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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1959

HARRY C. BAUER

Bibliographers and book collectors must continue to endure “Double, double toil and trouble” so long as publishers refuse to heed Lord Falkland's wise dictum:— “When it is not…

Abstract

Bibliographers and book collectors must continue to endure “Double, double toil and trouble” so long as publishers refuse to heed Lord Falkland's wise dictum:— “When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.” Some American and British publishers simply will not let well enough alone in accepting book titles. They persist in issuing books under one title on one side of the ocean and under another title on the other side of the ocean. Prospective book buyers must therefore spend considerable time verifying title entries and comparing the contents of books if they wish to avoid a duplication of an author's works. In 1940, Hodder & Stoughton of London published John Buchan's joyful recollections, Memory Hold ‐ the ‐ Door. The Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston simultaneously released the book under the title, Pilgrim's Way. It would be interesting to learn how many librarians and bibliophiles unwittingly duplicated the memoirs in the innocent belief that they were acquiring distinct narratives. Either title was appropriate, but the dual titles resulted in confusion.

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Library Review, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1961

HARRY C. BAUER

Many snobs, high‐brows, intellectuals and other persons schooled beyond their capacities deplore the commercial sponsorship of radio and television programmes. Why anyone should…

Abstract

Many snobs, high‐brows, intellectuals and other persons schooled beyond their capacities deplore the commercial sponsorship of radio and television programmes. Why anyone should rail at the market place is hard to understand; very often the “commercials” are superior to sponsored broadcasts both in artistry and pleasantry. It is difficult to understand why the intellectual should deride “commercials” since books, periodicals and newspapers permeated with advertising matter have been accepted by the reading public for generations if not centuries. Multitudinous advertisements in magazines and newspapers are more or less taken for granted as essential concomitants of the periodical publishing business. The sporadic attempts to launch publications containing no advertisements have not won sufficient support even from the self‐appointed élite to assure success.

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Library Review, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1976

Harry C. Bauer

THE HUM AND DRUM OF WORD SOUNDS is irresistible and infectious. Words team up naturally and magnificently when they are linked in tandem by the coordinate conjunction and. This…

Abstract

THE HUM AND DRUM OF WORD SOUNDS is irresistible and infectious. Words team up naturally and magnificently when they are linked in tandem by the coordinate conjunction and. This may be the primary reason why and is among the ten most frequently used words in the English language. Whenever I read the essays of Henry L. Mencken, I sense that and is the most frequently seen word in his canon. Now, this is all well and good. Unstinting and even extravagant use of and is no sin: witness the Authorized Version of The Bible or The Book of Common Prayer.

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Library Review, vol. 25 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1967

Harry C. Bauer

THE PRAYERFUL UTTERANCE, ‘May we never want a friend in need, nor a bottle to give him,’ has been widely publicized on a poster celebrating a rare Scotch whisky. The man who…

Abstract

THE PRAYERFUL UTTERANCE, ‘May we never want a friend in need, nor a bottle to give him,’ has been widely publicized on a poster celebrating a rare Scotch whisky. The man who originated that delectable expression, however, was Captain Edward Cuttle, the delightful old mariner in Dombey and Son, who spoke in riddles and made a practice of winnowing moral precepts from the good Book for the guidance and edification of his young friend and protege, Walter Gay.

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Library Review, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1963

HARRY C. BAUER

When Mr. Dombey entrusted his little son, Paul, to Doctor Blimber for tutelage, the benevolent pedagogue tactfully inquired, “Shall we make a man of him?” Mr. Dombey brightened…

Abstract

When Mr. Dombey entrusted his little son, Paul, to Doctor Blimber for tutelage, the benevolent pedagogue tactfully inquired, “Shall we make a man of him?” Mr. Dombey brightened over the prospect, but his six‐year‐old offspring manifested utmost disdain. When the question was repeated for his benefit, the little man replied, “I had rather be a child”. Alas, the childish wish came true; before the year was out, little Paul Dombey languished and ultimately died of inanition.

