Sweet Briar College Library Gazette Vol. XLI 2008 Analyzing Becky Sharp’s Trash Presented to the Friends of the Library April 11, 2008 Elisabeth Muhlenfeld In Chapter l of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, young ladies of the best sort, upon leaving Miss Pinkerton’s school, are presented a copy of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary as a parting treasure. Becky Sharp is not of the best sort, and so Miss Pinkerton neglects to inscribe a dictionary for her. But as she hops in the coach to leave Miss Pinkerton’s, an under teacher races out to present her with a copy of Mr. Johnson’s Dictionary. Miss Sharp, happy to be leaving Chiswick, sticks her pale face out of the coach and actually flings the book back into the garden, shocking everyone who witnesses this heretical act. “So much for the Dixonary,” says Becky. Thus does Thackeray, who takes aim in this novel at all of society’s most revered institutions, set out Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary as the symbol of literary and lexicographical authority in the England of the early 19th century. Unquestioned authority, in fact. The greatest of the notions of a large number of persons, who lexicographer of the 19th and early 20th century, James habitually speak of ‘the Dictionary,’ just as they do of A. H. Murray, began his Romanes Lecture in 1900 on ‘the ‘Bible,’ or ’the Prayer-book,’ or ‘the Psalms’; and The Evolution of English Lexicography—one of the key who, if pressed as to the authorship of these works, texts in English lexicography—with a little story: would certainly say that ‘the Psalms’ were composed When the ‘Act to facilitate the provision of by David, and ‘the Dictionary’ by Dr. Johnson. Allotments for the Labouring Classes was before the Samuel Johnson was not, of course, the sole author House of Commons in 1887, a well-known member or inventor of the dictionary, but what was his role? for a northern constituency asked the Minister who How in the world did he go about creating the first had charge of the measure for a definition of the great English dictionary? And why are dictionaries so term ‘allotment,’ which occurred so often in the revered anyway? Bill. The Minister somewhat brusquely told his The fact is, we take the Dictionary for granted, and interrogator to ‘look in the Dictionary,’ at which yet we regard it as an essential text and tool for every there was, according to the newspapers, ‘a laugh.’ educated person—with the Bible and Shakespeare, The member warmly protested that…he had a right one of the two or three books found in nearly to ask for a definition. But the only answer he received every home library throughout the 19th century, and was ‘Johnson’s Dictionary! Johnson’s Dictionary! ‘at the classic gift for every child going off to college which, according to the newspaper, the House gave throughout the 20th century. When I began teaching ‘another laugh,’ and the interrogator subsided. The high school English, my badge of legitimacy was a real humour of the situation, which was unfortunately stack of 45 dictionaries, given to me before I even had Betsy Muhlenfeld listens to lost upon the House of Commons, was, that as a classroom. Itinerate, I pushed them around the halls Laura Goley (right) and Elizabeth agricultural allotments had not been thought of in of Burgess High School in El Paso, Texas, all year on a Lipscomb as Mary Jane Oliver the days of Dr. Johnson, no explanation of the term library cart, from classroom to classroom. As a parent, Hubbard looks on. in this use is to be found in Johnson’s Dictionary; I said repeatedly to my children exactly what had as, however, this happened to be unknown, alike to been said to me so often when I annoyed my parents the questioner and to the House, the former missed with questions: “Look it up” “The dictionary is right a chance of ‘scoring’ brilliantly, and the House the there!” As a graduate student, I poured over the chance of a third laugh, this time at the expense of Oxford English Dictionary as I struggled with courses the Minister. But the replies of the latter are typical on the origin of the English language, yet never did I The instinct to record developed a form of alphabetical order. down orally, and then “at times committed Aristophanes of Byzantium had deep interest to paper or parchment leaves.” A collection and organize what is in the spoken language of his own day. He of such lists constituted a Vocabularium. To invented an accent system used to designate make vocabulary lists useful, it was necessary known—and particularly to pronunciation, especially of classical Greek’s to put them in some order. Initially, lists were tonal system, which was being supplanted ordered by their subject (food, animals, and so bring order to language, is by a stress-based system. As Greek became a on), but within those categories, scribes began lingua franca for the Eastern Mediterranean to use alphabetical order—at first, grouping apparently nearly as old as (replacing various Semitic languages), there only by first letter (all the “a’s”, all the “b’s” the ability to speak. was a need for assistance in pronouncing the and so on). Among the most ancient glossaries Greek in older literary works. extant, the Leiden, the Epinal, the Erfurt, and In the 5th century C.E., “Hesychius wrote the Corpus glossaries, all done somewhere ask myself hard questions about how the OED what could be considered a real lexicon,” using between 600 and 700 C.E., one can see came to be. In the last few years, however, “Greek words defined in Greek by synonyms stages in the development of alphabetical several books have been published on just this and illustrated by literary quotations.” order to the second letter, and Old English subject, and since I had wanted to read them, Century after century, scholars built upon words beginning to be recorded to explain I decided this would make a perfect topic for the work of their predecessors. The Suda, a unfamiliar Latin ones. The Norman Conquest a SPHEX paper. If ever there were a group work of Byzantine scholarship currently being brought this development to a halt for more of people interested in language, you are that translated on-line by classical scholars around than three centuries, but by the end of the group. the world, was “compiled probably in the fourteenth century, well educated people were The instinct to record and organize what latter half of the tenth century and certainly beginning to write in English. is known—and particularly to bring order no later than 1000 C.E. It contained more to language, is apparently nearly as old as than thirty thousand entries of names, terms Alphabetical order, though, the ability to speak. No sooner had humans and phrases” arranged in “simple alphabetical learned how to record on clay tablets, than order.” The “result is a cross between a was slow to catch on. From they were creating inventories and lists. From dictionary and an encyclopedia.” By the as early as 2800 B.C.E., Sumerians compiled ninth century, scholars began to work on the eleventh to the fifteenth proto-glossaries, trying to correct mistakes etymologica—lexical, grammatical works that of copyists on earlier clay tablets. “Towards culminated in the Etymologicum magnum century, many such lists the end of the third millennium Semitic in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—a invaders from the north (the Babylonians, work referred to frequently, but of which we for the learning of Latin as they were afterwards called) adopted the have no existing complete manuscript. These were still arranged under Sumerian methods of preservation and also etymologica are important because they quote made lists containing the Sumerian words from literary works ancient in their own time, class-headings according to and their Accadian equivalents.” The library providing later lexicographers evidence of of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668-627 word usages and meanings that otherwise subject. B.C.E.) contained “bilingual lexical lists to aid would have been lost. translations from Sumerian into Akkadian.” The making of English dictionaries really Alphabetical order, though, was slow to Indeed, scribes learned to write by copying began with the Anglo-Saxons, and developed catch on. From the eleventh to the fifteenth “long lists of titles, professions, and even from collections of glosses, beginning in century, many such lists for the learning of th th sundries found in the world. These word the 7 and 8 century. As James Murray, Latin were still arranged under class-headings lists include names of plants, trees, cities, redoubtable editor of the Oxford English according to subject. As late as 1554, J. birds, fish, and many other categories of Dictionary, described in his classic The Withals’ A Short Dictionarie for Young creatures and creations.” But, “while scribal Evolution of English Lexicography, the first Beginners, self-described as ‘very useful for education was clearly an important factor in dictionaries in the British Isles “were neither Children,’ “reverts to the older arrangement the construction and repetition of these lists Dictionaries nor even English. As to their of subject-classes, as Names of things in the (many of which were bilingual in Sumerian language, they were in the first place and Aeether or skie, the xii Signes, the vii Planets, and Akkadian), their existence constitutes principally Latin…, in Western Europe the Tymes, Seasons, Other times in the yere, the early evidence of the desire to bring order to only language of books, the learning of Latin daies of the weeke, the Ayre, the viij windes, all parts of the world through writing.” the portal to all learning.” When reading the iii partes of the worlde, Byrdes, Bees, In Athens, Socrates worked out etymologies, such a book, its owner often came across “a Flies, and other, the Water, the Sea, Fishes, and referred to earlier forms of Greek no longer difficult word which lay outside the familiar a Shippe with other water vessels, the earth, used in his time. He understood that language Latin vocabulary. When he had ascertained Mettales, Serpents, worms, and creepinge changes over time, “the sense of a word may the meaning of this, he often, as a help to beastes, Foure-footed beastes, &c.” have been obscured by these changes, and his own memory, and friendly service to Not until the end of the 16th century was we must try to discover the original form.” those who might handle the book after him, there a felt need for a true dictionary of English Both Plato, whose Grove of Academe was set wrote the meaning over the word in the words. In 1604, Robert Cawdrey published up at some point after 388 B.C.E., and his original text, in a smaller hand, sometimes in The Table Alphabeticall, containing and greatest pupil, Aristotle, who established his easier Latin, sometimes, if he knew no Latin teaching the true writing and understanding of own school in 335 B.C.E., were interested equivalent, in a word of his own vernacular. Hard usuall Words, borrowed from the Hebrew, in language—its grammar, usage and changes Such an explanatory word written over a Greeke, Latine, or French, &c. Cawdrey’s tiny over time. Of particular interest to each word of the text is a gloss…. To the modern dictionary contained 3,000 words in 120 of these scholars were glosses—translations philologist, Teutonic or Celtic, these glosses three-by-five inch pages, “gathered for the written on ancient texts to clarify them for are very precious; they have preserved for us a benefit and help of Ladies, Gentle-women, contemporary readers. large number of Old English, Old Irish, Old or any other vnskilfull persons.’ It was soon In Alexandria, rapidly becoming the center German words that occur nowhere else, and followed by The English Dictionary by Henry of scholarship and culture, poet and scholar which, but for the work of the old glossators, Cockram in 1623, whose book was similarly Philitas (possibly a teacher of Ptolemy’s would have been lost for ever.” offered for the purpose of “Enabling as well son), compiled a glossary (a collection of In addition to glosses, another foundation Ladies and Gentlewomen…as also Strangers these glosses) or vocabulary “famous all over of modern dictionaries also involved learning rd of any Nation to the vnderstanding of the the Greek world” in the 3 century B.C.E. Latin, which of necessity meant learning more difficult Authors already printed in our Another early glossary maker, Zenodotus, vocabulary—from lists of words, first passed

