When was Bloom County first published?
Bloom County
On October 25, 2017 IDW published "Bloom County: Real, Classy, & Compleat: 1980-1989", collecting the complete run of "Bloom County" in two volumes. An "Ultimate Collectors Set" was also released, including the original art from a daily strip featuring Opus, a page from Breathed's sketchbooks, and a personalized sketch of Opus on the slipcover.Published by The Library of American Comics, an imprint of IDW Publishing.
Bloomfield, Indiana
Bloomfield is a town in Richland Township, Greene County, Indiana, United States. The population was 2,405 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Greene County.
The Howard County Times
In 1920, the paper was owned by Judge James A. Clark, Sr., Paul Talbot and Paul G. ("Pete") Stromberg, (1892-1952), took over as editor. Paul "Pete" Stromberg became a state senator and editor of "The Sun", a major daily newspaper in Baltimore. Which coincidentally, decades later would see "The Sunpapers", along with its later syndicate chain owner, the Tribune Company (of the "Chicago Tribune" and the "Los Angeles Times"), would in turn absorb the "Howard County Times" in a later merger with its last independent publisher, the Patuxent Publishing Company of Columbia, Maryland. In 1940, Stromberg took control of the Maryland Printing and Publishing Company which gave him sole ownership of the Howard County paper. Stromberg in turn created or purchased over the next few post-war years, 11 new local papers in the suburban (Baltimore County) or outlying Baltimore City communities/neighborhoods ringing around Baltimore, naming his syndicate as the "Stromberg Newspapers" and employed his nephew Charles L Gerwig as editor. Some of these were the "Arbutus Times", "Catonsville Times", "Owings Mills Times", "Towson Times", "The Jeffersonian", "Northeast Record", "Northeast Booster", "[North] Baltimore Messenger" (Baltimore City) and the "Laurel Leader" (Anne Arundel County/Prince George's County). Stromberg's editorial influence helped his brother-in-law Norman E. Moxley become a member of the Howard County Board of County Commissioners in 1949, Edgar Russell Moxley to become County Police Chief, his daughter Doris Thompson to become chairman of the planning commission and Robert Moxley, a prominent land developer purchasing land for the Rouse Company of famous nationally known mall developer James Rouse, (1914-1996).
Bloomington, York Region, Ontario
The first settlers arrived in the early 19th century, and were largely Quakers, Mennonites and United Empire Loyalists who had left the United States. The first postmaster, S. Patterson, registered the name "Bloomington" in 1869, likely after the city of Bloomington, Illinois.
Monroe County Public Library
The first library in Monroe County was established in 1820 in the courthouse. The Monroe Carnegie Library was dedicated in 1918. In 1965, the Bloomington Public Library merged with the Monroe County Public Library system. Library service continued in the Carnegie building until 1970 when the current building was completed. Expanded to a full city block in 1997 and renovated in 2010, the Main Library is a 135,000-square-foot limestone building located in downtown Bloomington near Indiana University.
William Bawdwen
Bawdwen began a translation of the Domesday Book from the edition published by the Record Commission in 1783; he intended to complete it in ten volumes, but two only appeared before his death. The first volume was published in 1809 at Doncaster with a dedication to Lord Fitzwilliam, under the title of "Dom Boc; a translation of the Record called Domesday, so far as relates to the county of York, including Amounderness, Lonsdale, and Furness in Lancashire, and such parts of Westmoreland, Cumberland, as are contained in the Survey; also the counties of Derby, Nottingham, Rutland, and Lincoln, with an introduction, glossary, and indexes". The second volume appeared in 1812, and dealt with the Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire. Bawdwen also contributed a translation of the Domesday survey of Dorset to the fourth volume of John Hutchins's "History of Dorsetshire".
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside the Indianapolis metropolitan area. According to the Monroe County History Center, Bloomington is known as the "Gateway to Scenic Southern Indiana." The city was established in 1818 by a group of settlers from Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Virginia who were so impressed with "a haven of blooms" that they called it Bloomington.
Bloom County
IDW Publishing published "The Bloom County Library", a five volume hardback collection of all "Bloom County" strips, beginning in October 2009. This series is part of their "Library of American Comics" series. It is a complete reprint of the strip, including side notes about cultural and political references made in the strip, "Headlines" breaks to identify the top stories of the day, and commentary from Breathed. Each volume has three separate releases: a standard edition, a signed edition, and a signed, remarked edition. Breathed said that the reason why the strips printed in "The Bloom County Library" were not published in previous collections was that the publisher would not let Breathed publish 400 pages each year, so Breathed had to reduce the content in each book. Breathed also said that he believes that, "I just closed my eyes and dropped a dart on the ones to be included." He felt relieved the publishers did not "have to ask […] to do this again."
Broomfield, Colorado
The municipality of Broomfield was incorporated in 1961 in the southeastern corner of Boulder County. While it is unsure how it received its name, most researchers guess it's from the broomcorn grown in the area, a tall sorghum that farmers sold for use as brooms and whisk brooms. Over the next three decades, the city grew through annexations, many of which crossed the county line into three adjacent counties: Adams, Jefferson and Weld. In the 1990s, city leaders began to push for the creation of a separate county to avoid the inefficiencies of dealing with four separate court districts, four different county seats, and four separate county sales tax bases. It also had longstanding political differences with Boulder County which impelled it to separate. Broomfield reasoned that it could provide services more responsively under its own county government, and sought an amendment to the Colorado State Constitution to create a new county. The amendment was passed in 1998, after which a three-year transition period followed. On November 15, 2001, Broomfield County became the 64th, newest, and smallest county of Colorado. It is also the most recently created county in the United States, if county equivalents are not included.
Clinton, Kansas
The town of Bloomington was settled in June 1854 but was not called as such until April 1855 when Harrison Burson applied to the U.S. Government for a post office. Within eight months of the area being settled some 530 settlers were in the area that would become Bloomington-Clinton. The people of Bloomington were greatly anti-slavery and helped slaves escape through the Underground Railroad. In early 1857, the north half of Bloomington was moved to a new location and the south portion of the town was renamed Winchester.
