Cultural critic, historian, and essayist Jacques Barzun, 104, died Thursday evening in San Antonio. Barzun was a longtime professor at Columbia University and the author of dozens of books, including TEACHER OF AMERICA (1945), THE HOUSE OF INTELLECT (1959), THE DELIGHTS OF DETECTION (1961), and most recently, FROM DAWN TILL DECADENCE (2000).
NYT Obit
In a separate bit of news from Pearson, evp for Content Management, North America Dan Lee will become ceo of Pearson Canada on December 31, when current CEO Allan Reynolds retires.
The Central Park stalls currently operated by The Strand Bookstore on Fifth Avenue and East 60th Streets are up for grabs after the NYC Parks Department issued a call for proposals earlier this month. The New York World reports the bookstore’s current contract for the bookstalls, which began in May 2008, will expire in May 2013, and that bids are sealed with the Strand offering “what it thinks it can afford.” General manager Eddie Sutton told the publication the procedure is “par for the course” and “We just go at it again”, having had the experience of losing bids only to be re-instated on the next round.
Art and film collective Busboys & Poets, which operates four locations around the Washington, DC area, will open a bookstore in Hyattsville, MD. Rodrigo Rioja, who previously managed the Barnes & Noble outlet at Washington’s Union Station, will manage the new store, which will primarily stock political, LGBT, African American and Hispanic studies titles by authors from the Washington area.