2 Language, and the more speedy attaining of an elegant perfection of the English tongue, both in reading, speaking and writing.” Thomas Blount’s Glossographia: or a Dictionary interpreting all such hard words, Tom Burford whether Hebrew, Greek, Latin’ etc.,’ as are now used in our refined English Tongue,’ published aka “Dr. Apple” in 1656 illustrates these desires well. Its title page declares, “It is chiefly intended for presented a lecture on Vintage the more-knowing Women, and less-knowing Men; or indeed for all such of the unlearned, Virginia apples during the Friends who can but finde in an Alphabet the work Fall Meeting. The lecture included they vnderstand not.’” These early dictionary makers in English tasting and rating the nine varieties focused on hard words for at least two of vintage apples brought by Dr. reasons. Obviously, they sought to express ideas for which there were no words in Apple.” common parlance, adopting and adapting many Latin and Greek words to that end. But there was also the desire in the seventeenth Tom Burford works internationally as an orchard and nursery consultant, century to “dress up” the language, make it specializing in the restoration, re-creation and design at historic sites and private more elegant, especially by importing words from French. estates, as well as for commercial and backyard orchards. It would take another century before new Since the early 18th century, his family has been involved in the fruit industry dictionaries expanded their attention from and Virginia agriculture. He is a native of Amherst County, Virginia. simple glosses on hard words to all words. For twenty-five years, his business, Burford Brothers, produced and marketed In 1721, Nathanael Bailey published An heirloom and modern varieties of fruit trees. In 1997, the nursery operation Universal Etymological English Dictionary, which proved to be the most popular of all closed and he now devotes full time consulting in the fruit industry and 18th century dictionaries, moving through presenting workshops, seminars and tastings. Burford Brothers was also involved more than 10 editions. Bailey aimed to include in passive solar building construction, the design and marketing of alternative all English words, and attempted explanations energy products and antique furniture reproduction and restoration. as to their derivations. And in 1728 Ephraim Burford is the author of Apples: A Catalog of International Varieties, a major Chambers published Cyclopaedia: Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences reference work on hundreds of commercial and heirloom apple varieties. He also which contained entries for many technical and has written numerous manuals on fruit tree propagation, orchard management, scientific words left out of other dictionaries. integrated pest management, orchard design and related subjects. His most th By the 18 century, pressure was growing recent handbook is Planning and Planting the Home Orchard. As contributing for a comprehensive national English editor, he wrote on fruits in The Northeastern Garden Book published by Sunset dictionary. Calls for a good dictionary came from such luminaries as Dryden, Defoe, and Books in February 2001. In October 2001 his book, Fruit Grafters Handbook especially Jonathan Swift, in his Proposal for was published and is available in the Gardens Alive! nursery catalog or from the Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the author. English Tongue, 1712. Alexander Pope joined Articles on his work have appeared the cry, and apparently began developing a list of writers who might serve as illustrations in many national publications, including for usage , and Joseph Addison actually House Beautiful, Town and Country, undertook to develop a dictionary, marking Mid-Atlantic Monthly, Country quotations in Tillotson’s sermons, “which he Living, Southern Living, Garden considered to be the ‘chief standard of our Design Magazine, Kitchen Garden, language,’ but abandoned the scheme. In France, under the direction of the Blue Ridge Magazine and Gourmet, Académie Française (keepers of the purity of as well as newspapers worldwide. He the French Language since 1634), the French has appeared twice on National Public Dictionnarie had taken 40 scholars 55 years Radio’s All Things Considered and his to produce—a work to standardize, control life as a fruit explorer was described in the and celebrate the language. In Florence, since 1582, the Accademia della Cursca had done recently published book Apples by Frank the same for Italian. Thus, “the authors of Browning. the great Italian and French dictionaries had Burford conducts apple tastings and had the backing of entire national academies seminars annually at Old Sturbridge in their undertakings. Their dictionaries, Village in Massachusetts and at Jefferson’s it could be assumed, were the product of shared beliefs about language among the Monticello in Virginia, as well as nationally most learned men in their countries, dedicated at other historic sites and horticultural to the preservation of the Italian or French organizations. language.…In England…who would set himself up as the arbiter and authority of (434) 845-6074 the language?” Many writers, scholars and literary men called for a national academy e-mail: burford @msn.com modeled on the French or Italian system, Business Address: Burford Brothers, reasoning that “the authority of a dictionary PO Box 367, Monroe, Virginia 24574

2 3 Pe o p l e i n t h e Ne w s is imperiled without” the consensus that such a society could provide. But strong voices argued against such an approach, and a leading London bookseller, Robert Dodsley, suggested to his friend, the brilliant but impecunious writer Samuel Johnson, age 37, that a group of London booksellers would be interested in such a potentially lucrative publishing venture, and that he could secure the patronage of Lord Chesterfield (who eventually proved to be more a hindrance than a help). In short order, Johnson presented the booksellers “A Short Scheme for compiling a new Dictionary of the English Language,” and contracted with the booksellers in June 1746 to deliver a manuscript. Johnson thought it could be done in three to four years. In August 1747 Johnson published The Plan Retired Director of Technical Services Marge Ann M. Reams’42 receives a print of the Mary of a Dictionary of the English Language, in Freeman and her husband Joe, hike with pen- Helen Cochran Library for her tenure as Chair of the which he spells out in clear detail his intended guins in Antarctica. Friends. approach to his mammoth task, and declares that Alexander Pope himself would have approved not only his concept, but also his authority to determine which writers he would turn to as authorities. And indeed, in his Preface to the finished work, Johnson emphasized the primacy of usage—the authority of the way writers actually used words: “When I took the first survey of my undertaking, I found our speech copious without order, and energetick without rules; wherever I turned my view, there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated. Having therefore no assistance but from general grammar I applied myself to the perusal of our writers; and noting whatever might be used to ascertain or illustrate any word or phrase, accumulated in time the materials of a dictionary which, by degrees, I reduced to method.” Johnson’s method here set a standard for all future writers of dictionaries. In fact, it would take nine years before his massive two folios, complete with Preface, History of the Language and a Grammar, were published in 1755. Johnson worked in a garret in Gough Square, assisted only by, as legend has it, a “rag-tag group of predominantly Scottish Library Professor Volunteers in Guatemala ne’er-do-wells”—perhaps at times as many as six amanuenses. During its composition, As part of her sabbatical, Lisa Johnston, professor and head of public services at the author was plagued by personal and financial problems, and forced to support Mary Helen Cochran Library, traveled to Guatemala to volunteer with Child Aid himself with other literary projects, while at (http://child-aid.org/). According to its Web site, the Oregon-based group is the same time his wife sank miserably to her “building brighter futures for the children of Latin American.” death. Nevertheless, the Dictionary made of Johnston was in Guatemala Feb. 28 through March 20. She worked at Nuestra Johnson “a national monument.” According Señora del Socorro, a school that trains indigenous women to be teachers in their to Christopher Smart, the Dictionary is “a work I look upon with equal pleasure and home villages. She also was part of a public library project at Biblioteca Lic. amazement, as I do upon St. Paul’s cathedral; Feliciano Fuentes Alvarado in Chicacao, Suchitepequez, Guatemala. each the work of an Englishman.” Scholar “It was great,” she said. “I’m most likely going back.” W. K. Wimsatt calls the Dictionary “a public monument.” And it is monumental indeed, Lisa Johnston labels defines 43,000 words, and contains 115,000 books with Luis Eduardo quotations and some 3 million words. “To Juarez Letona, assistant put that in perspective,” writes scholar John librarian at the library Lynch, “Moby-Dick, War and Peace, and the where she volunteered in collected works of Shakespeare combined Guatemala. are just over half the length of Johnson’s Dictionary.” The making of this dictionary was a laborious undertaking. Although it was not, as we have seen, the first English dictionary, it was vastly more ambitious than any of

