#the second shelf

[fanzines]

“People Who Menstruate” by Rowan Frewin ✨ Printed in one colour (red, naturally) on A3-sized paper and folded into an A6 booklet, it chronicles examples of anti-trans media commentary, as well as real-life micro-aggressions / misgendering, which they’ve experienced. When unfolded, it lists a number of U.K. trans charities and support organisations. I found it at The Second Shelf, a trans-friendly bookshop in Soho, London, that sells a small selection of zines. Available to buy from Rowan’s Etsy.

[rapeculturerealities]

This bookshop is making a donation to trans children’s charity Mermaids every time they sell a JK Rowling book

London-based feminist bookshop The Second Shelf is donating money to trans kids charity Mermaids when it sells books by JK Rowling.

The bookshop, which has proudly spelled out its support for trans and non-binary people in the past, announced its plans in a February 12 tweet.

“Making a donation to Mermaids every time we sell J K Rowling,” The Second Shelf tweeted.

The bookshop, which opened in Soho in 2018 and only sells books by women, added: “Donation made this morning! A small amount, but we look forward to more opportunities to contribute to this vital organization.”

[thoughtportal]

The London Bookstore That Became the Face of a Movement

A.N. Devers opened the Second Shelf to change how we talk about (and pay for) rare books by women.

Nearly every book in the Second Shelf — a name Devers borrowed with enthusiastic permission from Meg Wolitzer, who wrote a New York Timesessay under that title bemoaning the second-class treatment of women’s literature — is a first edition, and nearly all are by women writers. The expected greats are there — a covetable £600 dust-jacketed version of Virginia Woolf’s The Common Reader, complete with Vanessa Bell’s swirling cover design — along with newer works like Rachel Cusk’s “Faye” trilogy, which are usually priced around £20 to £40, depending on their condition and whether or not they’re signed. Devers says they “[fly] off of our shelves.” There’s also a £20,000 three-volume set of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility that belonged to the legendary novelist’s dear friend Martha Lloyd, “one of the few people privy to Jane’s secret desire to write.” Penguin paperbacks, with their graphic orange-and-black covers, are priced to sell for six quid apiece.

[womenintranslation]

We’re marveling at this twitter thread begun by The Second Shelf, just brought to our attention by Czech-to-English translator Alex Zucker. Some thoughts:

• although this list isn’t limited to or focused on translations, we’re glad the folks at The Second Shelf are undertaking a count of their field, thereby encouraging us to expand (for just a moment) our examination to include rare/antiquarian books. And note that the list includes a lot of baseball cards, so “book” is used loosely here—and the “top 500 auctions” is ranked in descending order according to sale price. 

• our count: 12:488 female:male authors [incl. one translator] (listed as “publishers” by the Rare Book Hub), or 10:488 (considering that Sylvia Plath and Émilie du Châtelet are both on the list twice!). Specifically:

29—« Exposition abregée du sisteme du monde selon les principes de Mr Neuton » : manuscrits en partie autographes ÉMILIE DU CHÂTELET (1706-1749)

35—He Disappeared Into Complete Silence, Gemor Press, New York, 1947 LOUISE BOURGEOIS (1911 - 2010)

47—MANUSCRIT autographe STAËL GERMAINE NECKER, BARONNE DE (1766-1817)

119—Radioactivité : dactylographie corrigée MARIE CURIE (1867-1934)

188—Ungemein wichtiger Teilnachlass mit einer umfangreichen Sammlung von Vorlesungsmitschriften, Exzerpten, Vorarbeiten zu ihrer Dissertation und Briefen sowie ein Ordner mit 17 meist handschriftlichen Briefen auf 55 Seiten an ihre Schulfreundin Ingeborg Frey. BACHMANN, INGEBORG (1945-1950)

227—Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. ROWLING, J. K. (b. 1965)

245—Maurice, or the Fisher's Cot. SHELLEY MARY 1820

323—The Bell Jar by Victoria Lucas. PLATH (SYLVIA) 1963

369—Le Livre de Paix. Manuscrit réalisé en Flandre, vers 1470. PISAN, CHRISTINE DE

389—« Abrégé de l’optique de Mr Newton » [suivi de :] « Essai sur l’optique » : manuscrits en partie autographes ÉMILIE DU CHÂTELET (1706-1749)

396—The Bell Jar by Victoria Lucas. PLATH (SYLVIA) 1962

437—SKETCH OF THE ANALYTICAL ENGINE INVENTED BY CHARLES BABBAGE, ESQ… WITH NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR... [Lovelace, Augusta Ada, translator]--Menabrea, Luigi Federico (1809-1896)

• Note also that 468—DE CLARIS MULIERIBUS [DES FEMMES CÉLÈBRES] ED. ALBERTUS DE PLACENTIA ET AUGUSTINUS DE CASALI MAIORI BERGAMO [FORESTI (GIACOMO FILIPPO)] (1434-1530) (JACOBUS PHILIPPUS DEv)—although written, illustrated, and published by men, wouldn’t exist without the “famous women” it profiles (details here, here, and—for the book of the same title, written roughly a century earlier by Boccaccio—here).

• Note also that 12—The Breviary of Marie (1344-1404), Duchess of Bar, Daughter of Bonne of Luxembourg and King John II (the Good) of France, Franciscan Use, in Latin with a few rubrics in French c.1360 France (Paris)—although otherwise anonymous, wouldn’t exist without the wealthy woman who commissioned it.

• Lastly, for a better idea, we’ll omit the 106 baseball cards and comic books from the tally, so we arrive at a revised total of 12:382 female:male or 10:382.

Now, back to work!

[bookgeekdom]

This bookshop is making a donation to trans children’s charity Mermaids every time they sell a JK Rowling book

London-based feminist bookshop The Second Shelf is donating money to trans kids charity Mermaids when it sells books by JK Rowling.

[womenintranslation]

Women in Translation by English PEN / Tilted Axis Press + Khairani Barokka

A Week from today in London:

Thu, 29 August 2019 18:30 – 20:30 BST

The Second Shelf 14 Smith's Court London W1F United Kingdom

From their site:

August is Women in Translation Month, a time to ask whose voices are – and aren't – heard in literature. Women and nonbinary people are translated less than male writers, and Western writers are translated more than non-Western writers. So who gets translated and who gets to translate? How are linguistic and literary decolonisation linked? And how do these questions manifest for women, [trans,] and non-binary writers and translators? Writer-activist Khairani Barokka and others will be exploring some of these questions in a special event organised with English PEN and Tilted Axis Press.

[tattooed-alchemist]

The Second Shelf in Smith’s Court is a rare and antiquarian bookshop that carries nothing but books by women authors.

I went through some incredibly choice witchy things, but my pendulum said ‘no” to everything, as it did to things on textiles.

The pendulum gave me the green light for Frances Perry’s 1948 The Herbaceous Borders.  According to Frances, planted well, a herbaceous border will take care of itself for 10 to 15 years.  This is relevant to some of my interests.

[ebonetnoir]

The London Bookstore That Became the Face of a Movement

A.N. Devers opened the Second Shelf to change how we talk about (and pay for) rare books by women.