INTERNET ARTICLES & LINKS

2008

• April 25, 2008
  Brian Jay Jones
  “I thought you might want to see this,” Mark said, steering me toward an enormous old leather-bound ledger lying open on a low table. “We just found it this morning.” At the top of the ledger’s right-hand page, written in perfect cursive script, was the name WASHINGTON IRVING. Just below it, in pencil, was the date 1836. I swallowed hard. “Can I touch it?” I asked, and Mark nodded, smiling.

• Friday, June 27, 2008
  A Little Taste Of History (22)
  By Mimi Speaks
  The New York Society Library Association This institution, which was the oldest of the kind in New York, had previously been located in Nassau street, opposite the Dutch church (now Post-office). They sold their property in 1836 for ...

• Friday, July 4, 2008
  Happiness Project: Think about rituals.
  By Gretchen Rubin
  Whenever I sit down to work, in my office or at a coffee shop or at New York Society Library, I run through a series of updates, checks, synchronizations, and switching on of various devices and programs. ...
  • Wednesday, July 09, 2008
    Gretchen Rubin Knows How to be Happy
    By Danielle LaPorte
    Books, the internet, the New York Society Library where I go to write, and my laptop. Oh, how I love my laptop! It’s tiny and light, and I bring it with me everywhere I go. What do you collect, or have a lot of? Children’s literature. ...

   

• Saturday, July 19, 2008
  Paul S. Byard
  By alonzo-ny
  His father, Spencer Byard, was a lawyer who was active in the affairs of Trinity Church, the Episcopal landmark at the head of Wall Street, and in the New York Society Library, New York’s oldest library. His mother, Margaret Mather ...

  Friday, July 25, 2008 12:00 PM
  

• He Sings! He Dances!
  By Brian Jay Jones
  This just came to my attention yesterday: the New York Society Library has posted video of the talk I gave for National Library Week. So if the audio itself isn't enough, and you wanna feel like you were really there, you can check out ...

• Wednesday, August 13, 2008
  There was more to him than met the eye...
  By Maltese Frog
  A trustee of the cemetery would research the family genealogies, mostly from the 19th century, and pass the information to Kingsland who would carry on the research, usually at the New York Society Library. ...

• Saturday, August 30, 2008
  News & Phytosaurs
  By Leigh Stein
  I'll be reading at the New York Society Library on October 22nd. Mark your calendars, New Yorker friends! This week I registered for classes at the New School (linguistic anthropology & a nonfiction writing workshop with Zia Jaffrey), ...
  • Friday, September 26, 2008
    Are you coming to this? You should come to this.
    By Leigh Stein
    The three winners will read their work at a public reading at 6 pm on October 22 at New York Society Library, located at 53 East 79th St. in Manhattan. Idra Novey’s poems have appeared in AGNI, Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Slate. ...

   

• Friday, September 26, 2008
  Soire at the library last night
  By chris_r_evans
  I met many interesting people, many with publishing backgrounds, and I think the evening went a long way to building a sense of community among the members. Hats off to the folks at the New York Society Library for a wonderful event!

• Saturday, October 18, 2008 2:09 PM
  Travels With Virginia Woolf
  By bananor.com
  Here's something interesting: The New York Society Library has a website that goes through much of what is covered in Morris' book and is supposedly copyrighted in 1999 which is of course after Morris' book was published, ...

• Tuesday, October 21, 2008
  School Library Journal
  Checking Out Washington Irving's Reading List: The New York Society Library
  So why would one belong to a subscription library in this day and age? I suppose research would be a factor, particularly when it comes to the library's collection of titles related to New York City. And you'd be able to say that you belonged to the same library as Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Herman Melville, Willa Cather, W.H. Auden, Leonard Bernstein, Edward Steichen, Barbara Tuchman and others. Plus if you're a writer you could have somewhere to go every day, particularly when it comes to doing research on your books. As a public librarian from my blood to my bones I'm still mildly baffled, but it's an amazing place to visit and definitely worth looking in on if you happen to be in the city/neighborhood. A city secret of sorts.

• Wednesday, October 22, 2008
  Leigh Stein Reads!
  By 12th Street Online
  Leigh Stein, 12th Street Online’s very own poetry editor, will be reading tomorrow at the New York Society Library for the 13th Annual Amy Awards, at 6pm. You can find her here, a few of her poems here, and her interviews with other ...

• Thursday, October 23, 2008
  If I had a diary, tonight I would write in it:
  By Matt
  After work today I jumped on the 6 and jaunted up to the Upper East Side for a poetry reading at the New York Society Library, a 250-year-old subscription library that is pretty much your quintessential UES establishment. Upon entering, I immediately wanted to take up residence. I'd only ever been to one poetry reading above 14th St., and not one above 59th. It was a refreshing change of pace, atmosphere-wise. Uptown and downtown really are on separate planets, it seems.

