Jolie Braun
@joliebraun.bsky.social
Curator at Ohio State's Rare Books & Manuscripts Library. Thinking about zine history. Book reviews coeditor for SHARP News. ❤️s STL.
https://joliebraun.com/
https://joliebraun.com/
Exciting new acquisition for RBML's Margaret Armstrong holdings: Western Wild Flowers (1915), which Armstrong researched, wrote, illustrated, & designed the cover. This copy has a bookplate indicating that its owner (Elena R. Goodwin) received the book as a Christmas gift in 1916.
November 20, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Exciting new acquisition for RBML's Margaret Armstrong holdings: Western Wild Flowers (1915), which Armstrong researched, wrote, illustrated, & designed the cover. This copy has a bookplate indicating that its owner (Elena R. Goodwin) received the book as a Christmas gift in 1916.
New batch of book reviews up at SHARP News @sharpnews.bsky.social! Topics covered include the early modern European book trade, writing in Hindi, women in publishing, notebooks, Shakespeare folios, & the Yiddish press: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/.
November 19, 2025 at 2:01 PM
New batch of book reviews up at SHARP News @sharpnews.bsky.social! Topics covered include the early modern European book trade, writing in Hindi, women in publishing, notebooks, Shakespeare folios, & the Yiddish press: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/.
Free zine picked up from a Nashville record shop: Jackie Shane, 1940-2019, #4 in the Nashville Queer History mini zine series.
November 16, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Free zine picked up from a Nashville record shop: Jackie Shane, 1940-2019, #4 in the Nashville Queer History mini zine series.
In Nashville & got to take a tour at Hatch Show Print, which has designed & printed letterpress posters for music shows & other events since 1879.
November 15, 2025 at 8:00 PM
In Nashville & got to take a tour at Hatch Show Print, which has designed & printed letterpress posters for music shows & other events since 1879.
Highlight of this week: a new donation of more than 150 advertising cookbooks, mostly from the early and mid-twentieth century, largely in absolutely amazing condition 😍
November 7, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Highlight of this week: a new donation of more than 150 advertising cookbooks, mostly from the early and mid-twentieth century, largely in absolutely amazing condition 😍
My colleague Madison Good will be giving a virtual talk about artist Margaret Armstrong & the books we have designed by her on Wednesday. Details & registration: library.osu.edu/events/the-b...
November 3, 2025 at 12:25 PM
My colleague Madison Good will be giving a virtual talk about artist Margaret Armstrong & the books we have designed by her on Wednesday. Details & registration: library.osu.edu/events/the-b...
Had the Star Trek original series scripts (SPEC.RARE.CMS.0017) out for a couple events recently & loved learning from a theatre grad student that the different colored pages indicate the additions / changes to a script.
October 31, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Had the Star Trek original series scripts (SPEC.RARE.CMS.0017) out for a couple events recently & loved learning from a theatre grad student that the different colored pages indicate the additions / changes to a script.
Looking through Bela Koe-Krompecher's weekly planners in the Anyway Records collection (SPEC.RARE.0336) & came across this note he made about which zines were featured (Ben Is Dead, Bunnyhop, etc.) in the Columbus stop of the Kill Zinesters tour in July 1996.
October 30, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Looking through Bela Koe-Krompecher's weekly planners in the Anyway Records collection (SPEC.RARE.0336) & came across this note he made about which zines were featured (Ben Is Dead, Bunnyhop, etc.) in the Columbus stop of the Kill Zinesters tour in July 1996.
Ad for the 90210 fan club in the back of the book, which you could join for the bonkers price of $19.95.
October 26, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Ad for the 90210 fan club in the back of the book, which you could join for the bonkers price of $19.95.
Thrift store find in Athens, Ohio:
October 26, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Thrift store find in Athens, Ohio:
Interview with John R. Davis about his new book, Keep Your Ear to the Ground: A History of Punk Fanzines in Washington, DC: newbooksnetwork.com/keep-your-ea....
October 10, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Interview with John R. Davis about his new book, Keep Your Ear to the Ground: A History of Punk Fanzines in Washington, DC: newbooksnetwork.com/keep-your-ea....
Some highlights of a new cookbook donation that came in today:
October 6, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Some highlights of a new cookbook donation that came in today:
The new issue of Billy McCall's Behind the Zines is so good & focuses on the (I think) endlessly fascinating topic of zine distribution. (Available on Etsy, if you want to get yourself a copy.)