4 5 its predecessors. (To put this into context, Johnson understood from the first that Johnson’s great dictionary was published in Cawdrey doesn’t define take at all. John unlike French or Italian, the strength of a condensed, one volume form the following Kersey’s New English Dictionary in 1702 the English language lay in its ability to year, and new editions followed regularly. In defines take with nine words: “to hold with change and adapt. As his fellow lexicographer an advertisement for the 1773 edition, the one’s Hand, to lay hold of. “Benjamin Benjamin Martin, author of a rival dictionary, most important revision done by Johnson Martin, the first English lexicographer to wrote, “The pretence of fixing a standard to himself, now in his mid-sixties, he wrote, use numbered senses, covers 17 difference the purity and perfection of any language… “He that undertakes to compile a Dictionary, senses of take in a total of 132 words. Nathan is utterly vain and impertinent, because no undertakes that, which, if it comprehends the Bailey, Johnson’s most important precursor, language…can ever be permanently the same, full extent of his design, he knows himself gave common English words more attention but will always be in a mutable state; and unable to perform…Perfection is unattainable, than most of his predecessors, but even he what is deem’d polite and elegant in one age, but nearer and nearer approaches may be dispensed with all of his definitions of take may be accounted uncouth and barbarous made.” Near the end of his life, he wrote to in a mere 362 words.” Samuel Johnson’s in another…Addison, Pope and Foster may his friend Francesco Sastres, “Dictionaries are Dictionary includes 133 numbered senses appear to our posterity in the same light like watches, the worst is better than none, for take and 363 quotations, running to as Chaucer, Spenser and Shakespear do to and the best cannot be expected to go quite more than 8,000 words. [Incidentally, James us; whose language is now grown old and true.” Murray, editor of the OED, called “take” “the obsolete; read by very few, and understood by At his death in December 1784, Johnson most terrible verb I have had to do.”] ) antiquarians only.” Johnson himself spoke of was preparing for another edition of the folio As scholar Allen Reddick recounts, this problem repeatedly, referring to his work (an annotated copy was found among his “Johnson began by reading cursorily through as “in time…ended, though not completed.” effects). Sixth (1785) and seventh editions printed books and marking with a lead pencil In the creation of his Dictionary, Johnson’s came out shortly, immediately following those passages which he wanted to use in his greatest challenge was in developing the Johnson’s death, to compete with rival editions, Dictionary as illustrations of particular word etymology of words, from their earliest “now that the copyright for the Dictionary usage. His method was to underline in the had lapsed, and to take advantage of the text the word which was to be illustrated, Johnson worked in a increased attention being paid to Johnson’s write the first letter of that word in the works upon his death.” Editions “continued margin…beside the passage, and mark with garret in Gough Square, to appear in various forms through the end of a short vertical line the beginning and the the eighteenth and well into the nineteenth end of the passage to be extracted…. He assisted only by, as legend century.” then passed the books to an amanuensis… has it, a “rag-tag group Johnson’s Dictionary became the standard, who copied each quotation verbatim, with the which other lexicographers had to take into appropriate word underlined, on to sheets of of predominantly Scottish account—either to improve upon or, as in post paper folded in quarto. The quotations the case of Noah Webster, “to undermine and were transcribed neatly in columns, which ne’er-do-wells”—perhaps overturn Johnson’s undeniable lexicographic were then cut up into slips, with one quotation presence. Whatever Johnson’s own sense to a slip. After a period of time, they were at times as many as six of the chimaeras of lexicographic authority sorted by the amanuenses into alphabetical embodied in his Dictionary, its authority order and, much later, were either copied or amanuenses. During its and impact preoccupied lexicographers pasted into the manuscript of the Dictionary, composition, the author and philologists in England until the mid- with Johnson then adding word-headings, nineteenth century. Even the great Oxford etymologies, definitions, and notes on usage. was plagued by personal English Dictionary was originally conceived As pages of copy were prepared, they were in 1857 as ‘a volume supplementary to the taken to the printer’s so that type could be set and financial problems, and later editions of Johnson, or to Richardson, and the text printed.” and containing all words omitted in either of Johnson used books in his own library or forced to support himself these dictionaries.’ Although the OED would borrowed them (and then returned them in become a much different work from Johnson’s, tatters). Thus, the books he mined depended with other literary projects, particularly in its emphasis on etymology in large part on what he could get his hands while at the same time his and the historical use and development of on. But his sense of correctness led him language, it nevertheless remained indebted particularly to use books from Sir Phillip Sidney wife sank miserably to her specifically to Johnson’s selection of illustrative through the Restoration (what he called “‘the quotations. It is not surprising to learn that a wells of English undefiled’—that is, examples death. Nevertheless, the copy of Johnson’s Dictionary was kept open of the language before it was considerably for immediate reference in the middle of influenced by French.”) To Thomas Tyres he Dictionary made of Johnson James Murray’s Scriptorium during the long wrote, at one point, “I might have quoted years of compilation of the OED.” Hobbes as an authority in language, as well as “a national monument.” Johnson famously defined a lexicographer as many other writers of his time; but I scorned, “A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge,” sir, to quote him at all; because I did not like appearance and usage to the present day. This and indeed, as we have seen, he was not his principles.” American writers he eschewed sounded logical and straightforward, but as known for his creativity. “In fact, as scholar altogether, announcing himself “willing to Johnson noted in his Preface, “kindred senses John Lynch notes, “he had few big ideas that love all mankind, except an American.” His may be so interwoven, that the perplexity can be called original, in his dictionary or own political views occasionally intruded on cannot be disentangled, nor any reason be elsewhere. There’s no Johnsonian theorem…, his definitions, such as the famous one for assigned why one should be ranged before no Johnsonian discovery. As a poet he didn’t “oats: A grain which in England is generally the other.…The shades of meaning sometimes invent a Johnsonian stanza…His friend given to horses, but which in Scotland feeds pass imperceptibly into each other; so that Adam Smith laid the foundations for modern the people.” Extraordinary “was condemned though on one side they apparently differ, yet economic thought; his enemy David Hume as ‘a colloquial barbarism used for ease of it is impossible to mark the point of contact. turned philosophy on its head; his acquaintance pronunciation’; nowadays, in spite of being Ideas of the same race, though not exactly Benjamin Franklin was one of the most prolific used by Shakespeare, was ‘barbarous.’” alike, are some times so little different, that no inventors in history. Johnson, on the other ‘Shabby’ was ‘a low word that has crept into words can express the dissimilitude, though hand, wasn’t a ‘first’ in anything important, conversation. . but ought not to be admitted the mind easily perceives it, when they are including his dictionary….What’s important into the language.’” exhibited together.” about Johnson’s dictionary isn’t that it was

5 the first, but that it was the best dictionary of Webster announced in the hands of females, is preposterous’). Finally, his day, the most discerning and precise that he had included innumerable words derived had ever appeared, the one that gave more 1800 his intention to from the American experience: advocate, attention than ever before to teasing out decedent, electrician, nutrient, psychology, minute discriminations of meaning.” compile a “Dictionary of vaccine, caucus, census, constitutionality, Born in Connecticut in 1758, just three presidential, deliverable, chowder, succotash, years after the publication of Johnson’s the American Language.” whiskey, checkers, chore, immigrant, pry, dictionary, Noah Webster came of age during publicity, slang, snowshoe and surf, hickory, the American Revolution, and tried his hand His announcement was opossum, and skunk. Webster’s American at lawyering and school teaching. Champion met with disapproval and Dictionary was recognized by the great editor of American independence, he felt strongly of the OED, James Murray, in his Evolution that the language of everyday Americans hilarity. Particularly ripe for of English Lexicography as a “work of great should be independent as well, with its “own originality and value, and Webster himself as idiom, pronunciation and style.” Author of A ridicule was his contention “a great man, a born definer of words.” Grammatical Instiute of the English Language, When Noah Webster died in 1843, all of his a spectacularly successful spelling book for that an emerging “American unsold books were sold (including the 1828 school children that advocated simplification work, an abridgement published the following of spelling (removing the ‘u’ from colour language” deserved equal year, and a revision done with the help of his and honour, the ‘k’ from musick, and so on), time with British English. son that included several thousand new words Webster announced in 1800 his intention in 1840-41) to George and Charles Merriam, to compile a “Dictionary of the American who hired Webster’s son-in-law to oversee Language.” His announcement was met with back, ‘I am accused of introducing into my further revisions. The sale included Webster’s disapproval and hilarity. Particularly ripe for Dictionary Americanisms and vulgarisms,’ he copyrights, and the use of the name Webster. ridicule was his contention that an emerging wrote. But what is a lexicographer to do when [“Webster’s” has since been adjudged to have “American language” deserved equal time with the people of Connecticut use ‘fourfold’ entered the language as a generic, and is not British English. Although Webster was not the as a verb? ‘Is this my fault?’ he asked.” subject to copyright.] The Merriam brothers first lexicographer to feature Americanisms, Defending the word ‘crock,’ on which critics published a significantly revised edition in his proposal was deemed preposterous. One had seized as an example of his devaluation of 1864 (the first dictionary to use the term critic noted that “If, as Mr. Webster asserts, the language, “Webster demanded, ‘Elegant “unabridged,”) and a larger revision, Webster’s it is true that many new words have already writers seldom have occasion for terms that International Dictionary in 1890, followed crept into the language of the United States, are peculiar to the humble occupations of by Webster’s New International Dictionary in he would be much better employed in rooting life. Dryden and Addison might have written 1909, which was revised in a Second Edition out those noxious weeds, than in mingling ten times the number of volumes…and never in 1934. Webster’s Third New International, them with the flowers.” have had occasion to mention the hub or tire edited by Philip Babcock Gove, was published Webster himself was a staunch Federalist, of a wheel. And what then? Are these, for that in 1961. what Jill LePore calls in her article about him reason to be denounced as illegitimate words Although it breaks our chronology a bit to last fall in The New Yorker, one of the “well- or not English?’” talk here about this new 20th century dictionary heeled men who loved England, hated France, Webster’s massive 1828 work, which and the furor it caused, this seems a good time favored a strong central government and included 70,000 words (nearly 27,000 more to do so. Webster’s Third was a complete new despised all that was common. Webster himself than Johnson), was remarkable not only for edition that not only added 50,000 words believed that a representative government ‘can its inclusiveness and for the sharpness of and as many new senses for existing words, be rendered durable in no other way than by its definitions, but for the fact that Noah but also made sweeping revisions, eliminating excluding from elections men who have so Webster apparently completed it entirely by non-lexical matter such as a pronouncing little property, education, or principle, that himself; every page of the manuscript is gazetteer, a biographical dictionary, and they are liable to yield their own opinions in his handwriting. We know little about so on, and removing most words which to the guidance of unprincipled leaders.’ the method he used, except that he had “a had been obsolete for more than 200 years. He was such a snob that even Federalists custom-made desk, ‘two feet wide, built in Roundly criticized despite the scholarship called him ‘the Monarch.’” But in matters of the form of a hollow circle,’ on which he which under-girded it, Webster’s Third took an lexicography, he was a wild-eyed lower-case placed dictionaries of some twenty languages. unequivocal stand as a descriptive dictionary republican: “The man who undertakes to Standing in the opening at the center of the rather than a prescriptive one, in a debate censure others for the use of certain words table, Webster spent his days turning around that by now should be utterly familiar to and to decide what is or is not correct in in the circle, following the roots of words from you, ongoing for hundreds of years. “Critics language seems to arrogate to himself a one language to the next, his heart racing at charged that the dictionary was reluctant to dictatorial authority, the legitimacy of which the pursuit. (He liked to take his pulse: when defend standard English, for example entirely will always be denied.” “The lexicographer’s he made a discovery, it rose from 60 to 80 or eliminating the labels ‘colloquial’, ‘correct,’ business is solely to collect, arrange and define 85 beats a minute.)” ‘incorrect,’ ‘proper,’ ‘improper,’ ‘erroneous,’ the words that usage presents to his hands. By this method, he improved or corrected ‘humorous,’” and so on. He has no right to proscribe words; he is to many of Johnson’s etymologies. The published “The dictionary’s treatment of ‘ain’t’ was present them as they are.” work, conceived as “A Dictionary of the subject to particular scorn, the word receiving Webster began in 1801 a monumental American Language,” was now titled An no more severe comment from Webster’s task that would not be complete until 1828, American Dictionary of the English Language. Third than: ‘though disapproved by many and and for which he would learn 26 languages Webster had, happily, abandoned such spellings more common in less educated speech, used including Sanskrit and Anglo-Saxon before as ‘wimmin,’ and ‘groop.’ Nevertheless, he orally in most parts of the U.S.’. The New he was finished. Five years into the project, had accurately fixed American pronunciations, York Times editorialized that ‘Webster’s has, in 1806 he published A Sample Glossary and quoted “American authors—Franklin, it is apparent, surrendered to the permissive from A Compendious Dictionary of the English Washington, Madison, Irving, and dozens school that has been busily extending its Language, an effort to make a bit of money more—to illustrate the meanings of words.” beachhead in English instruction in the to support the larger work. It failed to bring He also added plenty of his own patriotic schools…reinforced the notion that good public opinion around to his way of thinking, observations (‘Inestimable, a…. The privileges English is whatever is popular’ and ‘can only “not least because it showcased Webster’s of American citizens, civil and religious, accelerate the deterioration’ of the English innovative spelling of words like ‘groop,’ are inestimable’) and political opinions language…. Garry Wills in the National ‘wimmen,’ and ‘tung.’…Webster battled (‘Preposterous, a…. A republican government in Review opined that the new dictionary ‘has

