Manuscript

As Smithsonian scientists and historians take on the monumental task of painstakingly cleaning and restoring the 34-by-30-foot wool and cotton flag that flew over Fort McHenry on the night of Sept. 13-14, 1814, the original manuscript of the song that it inspired, "The Star-Spangled Banner," will also be examined and subjected to space-age conservation methods by experts at the National Archives.The manuscript, which has been in the collection of the Maryland Historical Society since 1953, is the earliest extant copy of the poem that Francis Scott Key wrote while watching the bombardment of the fort from a British truce vessel.

For an artist of D.S. Bakker's peculiar turn of mind, a commission from the Maryland Historical Society to create an object for the White House Christmas display might be an invitation for another sensational artist vs. elected official culture clash.Left to his own devices, Bakker fashions surreal dioramas that depict creepy subconscious scenarios involving arson and cockroaches (shellacked) among other unpleasantries, as well as Magritte-like visual paradoxes.But like his work, the lanky, amiable father of two contains multitudes and when asked, cheerfully constructed a patriotic and cockroach-free diorama commemorating Francis Scott Key and his poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."

In his book, "The Read-Aloud Handbook," Jim Trelease shares little-known tidbits of some of America's most popular and enduring authors. Here is a sampling:* "The Tales of Uncle Remus" was the childhood inspiration of Beatrix Potter, who grew up to write the Peter Rabbit books. In turn, her books were the childhood favorites of C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia chronicles.* Hans Christian Andersen dropped out of elementary school at age 10, returned at age 17 and barely graduated at age 23.* Wilson Rawls' first manuscript for "Where the Red Fern Grows" was so filled with poor grammar and misspellings and was so lacking in punctuation that the author's shame caused him to burn the entire manuscript -- after working on it 25 years.

On Opening Day 1999, baseball's much-debated creation myth took another big hit, this time from way out in left field -- at Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery of all places.Baseball, in the form of two boys at play with a bat and a ball, appears in an illustration in a hand-lettered, hand-painted fragment of a 700-year-old prayer book unveiled last night at the Walters.So much for Abner Doubleday, the man popularly, if dubiously, credited with the creation of baseball in 1839. The Walters manuscript, called the Calendar of the Ghistelles Hours, dates from 1301, which any baseball statistician can tell you is a good five centuries before Doubleday laid out his first diamond in Cooperstown, N.Y.The Walters acquired the 14-page Ghistelles Calendar at auction in London in honor of Dr. Lilian M.C. Randall, curator of manuscripts at the gallery from 1974 to 1996.

The oldest known version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" -- a 175-year-old manuscript in Francis Scott Key's handwriting -- will be preserved in a new state-of-the-art, space-age encasement thanks to a $180,000 grant to the Maryland Historical Society from the White House "Save America's Treasures" program.Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the MHS grant and 61 others for a total of $30 million as she set out on a four-day tour of national treasures in the Southwest, including the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, Colo.

Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner" with a flourish in a small, firm, readable hand with the fat, round O's that have launched thousands of Orioles games over the years.For nearly half a century, Key's manuscript, 32 lines in ink brown with age that fill an ordinary letter page, has been sealed in an airtight bronze case at the Maryland Historical Society.Since it was bought in 1953, the document has never left the society's museum. It is the most prized -- and beloved -- of all the 3 million or 4 million items in the collection.

Across from the first page of his gospel is the picture of St. John. He sits writing the gospel with a red pen in red ink. He's dressed in robes of bright blue, yellow and red, a red and yellow halo encircles his head, and his huge black eyes stare out of the page with a penetrating gaze.It's a bold image that makes an indelible impression and typical of the rare Ethiopian Gospel Book from which it comes. This latest acquisition of the Walters Art Gallery will go on view for the first time during the Walters' First Thursday hours this week.

With his second exhibition, the Walters Art Gallery's recently appointed manuscript curator, Will Noel, takes the Walters' continuing series of small manuscript shows to a new level of significance.But he also, strangely, leaves unaddressed a central question the show raises. The result is a fine but at the same time somewhat frustrating show.Called "The Origins of Dutch Painting," it complements "Masters of Light," the Walters' current exhibit of 17th-century paintings from Utrecht. As the 17th century was the great age of Dutch painting, the 15th century was the great age of Dutch manuscript illustration, and "Origins" presents a group of 15th-century examples.

I'll tell you what. I give ya fifteen dollars t'drive me to Pariah fo'a couple'a days . . . Yeah, man, I ain't lyin'.''Let's see it.'Mouse got that wary dog look again and said in a quiet voice, 'I ain't never asked you to prove nuthin', Easy.'"From Walter Mosley's new book, "Gone Fishin' "Two men are going on a trip. They climb into a '95 Lincoln Town Car, a blue so dark it looks black on this snowy night in Greenwich Village. As the driver heads south, the two men chat easily about their mutual business in the half-sentences and unfinished thoughts common to long friendships, though their friendship is not a particularly long one.The car pulls up outside Nkiru, a book store in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood.