Westchester County, New York
In print media, the area is a frequent setting of the Nero Wolfe detective stories by Rex Stout, which ran from 1934 to 1975. An early documented mention of Westchester County is in the Trixie Belden series (which ran from 1948 to 1986). The series was set in Sleepyside-on-Hudson, a fictional village in the Hudson Valley. The original author, Julie Campbell Tatham, modeled the fictional Crabapple Farm in Sleepyside after her own home at Wolf Hollow on Glendale Road in Ossining. She also mentioned it in her last work in the series: Cherry Ames, Country Doctor's Nurse. Westchester is the primary setting and residence of the main characters in "The Clique" young adult novel series by Lisi Harrison. In Edward Lewis Wallant's novel "The Pawnbroker", the main character Sol Nazerman lives in Mount Vernon.
Dora Carrington
Carrington was not a member of the Bloomsbury Group, though she was closely associated with Bloomsbury and, more generally, with "Bohemian" attitudes, through her long relationship with the homosexual writer Lytton Strachey, whom she first met in 1916. Distinguished by her cropped pageboy hair style (before it was fashionable) and somewhat androgynous appearance, she was troubled by her sexuality; she is known to have had an affair with Henrietta Bingham. She also had a significant relationship with the writer Gerald Brenan. In his first novel "Crome Yellow," Aldous Huxley based the character of Mary Bracegirdle on Carrington, and described how she and he slept on the roof of "Lollipop Hall", based on Lady Ottoline Morrell's home. He chose the name "Bracegirdle" because of Dora's chastity.
Bloom Brothers Department Stores
Benjamin Bloom died of tuberculosis in March 1904 at the age of 32, but Bloom Brothers thrived under Isaac as president and principal buyer, earning a dedicated customer base by offering "15% to 25% lower prices than other stores" advertised in the "Chambersburg Valley Spirit" and the "Waynesboro Herald". Having grown too large for its inaugural space, the Chambersburg store moved in April 1903 to its second location at 83 South Main Street on the northwest corner of Main and Queen, where the company began a tradition of offering seven departments of wares to the public: dry goods, men's furnishings (including shoes), millinery, clothing, china, household furnishings, and carpets.
Bloomingdale, Indiana
The town of Bloomingdale was platted in 1825 or 1826, south of its present location. Originally it was named Bloomfield. A post office called Bloomingdale has been in operation since 1860.
Bloomfield, Spencer County, Indiana
Bloomfield was laid out in 1853. Bloomfield once contained a post office under the name Grass. This post office was in operation from 1878 until 1904.
Warren County, Indiana
The first newspaper in the county was "The Wabash Commercial", which was printed in Williamsport and started publication in the 1850s. A new owner changed the name to "The Warren Republican" in 1854, the same year that the Republican Party was formed. It had several different owners until 1870; it was then published by a single owner for the next 40 years. Another paper called "The Warren Review" was started in 1891 and also had several owners until the two papers combined in 1914 as "The Review Republican", which is now billed as "Warren County's only newspaper". It is now owned by Community Media Group which produces newspapers and other print distribution products in six states. West Lebanon also had several newspapers which began publication around the time of the Civil War. The most recent was "The Gazette", which was printed from the late 1800s into the early 1900s; before this there were several other papers printed under several different names as owners changed. As of 1912, Pine Village had a newspaper called the "Sentinel-News". "The Neighbor" is a weekly paper serving Fountain and Warren counties.
Bloom Township, Wood County, Ohio
Bloom Township was established in 1835. Statewide, other Bloom Townships are located in Fairfield, Morgan, Scioto, and Seneca counties.
Memoirs of Hecate County
Memoirs of Hecate County is a work of fiction by Edmund Wilson, first published in 1946, but banned in the United States until 1959, when it was reissued with minor revisions by the author.
Bloomingdale, Florida
Bloomingdale was settled some time before 1850 by John Vickers, John Carney, and others. Carney was killed on April 17, 1856, by Seminoles during the Third Seminole War. Bloomingdale School was founded in 1884, which in 1897 became a teacher's institute, training an average of 54 teachers at a time from as far north as Gainesville and as far south as Dade County. In 1890 the railway was routed through Brandon, and Bloomingdale began to decline as businessmen like D.J. Galvin, who owned a feed store on the property that is now Mulrennan Middle School, moved to Brandon for access to all the benefits provided by the railroad. In 1910, the post office closed. In 1920, the school closed and the students were sent to Brandon instead. The community declined, or at best remained stable until the 1960s, when it became a bedroom community for Tampa.
Brown County Democrat
Founded by the George W. Allison family in 1870 under the name “The Jacksonian”, the Allison family changed its name to “The Brown County Democrat” in 1883. It was then sold to the families of the Waltmans and the Bonds who maintained ownership until it was purchased by Bruce “Greg” Temple in 1970. In 2002, Home News Enterprises LLC of Columbus purchased the newspaper and held ownership until 2015 when they sold the Brown County Democrat to its current owner AIM Media Indiana LLC. AIM Media Indiana LLC is managed by AIM Media Management of Dallas, a privately owned company, where Jeremy L. Halbreich serves as Chief Executive Office and owner. The Brown County Democrat has a location sales volume of $396,000 and a paid circulation of 2,731.
Bloom County
Breathed decided to end the strip in 1989. In keeping with the continuity of the Bill the Cat/Donald Trump storyline, Trump "buys out" the comic strip and fires all of the cast. In the strip's final weeks the cast found new "jobs" with other comic strips. A "goodbye party" was held over the course of the week where characters talked about joining new strips. Portnoy and Hodge Podge get jobs as janitors behind the scenes at "Marmaduke"; Steve Dallas joins the cast of "Cathy" and attempts to pitch himself as a new superhero, but is quickly fired from both jobs; Michael Binkley becomes a wild boar skinner for "Prince Valiant". Lola Granola says that she's been invited to pose for "Playboy", which Opus dislikes. Milo Bloom is seen with a snake swallowing him head first and informing Opus he would be appearing Tuesdays in "The Far Side". Oliver Wendell Jones is seen with the distinct features of "Family Circus" characters. He informs Opus he is being "bussed in" to the strip as part of a court order. Once "Bloom County" characters are scattered, only Opus is left as part of a plot to transition to Breathed's next strip in "Bloom County"'s final week.
Loose Tails
Loose Tails is the first collection of the comic strip series Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It was published by Little, Brown and Company in 1983. At least two different editions exist; the contents and front cover art are identical but later editions swapped out the serious author biography on the back cover for a parody one.
County Books series
The County Books series, by Robert Hale and Company of London, covered counties and regions in the British Isles. It was launched in March 1947, and began with Kent, Surrey and Sussex. The series was announced as completed in 1954, in 60 volumes, with "Lowlands of Scotland: Edinburgh and the South" by Maurice Lindsay. The announced intention was to give "a true and lively picture of each county and people".
