Leslie Howsam
@lesliehowsam.bsky.social
Book historian. Special interests in history books (as material objects) and Eliza Orme (Victorian lawyer). Past president of SHARP (2009-2013). https://lesliehowsam.ca/
Toronto #bookhistory , with a bonus on the city’s laneway culture.
John Lorinc@johnlorinc.bsky.social · 3w ago#topoli Today on @spacing.bsky.social , a welcome break from the news cycle: Leora Bromberg on the rich intersection of Toronto’s laneways and the print shops that made their homes there. spacing.ca/toronto/2026... cc: @coachhousebooks.bsky.social
“In this pathbreaking study, Hrynyk brings a rigourous analytic to power, desire, #Gender, race, illness & disability in a Toronto magazine that was for decades a global touchstone for #GayPolitics.” –Laurie Marhoefer, University of Washington @thompsonriversu.bsky.social Read more: bit.ly/48lTg8Q
Good to see new research on the intersection of #bookhistory and bible history.
Harry Spillane@harryspillane.bsky.social · last mo.One month until the release of 'Selling the Word of God' on Sep 24th. All at Bodleian Publishing have done a wonderful job in producing a beautifully illustrated book! Available to pre-order now from: bodleianshop.co.uk/products/sel... (10% discount with code: SWG10) 1/3
If you work on the 19th-c press and are looking at bills for travel, repro fees, etc., applying for a Curran Fellowship should be a no-brainer. Not a lot of hoops to jump through, and the folks making the decisions are researchers just like you. These are open to anybody, of any age, anywhere. #C19
Research Society for Victorian Periodicals@rs4vp.org · 2mo ago📢 It's Curran Fellowship time! These awards support research on #19thC periodicals as objects of study in their own right. Multiple awards of up to $6,000 (USD) are given each year, thanks to the generosity and enduring legacy of Eileen Curran. Apps due 15 Oct. Full guidelines here: buff.ly/Vw4Q3Tr
Superb 🧵 from @sarahebull.bsky.social I’ve long struggled with the kinds of tensions between literary and historical disciplinary approaches to the 19th century that are raised here and (to some extent ) in the article she offers.
Sarah Bull@sarahebull.bsky.social · 2mo agoSometimes people with shared interests speak different languages. Last week I read the new Theory & Methodologies section on Victorian studies in PMLA with huge interest, especially @emilysteinlight.bsky.social and Josephine McDonagh's pieces on on US and UK scholars' ambitions for the field at +
The Curran Index, named after my old friend Eileen Curran, is the world's only ongoing research project devoted to identifying the authors of anonymous articles, stories, and poems in the 19th-c. press. Please check it out and let us know what you think. Your help will be invaluable. #victorian
Martin Hewitt@vicmanch.bsky.social · 2mo agoStill plugging the short survey on the future of the Curran Index. Interestingly, have had almost as many retweets of my original post as there have been actual completions of the survey. Closes on the 10th, so if your work touches at all on nineteenth century periodicals please have your say!
Thoughts on biography, AI, and a return to undergraduate teaching as David Wilson steps down as editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography: stmikes.utoronto.ca/news/celtic-...
Fascinating conversation between two #bookhistory people, tentatively teasing out the relationships among text, book, and cultural context. With a scary new slippage between text and substrate. 📕
Sarah Bull@sarahebull.bsky.social · 2mo agoI've been thinking about an essay about this process since 2023 or so. It's never really come together, maybe because the copyright critic in me is too sympathetic, maybe because the main thread ultimately feels more like a skeet—that the point isn't to get books, it's to get text out of them. +
Some #bookhistory for Canada Day. Carole Gerson, member of @sharpweb.org and BSC/SCB has a new book about authorship and commemoration.
The Conversation Canada@ca.theconversation.com · 3mo agoLiterary life after death: How authors are remembered across Canada
The annual bibliography is one of @sharpweb.org’s most important (and least recognized) contributions to #bookhistory. Broad and diverse in scope.
SHARP News@sharpnews.bsky.social · 4mo ago📚 ✨ The SHARP Annual Bibliography 2025 is now live! ✨ 📚 Read and download it here: sharpweb.org/sharpnews/20... #BookHistory #Bibliography #Authorship #Reading #Publishing #Research
This promises to be spectacular #victorianperiodicals scholarship with implications for many other web-based projects. They are a #Canadian team!
Research Society for Victorian Periodicals@rs4vp.org · 4mo agoWe’re thrilled to award our 2026 Leary Grant to the team behind "Yellow Nineties 3.0"! In addition to securing their own archive, they seek to create an open-access toolkit for other aging #DH projects. Read the judges' full comments here: rs4vp.org/awards/leary... Congrats to the team! 🎉
Stand by for an article soon, about describing history books through the lens of book history. Another part of the answer is that historians do #bookhistory too.
Sarah Bull@sarahebull.bsky.social · 5mo agoTOTALLY. It's so understudied compared to fiction, especially in the modern context. I know @lesliehowsam.bsky.social has long championed more work in this area, but I get the sense that for a lot of people in lit studies it's often felt too hard to pitch as a 'lit' project
Good question! Any perspective from Canadian history? @ruralcolonialns.bsky.social ?
Andrew Hobbs@drewhobbs.bsky.social · 5mo agoCan anyone point me to literature which incorporates local history and local historians into the history of history -- professionalisation, birth and development of university history departments, teacher training, trends in the field ... how do undergrad historiography modules approach it?
Looking forward to hosting this online #bookhistory mentorship event.
