"Deep in what?"
"Well, in what's going on, beneath the surface. Doesn't he belong to things?"
"I'm sure I don't know what he belongs to"
(Princess Casamassima)
September 16, 2025 at 10:38 PM
#tinyjoys
#abstraction
Is this, in miniature, the most Henry Jamesian exchange EVER?
"But isn't he tremendously deep in ---." He hesitated.
"Deep in what?"
"Well, in what's going on, beneath the surface. Doesn't he belong to things?"
"I'm sure I don't know what he belongs to"
(Princess Casamassima)
#abstraction
Is this, in miniature, the most Henry Jamesian exchange EVER?
"But isn't he tremendously deep in ---." He hesitated.
"Deep in what?"
"Well, in what's going on, beneath the surface. Doesn't he belong to things?"
"I'm sure I don't know what he belongs to"
(Princess Casamassima)
Reposted by Christine Jacobson
Hey, Bostonians & more far-flung friends, the Novel Theory seminar I co-convene at Harvard has a cool line-up for the fall: a roundtable on the Novel in the Age of AI, Margaret Cohen on Claire de Duras, JC Cloutier on Nick Drnaso.
You are so welcome to join us! (occasionally even on Zoom)
You are so welcome to join us! (occasionally even on Zoom)
September 9, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Hey, Bostonians & more far-flung friends, the Novel Theory seminar I co-convene at Harvard has a cool line-up for the fall: a roundtable on the Novel in the Age of AI, Margaret Cohen on Claire de Duras, JC Cloutier on Nick Drnaso.
You are so welcome to join us! (occasionally even on Zoom)
You are so welcome to join us! (occasionally even on Zoom)
in which @tricialockwood.bsky.social refuses to see the glass flowers at Harvard's natural history museum after too many of us insist that she go (we really are like that I'm afraid) (I sympathize with her completely)
‘We agreed, before the event, to deface my Wikipedia entry and say I was a supporter of Manchester United. This was the sort of thing that was funny to me now.’
A Diary by @tricialockwood.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
A Diary by @tricialockwood.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Patricia Lockwood · Diary: Back to the Rectory
It was our first visit to Kansas City since before the election and the rectory seemed to have grown smaller, darker,...
www.lrb.co.uk
September 2, 2025 at 11:25 AM
in which @tricialockwood.bsky.social refuses to see the glass flowers at Harvard's natural history museum after too many of us insist that she go (we really are like that I'm afraid) (I sympathize with her completely)
Reposted by Christine Jacobson
Rent our Vandercook No. 4 flatbed presses! The Tulsa (1948) is open to all; the Nahant (1951) is for production renters. Slower but super precise—great for deep impressions and perfect for beginners. Contact us via Linktree or website to learn more!
#letterpress #bostonprinter #letterpressrental
#letterpress #bostonprinter #letterpressrental
August 14, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Rent our Vandercook No. 4 flatbed presses! The Tulsa (1948) is open to all; the Nahant (1951) is for production renters. Slower but super precise—great for deep impressions and perfect for beginners. Contact us via Linktree or website to learn more!
#letterpress #bostonprinter #letterpressrental
#letterpress #bostonprinter #letterpressrental
Reposted by Christine Jacobson
Well, @sibyllacumae.bsky.social and I are back (on schedule), with a longer-ish issue - we're talking about bindings! Read it here: 📜 #bookhistory
open.substack.com/pub/twohalfs...
open.substack.com/pub/twohalfs...
On Bindings (August 7/8)
we were bound to talk about them sometime...
open.substack.com
August 8, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Well, @sibyllacumae.bsky.social and I are back (on schedule), with a longer-ish issue - we're talking about bindings! Read it here: 📜 #bookhistory
open.substack.com/pub/twohalfs...
open.substack.com/pub/twohalfs...
Reposted by Christine Jacobson
"I think it is the very best story of diablerie which I have read for many years."
In August 1897, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a letter to Bram Stoker to let him know how much he enjoyed #Dracula. Today you can read the letter here @ransomcenter.bsky.social! (HT @ecolleary.bsky.social)
#booksky 🗃️📜🦇
In August 1897, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a letter to Bram Stoker to let him know how much he enjoyed #Dracula. Today you can read the letter here @ransomcenter.bsky.social! (HT @ecolleary.bsky.social)
#booksky 🗃️📜🦇
August 8, 2025 at 3:35 PM
"I think it is the very best story of diablerie which I have read for many years."
In August 1897, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a letter to Bram Stoker to let him know how much he enjoyed #Dracula. Today you can read the letter here @ransomcenter.bsky.social! (HT @ecolleary.bsky.social)
#booksky 🗃️📜🦇
In August 1897, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a letter to Bram Stoker to let him know how much he enjoyed #Dracula. Today you can read the letter here @ransomcenter.bsky.social! (HT @ecolleary.bsky.social)
#booksky 🗃️📜🦇
how incredible is this? typewriter as piece of type! 📜
July 18, 2025 at 2:47 PM
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
Lev Tolstoy
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Henry James
Jane Austen
The Bronte Sisters (cheating!)
Raymond Chandler
Barbara Pym
Zadie Smith
Gary Shteyngart
Ten authors by whom I’ve read more than five books — of course I forget a ton; and I’m taking this as a request for fiction:
Ursula K. Le Guin
Connie Willis
Octavia E. Butler
Jorge Luis Borges
Umberto Eco
Italo Calvino
Neal Stephenson
William Gibson
Agatha Christie
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Ursula K. Le Guin
Connie Willis
Octavia E. Butler
Jorge Luis Borges
Umberto Eco
Italo Calvino
Neal Stephenson
William Gibson
Agatha Christie
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Ten authors by whom I’ve read more than 5 books:
Daphne Du Maurier
Iain M. Banks
James M. Cain
Cornell Woolrich
Rachel Ingalls
Stephen King
Charles Dickens
Margaret Millar
P.G. Wodehouse
Georgette Heyer
Daphne Du Maurier
Iain M. Banks
James M. Cain
Cornell Woolrich
Rachel Ingalls
Stephen King
Charles Dickens
Margaret Millar
P.G. Wodehouse
Georgette Heyer
July 14, 2025 at 10:07 PM
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
Lev Tolstoy
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Henry James
Jane Austen
The Bronte Sisters (cheating!)
Raymond Chandler
Barbara Pym
Zadie Smith
Gary Shteyngart