Forgotten things
Paul Collins is the author of Banvards Folly and The Book of Will. He talked with Rain Taxi about where he gets his ideas:
I spend a lot of time dredging through old magazines and newspapers--and books for that matter--but especially periodicals, because that's where stuff gets forgotten. People don't read old newspapers. If you want to find out what's been forgotten, you have to go to that kind of material.Unfortunately the interview is not available online. Fortunately, however, this is perhaps the best time to "dredge through" old newspapers, as so much is available online in archives around the globe. My favorite is the Burney Collection of 17th and 18th century British periodicals. All UK institutions of higher education, as well as a number of US universities, make this resource available for research and casual browsing.