Bloom County
The geographical profile of the county was fluid as the artistic style of the strip evolved. During most of "Bloom County"'s run, the rural meadow setting was presented realistically, while in its later years it became increasingly more abstract.
Bloomington, Ohio
Bloomington was originally called Lewisville, and under the latter name was laid out in 1842. A post office was established under the name Bloomington in 1847, and remained in operation until 1906.
The Closing of the American Mind
"The Closing of the American Mind" was published in March 1987, five years after Bloom published an essay in the "National Review" about the failure of universities to serve the needs of students. With the encouragement of Saul Bellow, his colleague at the University of Chicago, he expanded his thoughts into a book "about a life, I've led" that critically reflected on the current state of higher education in American universities. His friends and admirers imagined the work would be a modest success, as did Bloom, who recognized his publisher's modest advance to complete the project as a lack of sales confidence. Yet on the momentum of strong initial reviews, including one by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in "The New York Times" and an op-ed piece by syndicated conservative commentator George Will entitled "A How-To Book for the Independent" it became an unexpected best seller, eventually selling close to half a million copies in hardback and remaining at number one on "The New York Times" Non-fiction Best Seller list for four months.
Clark County Courier
The first edition of the "Clark County Courier" printed by the offset method rather than by hot type was in August 1968. The newspaper is currently prepared at the office in Clark and then sent to the "Ortonville Independent", a newspaper in Ortonville, Minnesota, for printing.
Pittsburgh Courier
Over the years, the "Pittsburgh Courier" published a number of comic strips, even syndicating some to other black newspapers. The first strip of note was "Sunny Boy Sam", originally by Wilbert Holloway, which launched in 1928 and continued past the demise of the "Courier". The "Courier" also published "Your History", written by Joel Augustus Rogers and originally illustrated by George L. Lee. Patterned after the look of "Robert Ripley"'s popular "Believe It or Not" cartoons, multiple vignettes in each cartoon episode recounted short items about African Americans from Rogers' research. "Your History" ran from November 10, 1934, to July 31, 1937. It returned in November 1940, illustrated by long-time "Courier" editorial cartoonist Sam Milai. In 1962 the strip was retitled "Facts About The Negro", continuing for the rest of the "Courier"'s run. Jackie Ormes' "Torchy", which ran in the "Courier" from May 1, 1937, to April 30, 1938, was the first syndicated strip by a black woman.
Bloom County
The setting of "Bloom County" resembled Iowa City, Iowa, in several ways; Breathed lived there during the early years of the strip. The Bloom Boarding House, for example, which appeared as a high contrast photo within the strip, is modeled after the Linsay House located at 935 East College Street in Iowa City. Another Iowa City landmark, The Prairie Lights Bookstore, was referred to in the strip as the Prairie Lights Newsstand, original "Bloom County" artwork from Breathed hangs in the bookstore. An original "Bloom County" strip hangs in the Iowa City Public Library. Breathed used the call letters KRNA to refer to "Bloom County"'s rock radio station featuring "Rockin' Charmin' Harmon". The call letters belong to an actual Iowa City rock station which featured a disc jockey named "Charmin'" Jeff Harmon in the 1980s. Several Iowa City local news items also directly inspired "Bloom County" storylines. For example, a fictional Ronald Reagan sexist gaffe, referring to women as "little dumplin's", was lifted from University of Iowa football coach Hayden Fry's comment, infuriating feminists at the university.
Bloomfield, Indiana
The town's first structure was the Greene County Courthouse, a log structure, in the center of town. The current Greene County Courthouse, a brick structure built in the late 19th century, stands at the same location. An expansion and renovation project was completed in 2008. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.
The Columbus Citizen-Journal
The origins of "The Columbus Citizen-Journal" date back to 1809 when the first printing press in central Ohio was introduced in the town of Worthington by two men from New England. This led to the establishment of the "Worthington Intelligencer" newspaper two years later. The paper's operations were moved to nearby Columbus in 1814 after that city became the state's new capital. The newspaper was renamed "The Ohio State Journal", and it became the official mouthpiece of the then-new Republican Party in the late 1850s, guided by its editor and proprietor, James M. Comly. Following Comly's military service during the American Civil War, he returned to Columbus and rapidly established the "Journal" as one of the leading newspapers in Ohio. Through his editorials, Comly is considered by many to have been instrumental in helping Rutherford B. Hayes be elected Governor of Ohio and later President of the United States. Comly left the paper in 1872 when he was named to a diplomatic post in Hawaii, but his guidance had firmly established its importance in Ohio politics and news reporting. Shortly after the start of the 20th century, the paper was purchased by the Wolfe family. In 1950, they merged "The Ohio State Journal" with the Dispatch Printing Company.
Bloomington Convention
The Bloomington Convention was a meeting held in Bloomington, Illinois, on May 29, 1856, establishing the Illinois Republican Party. It was an attempt to unite Anti-Nebraska members of the Opposition Party into a single party. The convention adopted a party platform and nominated a ticket led by William Henry Bissell for Governor of Illinois. Bissell would be elected later that year, making him one of the first governors elected as a Republican.
Outland (comic strip)
Breathed wrote that the strip became "Bloom County without the continuing narrative that a daily appearance allows" in the first Outland book collection. Other characters from "Bloom County", such as Milquetoast the Cockroach, Steve Dallas, Oliver Wendell Jones, and Michael Binkley, became major players in the strip. Some characters, such as Cutter John, made an occasional guest appearance. A few prominent members of "Bloom County", such as Milo Bloom, did not make an active appearance at all (Milo did appear in the second-to-last installment of "Outland", as a background extra on a bus).
Bloom Festival
Bloom Festival
Bloom (novel)
Bloom, written in 1998, is the fifth science fiction novel written by Wil McCarthy. It was first released as a hardcover in September 1998. Almost a year later, in August 1999, its first mass market edition was published. An ebook reprint was published in 2011.
Bernard Romans
The first volume of "A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida" was finally ready for delivery in late April 1775. Romans announced in "Rivington's New-York Gazetteer" that his subscribers should tell him where to deliver the books. Romans's announcement was published eight days after the Battles of Lexington and Concord. A second printing of the volume was required in 1776 to fulfill all subscriptions.
