Rare Book Monthly

Articles - September - 2007 Issue

The Gifted in Pursuit of the Valued

- by Bruce E. McKinney

Evidence in the dictionary wars

 

A few varied titles deserve brief mention.

"Levi's Round-Up of Western Lingo" is a colorful promotional leaflet for Levi Strauss and Co. Undated (roughly 1940-1960) the text is a glossary of cowboy terms written by Ramon Adams. The advertisement consists of a single sheet folded to make 12 small pages. The cover panel shows two clean-cut, smiling cowboys, one sitting on a fence and the other leaning against it, both wearing Levi's. On the foot of the rear panel there is a space for printing the name and location of a particular store where the jeans can be bought.

Next is a book by L. M. Griffiths entitled Medical Philology. A 12mo., published by J. W. Arrowsmith in Bristol in 1905, it contains excerpts from the Bristol Medico-Chirurgical Journal, Part I (A-El) only. These passages discuss medical words found in the landmark English dictionaries of the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries, with ample citations and critical commentary. The book gives textured treatment to each of these words, and much to savor.

The first two issues of a newspaper called The Springfield Musket, dated November 26 and December 21, 1864, respectively, came from Springfield, Massachusetts, with an editorial board of four women. The paper was "published at the fair for the soldiers' rest." Each issue contains two columns comprising half of a jocular glossary, and each entry is illustrated by a droll pictorial cut. One can well imagine soldiers chuckling as they read the paper.

A Dictionarie in English and Latine for Children, and Yonge Beginners, by John Withals, was first published in 1553 and went through numerous editions. On hand is a late edition of 1602, augmented by William Clerk. It has an elaborately decorative title page and a vivid text, with the English entries printed in black type. One leaf, possibly the last or possibly a frontispiece, has long ago been affixed to the rear pastedown. At the foot is the legend "Thomas Purfoote," the name of the printer, under a woodcut of a handsomely coiffed well-dressed woman using a sword to stab herself beneath the breast. Since Thomas Purfoote had his shop in St. Paul's churchyard "at the signe of the Lucrece," it can easily be assumed that the woodcut is a portrait of Lucretia.

A series of pamphlets and magazine articles—some few dozen—many of them in my library--appeared, and raged, in the 1830s through the 1860s, arguing back and forth the case for the dictionaries of Noah Webster or those of his rival Joseph Worcester. The sometimes vitriolic writings are known popularly as "The War of the Dictionaries." The pamphlets bore titles such as: "A Gross Literary Fraud Exposed; Relating to the Publication of Worcester's Dictionary in London" (a Merriam piece); "A Summary Summing of the Charges, with Their Refutations, in Attacks Upon Noah Webster, LL.D." (another Merriam piece); and "The Critic Criticised, and Worcester Vindicated; Constituting a Review of an Article in the 'Congregationalist'" (Swan, Brewster, and Tilleston, the publishers of Worcester).

Rare Book Monthly

  • Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Piccolomini's De La Sfera del Mondo (The Sphere of the World), 1540.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Vellutello's Commentary on Petrarch, With Map, 1525.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Finely Bound Definitive, Illustrated Edition of I Promessi Sposi, 1840.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Rare First Edition of John Milton's Latin Correspondence, 1674.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Giolito's Edition of Boccaccio's The Decamerone, with Bedford Binding, 1542.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of the First Biography of Marie of the Incarnation, with Rare Portrait, 1677.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Aldine Edition of Volume One of Cicero's Orationes, 1540.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Bonanni's Illustrated Costume Catalogue, with Complete Plates, 1711.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: An Important Incunable, the First Italian Edition of Josephus's De Bello Judaico, 1480.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Jacques Philippe d'Orville's Illustrated Book of the Ruins of Sicily, 1764.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: An Incunable from 1487, The Contemplative Life, with Early Manuscript.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: Ignatius of Loyola's Exercitia Spiritualia, 1563.
  • Jeschke Jadi
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    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 546. Christoph Jacob Trew. Plantae selectae, 1750-1773.
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    Auction 151
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    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 545. Sander Reichenbachia. Orchids illustrated and described, 1888-1894.
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    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 671. Jacob / Picasso. Chronique des Temps, 1956.
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    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
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    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 967. Dante Aligheri and Salvador Dali. Divina Commedia, 1963.
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  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Book & Collectors Sale
    24th April 2024
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: McCarthy (Cormac). Cities of the Plain, N.Y., 1998, First Edn., signed on hf. title; together with Uncorrected Proof and Uncorrected Advance Reading Copies, both signed by the Author. €800 to €1,000.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Stanihurst (Richard). De Rebus in Hibernia Gestis, Libri Quattuor, sm. 4to Antwerp (Christi. Plantium) 1584. First Edn. €525 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Fleischer (Nat.) Jack Dempsey The Idol of Fistiana, An Intimate Narrative, N.Y., 1929, First Edn. Signed on f.e.p. by Rocky Marciano. €400 to €600.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Book & Collectors Sale
    24th April 2024
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Smith - Classical Atlas, Lond., 1820. Bound with, Smiths New General Atlas .. Principal Empires, Kingdoms, & States throughout the World, Lond. 1822. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Rare Auction Catalogues – 1856: Bindon Blood, of Ennis, Co. Clare: Sotheby & Wilkinson. €320 to €450.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: [Mavor (Wm.)] A General Collection of Voyages and Travels from the Discovery of America to the Commencement of the Nineteenth Century, 28 vols. (complete) Lond., 1810. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Book & Collectors Sale
    24th April 2024
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Mc Carthy (Cormac). Outer Dark, N.Y. (Random House)1968, Signed by Mc Carthy. €250 to €300.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Three signed works by Ted Huges - Wodwo, 1967; Crow from the Life and Songs of the Crow, 1970; and Tales from Ovid, 1997. €200 to €300.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: The Garden. An Illustrated Weekly Journal of Horticulture in all its Branches, 7 vols. lg. 4to Lond. 1877-1880. With 127 colored plates. €200 to €300.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Book & Collectors Sale
    24th April 2024
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: Procter (Richard A.) Saturn and its System: Containing Discussions of The Motion (Real and Apparent)…, Lond. 1865. First Edn. €160 to €220.
    Fonsie Mealy, Apr. 24: [Ashe] St. George, Lord Bishop of Clogher, A Sermon Preached to the Protestants of Ireland, now in London,... Oct. 23, 1712, London 1712. Second Edn. €130 to €180.
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    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
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    Doyle, May 1: An exceptional presentation copy of Fitzgerald's last book, in the first issue dust jacket. $25,000 to $35,000.
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    Doyle, May 1: Van Dyck's Icones Principum Virorum Doctorum. $10,000 to $15,000.
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    Doyle, May 1: An important manuscript breviary in Middle Dutch. $15,000 to $25,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An extraordinary Old Testament manuscript, circa 1250. $20,000 to $30,000.

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