SHARP@sharpweb.org · 5mo agoOur online book history festival is all about connecting with bookish compatriots! Join us for three, action-packed social events: a bookish craft session, a book recommendation hour, and an early-career mentorship session (spots limited, pre-registration required!) events.zoom.us/ev/Ap9iEZwmC...
Our online book history festival is all about connecting with bookish compatriots! Join us for three, action-packed social events: a bookish craft session, a book recommendation hour, and an early-career mentorship session (spots limited, pre-registration required!) events.zoom.us/ev/Ap9iEZwmC...
Are you looking for an online global book history festival that features work on ancient through contemporary textual cultures? Look no further! Registration is open now! events.zoom.us/ev/Ap9iEZwmC...
Good 🧵 about how historical writing is distinct, as narrative, as discipline, as genre.
T.J. Stiles@tj-stiles.bsky.social · 6mo ago🧵 The @oah.org (Org. of American Historians) annual conference is now in Philadelphia. I was supposed to be on a panel on history as creative writing. Just couldn't do it. But here are some thoughts. Let's start with this fact: There are Pulitzers in History and Biography, but not Sociology. 1/16
Eliza Orme co-founded the Nineteenth Century Building Society, "which by 1885 would have the largest share capital of all the building societies in Britain". Leslie Howsam's book on Orme, ref'd in this article in which Leslie is quoted, is #OpenAccess! 📖 www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...
Eliza Orme’s Ambitions: Politics and the Law in Victorian London
Why are some figures hidden from history? Eliza Orme, despite becoming the first woman in Britain to earn a university degree in Law in 1888, leading both a political organization and a labour investi...
openbookpublishers.com
Leslie Howsam@lesliehowsam.bsky.social · 6mo agoIn today’s Times, an article about 19th century women and building societies, featuring Eliza Orme. @openbookpublish.bsky.social #feministbusinesshistory www.thetimes.com/money/saving...
In today’s Times, an article about 19th century women and building societies, featuring Eliza Orme. @openbookpublish.bsky.social #feministbusinesshistory www.thetimes.com/money/saving...
100 years before women could get mortgages, one set up a building society
Trailblazer Eliza Orme was the first of her sex to earn a law degree in England — and way ahead of her time in helping others to buy homes
thetimes.com
In today’s Times, an article about 19th century women and building societies, featuring Eliza Orme. @openbookpublish.bsky.social #feministbusinesshistory www.thetimes.com/money/saving...
100 years before women could get mortgages, one set up a building society
Trailblazer Eliza Orme was the first of her sex to earn a law degree in England — and way ahead of her time in helping others to buy homes
thetimes.com
Fabulous #bookhistory 🧵
Ellen Forget@ellenforget.bsky.social · 6mo agoMore adventures in 3D scanning tactile books! Today's object of interest: the first (that we know of) tactile book ever produced for people with visual impairments. This is Essai sur l'education des aveugles, in English: Essay on the Education of the Blind. Produced in 1786 at Haüy's school. 1/
I’ve now received one of those AI-generated emails offering to promote my book. Reads a bit weirdly since *Old Books & New Histories* is 20 years old! But I can see how an academic author might fall for it.
Just a quick reminder that proposals for VPR's upcoming special issue on "Keywords" are due TODAY!
Victorian Periodicals Review@vpreditors.bsky.social · 7mo agoCFP: VPR will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2027. We’re taking this historic occasion to capture the state of our field in a “KEYWORDS” special issue guest edited by Fionnuala Dillane, @jimmussell.bsky.social & @mdamkjaer.bsky.social. Proposals due March 30. Details: rs4vp.org/vpr-cfp-spec...
University of Toronto Press@uoftpress.bsky.social · 7mo agoDiscover how queer studies, book history, and visual culture intersect in this fascinating essay collection, and how a variety of media have helped shape queer community – from zines, to romance novels, to social media. Order your copy today: bit.ly/4kvJE00 University of Pennsylvania #BookHistory
Come think about Feminist Bibliography with me this summer! I’m teaching a one-week online course for @calrbs.bsky.social—I love this class and am excited to do it again. Description below; priority deadline April 15; all details at www.calrbs.org/feminist-bib...
I’m fascinated by this subset of #Victorian #suffragists. How many were like Miss Brabrook, unsung, obscure, but not unremarkable?
Leslie Howsam@lesliehowsam.bsky.social · 7mo agoFor #InternationalWomensDay, introducing Eliza Margaret Brabrook (1866-1927) whose editorial and management skills brought the *Women’s Gazette* to a close in 1892 after Eliza Orme’s departure. Subeditor for a London publisher; active Liberal and feminist; daughter of a prominent intellectual.
To mark International Women's Day, here's a celebration of four of pioneering women with Glasgow connections. They are: Margaret Easton Anderson, a graudate of Glasgow University and the first woman to practice law in the UK; Cont./ #glasgow #internationalwomensday #glasgowhistory
For #InternationalWomensDay, introducing Eliza Margaret Brabrook (1866-1927) whose editorial and management skills brought the *Women’s Gazette* to a close in 1892 after Eliza Orme’s departure. Subeditor for a London publisher; active Liberal and feminist; daughter of a prominent intellectual.
Mon premier article de fond sur la #découvrabilité dans l'écosystème du livre vient de paraître dans la revue Mémoires du livre/Studies in Book Culture, sous la direction de Julien Lefort-Favreau (U. Queen’s) et Sarah Brouillette (U. Carleton) : doi-org.ezproxy.usherbrooke.ca/10.7202/1122....