Montgomery County Sentinel
The "Montgomery County Sentinel" was first published as a weekly newspaper in 1855 by Matthew Fields and has been continuously published, with brief interruptions, until the present. The early focus of the paper was on advertising and politics, with relatively little space devoted to local news. News articles were usually brief and to the point without elaboration. On two occasions, once before and once during the Civil War, the paper suffered brief interruptions while Matthew Fields, a Southern sympathizer, was held by Union military forces. Throughout the war, "The Sentinel" wrote on the issue of slavery and when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Fields published the document's text in full on September 26, 1862. In addition to discussing the various political issues, war reports were used to inform readers on the progress of the war.
Jesse W. Fell
Fell also founded Bloomington's first newspaper, "The Bloomington Observer and McLean County Advocate" in 1837 and, after several years running a fruit orchard in Adams County, returned to McLean County and work as an agent for the former Alton & Springfield Railroad to secure the right of way through McLean County. He helped found the town of Towanda and with his brother founded the town of Dwight. and later defeated an effort to have the railroad bypass his extensive land holdings in Pontiac. He sold lots in Decatur, Lexington, Clinton, El Paso, Joliet, and LeRoy and in 1855 he purchased timber land and began operation a sawmill near Ullin in southern Illinois.
Berkeley Breathed
Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed (; born June 21, 1957) is an American cartoonist, children's book creator, director and screenwriter, best known for his comic strips "Bloom County", "Outland", and "Opus". "Bloom County" earned Breathed the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1987.
Toons for Our Times
Toons for Our Times is the second collection of the comic strip series Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It was published in 1984.
The Columbus Dispatch
On April 2, 1888, the paper published its first full-page advertisement, for the Columbus Buggy Company. In 1895, the paper moved its headquarters to the northeast corner of Gay and High streets, a larger building on a site which was previously a grocer. On April 10, the paper published a 72-page edition to mark the move. On December 17, 1899, the paper published its first Sunday edition, a 36-page paper which cost 3¢ (¢ in ), and the daily editions were reduced in price to 2¢ (¢ in ). Two years later on March 3, 1901, the paper published its first color comic strips.
Bloom County
"Bloom County" originated from a comic strip known as "The Academia Waltz", which Breathed produced for "The Daily Texan", the student newspaper of the University of Texas. The comic strip attracted the notice of the editors of "The Washington Post", who recruited him to do a nationally syndicated strip. On December 8, 1980, "Bloom County", syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group, made its debut and featured some of the characters from "Academia Waltz," including former frat-boy Steve Dallas and the paraplegic Vietnam war veteran Cutter John.
Parke County, Indiana
The county's first newspaper was called "The Wabash Herald" and was published beginning in 1829. After being sold and renamed several times, it was successively called "The Rockville Intelligencer", "The Olive Branch", "The Parke County Whig" and "The Rockville Republican". Several other papers came and went; as of 1912, several newspapers were published in the county: the "Republican", the "Tribune", the "Montezuma Enterprise", and the "Bloomingdale World", as well as papers printed in Rosedale and Marshall. The original "Wabash Herald" continues and since 1977 has been called the "Parke County Sentinel."
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
The Bloomsburg Public Library was founded in 1899 and funded jointly by the taxpayers of Bloomsburg, Scott Township, and Hemlock Township.
Gloucester County Times
The newspaper was founded as the "Woodbury Daily Times" in 1897 by J. Frank Wilson. Wilson and his partner C. Walter Hawn served as publishers. Upon Wilson's death, his son J. Frank Wilson, Jr., became managing editor on January 1, 1918. The Wilson family continued to own and run the paper for the next several decades; Jack. H. Wilson served as managing publisher from 1965 to 1972. During this time paper added a Sunday edition and changed its name to the "Gloucester County Times"; it also expanded its coverage to include all of Gloucester County as well as Burlington and Salem counties. The Wilson family sold the paper to Harte-Hanks Newspapers of San Antonio, Texas in 1972. Its main competitors were "The Philadelphia Inquirer" across the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, and the "Courier-Post" in South Jersey. Harte-Hanks sold the "Gloucester County Times" to William Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder in 1983, becoming the first paper owned by MediaNews Group. Advance Publications bought MediaNews' New Jersey and Pennsylvania newspapers in 2000. In 2012 the "Times" was merged with two other Advance Publications papers from the South Jersey area, "Today's Sunbeam" and "The News of Cumberland County", to form the "South Jersey Times". It published its last issue on November 3, 2012.
Monroe County, Indiana
Limestone has been quarried in Monroe County since 1826.
A number of abandoned limestone quarries in the county are now cliff-surrounded lakes (seen in the 1979 film "Breaking Away"), stable without ongoing human intervention.
In recent years, average temperatures in Bloomington have ranged from a low of in January to a high of in July, although a record low of was recorded in January 1985 and a record high of was recorded in July 1936. Average monthly precipitation ranged from in January to in May.
Bloomfield, New Jersey
Bloomfield was incorporated as a town on February 26, 1900. In 1981, the town was one of seven Essex County municipalities to pass a referendum to become a township, joining four municipalities that had already made the change, of what would ultimately be more than a dozen Essex County municipalities to reclassify themselves as townships in order to take advantage of federal revenue sharing policies that allocated townships a greater share of government aid to municipalities on a per capita basis.
Bloom Brothers Department Stores
In February 1900, with the extended Bloom and Conn families now settled in south-central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland, the partnership between the Conns and Blooms was dissolved and each family started its own company. The Bloom family's oldest child, Jacob Bloom (1869–1898), fell victim to tuberculosis during the company's "Conn and Bloom" phase, leaving Jacob's older brothers Ben and Isaac H. Bloom (1872–1955) to open the first Bloom Brothers store at 84 South Main in Chambersburg on March 10, 1900. Eli F. Bloom (1876–1941), treasurer of the firm, managed the company's finances from an office overlooking the main Chambersburg selling floor, while Harry H. Bloom (1880–1969) became company sales manager after learning the business as a clerk under Isaac at the Waynesboro location. Bloom Brothers opened its second store on March 21, 1901, in the former Old City Hall on Waynesboro's Town Square. The Dry Run location reverted to Conn family ownership in 1900 upon dissolution of "Conn and Bloom/Bloom and Conn".
