Robert Frank exhibition opens at the Metropolitan Museum

Rarely reproduced photographs in Folio edition of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road

A major exhibition devoted to Robert Frank will run from 22 September to 3 January 2010 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. ‘Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans’ will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Frank’s influential suite of black-and-white photographs captured on a cross-country road trip in 1955 and '56. Frank’s beat generation contemporary, Jack Kerouac, wrote the introduction to the 1959 US edition of The Americans. Find out more about the Met exhibition here.

Kerouac’s On The Road, a fictionalised account of his own cross-country journey, is now available to order in a Folio edition and we are delighted to have been given rare permission to use a photograph by Robert Frank:‘Elevator US 285, New Mexico’.

Our edition contains numerous contemporary photographs, creating an extraordinary portrait of Kerouac and his times. These include works by Louis Faurer, Weegee and Dorothea Lange. There are also several photographs of Kerouac and Neal Cassady by Allen Ginsberg, as well as a portrait of Hal Chase, Kerouac, Ginsberg and William Burroughs, taken near Columbia University campus, Manhattan, circa 1944. You can find out more about the
Folio edition here.

last modified: Mon, Jan 11th 2010

Anglo-Saxon hoard declared "treasure"

A find to rival Sutton Hoo in importance

In July 2009 Terry Herbert, an amateur metal detector enthusiast, discovered a breath-taking find of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver in a field in Staffordshire. This has just officially been declared "treasure" by the coroner, which means that the horde will be offered for sale to museums and the finder and landowner will divide the full market value as a reward.

In total 5kg of gold and 1.3kg of silver were found (as compared to the 1.6kg found at Sutton Hoo). Mainly arms and male jewellery, the find showcases astonishingly fine metal work set with garnets and other precious stones. The earliest research suggests that the workmanship is 7th century, although no one can say yet exactly when the horde was buried.

Michelle Brown, Professor of Medieval Manuscript Studies, who has written commentaries to Folio Society limited editions, has suggested the style of lettering dates from the 7th or early 8th centuries, which might show the growing importance of Christianity to a pagan society. Staffordshire was once the heartland of the Kingdom of Mercia, often at war with nearby Northumbria and East Anglia, and ruled by kings whose names are still known to us today: Penda, Wulfhere and Aethered.

No one describes that society better - both the patchwork of warring kingdoms and the growth in importance of Christianity – than Bede in his History of the English Church and People, now available in a new Folio edition. Or you could read our superb collection of Anglo-Saxon history and literature in our set Chronicles of the Dark Ages.

You can learn more about the hoard by linking here.

Image courtesy of the Staffordshire hoard website

last modified: Mon, Jan 11th 2010

Leviathan: or, The Whale wins the Samuel Johnson Prize

Book inspired by Moby-Dick scoops prestigious non-fiction prize

Philip Hoare’s Leviathan: or, The Whale, a book partly inspired by Moby-Dick, has won the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize for Non Fiction. The prize, worth £20,000, is the most important UK prize for non-fiction books. According to Mark Brown of The Guardian, Leviathan is ‘part natural history, part literary criticism, part economics and part memoir but at its heart is the author's lifelong obsession for all things whale.’ This passion for whales was sparked by the author’s reading of Moby-Dick, and Melville’s novel looms large in Hoare’s book. Leviathan was chosen from a total of 166 entries and a shortlist dominated by science books including Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science and Richard Holmes’ The Age of Wonder. To read more about the prize, click here.

The Folio Society’s new edition of Moby-Dick is now available, limited to 1,750 copies and with the classic illustrations of Rockwell Kent. It is accompanied by a detailed 312-page commentary volume, incorporating a full glossary, by the American scholar Harold Beaver. To read more about our edition, click here.

last modified: Mon, Jan 11th 2010

J. K. Rowling chooses Leaves of Grass as favourite poem

New Folio edition of Whitman's classic available in October

J. K. Rowling has named ‘Of the terrible doubt of appearances’ from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass as her favourite poem, choosing it for inclusion in a fundraising anthology for the charity War Child. Kid’s Night In 3 will be published by Penguin Books Australia in September and will include an eclectic range of stories, poems, recipes, cartoons and pieces of art chosen by dozens of contributors, including Joanna Lumley, Alfred Noyes and Morris Gleitzman, among others. To see the full list, click here.

