may not appeal to the reader of literary works. It is to be hoped that some way of circulating Have the 400,000 hours of work which them may be found. There is nothing final have gone into making this set of the works of about them, for as the editors have told us, seventy-six authors been worth the effort? each generation should evaluate its tradition Why such hard readings? It may be replied in the light of its own needs. The test applied that no easy way of thinking has yet been de- to works of man should be applied to vised. Anyone who has studied worth while this. Whether it is a great and useful work, authors has found that certain themes run only tell.—Margaret Pierson, In- through them. These themes recur because diana State Library. they deal with the hopes, wishes, joys, anx- ieties, and of man. Man changes, but When is an index a syn- he is essentially man, as he was thirty cen- V ariations on an topicon ? turies ago. He is inescapably concerned with Index The/ne According to the edi- questions about himself, his surroundings, tor a syntopicon is "a , freedom. These questions are collection of the topics which are the main again and again appearing and will continue theme of the conversation to be found in the to appear. The twentieth century has the books ... its primary purpose—to serve as a old problems of wars, persecution, and en- guide to the reading of of the slavement. The great writings are considered Western World. . . . great because of their , insight, or pro- "The specific type of inquiry which the found discussion of man's problems. The Syntopicon is able to satisfy . . . can be for- editors of the Syntopicon did not make an mulated by the question, What do the great arbitrary list. They included many of the books have to say on this subject?" which man has had. There may and There is much more explanation in the 80- should be differences of opinion concerning page essay about the and methods the inclusion of certain of them. By placing of syntopical construction, which is appendix these books in a set and providing them with II of the Syntopicon s second volume. But an index, the editors have made possible the it all adds up to the fact that a syntopicon is tracing of important ideas. another variation in the numerous attempts to It is true that the great writers often failed improve the index as a locator of information in their day. They did not always stop wars buried in sets of books and periodicals or in or save civilizations. They warned their individual volumes of collections. countrymen, but their voices were not heard. Basically, the Syntopicon consists of In retrospect we should be able to interpret 163,000 entries. This number, alone, makes it what they said. Some were, from our point a major index. It compares in size with the of view, reactionary or false. For this very larger indexes to encyclopedias and other they may be worth our attention. basic reference books. The same publisher's Since the great writers often disagree, this Encyclopedia Britannica with some 500,000 set cannot be said to be a canonization of index entries, as well as the Americana and them. Many of them are ancient, but more Collier's Encyclopedias, include larger in- than one-half of them lived between 1500 and dexes. So do such separate indexing ventures 1900 A.D. If anyone would understand the as the Essay and General Literature Index American , let him read Locke as and any one of several other Wilson indexes. well as "The Declaration of Independence," But the Syntopicon is in this class of indexing "The Federalist," and "The of and as such deserves close scrutiny by li- the United States." He will derive benefit brarianship as a possible innovation in the from contemporary books, but he will be less and technique of indexing. easily indoctrinated if he reads and thinks The first difference to note is the unique about these basic works. application of three basic indexing arrange- The Great Books of the Western World ments — alphabetic, classified, chronologic. are only some of the books that are worth There are 102 "ideas" (major heads in index reading. They should have their chance along parlance) arranged alphabetically from with others. They will be used as teachers "" through "World." Selection of these and librarians let people know that they exist. heads in preference to others is based on no

APRIL, 1953 205 library list of subject headings and is ad- General Literature Index, for example, a mittedly subjective. "familiar reference book," shares the Syn- A second difference to note is that each of topicons distinction, as do numerous other these major heads is separated by long essays bibliographies and indexes. As a of from the classified headings, the chronologic fact, the Syntopicon as well as these other sub-headings, and the sequential references. bibliographic reference tools, often do contain Something comparable can be found in refer- within themselves the answers to some of the ence literature in the case of volume 19 of the questions for which they are consulted. World Book Encyclopedia. But the Syntopi- From the standpoint of the readers' ad- con differs not only because of the interven- viser in the public library the Syntopicon will ing essays but because of the chronologic not be an easy tool to use. For quick refer- rather than classified or alphabetic sequence of ence the quotation book will be better for a sub-heads. few words on almost any in the Syw- A third difference to note is the inclusion topicon. So will the good encyclopedia index, of two features, usually found elsewhere in the Essay and General Literature Index, the reference books, as part of the index. One new Granger's Index to , and volume of these is the Bibliography of Additional 50 of the . Readings, which is arranged alphabetically by The great contribution of the Syntopicon author, with no analysis by the 102 ideas or will probably be in the field of public relations. subheads. The other feature is the Inven- It may, through all the dramatic attention it tory of Terms, a sort of alphabetical finding has received in the press, serve to bring some list for the headings used. of the long overdue appreciation due the much Overwhelmingly the impression left on this underrated art of indexing.—Louis Shores, reviewer is that the Syntopicon is unneces- Florida State University, Tallahassee. sarily complex. At one feels as though the indexing staff responsible for the Syn- With the publication in topicon is about to come to grips with some Has Limitations as 54 volumes of the Great fundamental problems that have frustrated Reference Tool Books of the Western indexers for years. But at other times and World, the Hutchins- especially while reading the 80-page appendix Adler-Barr group has taken another step in on "Principles and Methods of Syntopical the direction of promoting the study of the Construction" one has the uncomfortable feel- books they consider fundamental to an under- ing that the author is one of those intelligent standing of western thought. This set, much readers who has spent his reading either like other similar ventures in the selection and taking for granted or minimizing the impor- publication of great works, consists of many tance of indexes until this moment when books that are standard works to be found in called upon to assume responsibility for con- most library collections. So the librarian structing one, and then, suddenly aware that may very well hesitate in acquiring it for the indexing is a fundamental, but still not fully library. But there has been added to this initiated in the art, sets out to philosophize collection a unique topical index, called the about elementaries explained in the first few Syntopicon, which gives it an importance not days of library school. previously achieved by any similar set of vol- The inadequacy of the Syntopicon as an umes. It makes easily accessible the con- index seems, to this reviewer, to stem from a tents of the works included in a way they have faulty concept of a reference book. "The not been made accessible before, either Syntopicon does not contain the answers, but through bibliographies, dictionaries, concord- only a guide to where the answers can be ances, encyclopedias, or indexes to individual found in the pages of the great books." works. The thoroughness with which the (Preface XXII). According to the editor, Syntopicon performs its task and the manner "This fact distinguishes the Syntopicon from in which it does it, make it an outstanding all other familiar reference books, which con- intellectual achievement and an important new tain within themselves the answers to the reference tool for the scholar, the student, questions on which they are consulted." Of and the reference librarian—this, regardless course, this isn't quite so. The Essay and of the extent to which one may agree with the

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