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Library Review, vol. 19 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1962

HARRY C. BAUER

A writer who cannot coin a phrase soon learns that rhyme does not pay. This need not deter him, however. Lacking the ability to prey upon words, he can continue to play with…

Abstract

A writer who cannot coin a phrase soon learns that rhyme does not pay. This need not deter him, however. Lacking the ability to prey upon words, he can continue to play with words. In short, he can aspire to become Jack of all charades and good at pun. The imbecility of Jack of all japes was thoroughly exposed by Joseph Addison in several early issues of The Spectator. Isaac D'Israeli added further analyses and good illustrations in his Curiosities of Literature. A more comprehensive inventory of type vice is interwoven in the verses of the second book of Richard Owen Cambridge's satirical poem, The Scribleriad. Cambridge singled out for extinction acrostics, the amphisbaena, anagrams, antitheses, boutsrimés, centos, chronograms, conundrums, crambos, doggerels, echoes, fustian, lipograms, macaronic compositions, puns, quibbles, reciprocal verses (likewise known as retrograde or recurrent verses, including palindromes), the rhopalic sequence, riddle and rebus (“Riddle's dearest son”), and finally, rondeaus. He overlooked several other forms of literary laceration judged by Addison to be “tricks in writing as required much time and little capacity.”

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Library Review, vol. 18 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1960

HARRY C. BAUER

By filching a few words once used by Thackeray in another connection, a bibliographic name dropper may be neatly defined as a novelist who embellishes his romance with “a personal…

Abstract

By filching a few words once used by Thackeray in another connection, a bibliographic name dropper may be neatly defined as a novelist who embellishes his romance with “a personal allusion foreign to the question”. The best example of a gratuitous personal allusion that comes to mind is the one found in Henry James's brilliant story, The Liar. As the story opens, Oliver Lyon, a noted painter, has just arrived at a country estate for a weekend party among celebrities. While dressing for dinner, Lyon glances over the books in the guest room hopeful of gaining insight into the cerebral allergies and prejudices of his hosts. The setting permitted James to insert the extraneous allusion: There was the customary novel of Mr. Le Fanu jor the bedside, the ideal reading in a country house for the hours after midnight. James never wrote truer words, but why he chose to single out Le Fanu for recognition is indeterminable. Perhaps he sincerely liked Le Fanu. Certainly, no flattery could have been intended since Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu had died many years before The Liar was written. James may simply have desired to inform his readers that he, too, was not above mystery stories and popular novels of the day. Whatever his reason, pedagogues may be grateful. Imagine the wonderful diversion afforded a hard pressed lecturer by James's amiable digression. The writings of Henry James may be hard to elucidate, but any dilettante can expatiate for hours on the writings and doings of the versatile and talented Le Fanu who “did in his allotted hours … in this enormous world of ours, his halfpenny worth of work”.

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Library Review, vol. 17 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1966

Harry C. Bauer

WORDS COINED BY IMAGINATIVE WRITERS are nothing more than highly cultured pearls of thought. Though they never come into existence spontaneously or naturally, they truly adorn the…

Abstract

WORDS COINED BY IMAGINATIVE WRITERS are nothing more than highly cultured pearls of thought. Though they never come into existence spontaneously or naturally, they truly adorn the language and help to perpetuate the works of novelists, playwrights, and poets. Better still, they prolong indefinitely the popularity of many novels, plays and poems that probably would otherwise slip into oblivion. If Henry Carey had never nicknamed Ambrose Philips Namby Pamby, the two eighteenth century poets would probably long be forgotten, and the English language would lack a choice verbalism as well as the humorous lines:

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Library Review, vol. 20 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1954

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

Abstract

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

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Aslib Proceedings, vol. 6 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0001-253X

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1974

Harry C. Bauer

A MAN'S LAST WORDS carry presumption of credibility not associated with utterances made earlier in life. William Shakespeare acknowledged this credibility in at least three of his…

Abstract

A MAN'S LAST WORDS carry presumption of credibility not associated with utterances made earlier in life. William Shakespeare acknowledged this credibility in at least three of his plays. When the physician, Cornelius, told Cymbeline that the Queen had confessed that she loved him not, Cymbeline declared, ‘She alone knew this;/And, but she spoke it dying, I would not/Believe her lips in opening it.’

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Library Review, vol. 24 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

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