Bloomvale Historic District
A mortgage the family took out was nevertheless allowed to default, and in 1826 the Blooms lost the properties to a William Thurston of New York City. Four years later, in 1830, he in turn sold it to Rowland Hazard of South Kingstown, Rhode Island. His family was already involved in the emerging textile industry, with wool and cotton mills in South Carolina and Pennsylvania in addition to their native state. The Bloom property was the latest in a series of acquisitions related to that, moving up the Wappinger Creek valley, where agricultural output was declining to the point that it could no longer sustain the original gristmills.
Calvin and Hobbes
In 2016 and 2017, author Berkeley Breathed included "Calvin and Hobbes" in various "Bloom County" cartoons. He launched the first cartoon on April Fool's Day 2016 and jokingly issued a statement suggesting that he had acquired "Calvin and Hobbes" from Bill Watterson, who was "out of the Arizona facility, continent and looking forward to some well-earned financial security." While bearing Watterson's signature and drawing style, as well as featuring characters from both "Calvin and Hobbes" and Breathed's "Bloom County", it is unclear whether Watterson had any input into these cartoons or not.
Bloom Center, Logan County, Ohio
Bloom Center was platted in 1852. A post office was established at Bloom Center in 1852, and remained in operation until 1905.
Bloom County Babylon
It is preceded by "Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things" and followed by "Billy and the Boingers Bootleg".
Matthew T. Scott
In 1867 Matthew T Scott founded the McLean County Coal Company in conjunction with Adlai E. Stevenson I. Mclean County Coal Company was the most successful coal mine in McLean County. He also established the "Bloomington Bulletin" which was a Democratic Daily newspaper based in Bloomington, Illinois.
Comic strip syndication
Although the Washington Post Writers Group was formed in 1973, it didn't begin syndicating comic strips until 1980 with Berkeley Breathed's popular strip "Bloom County".
Clay County, Florida
The Clay County Public Library System consists of five branches:The first public library in Clay County was made up of a small collection established by the Village Improvement Association within the county. Other small libraries were established by other organizations within Clay County. In 1961, representatives from different women’s organizations in the county started a movement to establish a library system within the county, and resulted in the Clay County Board of County Commissioners beginning to set aside funds to create the county library system. Due to their efforts, the first public library in Clay County was opened in 1961 in Green Cove Springs. The Green Cove Springs Library purchased a bookmobile in 1962 and began to provide outreach services to different areas within Clay County that same year. In 1962 two more public libraries opened in Clay County, the Keystone Heights Library and the Orange Park Library. A fire destroyed the Keystone Heights Library in February 1962. The Keystone Heights Library was relocated to a new building in Theme Park in 1964. The Headquarters Library in Green Cove Springs became open to the public in 1970 after a population boom caused the need for a new library. In 1976 the Orange Park Library moved to a larger location within the town of Orange Park. The population growth experienced in the county during the late 1970s necessitated the development of the Middleburg-Clay Hill Library. The Middleburg-Clay Hill Library first opened in a storefront in the late 1970s. The permanent facility for this library was completed and opened to the public in 1986.
Benjamin Franklin Bush (botanist)
Bush's interest in the plant life of Jackson County stemmed in part from receiving a copy of Alphonso Wood's "Class-Book of Botany" as a young man. Trying to identify native species by using the text, he found only a small portion were mentioned. This led to his own eager cataloging of the new species and a robust correspondence relationship with Asa Gray and George Engelmann for instruction. Bush's first catalog of the flora of Jackson County was published in 1882.
Bloomfield, Kentucky
The community on the east fork of Simpson Creek originally grew up on sites purchased from Leven Powell's land grant, which he received from the state of Virginia in 1779 and surveyed in 1781. The community on the east bank of the creek was known as Middlesburg when its first post office opened in 1803; the west bank was known as Gandertown from its sport of "ganderpulling". Dr. John Bemiss of Rochester, New York, had settled in the area in 1799; in 1817, he laid out the town and renamed it Bloomfield, supposedly after his wife's maiden name (Bloomer) and his daughter's married name (Merrifield). The post office adopted this name the next year, but, according to the state's Land Office, the town was still formally incorporated under the name Middlesburg in 1819.
American comic book
The G. W. Dillingham Company published the first known proto-comic-book magazine in the U.S., "The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats", in 1897. A hardcover book, it reprinted material — primarily the October 18, 1896 to January 10, 1897 sequence titled "McFadden's Row of Flats" — from cartoonist Richard F. Outcault's newspaper comic strip "Hogan's Alley", starring the Yellow Kid. The 196-page, square-bound, black-and-white publication, which also includes introductory text by E. W. Townsend, measured 5×7 inches and sold for 50 cents. The neologism "comic book" appears on the back cover. Despite the publication of a series of related Hearst comics soon afterward, the first monthly proto-comic book, Embee Distributing Company's "Comic Monthly", did not appear until 1922. Produced in an 8½-by-9-inch format, it reprinted black-and-white newspaper comic strips and lasted a year.
AIM Media Indiana
The company had expanded its footprint in the Columbus area in 2002, buying its neighboring weekly the "Brown County Democrat" (founded as "The Jacksonian" in 1870). Five years later it grew its holdings east of Indianapolis with the June 2007 purchase of two weeklies in Madison County, the "Lapel Post" and "The Pendleton Times", which it combined into the "Times-Post".
Literature of Birmingham
Another novelist to take inspiration from the landscape of the early 20th century West Midlands was Francis Brett Young. Born just west of Birmingham in Halesowen, Young was educated in Sutton Coldfield, at Epsom in Surrey and at the University of Birmingham before training as a doctor in the city; but he only started writing the stories of Midlands life that were to make his name after leaving Birmingham in 1907. His first published novel was "Undergrowth" of 1913, but it was not until the late 1920s that he became firmly established as a best-selling writer with the resounding commercial success of 1927's "Portrait of Clare", which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was later being adapted into a film; and 1928's "My Brother Jonathan", also made into a film and later serialised for BBC Television. 27 of Young's novels – from "Undergrowth" of 1913 to "Wistanslow" of 1956 – are set in "North Bromwich", a historically and geographically detailed portrayal of Birmingham and its suburbs that collectively forms the city's most extensive fictional representation.
Blountsville, Alabama
What became Blountsville appears on an 1819 map as the mixed Creek/Cherokee Native American village of "Wassausey" (meaning Bear Meat Cabin, the name of an Indian translator who lived there). The town was established by Caleb Fryley and Johnny Jones in 1816 as Bear Meat Cabin. The post office was opened as Blountsville on October 20, 1825, and incorporated on December 13, 1827. It was the county seat until 1889 when the government was moved to Oneonta.
