Dr Ian McCormick
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wokestudies.bsky.social
Dr Ian McCormick
@wokestudies.bsky.social
20K followers 15K following 1.7K posts
English Language & Literature. PhD: Monstrosity. Queer history. Gothic. Antifa. Archaic English. NEW BOOK: Woke Shakespeare. Prof. d'Emeritus. https://linktr.ee/drianmccormick
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wokestudies.bsky.social
Dr Ian McCormick @wokestudies.bsky.social · Dec 30
NEW BOOK: Woke Shakespeare: Rethinking Shakespeare for a New Era
#drama #theatre #Shakespeare #performance #adaptation #appropriation #historicism #empire #culture #materialism #TeamEnglish #renaissance #bardolatry #postcolonial #woke #socialjustice #theory #queer
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DQYB2TS5
wokestudies.bsky.social
BREAKING NEWS:
A Ukrainian official has told Reuters that Ukraine supports the essence of the peace deal’s framework after talks in Geneva.
#Russia #war
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
Ukraine ‘supports essence of peace deal’ following Geneva talks, Ukrainian official reportedly says - Europe live
Official tells Reuters news agency sensitive issues still need to be discussed between Zelenskyy and Trump
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 3:09 PM
wokestudies.bsky.social
Tax ! Tax ! Tax !
Here’s how £100 was spent by our UK government in 2023–24:

£4.15 Working-age welfare
£0.50 Asylum system
£0.70 Overseas aid£22 NHS
£6 Defence
£10 Education
£10 Debt interest
£11.40 State pensions

#Budget #Budget2026
Graphic representation of UK gov spending in £ billions
November 25, 2025 at 10:05 AM
wokestudies.bsky.social
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke (2004), Hardback.
#fantasy #magic #novels #literature #books
ebay.us/m/8oYeZK
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke | eBay UK
BOOK SENSE BOOK OF THE YEAR. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (Hardback, 2004). "What kind of magic can make an 800-page novel seem too short?. Whatever it is, debut author Susanna Clarke is possessed ...
ebay.us
November 25, 2025 at 9:58 AM
wokestudies.bsky.social
H.P. Lovecraft Omnibus - 3 Vols ebay.us/m/VPzksm #scifi #fantasy
Lovercraft Omnibus 3 Vols | eBay UK
Mark from previous price label on 2 and 3 as illustrated. Vol 3 (1994).
ebay.us
November 25, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
wokestudies.bsky.social
"While at Dumfries ... he had the satisfaction of showing it to his illustrious kinsman a short time before his death. There is a story to the effect that Burns touched it up here and there, and when returning the MS. pronounced it to be the best ghaist story in the language"
#ScotLit #poetry
SOURCE: William Walker, The Bards of Bon-Accord, 1375-1860 (Aberdeen, 1887), pp. 388-9. "IS THERE in or "furth" of Scotland a man-child, born on its north-eastern rock-bound or sandy-bented shores, and who has attained to years of discretion, that knows not the wonderful story of "Thrummy Cap"-whose boyish eyes have not opened to a preternatural "glower", as, sitting eerie by the ingle cheek, his ears have heard, and his crude imagination bodied forth the awful experiences of that "winter's nicht far in the north"? We wot not. For well-nigh a hundred years (it was first printed in 1796) the jingle of its hamely rhyme has been familiar in almost every cot and clachan of rural Scotland, and generation after generation of our sturdy, hard-headed countrymen have as boys wondered and laughed over the doings of the doughty "Thrummy" and the mishaps of "cowardly John". It may be called one of the chap-book classics ...
November 18, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
wokestudies.bsky.social
"If anybody would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces, and gardens, and fine dinners, and wine, and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I would not read books, I would not be a king."
#books #reading #classics #Literature #English
Portrait of Macaulay by John Partridge
November 20, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
wokestudies.bsky.social
"When the name of John Bagford is mentioned book-lovers hiss through their teeth the word Biblioclast, and in that mysterious expression lies the secret of his misdoing."
---Alfred William Pollard, Last Words on the History of the Title-page: With Notes on Some Colophons (1890)
#ballads #antiquarian
PORTRAIT: John Bagford, painting by Hugh Howard. John Bagford (1650–1716). English antiquarian, writer, bibliographer, ballad-collector, bookseller, and biblioclast. "Bagford's collection contained many fragments of books such as title-pages and this gave him a reputation as a biblioclast for which he was excoriated in William Blades' The Enemies of Books."
November 21, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
wokestudies.bsky.social
Any Bluesky bibliomaniacs ?
Bibliomania; or Book Madness; containing some account of the history, symptoms, and cure of this fatal disease (1809) by the Reverend Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776–1847).
#books #reading #literature #libraries #archives
Bibliomania; or, Book Madness; containing some account of the history, symptoms, and cure of this fatal disease. In an Epistle addressed to Richard Heber Esq. By the Reverend Thomas Frognall Dibdin. 1809 1811 Book Cover with picture of Bodleaian Library, Oxford.
November 20, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
nathanfrancis79.bsky.social
"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