• Thursday, December 04, 2008
  Truman Capote habla de su encuentro con Willa Cather
  By tipos infames
  Quite often, I would go to the New York Society Library on Seventy-Ninth Street to do research, and three or four times I noticed this absolutely marvelous-looking woman. She had a wonderful, open, extraordinary ...

• Monday, December 15, 2008
  Membership Libraries / Exclusive playgrounds for book lovers
  By Joe Kissell
  The library offers free weekly tours that include a photographic history of San Francisco. Among the other membership libraries in the US are The New York Society Library and The Providence Athenaeum in Rhode Island. ...

• Monday, December 15, 2008
  New York Society Library
  By Nicholas Basbanes
  It's about the venerable New York Society Library at 53 East 79th Street in Manhattan, a 254-year-old subscription library that has been loaning books out over the generations to such luminaries as George Washington, Herman Melville, Willa Cather, Truman Capote, Barbara Tuchman, and David Mamet. ... Through the magic of Google, I found the 1997 essay quite quickly, on the web page of the society itself, in fact. Like the institution Halberstam celebrated, the article has lost none of its magic with the passage of eleven years, and I recommend it as a heartfelt profile of a great book place.
  • Thursday, December 18, 2008
    Articles of note … « Bygone Books Blog
    *Nicholas Basbanes on his Fine Books & Collectibles Blog posts on the New York Society Library ~ he links to a decade-old article on the Library and its illustrious patrons by the late David Halberstam. Posted in Antiquarian Books, ...

  • Sunday, December 21, 2008
    PhiloBiblos: Links & Reviews
    By JBD
    Nick Basbanes points out a 1997 essay by David Halberstam on the New York Society Library. - J.L. Bell notes the news from this week that the New England Historic Genealogical Society will sponsor a scholarly edition of ...

• Tuesday, December 16, 2008
  Koperen Boeken van Christopher Hewat | Boekendingen…
  In de New York Society Library, de oudste bibliotheek in deze stad, is momenteel een expositie te zien van kunstenaar Christopher Hewat, die objecten van messing maakt. Deze glanzende sculpturen zijn daar nog te zien tot 31 maart 2009. ... Boekendingen...

• Tuesday, December 16, 2008
  Shelved @ NYC: Tis the Season...
  By Alex
  And if you're looking for a little biblio-activity to fill the time, check out Shelf Life: Works in Brass by Christopher Hewat at the New York Society Library. The book-as-object never shined so bright! Posted by Alex at 8:03 AM ...

• Monday, December 22, 2008
  FORA.tv - Andrew Sean Greer in Conversation with Michael Cha
  It won the New York Society Library Prize for Fiction, the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award, and the Commonwealth Club Gold Medal. Michael has lectured widely on topics including the art and craft of writing, the tradition of Jewish ...

2009:

• February 4, 2009
  Adam Gopnik Is Addicted to Kombucha
  Where do you go to be alone? The New York Society Library; but the joy of New York is that it provides the gift of anonymity even in the midst of a crowd.

• Wednesday, March 25, 2009
  The Steady Drip: NEW UPDATE - Commercial Club of Chicago ...
  By Aristotle The Hun
  Daniel M. Rossner – partner (New York Society Library – trustee Sidley Austin LLP – partner) Mark D. Schneider – partner (Federal Communications Bar Association - president-elect Sidley Austin LLP – partner and past relationship Federal ...

• Wednesday, March 25, 2009
  New York: It is a Village.
  By Alecia Stevens
  New York Society Library - 2 blocks. Groceries - as far as the phone - Delivery with Fresh Direct. If, of course, he wants to pick something up, Citerella is 8 blocks. My yoga - 8 blocks. Oren's Daily Roast - 3 blocks. ...

• April 2, 2009
  Spare Time - New York Times
  Through Dec. 31, “The President’s Wife and the Librarian,” an exhibition of correspondence between Edith Kermit Roosevelt and Marion King. Tuesdays through Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. New York Society Library, 53 East 79th Street, (212) 288-5232; free.

• Monday, April 06, 2009
  Papercuts: A Blog About Books
  53, East 79th Street - Paper Cuts Blog - NYTimes.com
  By By Gregory Cowles
  I’ve never been to the city’s oldest library — the New York Society Library, founded in 1754 and still going strong on East 79th Street — but I may have to visit soon to see its new exhibition, “The President’s Wife and the Librarian. ...
  • Wednesday, April 08, 2009
    Arch thinking: Review: 84, Charing Cross Road
    By Lorin
    In a related item, the New York Times Paper Cuts blog calls the New York Society Library exhibition “The President’s Wife and the Librarian” a kind of visual version of 84, Charing Cross Road. What a pleasant thought! ...

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