On an August day in 1271, if the story is to be believed, a four-masted ship sailed into the crowded harbor of Zaitun in southeast China, carrying a gray-bearded Italian Jewish trader named Jacob.An account of Jacob's voyage, placing him in China four years before Marco Polo arrived, has surfaced in Italy. It provides extraordinary images of a civilization that was the most dazzling in the world, describing everything from mass-circulation pornography to an early flamethrower. It recounts how Jacob spent six months in Zaitun and became embroiled in Chinese political debates so fierce he had to flee for his life.

A federal judge has denied a Baltimore man's motion to unseal court documents from a political corruption case against former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell. "The motion is procedurally defective," the case has been closed and the man filing, William Bond, is "not entitled to have any documents unsealed," U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz wrote in an opinion filed Thursday. The documents Bond sought referred to criminal activity alleged against a third party. Bond, who plans to appeal the decision, said in an interview that he filed the motion to prove a point about a "continuing pattern of behavior of ethical misconduct" by an attorney he's dealt with in a copyright infringement case.

At a time when books can be written and distributed to millions by high-speed computer, there is no earthly reason why anyone would need to spend $5.5 million to create an illuminated manuscript of the Catholic Bible, featuring calligraphy applied by hand on calfskin parchment and other bookmaking methods dating back to the Middle Ages. And yet, that may be exactly why such a project was launched in 2000 by monks from St. John's Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minn. They're not doing it because they have to, but because they want to, for the glory of God and the enrichment of those who view the work.

For 25 years, Teri Noel Towe has deeply treasured a slim volume bound in red morocco that he acquired at an auction house, a volume containing six handwritten pages of a musical manuscript. "Just pick it up," says Towe, a trust and estate lawyer in New York, "and a funny electricity goes through your body. You are holding in your hands something Johann Sebastian Bach held in his." Only Bach would have held a little bit more. The manuscript is missing pages three and four of what should be eight pages of the original organ part for the cantata Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam (Christ Our Lord Came to the Jordan)

Randall Luce's prose style is as slick as a melting block of ice in the Mississippi sun, as insistent as the insectlike hum of a portable fan. His yet-unpublished novel, Motherless Children, vividly evokes the Deep South in the years after World War II. It was an era when shopkeepers whiled away slow, weekday afternoons swapping stories and sipping "Co'Colas," cooled by ice chipped shard by shard from a chunk the size of a toaster. It was an era when it was considered unladylike for a woman to open a car door, when men still carried pocket handkerchiefs.

More than 300 lawmakers, state officials and history buffs packed the cavernous State House rotunda last night to witness one of George Washington's most famous speeches -- one of the nation's most important documents -- return to its rightful home. Just steps from the Old Senate Chamber in which Washington delivered the speech more than 200 years ago, officials unveiled his handwritten manuscript -- a fragile, yellowing slip of paper, covered on each side with Old World script and encased in protected glass.

The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky: A True Story Ken Dornstein Random House / 304 pages / $23.95 [New York Times News Service] Among the 259 passengers on Pan Am Flight 103, blown to bits over Scotland in 1988, was a young writer named David Dornstein. He fell to Earth in the yard of a Lockerbie resident named Ella Ramsden. He had carried with him, according to one newspaper report, the manuscript of a brilliant novel eagerly awaited by an American publisher. Its pages were now scattered across the Scottish countryside or the North Sea, lost, like its author, forever.

In the summer of 1980, George Washington was lodging in Edward Papenfuse's mind. Five years into his tenure as Maryland's state archivist, the young historian was planning the 200th anniversary of Washington's resignation as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. One of America's most historic moments had taken place in the State House of Annapolis on Dec. 23, 1783. It was when he was deep into the details that he first heard about the existence of the speech: the original handwritten document of Washington's famous resignation address.

James E. Ostendarp, a Baltimore native and former Amherst College football coach and running back for the New York Giants, died Thursday of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the Soldier's Home in Holyoke, Mass. He was 82. A graduate of Polytechnic Institute, Mr. Ostendarp earned a degree in education from Bucknell University and a master's degree in counseling from Columbia University. At Amherst, he led the football team for 33 seasons, retiring in 1992 with a record of 168-91-5.

From childhood, Majnum burned with passion for the beautiful Layla, and she returned his devotion. But because the couple could not marry, Majnum went mad and wandered through the wilderness clad only in rags. Then Majnum's friend, seeking to test Layla's love, told her Majnum was dead. This news broke Layla's heart, and she perished from grief. When Majnum arrived at her funeral, so overcome with remorse was he that he leapt into the grave beside his beloved and died on the spot. This tragic tale of star-crossed lovers forms the central chapter of the Khamsa -- or quintet of tales -- by Amir Khusraw, a 13th-century Persian-language poet known as "the Parrot of India."

Well, lackadaddy, I was on the road again. - Jack Kerouac Well, lackadaddy, come to Baltimore to show any young or old hipsters what Jack Kerouac was first thinking when he uncoiled a burst of a story about a man who "likes too many things and gets all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another" until he drops. Written over three weeks in 1951, the first frenzied draft of Kerouac's On the Road left the Midwest this week, where it spent time under glass at the University of Iowa Museum of Art. All 120 tip-to-tip feet of Kerouac's famous scroll were on display.