Cumminsville, Nebraska
During its first year, Cumminsville grew to include two general stores, a livery barn, a blacksmith shop, a hotel and a church, plus residences.
A post office was opened in 1881 with merchant Sam Chambers as postmaster, and remained in operation until 1937. A newspaper, "The Wheeler County Gazette" was also started that year by A. J. Stewart and became the county's official newspaper.
Come in at the Door
Come in at the Door is the first book in Alabama author William March’s “Pearl County” collection of novels and short fiction. It is an example of the Southern Gothic genre. Following the success of March’s first novel, "Company K", about World War I, the author began to explore his own childhood in south Alabama in his fiction. "Come in at the Door" is set in the three towns of Hodgetown, Reedyville, and Baycity, the latter offering a fictionalized vision of Mobile, Alabama. The book was first published in 1934 by Smith & Haas in New York and republished by the University of Alabama Press in 2015. The other novels in the series are "The Tallons" and "The Looking-Glass".
The Baltimore County Union
The Baltimore County Union was a weekly newspaper published in Towsontown, Baltimore, Maryland from January 7, 1865 to June 8, 1912. When John H. Longnecker combined his pro-Union paper, the "Baltimore County American", with the "Baltimore County Advocate" to create "The Baltimore County Union", he placed his sons Henry and John in charge of the new weekly. Its inaugural issue claimed that it had the "largest circulation of any county paper in the State." The publication's main competitor in Towsontown was the "Maryland Journal", a Democratic paper run by William H. Ruby.
Bloomington, New York
Bloomington is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, United States. The community is located along New York State Route 32 south-southwest of Kingston. Bloomington has a post office with ZIP code 12411, which opened on July 20, 1897.
Bloom, Colorado
A post office called Bloom was established in 1913, and remained in operation until 1938. The community was named after Frank G. Bloom, a cattleman.
Berkeley Breathed
On December 8, 1980, "Bloom County" made its debut. It featured some of the characters from "Academia Waltz," including former frat-boy Steve Dallas and the paraplegic Vietnam war veteran Cutter John. At its start, the strip's style was so similar to that of another popular strip, "Doonesbury", that Doonesbury's creator Garry Trudeau wrote to Breathed several times to indicate their similarities. Breathed has acknowledged that he borrowed liberally from Doonesbury during his early career. In the "Outland" collection, "One Last Little Peek", Breathed even put an early "Bloom County" side-by-side with the "Doonesbury" comic strip from which it obviously took its idea.
Bloomington, Minnesota
Following the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, the territory west of the Mississippi River, including Bloomington, was opened to settlers. A group of pioneers settled Bloomington, including the Goodrich, Whalon, and Ames families. They named the area Bloomington after the city they were from, Bloomington, Illinois, which means "flowering field." Most early jobs were in farming, blacksmithing, and flour milling. The Oxborough family, who came from Canada, built a trading center on Lyndale Avenue and named it Oxboro Heath. Today, the Clover Shopping Center rests near the old trading center site and the nearby Oxboro Clinic is named after them. The Baliff family opened a grocery and general store at what is today Penn Avenue and Old Shakopee Road, and Hector Chadwick, after moving to the settlement, opened a blacksmith shop near the Bloomington Ferry. In 1855, the first public school for all children was opened in Miss Harrison's house with the first school, Gibson House, built in 1859. On May 11, 1858, the day the state of Minnesota was admitted into the union and officially became a state, 25 residents incorporated the Town of Bloomington. By 1880, the population had grown to 820. In 1892 the first town hall was built at Penn and Old Shakopee Road. By then, the closest Dakota to Minneapolis lived at the residence of Gideon Pond.
The Seething Pot
The Seething Pot is a "roman à clef" written by George A. Birmingham which negatively portrays various individuals and organizations of County Mayo. It was first published in 1905. The novel has been called an "excellent study of life in the west of Ireland."
Bloomsbury Publishing
The company was founded in 1986 by Nigel Newton, who had previously been employed by other publishing companies. It was floated as a public registered company in 1994, raising £5.5 million, which was used to fund expansion of the company into paperback and children's books. A rights issue of shares in 1998 raised a further £6.1m, which was used to expand the company, in particular to found a U.S. branch. In 1998, Bloomsbury USA was established. Bloomsbury USA Books for Young Readers was established in 2002, and in 2005, Bloomsbury acquired Walker & Co, a small company dedicated to publishing nonfiction.
Bank One Corporation
The First National Bank of Bloomington in Bloomington, Indiana was acquired in 1987. This bank became Bank One Bloomington. With the acquisition of the Bloomington-based bank, Banc One temporarily ceased further acquisitions in the state in Indiana since they had reached that state's cap of the percentage of ownership within that state at that time.
Bloomfield, New Jersey
At the time it was incorporated, the township covered (almost four times its current area of ) and included several municipalities which were formed from portions of Bloomfield during the course of the nineteenth century, including Belleville (created on April 8, 1839), Montclair (April 15, 1868), Woodside Township (March 24, 1869) and Glen Ridge (February 13, 1895). The Stone House Plains neighborhood was renamed as Brookdale in 1873.
In the township's first century, Brookdale farms thrived while southern Bloomfield industrialized, and the township's infrastructure, civil framework and social institutions developed. Several miles of the Morris Canal passed through Bloomfield. The Oakes woollen mill thrived as a major supplier to the Union army.
Bloom County
On July 12, 2015, Breathed started drawing "Bloom County" again. The first revived strip was published via Facebook on July 13, 2015. Sadly, readers must have a Facebook account to view the daily strip and comments due to the security settings on the page. (This can be changed if desired by BB and company.)
Baldwin County, Alabama
Baldwin County was established on December 21, 1809, ten years before Alabama became a state. Previously, the county had been a part of the Mississippi Territory until 1817, when the area was included in the separate Alabama Territory. Statehood was gained by Alabama in 1819.
Muscatine Journal
The "Muscatine Journal" traces its history to October 27, 1840, when the first issue of the weekly Bloomington Herald was released. On June 7, 1849, the town’s name was officially changed from Bloomington to Muscatine, and the newspaper then became the "Muscatine Journal".
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
On June 28, 1820, Oakland County was divided into two townships: Pontiac Township and Bloomfield Township, the latter covering the southern part of the county that would include West Bloomfield Township, Royal Oak and Southfield. What is now Bloomfield Hills was a farming area until the turn of the 20th century when wealthy Detroit residents bought up the land. The settlement became a village in 1927, and in 1932 residents voted to become a city to avoid being incorporated into growing Birmingham.