The Folio Society edition of Leaves of Grass will be available in October. It features a cover design based on the first edition of 1855, and engravings by Abigail Rorer, who previously illustrated Bram Stoker's Dracula. Leaves of Grass also includes a newly commissioned foreword by former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.

last modified: Mon, Jan 11th 2010

First major biography of William Golding published this autumn

Coming soon - the first Folio edition of Lord of the Flies

This September sees the publication of a new biography of William Golding by John Carey, Emeritus Professor of English at Oxford University. It is the first ever biography of the Nobel Prize-winning author to be published, and will draw on previously unpublished works and Golding’s journals. Professor Carey will give a talk on William Golding at the British Library on 29 September and take part in a discussion with BBC presenter Mark Lawson. Details are available here.

A Folio Society edition of Golding’s masterpiece Lord of the Flies will be published in December, and will include an introduction by novelist Ian McEwan and illustrations by the American artist Sam Weber.

last modified: Mon, Jan 11th 2010

Simon Callow's Introduction to The Picture of Dorian Gray in The Guardian

Folio edition among the bestsellers of new membership year

The Guardian newspaper will feature an edited version of Simon Callow's specially commissioned introduction to The Picture of Dorian Gray on Saturday 19 September. The Folio edition of Oscar Wilde's classic gothic novel is proving to be one of our top-selling new books.

In his introduction, the celebrated actor and director explores how the novel echoes its author's life. Despite Wilde's famous claim in his Preface that 'to reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim', Callow concludes that 'Wilde stands nakedly revealed'. You can read more about our edition here.

last modified: Mon, Jan 11th 2010

Lark Rise to Candleford Exhibition

Lark Rise: Art & Record

A new exhibition opens in The Museum in the Park, Stroud on Saturday 5 September. It features wood engravings by Sue Scullard, the illustrator to our edition of Lark Rise to Candleford. Click here for more details.

A classic work of English rural life, Lark Rise to Candleford, has also been successfully adapted for television, sparking a new wave of interest in the book. Sue Scullard, graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1983 and is a member of the prestigious Society of Wood Engravers. As an illustrator, print maker and designer her work characteristically seeks out and explores qualities of pattern and texture in her subjects. A master draughtswoman, her command of perspective is second to none and inspires much of her work. Alongside the engravings, a series of contemporary photographs (c1880-1910) is displayed, newly printed from the originals.

The exhibition runs until 27 September 2009 and will then tour. See more details from The Museum in the Park or visit Sue Scullard's website.

last modified: Mon, Jan 11th 2010

Thomas Keneally at the Melbourne Writers Festival

Schindler's Ark author to take part in three separate events

Thomas Keneally is just one of the authors taking part in the Melbourne Writers Festival, hailed by the Sydney Morning Herald as ‘Australia’s premier literary event’, which runs from 21 to 30 August. Previous attendees include Vikram Seth, Peter Carey, A. S. Byatt and Margaret Atwood. Among this year’s highlights are a keynote address by Bernhard Schlink, author of The Reader, recently adapted as an Academy Award-winning film, and several events with historian Antony Beevor, who will be discussing both the Spanish Civil War and his most recent book D-Day. Thomas Keneally will be taking part in 3 separate events discussing issues surrounding Antipodean literature and specifically talking about his new book Australians, a three-volume history of Australia from prehistory to the present day.

Tickets for many events are still available and full information about the festival is available through this link.

Thomas Keneally’s Booker Prize-winning novel Schindler’s Ark is published by Folio and features illustrations by one of our favourite new artists Tim Laing. To read more click here.

You will soon be able to see more of Tim Laing's superbly evocative work in our illustrated edition of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - a new publication due out in September.

last modified: Mon, Jan 11th 2010