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The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing

The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing was founded to create a global network for book historians working in a broad range of scholarly disciplines. Research addresses the composition, mediation, reception, survival, and transformation of written communication in material forms from marks on stone to new media. Perspectives range from the individual reader to the transnational communication network. With more than a thousand members in over forty countries, SHARP works in concert with affiliated academic organizations around the world to support the study of book history in all its forms.

New York Songlines

Virtual Walking Tours of Manhattan Streets. A unique and rewarding hyperwalk through Manhattan.

from Goblin Market

  Laugh’d every goblin 
When they spied her peeping: 
Came towards her hobbling, 
Flying, running, leaping, 
Puffing and blowing, 
Chuckling, clapping, crowing, 
Clucking and gobbling, 
Mopping and mowing, 
Full of airs and graces, 
Pulling wry faces, 
Demure grimaces, 
Cat-like and rat-like, 
Ratel- and wombat-like, 
Snail-paced in a hurry, 
Parrot-voiced and whistler, 
Helter skelter, hurry skurry, 
Chattering like magpies, 
Fluttering like pigeons, 
Gliding like fishes,— 
Hugg’d her and kiss’d her: 
Squeez’d and caress’d her: 
Stretch’d up their dishes, 
Panniers, and plates: 
“Look at our apples 
Russet and dun, 
Bob at our cherries, 
Bite at our peaches, 
Citrons and dates, 
Grapes for the asking, 
Pears red with basking 
Out in the sun, 
Plums on their twigs; 
Pluck them and suck them, 
Pomegranates, figs.”—
Christina Rossetti [1830-1894]