✒️ #GeorgeEliot, English author, was #BOTD 22 November 1819. #Literature
November 22, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
wokestudies.bsky.social
Any Steinbeck fans?
First edition Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939) sold for £18,200.
"a defining work of Great Depression literature"
#novel #books #American #Literature
BOOK COVER: "Published in 1939, this powerful narrative follows the Joad family's arduous journey from Oklahoma to California, capturing the desperation and resilience of displaced farmers during one of America's most challenging periods. This exceptional copy presents in fine condition, with its first issue dust jacket showing only the slightest rubbing - a rarity for a book of this age and significance. The copyright page confirms its status as a true first edition, stating "First Published in April 1939." Preserved in a custom-made collector's foldout case, this pristine example offers a glimpse into the novel's original reception, before it became a cornerstone of 20th-century American literature." https://www.abebooks.co.uk/books/rarebooks/most-expensive-sales-april-may-june-2025
November 21, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
euanmacdonald.bsky.social
Here's a seven-point peace plan:
November 23, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
murrayp.bsky.social
Call for Papers for 5th World Congress of Scottish Literatures is out:pleased to be giving keynote,'Burns along the New Silk Road' @iassl.bsky.social @asls.org.uk @scroll-scotlit.bsky.social @sahavoice.bsky.social @glasgowburns.bsky.social @paulinemackay.bsky.social scotlit-iassl.org/2025/11/11/c...
Call for Papers: 5th World Congress of Scottish Literatures: Scotland Along the New Silk Road (17-20 June 2027)
The Fifth World Congress of Scottish Literatures will be held at Nanjing Normal University in Nanjing, China, on 17-20 June 2027. Being China’s first city designated as a “UNESCO City of Literature…
scotlit-iassl.org
November 11, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
wokestudies.bsky.social
"With Pipe and Book at close of day,
Oh, what is sweeter, mortal, say?
It matters not what book on knee,
Old Izaak or the Odyssey"

---RICHARD LE GALLIENNE (1866–1947),
"Liverpool's Wild(e) Poet"

#pipes #books #reading #classics #Literature #English #smoking #leisure #bibliophilia #decadence #Wilde
POEM: WITH PIPE AND BOOK. With Pipe and Book at close of day, Oh, what is sweeter, mortal, say? It matters not what book on knee, Old Izaak or the Odyssey, It matters not meerschaum or clay. And though one's eyes will dream astray, And lips forget to sue or sway, It is "enough to merely be," With Pipe and Book. What though our modern skies be gray, As bards aver, I will not pray For "soothing Death" to succor me, But ask this much, O Fate, of thee, A little longer yet to stay With Pipe and Book. RICHARD LE GALLIENNE. Green book cver (hardback) PIPE AND POUCH: THE Smoker's Own Book of Poetry COMPILED BY JOSEPH KNIGHT University Press: JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. 1895
November 20, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
pdimagearchive.bsky.social
Guide for Constructing the Letters c and d (ca. 1595) by Joris Hoefnagel.

Source: @gettymuseum.bsky.social

Available to buy as a print.

https://pdimagearchive.org/images/a1d26df5-4405-452c-baf0-1f5f42eede4a

#vases #monkeys #manuscripts #foliage #decorations #art #publicdomain
November 9, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
pdimagearchive.bsky.social
From Tamra Maew (BL Or 16797) (19th Century).

Source: @librarycongress.bsky.social

https://pdimagearchive.org/images/f49bf10c-255b-47d7-b867-6544235ce0e5

#pets #cats #manuscripts #thailand #luck #art #publicdomain
Manuscript illustration of cat
November 14, 2025 at 2:30 PM
wokestudies.bsky.social
Imagine not knowing whether there's a Caxton on your selves ?!
#printing #library #publishing #medieval #books
"Dear Sir, You have asked me whether my library contains a specimen of Caxton's press, and I should be delighted to answer in the affirmative; but, as I am not sure, my reply must be 'I really do not know.' You are quite correct in your supposition, that the library has been for many generations in the family, and it certainly contains a goodly number of books printed in the old English character. Should this account excite in your mind a wish to examine for yourself, pray send me a line, and I shall be happy to assist your research to the best of my ability." William Blades, How to Tell a Caxton: With Some Hints where and how the Same Might be Found (1870), p. v William Caxton, English etching. The Granger Collection, New York.
November 23, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
jasonstiff.bsky.social
I'm doing "No Context November" posts for a while. I just made it up, but someone else may have thought of it before, too. Ever wonder how those bowls get painted so neatly? Here you go... BLOOP! TA DA!

