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Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Regina Frackowiak, reference specialist, European Division.) This year, Poland celebrates the 100th anniversary of regaining its independence. From 1795 to 1918, Poland ceased to exist, having been partitioned between Austria-Hungary, Prussia, and Russia. Poland returned to the map of Europe in 1918 as a result of post-World War I agreements. …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Kitty Bell, Intern, European Division.) Published in 1845, American writer and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, “The Raven,” soon found its way into the literary life of France. The author Alexandre Dumas (1802-70) even claimed in a letter that Poe (1809-49) had been to France for a brief stay. …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Lucia Wolf, reference librarian for Italy, European Division.) In 2016, the Library of Congress acquired an Italian manuscript recipe book entitled “Zia Annita” (Aunt Annita), composed between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in Lombardy. This booklet is but a recent addition to the Library’s notable collection of …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Taru Spiegel, reference specialist, European Division.) Inspired by the glamorous wedding earlier this year of Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, we researched some other famous European royal couples featured in our collections. The Library of Congress holds a large amount of material on current and …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Erika Spencer, reference specialist, European Division.) Today France celebrates its Independence Day, known as “Le Quatorze Juillet” or “La Fête nationale.” What better time to delve into some of the Library’s French collections! The Library of Congress possesses over one million French items, including rare books, photographs, manuscripts, maps, …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Taru Spiegel, reference specialist, European Division.) Printing with movable metal type was first introduced to Europe in the mid-15th-century Germany by a visionary goldsmith and businessman, Johann Gutenberg (d. 1468). Prior to that time, books were written and copied manually, a labor which took many months. Gutenberg anticipated sound …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Helen Fedor, together with Taru Spiegel. Both are reference specialist in the European Division.) The Reformation, set in motion by Martin Luther’s “Ninety-five Theses” of 1517, advocated that individuals read the Bible and other religious works for themselves, in their own language, rather than rely on others to interpret …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Taru Spiegel, Reference Specialist, European Division.) National Poetry Month in the United States is surely presided over by the Muses, the Greco-Roman patron goddesses of poets. The Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress features many murals depicting poetry from the lyrical to the epic, but it is …
Posted in: European Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Helen Fedor, Reference Specialist in the European Division.) The most famous work by Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek (1883-1923), and probably the best known work of Czech literature, is “Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války” (The adventures of the good soldier Švejk during the world war), or as it …
Posted in: European Reading Room