6 all the modern virtues. It is big, expensive, perhaps most importantly, traces the English and docks and railways of daunting scale, and ugly. It should be a great success.’” And language, word by word, through more than brave discoveries in science and medicine, in “a 1962 Rex Stout novel, Nero Wolfe, the eight centuries of growth and development. scores of colonies seized, dozens of wars won fat detective, throws Webster’s Third into a The creation of this magisterial work has and revolts suppressed, and missionaries and fire, page by page. ‘Do you use “infer” and intrigued lovers of words from the start— teachers fanning out into the darkest crannies “imply” interchangeably?’ Wolfe asks a guest. indeed, in England, interest in the project of the planet---there seemed nothing that the ‘This book says you may. Pfui.’” was sustained throughout the 70 years of Britain of the day could not achieve.” Such a This controversy spawned a new unabridged its development, and continues as a source dictionary could be done! dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary of pride. Within the last ten years, several By 1860, the Philological Society had of the English Language, first published by books have explored the making of the great resolved that there should be “A New English Houghton-Mifflin in 1969, the brainchild of dictionary, one of which, Simon Winchester’s Dictionary of Historical Principles,” and had James Parton, owner of American Heritage 1998 The Professor and the Madman: A Tale devised a plan (known as the Rules) for its magazine. Parton was so distressed by the of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the completion. Dean Trench had found that his permissiveness of Webster’s Third that he Oxford English Dictionary, was a New York other duties made it impossible for him to apparently first tried to buy the Merriam Times best seller. Winchester followed that direct the project, and so an editor had been company so that he could “undo the work with The Meaning of Everything: The hired—a tubercular 27 year old, Herbert changes.” Since that was not possible, it was Story of the Oxford Engish Dictionary in 2003, Coleridge, whose chief claim to fame was his he who approached Houghton to produce and I also commend to you the somewhat less famous grandfather. Within a year, Coleridge a new dictionary. Where Webster’s Third had easy to read Lost for Words: The Hidden History died (reportedly, his final words were “I must relied on a show of hands of its editorial of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in begin Sanskrit tomorrow”), but had managed board, the AHD “relied on a usage panel of 2005. in that time to formulate the Canones or Rules, 105 writers, speakers, and eminent persons The impetus for such a project grew to recruit nearly 150 volunteer readers to find for usage notes.” It is now in its fourth out of discussions held by several members apt quotations that would illustrate usage, edition. Although the AHD is a superb work of The Philological Society in London in and to send sample pages to press. Coleridge of scholarship, especially strong on Indo- the mid-nineteenth century, who created an had had a carpenter make a case of 54 oaken European roots, American writer Ambrose Unregistered Words Committee to determine pigeon holes to assist in sorting quotations— Bierce would not be amused. He had once which new words had been left out of which he thought would be sufficient to hold famously defined ‘dictionary’ in his The Devil’s dictionaries. Before their report could be 100,000 quotations. A set of pigeonholes 40 Dictionary as “A malevolent literary device completed, however, a paper appeared by times that was later commissioned, which, for cramping the growth of a language and Richard Trench, Dean of Westminster and “in due course themselves proved to be just making it hard and inelastic.” soon to be Archbishop of Dublin, entitled as niggardly.” (Eventually, the project would The greatest English dictionary ever made “On Some Deficiencies in our English have amassed nearly 6,000,000 quotation is, of course, the Oxford English Dictionary. Dictionaries.” As Dean Trench outlined slips.) For several years, editorship passed to Planned as a four-volume, 10-year project, various categories of deficiencies (the dearth Frederick James Furnival, a decided eccentric the making of the great dictionary was to take of obsolete words; word histories that did and remarkably colorful man, a genial genius more than 70 years, and eventually covered not go back far enough, lack of distinction and athlete, and a prodigious womanizer; but 10 volumes containing 15,490 dense pages. between synonymous words, little breadth in Furnival lacked the focus to direct the project Completed in 1928 (and reissued in 1933 in mining classic writers for usage, and so on), it effectively, and had many competing interests. 12 volumes, plus a one-volume Supplement), became clear that what was needed was a new His most important contribution, it turns the dictionary contained 252,200 entries, dictionary that would in fact be a complete out, was in 1879 to persuade a 38-year-old including 414,800 word forms defined and/or inventory of the language. The project was Scots schoolteacher, a linen-draper’s son, to illustrated. It used nearly 2 million quotations a fitting one for the Victorians, who loved assume the editorship: James Augustus Henry to illustrate meaning, from approximately scaling heretofore un-scaled peaks. “”Huge Murray. 4,500 works and some 2,700 authors, and ships, immense palaces, bridges and roads Murray inherited a sprawling, disorganized Friends of Library Host Grape Tasting

Professor Rebecca Ambers of the Environmental Studies Department and her husband, Cliff, pur- chased a farm along the east side of Tobacco Row Mountain five years ago. Cliff immediately began planting grapevines for table and wine grapes. Since then, they have been selling their surplus grapes at the Lynchburg City Market, and they just got their winery license. They entertained the Friends with a grape tasting from a large variety of wild and hybrid grapes grown on their farm, some hybridized by Cliff as part of his grape breeding work. 6 7 Murray inherited a and anemic project. For one thing, there referred in his Appeal. Sub-editors sorted each were approximately 2,000,000 quotation slips headword into various parts of speech, and sprawling, disorganized copied out by twenty years of volunteer readers more senior editor-sorters would determine that had been parceled out to sub-editors for subtle shades of meaning from the quotations and anemic project. For sorting, and were now stored all over the at hand. Every quotation was checked for country. As they were slowly recovered, it accuracy. Once all quotations were pinned one thing, there were became clear that though some caches of together in order, Murray would make further quotations were well organized, others had subdivisions he felt necessary, “work into approximately 2,000,000 been stored in dank sacks and left to rot. the mix the etymology of each word, add quotation slips copied One such sack housed a dead rat; another a its alternate spellings and then the way that mouse family, eating away at apt quotations. the Philological Society and common sense out by twenty years of The letters H, Q and Pa were missing in their suggested that it might best be pronounced.” entirety. H was found in Florence; Q in a He would then number each bundle, lest volunteer readers that had Midlands town, and Pa was tracked down in it ever be dropped, and finally write the a stable in County Cavan, “where some of the definitions for each of the word’s senses and been parceled out to sub- slips had already been used for lighting fires.” meanings. Collections of words would then be A Mr. Crane, the sub-editor for O, refused sent to the Press for type setting. editors for sorting, and to surrender his slips, even after lawyers got Working as quickly as Murray and his were now stored all over the involved. Murray eventually “got the papers sub-editors and assistants could do—often out of Crane’s hands and into Mill Hill—but 13 hours a day, it was nevertheless five years country. As they were slowly it was, at one time, touch-and-go for a letter before the first published fascicle (A-Ant) came that was to occupy 356 pages, from O itself, from the press in 1884, a “slender, somewhat recovered, it became clear via Oaaf to Ozonous.” To house his operation undistinguished-looking paperback book,” safe from fire, Murray built a small building the first of 128 such fascicles that would make that though some caches of corrugated iron, lined with 1,000 oaken up the entire dictionary. The organization pigeon holes and bookshelves, and dubbed it of the work, and its design, had been of quotations were well the Scriptorium to keep everyone from calling Murray’s, working with the press’s designers organized, others had been it the Shed. and compositors; it stands today. “Oxford Although he had hundreds of thousands had expected (and indeed, the contract had stored in dank sacks and of quotations, he quickly saw that he needed specified) that publication would begin in more, and got the Clarendon Press to issue 1882 and that once matters were in high gear, left to rot. One such sack “An Appeal to the English-Speaking and the Dictionary team would be able to churn English-Reading Public in Great Britain, out some 704 pages of completed work each housed a dead rat; another a America and the British Colonies to read books year, almost two pages a day. Murray had done and make extracts for the Philological Society’s his gallant best…but at one stage, he wailed mouse family, eating away at New English Dictionary.” He needed 1,000 piteously to a friend that though he tried to apt quotations. The letters readers, to do the following: meet a personal target of completing 33 words In the Early English period to the invention a day, ‘often a single word, like approve…takes H, Q and Pa were missing of Printing, so much has been done and is 3/4 of a day itself.’” doing that little outside help is needed. But One reason the project was so time in their entirety. H was few of the earliest printed books—those of consuming was that lacking 21st century Caxton and his successors—have yet been communication technologies, Murray and found in Florence; Q in a read, and any one who has the opportunity his editors had to rely on the mail. Murray and time to read one or more of these, explains in the Preface the trials of trying to Midlands town, and Pa was either in the originals, or accurate reprints, track down information. To clarify a single tracked down in a stable will confer valuable assistance by so doing. word, The later sixteenth century literature is very Ten, twenty or thirty letters have in County Cavan, “where fairly done…The seventeenth century, with sometimes been written to persons who, so many more writers, naturally shows still it was thought might possibly know, or more unexplored territory….a large number succeed in finding out, something definite some of the slips had already on the subject and often weeks have passed, of [nineteenth-century books] remain and ‘copy’ advances into the state of ‘proof’, been used for lighting fires.” unrepresented, not only of those published and ‘proof’ into…‘final’ before any results during the last ten years while the Dictionary could be obtained. It is incredible what A Mr. Crane, the sub-editor has been in abeyance, but also of earlier date. labour has had to be expended, sometimes, for O, refused to surrender But it is in the eighteenth century above all that to find out facts for an article which occupies help is urgently needed. The American scholars not five or six lines; or even to be able to his slips, even after lawyers promised to get the eighteenth-century taken write the words ‘Derivation unknown’. up in the United States, a promise which they Murray’s daughter recalled a lecture given got involved. appear not to have fulfilled, and we must now by her father that detailed his “normal” appeal to English readers to share the task, for correspondence, from which I quote just a nearly the whole of that century’s books, with fraction: the exception of Burke’s works, have still to be I write to the Director of the Royal gone through.” Botanic Gardens at Kew about the first record of the name of an exotic plant; to a Nearly 800 people responded within a quay-side merchant at Newcastle about the year, and soon 1,568 books had been sent for Keels on the Tyne; to a Jesuit father on a reading. Within two years of Murray’s signing point of Roman Catholic Divinity; to the his contract with Oxford, he had added Secretary of the Astronomical Society about nearly 700,000 quotation slips to the project. the primum-mobile or the solar constant; to Murray appointed Francis March, a professor the Editor of The Times about a letter of the at Lafayette College, to direct the American year 1620 containing the first mention of readers—who collectively responded brilliantly Punch [the beverage]; to a Wesleyan minister to fulfill the promise to which Murray had about the itineracy; to Lord Tennyson to ask