Literature of Birmingham
Jonathan Coe – described by Nick Hornby as "the best English novelist of his generation" – was born and raised in Lickey on the southern edge of Birmingham and educated at King Edward's School, where he wrote his first novel at the age of 15. Coe's largely satirical novels combine the techniques of postmodern fiction with a focus on the more traditional values of humour and plot. His novel "The Rotters' Club" was set in Birmingham and satirised the city's society in the 1970s, with its sequel "The Closed Circle" taking a similar approach to Birmingham society of the first decade of the 21st century. The novelist Susan Fletcher, who was born in Birmingham in 1979, won both the Betty Trask Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award for her 2004 debut novel "Eve Green", which used the forced relocation of an 8-year-old girl from Birmingham to rural Wales to explore themes of loss, loneliness and guilt.
Bloom County
On the return of the strips Breathed stated, Breathed originally had no plans of publishing the new strips outside of his Facebook page, commenting that “Newspapers need deadlines, alas. Like my departed friend Douglas Adams used to say, the only part of deadlines I enjoyed was the whooshing sound as they sped by.” An archive of the new strips has started at GoComics since then. A new book was announced in June 2016, "Bloom County Episode XI: A New Hope" will be a compilation of strips from 2015 and 2016.
Minor characters in Bloom County
Though the strip's various compilations do not do them justice, the original cast of characters in "Bloom County" were Milo, Bess, and Major Bloom, along with a basset hound named "Rabies" whose thoughts could be read à la Snoopy; the first year of strips are mysteriously omitted from all compilations save the "Bloom Library", although a selection did find publication in a 1986 anthology collection "Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness". Most of the strip's most memorable characters debuted later on, with Milo being the only key character to appear for the duration of the strip's run.
Alphonso Ali was the first significant African American character in "Bloom County". An ardent admirer of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, Alphonso was first introduced as Binkley's opponent in the boxing ring. Later, Alphonso would make appearances as a friend of Binkley and Milo, as well as everyone else in the meadow, and fought in the Great Snake Massacre. He disappeared in 1983, and was replaced by Oliver Wendell Jones later that year.
Bloomfield, Morrow County, Ohio
Bloomfield was platted in 1845. A post office called Bloomfield was established in 1834, and remained in operation until 1914.
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is the principal city of the Bloomington Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan area that covers Greene, Monroe, and Owen counties and had a combined population of 175,506 at the 2000 census.
Bloom County
The county was home to the Bloom Boarding House, Steve Dallas' law offices, the "Bloom Beacon" and "Bloom Picayune" newspapers, at least one pond, and Milo's Meadow. In the comic's later years, the county contained what appeared to be a big-city ghetto ("the wrong side of the tracks", as it was known).
Minor characters in Bloom County
W. A. Thornhump III was introduced as the fictional CEO of "Bloom County Industries" in 1986. Thornhump was Breathed's attempt at satirizing the perceived hypocrisy of money-grubbing corporate America, as well as the unreasonable demands of the cartoon syndicate bosses. Typical examples of this hypocrisy were his replacing characters with scab workers when they decided to go on strike and a Sunday strip that showed the results of drug tests of employees of the cartoons and even Berke Breathed himself, who Thornhump thinks should be executed because the drug test revealed that he ate "one marijuana brownie six years ago." Thornhump's test, of course, reveals that he is a serious alcoholic. This point is driven home when Opus appears with his six-martini lunch. Nevertheless, the final verdict of his test declares him to be "drug-free."
Bloom County
Like many other popular comic strips, "Bloom County" has been republished in various collections. By 2004, the comic strip was reprinted in 11 books, the first having been published in 1983 and the last in that year. None of the reprints contained complete runs of the strip, although "Bloom County Babylon" contained many of the strips that preceded "Loose Tails". All of the daily strips have been reprinted in "Comics Revue" magazine.
Bloomington metropolitan area, Indiana
The Bloomington, Indiana, Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area comprising three counties (Monroe, Greene, and Owen) in south-central Indiana. The city of Bloomington in Monroe County is the area's principal municipality and its anchor. At the 2010 United States census, the MSA had a population of 192,714.
As of the census of 2000, there were 175,506 people, 68,552 households, and 40,269 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 93.22% White, 2.11% African American, 0.29% Native American, 2.38% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.64% from other races, and 1.34% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.52% of the population.
Bloom County
The fictional setting of "Bloom County" served as a recurring backdrop for the comic and its sequels, although the nature of the setting was frequently altered.
Tales Too Ticklish to Tell
Tales Too Ticklish to Tell is the sixth collection of the comic strip series Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed. It was published in 1988. The cover image, of Opus sitting on the lap of George H. W. Bush, is a parody of the infamous photo of Donna Rice and Gary Hart from May 1987.
Our Women and Children
Our Women and Children was a magazine published in Louisville, Kentucky by the "American Baptist", the state Baptist newspaper. Founded in 1888 by William J. Simmons, president of State University, the magazine featured the work of African-American women journalists and covered both juvenile literature and articles focusing on uplifting the race. The magazine staff was made up of women who had an affiliation with State University. Of the hundreds of magazines begun in the United States between 1890 and 1950, very few gave editorial control or ownership to African American Women. "Our Women and Children" was one of them. It had a national reputation and became the leading black magazine in Kentucky before it folded in 1891 after Simmons' death.
Bloomfield Township, Logan County, Ohio
Bloomfield Township was organized in 1832. Statewide, other Bloomfield Townships are located in Jackson and Trumbull counties.
Bloom County
The "Outland" setting of the strip was originally set apart from the county by way of a magical doorway. By "Outland"'s end, the Outland appeared to be a part of Bloom County itself.
Jackson County Banner
The Jackson County Banner is a local newspaper serving Jackson County in the U.S. state of Indiana, first published in April 1896. It is published semiweekly in Brownstown.. The newspaper is currently owned by AIM Media Indiana, who purchased the company from Community Media Group in 2016.