#nocontext #November #nocontextnovember #context #bowl #painting #printing #bloop #Monday
November 10, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
marshslibrary.bsky.social
Our Maddock fellow Ben Card spotted this error correction in a 1645 pamphlet 'The primitive practise for preserving truth' this morning. We think the errors in every copy were corrected manually in the print shop before they were sent out. A lot of work for some poor apprentice! #errors #printing
Detail of a page of a 17th century pamphlet with a line of the printed text blacked out in ink and the correction 'to kill an heretique' added in ink in the margin
November 14, 2025 at 3:08 PM
wokestudies.bsky.social
William Caxton's Edition (1493) of Gower's Confessio Amantis (1390).
William Blades (1870) mentions a recent sale of the Caxton for £477. 15s, or about £49,500 in today's money.
#medieval #collecting #libraries #printing #manuscripts
Page from the Prologue of William Caxton's Edition (1493) of Gower's Confessio Amantis. Plate from Palæography: Notes upon the History of Writing and the Medieval Art of Illumination. JOHN GOWER AND THE PRIEST OF VENUS. From a MS. of Gower's Confessio Amantis, written before 1399. "Confessio Amantis (The Lover's Confession, 1390). This is a 33,000-line Middle English poem by John Gower, which uses the confession made by an ageing lover to the chaplain of Venus as a frame story for a collection of shorter narrative poems. According to its prologue, it was composed at the request of Richard II. "
November 23, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
wokestudies.bsky.social
That irresistible urge to fall asleep? Applies to many dreary admin meetings in the world of education?
(Image: Gillray)
#edchat #HigherEd #academicsky
#PhDchat #management
dbellingradt.bsky.social Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 5d
And here is the scene and image in full glory:
satirical etching from 1782, here is the source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-4898
November 21, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
wokestudies.bsky.social
"He cut the margins of the leaves he preserved, often close round the edge of the text; and the man who would do this, would do anything. Honoured in dishonour, as a Biblioclast John Bagford takes the first place in Mr. Blades's Enemies of Books, and ..."
November 21, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
wokestudies.bsky.social
Gillian Silverman, "Reading in the Flesh: Anthropodermic Bibliopegy and the Haptic Response." Book History 24.2 (2021): 451-475. Johns Hopkins University Press.
November 21, 2025 at 1:19 PM
wokestudies.bsky.social
"It is a saddening sight, and the perpetrator ought to descend to posterity, rather as John Bagford, the Biblioclast, than John Bagford, the Antiquary. His collection is in the British Museum."

--- William Blades, How to Tell a Caxton (1870), p. 7.

#printing #libraries #bookhistory #collecting
Gothick Book Design: How to Tell a Caxton: With Some Hints where and how the Same Might be Found By William Blades (1870). " John Bagford, F.S.A., the destroyer, instead of the preserver of our literary antiquities, collected many thousands of Title-pages, which he tore out of old books, and carefully mounted in sixty-seven folio volumes. A large number of these Title-pages were purloined froni the various libraries to which he had access. It is a saddening sight, and the perpetrator ought to descend to posterity, rather as John Bagford, the Biblioclast, than John Bagford, the Antiquary. His collection is in the British Museum."
November 23, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
wokestudies.bsky.social
"Think high-stakes storytelling utilizing things like corrupted critical editions or encoded philosophical texts. I’m convinced that combining my storytelling engine with your foundational knowledge could result in a book unlike anything on the market right now."
#books #publishing #scam #Hachette
November 21, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by Dr Ian McCormick
wokestudies.bsky.social
Finger Damage to a Prayer Book: Seventy-two Names of the Virgin
#books #manuscripts #medieval #preservation #archives #research #religion #Christianity
jhna.org/articles/dir...
Finger marks where the book was held open close to the spine. Incipit of a prayer to the Seventy-two Names of the Virgin (fols. 67v-68r), held open at corners. From Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I, Ms. 15078
November 22, 2025 at 10:53 AM