8 9 where he got the word balm-cricket and hermit in East Anglia, providing prodigious of English, especially the history of words that what he meant by it, to the Sporting News assistance (recording quotations, clippings, have been borrowed from other languages. about a term in horse-racing, or pugilism; or suggestions, and reading proof) to Murray Countless other resources from both the the invention of the word hooligan in June and his staff virtually every single day for distant and recent past are now helping 1898; to the librarian of the Cambridge nearly twenty years—until his death in 1901. scholars to refine and expand the Dictionary’s University library for the reading of the first edition of a rare book…to George Meredith Another famous volunteer—the “Madman” coverage of the formal, colloquial, slang, and to ask what is the meaning of a line of one of Winchester’s best selling book The Professor dialect vocabulary of English since the twelfth of his poems; to Thomas Hardy to ask what and the Madman, was also American, William century…Work on the revision programme is the meaning of a word terminatory in Chester Minor, a surgeon who had been has already resulted in over one in every one of his novels, to the Editor of the New wounded and emotionally scarred in the Civil four definitions revised being augmented York Nation for the history of an American War. Sent to London to recover in 1871, significantly with data on earlier usage.” political term” Minor did not improve, and instead, “during To assist with the project, the OED and so on. And of course, every letter was an attack of what now looks to have been continues its famous Reader’s Programme, written by Murray by hand, with a second paranoid schizophrenia…shot and murdered the descendant of Murray’s volunteers, who copy made by him for the records. Telephones an innocent working man on a night-time read works and provided him with quotations. were rare, and thus, letters and quotation slips street.” He was tried, and sentenced to spend Further, in a bow to a different kind of provide us with the most minute details of the the remainder of his life in Broadmoor, an modern technology, OED has teamed up with making of the dictionary. asylum for the criminally insane. Beginning the BBC on a TV show named “Balderdash Aside from the psychological boost the about 1881, Minor became Murray’s second and Piffle,” showcasing a word hunt for appearance of Part I provided, it also unearthed most important volunteer—though for many specific words sought by the OED editors each the man who would soon become Murray’s years, no one at the Scriptorium knew that he season, complete with contestants, pleas to an right hand man: Henry Bradley, who wrote was in an insane asylum. With endless time on uninformed public, and an attractive female a thorough, admiring and yet perspicacious his hands, he spent most of his days reading show host. Among the words on this year’s and helpful review of the publication. Bradley for the Dictionary. He devised an ingenious hunt for which the OED seeks earliest use joined the staff in 1886, assigned to assist method that allowed him to produce a are bananas, Bloody Mary, bonkers, domestic, with the letter “B”, and became joint senior collection of quotes for specific words with flip-flop, identity theft, kinky, marital aid, editor in 1888. “Bradley’s forty years’ work which Murray might need help. He worked pole dance, shaggy dog story (documented to on the Dictionary encompassed the letters “assiduously for the next 21 years until he fell 1946—can you place it earlier?), whoopsie E-G, L-M, S-Sh (a section which included ill, in 1902, after cutting off his own penis and wolf-whistle. Each quarter, “the OED the longest entry ‘set’), St, and part of W.” during a fit of insane self-loathing.” adds about 250 words…that task has proved Two other editors would join the project: the Of the hundreds and hundreds of people exponential, since new coinages in the Internet distinguished Anglo-Saxon scholar William who assisted with the project, there are no age are nonstop.” Surf, as an intransitive Craigie, who joined the Dictionary in 1897 doubt hundreds upon hundreds of intriguing verb, for example, has recently added a new and became third editor in 1901, and C.T. stories—such as the loyalty of the Misses Edith meaning, “To move from site to site on the Onions, who joined the staff in 1895 and and E. P. Thompson, about whom we know Internet, esp. to browse or skim through web was appointed fourth editor in 1914 (where little, except that their names appear as having pages’). he was responsible for Su-Sz, Wh-Working, contributed 15,000 quotations for Volume Having done just that, I have learned and X, Y, Z, thereby contributing the last 1 in 1884, and they are recognized in every that if “Balderdash and Piffle” is not for you, word to the dictionary: a cross-reference, Zyxt subsequent volume—finally as readers of the you might try a website entitled OEDILF obs. (Kentish) 2nd sing. ind. pres. of SEE v.). first proof for the last volume in 1928. (Omnificant English Dictionary In Limerick Interestingly, although Craigie and Onions James Murray, like Moses, did not live Form). Its goal is to have at least one limerick had university degrees, Murray and Bradley to see the promised land; he died in 1915; for every word in the OED. Sample: abacus: were both self taught beyond elementary nor did Henry Bradley, who died in 1923. It An abacus is a computer, school. fell to William Craigie and C. T. Onions to Hand-driven and simple (and cuter Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the shepherd the last volume of the OED through Than our modern PCs), making of the Oxford English Dictionary is the press in 1928. Both Murray and Bradley Which you hold on your knees— the vast number of volunteers who contributed had battled pressures from the delegates of Best learned from a nice Chinese tutor. to the project. Each volume of the published the Philosophical Society to cut the number work contained a list of those volunteers of words—to curtail scientific terminology, for Beware. OEDILF is currently accepting whose work had been useful in compiling example. But they had known from the outset limericks only for words beginning with aa that volume—an estimated 2,000 individuals that the completion of the great dictionary through cg. It has recently topped 35,000 from all over the world and in every walk was simply a stop along the way. From the limericks, but may take 70 years to be of life, some of great renown, but many publication of the first volume, Murray and complete. who were unknown. Two, in particular, have his fellow editors had been collecting material Just as the language keeps growing, so this been much storied. Fitzedward Hall, born in for a supplement, painfully aware of omissions paper seems destined never to stop. My only Troy, New York in 1825, left Harvard at his (bondmaid, collide, radium, appendicitis). excuse is that language is a subject infinitely father’s request to search for a brother “who A first supplement was published in 1933; fascinating to an inordinate number of people, had absconded. Shipwrecked in the Bay of another in 1986, and a second edition in like William Safire for example, whose recent Bengal, he stayed in India for years, learning 1989—now 20 volumes long, containing columns have focused on pushback and mixed- Hindustani Bengali, Sanskrit, and Persian, 291,500 entries, 615,100 defined word forms, race, citing the OED in each case. And just and made a respectable income translating and 2.5 million quotations. last month, the 117-year old American Dialect into these languages books written in English, And yet, the language keeps changing. Society chose the verb “Plutoed” as the word as well as in French, Italian and modern Accordingly, the Oxford English Dictionary of the year. The much reviled publisher Greek, all of which he spoke fluently. After has since 1993 been working on its first full Merrian-Webster chose “truthiness.” So far, three years in Calcutta, he moved to the holy scale revision, budgeted at some £34 million, a neither is in the OED, but it won’t be long. city of Benares on the Ganges…and taught significant increase over the £300,000 required Sanskrit.” Building a distinguished career for the initial 70-year project. In the last that eventually brought him to England, century, according to its website, new batches he “became embroiled in an almighty row” of revised words are being released on-line that mysteriously involved his dismissal and every quarter. “More and better resources have ostracism, and eventual desertion by his family. become available to language scholars…. that He lived out the remainder of his life as a give a clearer understanding of the etymology