LaFayette, Alabama
Chambers County was formed in 1832. The newly elected county officials opted to locate the county seat as near as possible to the center of the county. Lots for the new town were auctioned in October 1833, with proceeds from the sale financing the construction of a courthouse and jail. The town was first called "Chambersville", but by the time of incorporation on January 7, 1835, the town name had been changed to "Lafayette", named after the Marquis de Lafayette; its spelling was changed to "LaFayette" due to the influence of newspaper editor Johnson J. Hooper, who created a fictional character called Captain Simon Suggs, a backwoods southerner who pronounced the town's name as "La
Fait". The city's newspaper, "The LaFayette Sun", was founded under the name "The Alabama Standard" in April 1841 and adopted its current name on August 3, 1881.
R. C. O. Benjamin
He returned to journalism, and owned and edited a number of papers throughout the country, including the "Colored Citizen" in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the "Chronicle" in Evansville, Indiana, and the "Negro American" in Birmingham, Alabama, where he settled for some time. In Birmingham 1887, together with A. L. Scott, Samuel Roebuck, George Turner, J. H. Thompson, Sandy Goodloe, D. A. Williams, A. T. Walker, William R. Pettiford, and J. T. Jones he incorporated the Robert Brown Elliot School of Technology in Birmingham, the first school of its kind for blacks in the U.S. He also was a pamphlet writer, writing pamphlets on African-American history and issues. Further, he was a noted orator and often spoke out against lynchings and violence against blacks. For his outspokenness, Benjamin was forced to leave Brinkley, Arkansas in 1879 and Birmingham in 1887.
Valerie Bloom
Her first novel was "Surprising Joy" (2003). Her next novel, "The Tribe", was published by Macmillan Children's Books in 2007.
She writes poetry both in English and Jamaican patois. Many of her performances include a "crash course" in patois for audience members unfamiliar with the language. She has performed widely throughout the UK and abroad and has appeared on many radio and TV programmes. In 2005, she made a series of three programmes focusing on Jamaican poetry for BBC Radio 4 entitled "Island Voices".
Bloomfield Public Library
Bloomfield Public Library is a public library located in Bloomfield, Iowa, United States. A library in Bloomfield dates back to the 1870s when a library association was established. One had to pay a subscription fee in order to borrow books. The Carnegie Corporation of New York had accepted the Commercial Club of Bloomfield's application for a grant for $10,000 on November 21, 1911. An election on December 30, 1911 approved constructing new public library in town. The building was designed by Frank E. Wetherell of the Des Moines architectural firm of Wetherall and Gage, and contractor C.W. Ennis constructed it. The new library was dedicated on August 8, 1913. The library is a brick, side gable structure with a projecting entrance on the long side of the building. Both the entrance and the side elevations of the building feature Tudor Revival vergeboards and half-timbered gable ends. The collection includes books in large print, regular print, hard back books and paperbacks, movies, and books-on-CD. Other services include public computers, a young adult section, and a children's area. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
Bloomfield, Indiana
The town of Bloomfield was laid out in 1824 when Greene County needed a new county seat due to the lack of a reliable water source for the town of Burlington. Burlington was located west of Bloomfield near the west fork of the White River.
Muscatine County Courthouse
Muscatine County was established in 1837 and Bloomington, as Muscatine was then called, was named the county seat. Land for a courthouse was secured in town for $1.25 per acre in 1838. The first courthouse was built there in 1840. It was a brick structure with a stone foundation and it was constructed for $15,000. The building was destroyed by fire on December 17, 1864. A second courthouse was built three years later for $29,000. The two-story brick building featured a portico held up by six columns, a dome, and a statue of the Goddess of Justice. High winds took off her arm in which the hand held the scales. The statue was removed from its pedestal several years later after continued deterioration.
Bloomington West Side Historic District
Bloomington West Side Historic District is a national historic district located at Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana. The district encompasses 394 contributing buildings, 2 contributing sites, and 2 contributing structures in a mixed residential, commercial, and industrial section of Bloomington. It developed between about 1850 and 1946, and includes notable examples of Queen Anne and Bungalow/American Craftsman style architecture. Located in the district are the separately listed Elias Abel House, Cantol Wax Company Building, Coca-Cola Bottling Plant, Cochran-Helton-Lindley House, Illinois Central Railroad Freight Depot, Johnson's Creamery, and Second Baptist Church. Other notable contributing resources include the Works Progress Administration constructed wading pool, White Oak Cemetery, Ninth Street Park, Bloomington Wholesale Foods Warehouse (c. 1920), Bloomington Garage, Curry Buick, Banneker School, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Bloomington Frosted Foods.
The Bloomsbury Review
"The Bloomsbury Review" started as a newsletter for Bloomsbury Books & Pool near the University of Denver in 1978. It was named after the Bloomsbury Group of writers, philosophers and artists who lived in London during the 20th century. The first issue, published in May 1978, was a folded 12” x 16” 4-page promotional handout. The cover story was a short piece about the Bloomsbury Group, and the featured review was on "Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case" by Allen Weinstein. It was written by Tom Auer. By 1980, the newsletter had become a full-fledged magazine.
Benjamin January mysteries
The "Benjamin January mysteries" are set in and around New Orleans during the 1830s, and focus primarily on the free black community which existed at that time and place. The first book was published in 1997, and the series is still on-going. The first eight books in the series were published by Bantam Press, with the subsequent four being published by Severn House Publishers. The second book in the series, "Fever Season", was named a New York Times Notable Mystery Book of 1998. Seven books in the series ("Fever Season", "Dead Water", "The Shirt on His Back", "Ran Away", "Good Man Friday", "Crimson Angel", and "Drinking Gourd" ) have received starred reviews from "Publishers Weekly".
The "Benjamin January mysteries" series consists of sixteen novels and five short stories to date.
All the short stories are also available for download on Hambly's website.The series, beginning with "A Free Man of Color", follows Benjamin January, a brilliant, classically educated free colored surgeon and musician living in New Orleans during the "belle epoque" of the 1830s, when New Orleans had a large and prosperous free colored "demimonde". January was born a slave but freed as a young child and provided with an excellent education; he is fluent in several classical and modern languages and thoroughly versed in the whole of classical Western learning and arts. Although trained in Paris as a surgeon, he has returned to Louisiana to escape the memory of his dead Parisian wife. As he is a very dark-skinned black man, in Louisiana he cannot find work as a surgeon. Instead, he earns a modest living by his exceptional talent and skill as a musician.
Bloom County
Breathed set "Bloom County" in a small town. Breathed said he made the choice because he had followed a girlfriend to Iowa City, Iowa; Breathed commented, "You draw—literally—from your life if you’re going to write anything with some juice to it. I did just that."