September 26, 2025 at 5:21 PM
The new issue of Billy McCall's Behind the Zines is so good & focuses on the (I think) endlessly fascinating topic of zine distribution. (Available on Etsy, if you want to get yourself a copy.)
First edition of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles (1951) includes an author bio on the back cover that notes, "He wrote his first book at the age of 12 -- a sequel to an Edgar Rice Burroughs book, written because he could not afford to buy the next volume in the series."
September 18, 2025 at 5:07 PM
First edition of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles (1951) includes an author bio on the back cover that notes, "He wrote his first book at the age of 12 -- a sequel to an Edgar Rice Burroughs book, written because he could not afford to buy the next volume in the series."
Pages from the 1975 dream diary of William S. Burroughs, from the William S. Burroughs Papers (SPEC.CMS.40).
September 9, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Pages from the 1975 dream diary of William S. Burroughs, from the William S. Burroughs Papers (SPEC.CMS.40).
Columbus folks: the new season of Aldus Society events starts in a couple of weeks w/ short talks on book history by OSU English PhDs. Bookish events every month at the Thurber Center, free & open at all. Super proud of helping put this lineup together: aldussociety.com
August 30, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Columbus folks: the new season of Aldus Society events starts in a couple of weeks w/ short talks on book history by OSU English PhDs. Bookish events every month at the Thurber Center, free & open at all. Super proud of helping put this lineup together: aldussociety.com
Reading the Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge (1838) which is a serious, curious work about the life of a financially successful Black & Native American woman in early America who has property stolen from her. But also, I laughed so hard at this passage:
August 24, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reading the Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge (1838) which is a serious, curious work about the life of a financially successful Black & Native American woman in early America who has property stolen from her. But also, I laughed so hard at this passage:
Looked at recently & still thinking about this guest book for the library at the Topaz Internment Camp. Part of the poet & librarian Toyo Suyemoto's papers (who helped manage the Topaz library).
August 19, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Looked at recently & still thinking about this guest book for the library at the Topaz Internment Camp. Part of the poet & librarian Toyo Suyemoto's papers (who helped manage the Topaz library).
Went to a book swap, got a DVD 🙃
August 17, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Went to a book swap, got a DVD 🙃
New reviews up at SHARP News! Topics include Belle da Costa Greene, romance fiction & self-publishing, information collecting & organization in Early Modern Spain, contemporary book design, pamphlets in the 17th c. Ottoman Empire, & the boundaries of book history: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/
August 12, 2025 at 3:49 PM
New reviews up at SHARP News! Topics include Belle da Costa Greene, romance fiction & self-publishing, information collecting & organization in Early Modern Spain, contemporary book design, pamphlets in the 17th c. Ottoman Empire, & the boundaries of book history: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/
Newsletters created by a boy in the mid 1950s writing to a friend back in New York after he moved to Florida. News is about daily life, with stories like, "Charles and Billy went for a swim in the St. Petersburg Beach today and tried out Billy's new snorkel."
August 7, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Newsletters created by a boy in the mid 1950s writing to a friend back in New York after he moved to Florida. News is about daily life, with stories like, "Charles and Billy went for a swim in the St. Petersburg Beach today and tried out Billy's new snorkel."
Finally got to visit @leviathanbookstore.bsky.social in St. Louis. Such an amazing selection. Bought a book I’d never heard of before but am excited to read, which is exactly what I hope for from an independent bookstore.
July 31, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Finally got to visit @leviathanbookstore.bsky.social in St. Louis. Such an amazing selection. Bought a book I’d never heard of before but am excited to read, which is exactly what I hope for from an independent bookstore.
On the way back through Columbia, visited the State Historical Society of Missouri's absolutely fantastic exhibit "Mail Carrier With a Camera" featuring mid-century photographs of rural Missouri by Burford Royston. A couple of my favorites are below, many more at: digital.shsmo.org/digital/coll....
July 31, 2025 at 2:05 AM
On the way back through Columbia, visited the State Historical Society of Missouri's absolutely fantastic exhibit "Mail Carrier With a Camera" featuring mid-century photographs of rural Missouri by Burford Royston. A couple of my favorites are below, many more at: digital.shsmo.org/digital/coll....
Reading lists of Columbus resident Dan Pelzer from 1962 to his passing this year: what-dan-read.com.
July 30, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Reading lists of Columbus resident Dan Pelzer from 1962 to his passing this year: what-dan-read.com.
Also, they had a library scavenger hunt handout! This is such a great idea.
July 29, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Also, they had a library scavenger hunt handout! This is such a great idea.