8 9 “Our Chinese Culture.” The John B. and Irene Vongehr Vincent Collection By anyone’s account Mrs. to Peking in 1947. While there were hardly any women, let “A young American woman Vincent was a remarkable they witnessed the “liberation” alone any white women on made a vow to herself, years woman. Born in 1918 in of the city by Mao’s army. these roads. Even in the best before, that life permitting, she Hankou on the south coast, she Irene considered China to of circumstances, the journey would see with her own eyes was raised in the mountain town be her home. She considered was quite dangerous, even the sacred Buddhist temple of Kuling where she attended herself to be Chinese, often for Chinese. Irene bargained, caves at Tun Huang on the far the Kuling American School. referring to “us Chinese” persuaded, and bribed her borders of China. The place Her father was an exporter of when speaking about her life. way across the countryside, where she made that vow tung oil, which is used in the During their years in Irene’s bunking with caravan herders was a prosaic classroom at an manufacture of inks and paints, homeland, the Vincents were and tradesmen at small inns. American college.” and he lived in China for 40 active in both the foreign and The caves had only been Irene’s book ends with this years. Irene grew up bilingual, Chinese communities. discovered and excavated by quotation “Now, however, the speaking Mandarin, as well as westerners two decades before journey was over, the dream of Tr a v e l s English. It was not until she her visit and are a repository nine years fulfilled. But when One of the most significant was 16 that she traveled to of Buddhist murals, sculpture has this satisfied anyone? What events in Irene’s life was her the United States for the first and religious texts as well as is to be done after you have 1948 journey to one of the time, to enroll as a first year a variety of manuscripts that visited the place you hoped to most important archaeological student in the class of 1940 at date back to the 4th century see before you died?” sites in China, the Caves at Sweet Briar College. She was Six Dynasties period. In 1953, Tunhuang in western China. quite active in a wide variety Faber and Faber published For eight weeks she left of college activities, graduating her travel book, The Sacred the two children in the care of with a degree in International Oasis: The Caves at Tunhuang. her husband and a nurse and relations. It is introduced by another traveled from their home in In typical fashion of Sweet graduate of a women’s college what was then called Peking, Briar College in the 1930s in Virginia, Nobel Laureate by plane to Lanchow until and 40s, she married one Pearl S. Buck, Randolph- there were 800 miles left, then month after graduation. Macon Woman’s College, class by truck, and horseback, even Irene Vongehr and her young of 1914, another long time resorting to hitchhiking to husband, John B. Vincent resident of China. Randolph- the edge of the Taklamaqan returned to China, living in Macon Woman’s College Desert, the beginning of the Above: Irene Vongehr’s Sweet Briar Shanghai at the beginning happens to be 17 miles south Chinese part of the Silk Road. Yearbook photo of World War II, soon after of Sweet Briar. She often wore masculine dress moving to Calcutta for five Ms. Buck writes in the Right: Mrs. Vincent at the caves in order to blend in; there years beginning in 1942, then introduction:

1941 Paul Robeson recording

Shanghai 1940 phonebook 10 11 “Our Chinese Culture.” The John B. and Irene Vongehr Vincent Collection Th e Co l l e c t i o n “some of the books are sited in a location clearly in recordings will be digitized Irene began accumulating quite valuable, others are keeping with traditional style next year. books as she was writing The probably worthless, while in and consciousness of place – Sweet Briar College Library Sacred Oasis in 1952 when between are almost all the looking out over the water houses the majority of the the family was back in the US, standard works and many that toward China. Vincent Collection in a single and without even realizing it, are not standard. I also bought The Vincent Collection is special room in our 1927 she collected over 2000 titles deliberate propaganda books, composed of books, journals, Ralph Adams Cram historical which she catalogued on index as well as frivolous books about papers and miscellaneous items main library, with some of cards. Over the period of 50 China, which I thought might such at telephone directories the rare items in the Martin years, the collection had grown give the reader a picture of the from Shanghai, circa 1947, C. Shallenberger Rare Books to over 3700 volumes. way Americans or Europeans Mao buttons, paper cuts, Library. John Vincent sends a In 1990, Irene and her thought about China at any maps, travel folders, and sound few small packages of books husband decided to give the particular time. recordings. Included among every semester to continue college the collection in honor “I look forward to hearing the ephemeral family materials his wife’s contribution to her of her 50th college reunion and from you about my offer, which are documents of her father’s college. their 50th wedding anniversary. I would give to Sweet Briar’s such as business licenses, and Mrs. Vincent’s collection Irene wrote in her letter library with all my love.” various official documents. is frequently used by the when offering her collection: At last in 1996, she Of special note is her departments of history; Asian presented her private library to complete collection of 2 studies, English and art history, the college. She would die the journals, China Reconstructs and we have requests for following year. and China Pictorial. These materials from it from libraries John Jaffe and Professor 2 journals are the only all over the world. I invite John Goulde traveled to her publications that continued you all to visit and see it for home on Bainbridge Island during the Cultural Revolution. yourselves. in Washington State, and China Reconstructs is the The collection is a testament spent time with Irene and her premier publication of the to an extraordinary woman. husband John, looking over People’s Republic in English, the collection and then packing and presents the official views Lisa N. Johnston, Associate Director/ Head of Public Services, presented it for transit to Sweet Briar. of politics, arts, and economics. this talk at Chawton House, Allton, She had built a wonderful Among the issues of China UK, on July 20, 2007 at the Collectors structure separated from her Pictorial are audio recordings And Collecting: Private Collections house for her collection. It (on red vinyl of course) of And Their Role In Libraries conference sponsored by Goucher College and the was long and low, reminiscent revolutionary ballads, operas English Department of the University of Chinese buildings and and libretti in English. These of Southhampton.

Trade and Shop Signs presents a mystery. Where are the illustrations from, and who is the illustrator? John Gould Professor of Asian studies at Sweet Briar College believes that they were taken from the original xylographs used by the imperial library in Beijing in its encyclopedia. The signs are hand drawn and painted. We have the only library holding of this volume in the US. Her father’s papers Mao buttons 10 11 Nicole Basbanes Student Book Collecting Contest American Food Writing Leslie M. Lewis ’09

hen first introduced to the smorgasbord of flash-frozen entrees and genre of food writing, I was time-saving convenience goods to fill the initially surprised to find that void. Although I knew there were now there was even an audience huge movements in America dedicated Wfor this style of literature. “Writing about to the preservation of heirloom products, food?” I thought, “who cares, anyone can sustainable farming methods, and the whip up a cookbook or restaurant review reinstatement of seasonal menus, I was if they want to.” With increased exposure interested to know how we got to this I began to understand that the realm of point in out culinary history. I knew that gastronomical literature and food writing someone did not just wake-up and remark, extends well beyond cookbooks, reviews, “Today I think I will stray away from and domestic manuals into such literary turkey bacon and year-round strawberries, areas as personal memoir, travel writing, in favor of a more sustainable, flavorful, investigative journalism, and narrative natural meals.” There had to be a catalyst fiction. The more I read, the more I prompting such changes. Thus, with this began to grasp that food writing also question in mind my collection began varied greatly on the contextual level to take a new turn, slowly developing as well. Although always centered on into a reflection of the progress of the the pleasures of the table, the genre American palate and the popularization of frequently deals with such complex issues the food writing culture that would come as emotional expression, sexual discovery, to embody it. and cultural integration through the Although there are pieces of my exploration of taste, hunger, and the collection which do not specifically process of culinary creation. I suddenly focus on the development of American realized that in conjunction with the culinary culture, I believe they add an complex issues aroused within the text, important dimension to my collection the genre is also forced to address an as a whole. These texts, whether in the enormous external hurdle as well— the form of a historical discourse or gourmet initial perception of people like myself, etiquette guide, provide valuable insight individuals with the false notion of food into the origins of many techniques, writing as simply annotated recipes and dishes, and writing styles which have Although always domestic how-to tips. come to dominate American culinary It was from this realization that culture. I believe that in order to centered on the my collection was born. As I became accurately document the development of increasingly enamored with the genre, I food writing and the progression of the pleasures of the table, knew that I wanted to create a compilation American palate, it is important to also which would dispel the perceptions of explore the international influences that the genre frequently similar skeptics and expose others to the have shaped both movements. wonderfully varied nature of food writing. In regards to the future of my collection, deals with such complex At first I began with simply amassing I am extremely interested in obtaining varied forms of the genre, searching out texts from the “Domestic Science” era issues as emotional travel memoirs, investigative pieces, and of American history. It was during this cookbooks with a distinct narrative voice. time that the notion of cooking and expression, sexual Over time I came to understand that I was consumption shifted from that of pleasure not just interested in collecting intriguing to one of health, necessity, and simplicity. I discovery, and cultural samples of food writing, but specifically believe this period is extremely important pieces which documented the rise of our because there is a distinct emphasis during integration through country’s contemporary culinary culture this time frame on the popularization and commented upon the progression of of “convenience products” and the the exploration of taste, the genre within America. I was intrigued repression of gastronomical pleasure in by the popular belief that America is favor of sterile, “healthful” subsistence. hunger, and the process a land without a “national cuisine,” Such a drastic change is an important of culinary creation. relying instead upon a multi-cultural link between our contemporary culinary 12 13 culture and our gastronomical past that and hunger are primarily focused on issues Bibliography is missing from my collection. In filling of domesticity, necessity, and maternal American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes. Ed. Molly O’Neill. New York: Penguin this gap, I feel that my collection would instinct. While I do not have as many early Putnam Inc, 2007. be able to more accurately provide a samples of American food writing authored Best Food Writing 2006. Ed. Hughes, Holly. New York: complete portrayal of the progression of by females as I would like, I am interested Avalon Publishing Group, 2006. the American palate. in expanding that area of my collection so Bourdain, Anthony. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in I am also further interested in procuring as to have a more complete picture of the the Culinary Underbelly. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2000. some samples of gastronomically focused drastic evolution of female kitchen culture Buford, Bill. Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as a Kitchen poetry. I have found one or two examples from that of domesticity and necessity to Slave, Line Cook, Pasta- Maker and Apprentice to a in a collective anthology of American Food one of pleasure and celebration. Early Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany. New York: Alfred Writing, but am interested to explore this samples of female authorship would also A. Knopf, 2006. David, Elizabeth. A Book of Mediterranean Food. 2nd ed. particular realm of the genre to see if provide pivotal insight into the evolution New York: The New York Review of Books, 1958. there are any other promising poets. of feminine influence within the genre, David, Elizabeth. An Omelette and a Glass of Wine. In my opinion, poetry is an excellent revealing the progression of women from Guillford: The Globe Pequot Press, 1952. medium for the conveyance of such deeply obscure mediums of domestic discourse Fisher, M. F. K. The Gastronomical Me. New York: North personal and emotional experiences as to culinary celebrities such as Julia Child Point Press, 1943. Fisher, M. F. K. How to Cook a Wolf. New York: North taste, hunger, and consumption, but I and Alice Waters. Such texts would further Point Press, 1988. am unsure if other authors have explored reveal the development in American of Greene, Gael. Insatiable: Tales From a Life of Delicious this medium with the specific purpose of “socially acceptable” female expression Excess. New York: Time Warner Book Group, 2006. documenting gastronomical issues. The in regards to lust, desire, hunger, and Gusto: Essential Writings in Nineteenth-Century Gastronomy. Ed. Gigante, Denise. New York: Taylor addition of more gastronomical focused personal pleasure. and Francis Group, 2005. poetry would add an important aspect to I look forward to shaping the future Hesser, Amanda. The Cook and the Gardener: A Year of my collection by expanding the diversity growth of my collection through the Recipes and Writings from the French Countryside. New of the genre as it is represented within my acquisition of more intriguing and diverse York: W.W. Norton and Company Inc, 1999. collection. samples of food writing and gastronomical Jones, Idwal. High Bonnet: A Novel of Epicurean Adventures. Ed. Ruth Reichl. New York: Random I am also eager to expand my collection literature. The development of this House Inc, 2001. of American female authors, critics, and collection has brought me immense Kamp, David. The United States of Argula: The Sun- chefs, because I believe they represent pleasure over the years and I hope Dried, Cold-Pressed, Dark-Roasted, Extra-Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution. New York: Broadway an important shift in our culinary history that exploring it will impart as much Books, 2006. in regards to feminine associations with enthusiasm, interest, and passion for the Kingsolver, Barbara Steven L. Hopp, Camille Kingsolver. the kitchen. Early relationships between genre in you as it has in me. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. New women and the kitchen, consumption, York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007. Lancaster, John. The Debt to Pleasure. New York: Henry Hold and Company, 1996. Students Recognized for Book Collections Liebling, A. J. Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1986. Sweet Briar College students Leslie Lewis The Nicole Basbanes Student Book Masumoto, David Mas. Epitaph for a Peach: Four and Sarah Ansani were recognized Friday, Collecting Contest is sponsored by Sweet Seasons on my Family Farm. San Francisco: April 11 as winners of the College’s Briar College Friends of the Library and HarperSanFrancisco, 1995. annual Nicole Basbanes Student Book Nicholas Basbanes, author of “A Splendor Pennell, Elizabeth Robins. The Delights of Delicate Collecting Contest. of Letters” and “A Gentle Madness,” Eating. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000. The ceremony was held in the among others. Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural Browsing Room of the Mary Helen Basbanes’ daughter, the competition’s History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin Group Inc, Cochran Library at Sweet Briar. namesake, graduated from Sweet Briar 2007. Lewis, a junior from Goldsboro, N.C., in 2004. Reichl, Ruth. Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the won first place for her collection of Judges consisted of the elder Table. New York: Random House Inc, 1998. food writing books. The smorgasbord Basbanes, library professors John Jaffe Reichl, Ruth. Comfort me with Apples: More Adventures at includes dozens of titles, everything from and Lisa Johnston, professor emeritus of the Table. New York: Random House Inc, 2002. M.F.K. Fisher’s “How to Cook a Wolf” to English Lee Piepho and Erin Rogers ’08, Ruhlman, Michael. The Reach of a Chef: Professional Cooks “American Food Writing: An Anthology a past winner. In addition to the essay, in the Age of Celebrity. New York: Penguin Group Inc, with Classic Recipes.” contestants also submitted a bibliography 2006. Ansani, a senior from Arnold, Pa., with annotations. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: A Dark Side of the All- placed second. Her submission, “Sifting According to Cochran Library’s Web American Meal. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Through the Madness for the Word, the site, “Winners do not need to have large 2001. Line, the Way,” borrowed its title from a or expensive collections. Judges will focus Shange, Ntozake. If I Can Cook, You Know God Can. book of poetry by Charles Bukowski, one on the collector’s stated purpose and Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. of her favorite authors. goals and how well the collection meets Slater, Nigel. Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger. New Winners received a cash prize of up to them.” York: Penguin Group, 2004. $300. For placing first in the Sweet Briar According to SBC librarian Joe Malloy, Steingarten, Jeffrey. The Man Who Ate Everything: And contest, Lewis will be entered in the Fine it’s “breadth of collection” that matters. Other Gastronomic feats, Disputes, and Pleasurable Books & Collections Magazine Collegiate “What the judges look for is the love Pursuits. New York: Random House Inc, 1997. Book-Collecting Championship, a national of book collecting, not because they’re The Futurist Cookbook. Ed. Chamberlain Lesley. competition with a $2,500 first prize. class books [or] text books, but because Translation Suzanne Brill. Marinetti, F.T. San http://www.finebooksmagazine.com/ they’re subjects they’re interested in,” Francisco: Bedford Arts Publishers, 1989. contest/ he said. Trillin, Calvin. Alice Let’s Eat: Further Adventures of a Happy Eater. New York: Random House Inc 1978.

12 13 Nicole Basbanes Student Book Collecting Contest Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way Sarah Ansani ’08 t’s strange. As a child, I never read remember her reading to me that often, children’s books. My family had but she was very adamant about me a collection of books called The learning how to read, myself. She always Science Library that consisted of reads and perhaps her love for reading volumesI ranging from biological science, influenced my love for it. But she read to physics, to astronomy. I bypassed the hardbacks with authors that pop out familial adventures of The Berenstain five to eight books a year (or so it Bears and the catchy rhymes of Dr. Seuss seemed). They’re all mostly love stories for books containing accurate drawings and mysteries. And now she is my big of water fowl and descriptions of their love story and mystery. My father, on mating habits. I was impassioned by the other hand, never reads. This past nature and therefore collected several Christmas, he opened up a card from my books about animals. I amazed my older sister. He stumbled over the tacky, elementary school teachers and friends, rhyming words as if they were new to telling them that the polar bear’s fur was him. I was astounded. But not ashamed. actually transparent and that oranges He just laughed. He taught me not to actually had more potassium than take myself too seriously. bananas. I was a non-fiction junkie, Once upon a time, Sweet Briar College collecting the facts, and relating more sent me a college brochure. I had never with adults rather than the children my heard of Sweet Briar College. I scanned own age. I can say that not too much has the pages of the brochure and stopped, changed since then. dumbfounded, when I came across a But that would be a lie. picture of Jane Goodall. “I’m going to Despite my passion for the facts and Sweet Briar College.” all that is objective, my teachers and My passion for writing was beyond family could not help noticing my ability being a small glowing orb inside me. to write good stories and poetry. I I knew I was pretty decent at it. I was enjoyed a good story now and then, beginning to enjoy it, even. I packed up but writing was in the back of my mind. several (not all of them!) of my natural I bypassed the familial Reading a story didn’t register to me science books and a book of poems by as something productive to do with Charles Bukowski and left Pennsylvania events adventures of The my time. I continued reading books for Virginia where I’d be going to college written by Jane Goodall. I wanted to to major in Environmental Studies and Berenstain Bears and move to Africa and be an ethologist English/Creative Writing. the catchy rhymes of and zoologist. I wanted to work in the Or so I thought. field. Later in high school, my interests This was a very transitional stage for Dr. Seuss for books veered into philosophy. I read Socrates me; a time when my objective left-brain and Plato. I read Kafka’s Metamorphosis. thinking gave way to my imaginative containing accurate I read Kafka’s Metamorphosis again. And right-brain thinking. I decided not again. Since my interests veered into to major in Environmental Studies drawings of water fowl the direction of philosophy and the and decided to advance myself in the more subjective, so did my collection of area of English/Creative Writing and and descriptions of books. This leads to my various leaning Philosophy. I’m not a Philosophy major, their mating habits. towers of books that line the walls of the but I’m a great fan. My collection of spare bedroom of my parents’ home. books grew. I started buying books of “Darling, your books keep falling poetry to read for leisure, to read outside over in the middle of the night and the classroom. Despite his reputation of scaring your father. What are you going being a drunken, philandering gambler, to do with all those books?” Charles Bukowski raised his flags on top That’s my mother. She’s the reason of all my hills of books. I admire him why I read at such a young age. I can’t for his ability to live that lifestyle, to 14 live a simple lifestyle, even, and be able Bibliography to capture beautiful moments within

them. They are as simple and as desired 1. Johnson, Thomas H., ed. The Complete Poems of Emily 26. Bukowski, Charles. Burning In Water Drowning In as a gesture we wait for someone to give Dickinson. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, Flame. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1963. to let us know that everything is okay. 1960. 27. Quinn, Alice, ed. Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box: Bukowski gives me that gesture through 2. Delbanco, Nicholas. The Sincerest Form: Writing Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments by Elizabeth Fiction By Imitation. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill, Bishop. New York, NY: N.p., 2006. his writing. Despite everything he went 2004. 28. Middlebrook, Diane Wood & George, Diana Hume, through, he was still able to be sensitive 3. Hall, Donald, ed. Contemporary American Poetry. eds. Selected Poems of Anne Sexton. Boston, MA: despite his hard exterior. He repeatedly Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1965. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988. said to me, “Got shot in the heart again 4. Waldman, Anne, ed. The Beat Book: Writings From 29. Charters, Ann. The Portable Beat Reader. New York, today...but I’m okay.” The Beat Generation. Boston, MA: Shambhala NY: Penguin Books, 1992. Publications, Inc., 1996. 30. Martin, John, ed. Sifting Through The Madness I have taken several writing workshops 5. Lorca, Federico Garcia. In Search Of Duende. New For The Word, The Line, The Way: Poems by Charles and English courses. Although most York, NY: New Directions Publishing Corporation, Bukowski. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, people might not know it, I love writing 1998. 2003. fiction just as much as I do poetry. Within 6. Sexton, Anne. Transformations. N.p., 1971 31. Eastman, Arthur M. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. 7. Fogle, Richard Harter. John Keats: Selected Poetry & Oxford, England: W.W. Norton & Company, 1970. my bibliography is fifty books (although Letters. N.p., (old book and the first few pages are 32. Hunter, J. Paul, ed. The Norton Introduction to I have several more) concerning poetry missing). Poetry. USA: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999. and writing in general. My poetry spans 8. Mitchell, Stephen. Tao Te Ching. New York, NY: 33. Bentley, Chantelle, ed. 1999 Poet’s Market. F & W times as early as Beowulf and as current Harper & Row, 1988. Publications, 1999. as Marie Howe. My collection contains 9. Toomer, Jean. Cane. New York, NY: Liveright, 1993. 34. Scott, Wilbur Stuart, ed. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete 10. Neruda, Pablo. Love: Ten Poems. New York, NY: New Tales and Poems. Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 2002. poetry as formal as Shakespeare and as Directions Publishing Corporation, 1973. 35. Sanders, Marcus, ed. Dante’s The Divine Comedy. informal as the poetry written by the 11. Lott, Bret. Before We Get Started: A Practical Memoir Vancouver, British Columbia: Chronicle Books LLC, Nuyorican Poets. of the Writer’s Life. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2004. Books, I think (Especially for a writer. 2005. 36. Williams, Oscar. Immortal Poems of the English Language. Washington DC: October House, 1964. Especially!) are the most important 12. Kerouac, Jack. Book of Sketches. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2006. 37. Felleman, Hazel, ed. The Best Loved Poems of the tool for becoming a better writer. My 13. Clare, Sister M. Teresa. A Book of Poetry. New York, American People. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1936. wonderful writing professor, Carrie NY: The Macmillan Company, 1965. 38. Pound, Ezra, ed. Confucius to Cummings. New York, Brown, said that it is our senses that 14. Adams, Hazard. William Blake: Jerusalem, Selected NY: NewDirections, 1964. allow us to create universes. She is Poems and Prose. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and 39. Carne-Ross, D.S., ed. Homer’s The Odyssey. New Winston, Inc., 1970. York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998. absolutely right. Those, too, are essential 15. Peterson, R. Stanley. Designs In Poetry. New York, 40. Breese, Colleen, ed. The Complete Poems of Dorothy tools for writing. I have my books. I NY: The Macmillan Company, 1968. Parker. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1999. have my senses. I want to be a writer. 16. Heidegger, Martin. Poetry, Language, Thought. New 41. Ciardi, John. This Strangest Everything. Rutgers York, NY: HarperCollins, 1971. University Press, 1966. 17. Barks, Coleman. The Essential Rumi. San Francisco, 42. Raffel Buron, ed. Beowulf. New York, NY: Penguin CA: Harper, 1995.18. Howe, Marie. What The Books, 1963. Living Do. New York, NY: Norton & Company, 43. Morrison, Jim. Wilderness: The Lost Writings of Jim 1998. Morrison. Vintage Books USA, 1989. 19. Cummings, e.e. 100 Selected Poems. New York, NY: 44. Paulson, Ronald, ed. Fielding: A Collection of Critical Friends Grove Press, Inc., 1954. Essays. Prentice Hall Publication, 1962. 20. Pearce, Roy Harvey, ed. Whitman: A Collection of 45. Moser, Barry; Mandelbaum, Allen, eds. Dante’s The Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Paradiso. Mass Market Paperback, 1986. Inc., 1962. events 46. Moser, Barry; Mandelbaum, Allen, eds. Dante’s The 21. Sylvester, Janet. The Mark of Flesh. New York, NY: Purgatorio. Mass Market Paperback, 1983. W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 47. Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. New York, NY: 22. Roeser, Dana. Beautiful Motion. Lillington, NC: Viking Penguin Incorporated, 1959. Coming this Fall Edwards Bros., Inc., 2004. 48. Hale, Constance. Sin and Syntax. New York, NY: 23. Huges, Langston. Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. Broadway, 2001. New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 1959. 49. Algarin, Miguel, ed. Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican 24. Martin, John, ed. The Flash of Lightning Behind the Poets Cafe.New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, Mountain: Poems by Charles Bukowski. New York, LLC, 1994. OCTOBER 24 NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2004. 50. Strand, Mark; Boland, Eavan. The Making of a Poem. FRIENDS OF 25. Bukowski, Charles. You Get So Alone At Times That New York, NY: Norton, 2000. It Just Makes Sense. New York, NY: Black Sparrow LIBRARY FALL Press, 1986. COUNCIL MEETING

TBA HARP MUSIC

14 15 The Friends of the Non-Profit Org. Mary Helen Cochran Library U.S. Postage 2007-2008 PAID Stephen Mirabella, Chairman Sweet Briar Elizabeth Lipscomb, Vice Chairman College Janet Steven, Treasurer John G. Jaffe, Secretary Joyce Kramar, Friends Coordinator Board Members Rebecca Ambers Phyllis Janow Ro Putz Friends John Ashbrook Debbie Kasper Anne Richards ’84 of the Melissa Coffey ’98 Helen Lewis Harold Swisher Roscoe (Skipper) Fitts John E. Marsh Deborah Thacker ’77 Mary Helen M. Polk Green ’82 Bonnie Marsh Dick Wills Cochran Mrs. Milan Hapala Sigrid Mirabella Larry Janow Sarah Jane Moore Library Ex-Officio Members(College Administrators) Sweet Briar College President Elisabeth Muhlenfeld Sweet Briar, VA 24595 Dean Jonathan Green Paul Davies, Vice President www.cochran.sbc.edu for Finance and Administration [email protected] Connor Forren, Director of Donor Relations & Operations Ex-Officio Members (Past Friends of the Library Chairman) Ann Morrison Reams ’42 Jane Nelson ’66 Mrs. Raymond Rasenberger (Nancy Pesek ’51) Mrs. R. Gene Goley (Laura Radford ’52) Mrs. John Albert (Jean Love ’46) Mrs. M.R.J. Wyllie (Peggy Jones ’45) Mrs. Caroline Lindemann (Caroline Y. Casey ’49) McVea Scholars: Mary Spears Dance ’08 Sarah Byrd Hall ’09 Jennifer Marie Angelucci ’10 Gazette Editor Joe Malloy

A sample from the Fall 2007 & Spring 2008 Needs Lists

Biology Education German Jenkins, Robert E. National Mathematics Teaching and Learning, DEFA German Films - U of MA Freshwater fishes of Virginia - American Fisheries Second Handbook on Research - NCTM Pub. / Kuhle Wampe (1932) Society - 2006 The Bicycle I Was Nineteen (1968) Short protocols in molecular biology: a History Carla (1965) compendium of methods from Current protocols in O’Shea, Brendan molecular biology - Wiley Pub. / 2002 Trace of Stones (1966/1990) Perception and Reality in the Modern Yugoslav Born in ’45 (1966/1990) PCR protocols; edited by John M.S. Barlett - Conflict: Myth, Falsehoood and Deceit 1991-1995 Naked Among Wolves (1963) Humana Press / 2003 - Routledge / 2005 The Second Track (1962) The Encyclopedia of seeds: science, technology and The Independent State of Croatia 1941-1945; Solo Sunny (1980) uses; edited by J.D. Bewley - CABI Pub. / 2006 edited by P. Sabroma Ramet - Routledge / 2007 History Classical Studies Sociology Niermeyer, Jan Frederik Asheri, David Guy, Simon Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus - Medieval Latin A commentary on Herodotus: books I-IV - Oxford A sociology of energy, buildings, and the Dictionary (2 volumes) - Brill / 2002 University Press / 2007 environment: constructing knowledge, designing Italian Requests practice - Routledge / 2000 Seeing the face, seeing the soul: Polemon’s La storia dei Gettoni di Elio Vittorini; a cura di Vito Physiognomy from classical antiquity to medieval New developments in environmental sociology; Camerano - (3 volumes) N. Aragno / 2007 Islam - Oxford University Press / 2007 edited by Michael R. Redclift and Graham Moravia, Alberto Woodgate - Edward Elgar Pub. / 2005 Apuleius Madaurensis, Metamorphoses; edited by Opere: romanzi e racconti - Classici bompiani / B. L. Groningen - Brill / 2007 European Civilization 2005 Martial book IV: a commentary - Brill / 2006 Mulryan, John, Brown, Steven Reference Natale Conti’s Mythologiae - Volume 1 -Cornell A Companion to Roman Religion; edited by Jorg Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History - University Press / 2008 Rupke - Blackwell Publishers / 2007 Oxford University Press / 2008 A History of Ancient Greek: from the beginnings Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World - to late antiquity; edited for the Centre for the Oxford University Press - 2008 Greek Language by A.F. Christidis - Cambridge University Press / 2007