Fred R. Shapiro

1) This is a beautifully-produced book whose content was also very carefully compiled and presented.

2) It is one of the few "reference" works that you'll be tempted to read straight through. I did.

3) One does get the feeling upon completion that the majority of quotable people found life not to be a dream but a nightmare.

4) The editors make no secret of the fact that they have sought to further social justice (as they see it) in their selection of what quotations to include. I can live with that. Not all quotation books have to be the same. If the more obscure quotations they've chosen fail to impress, readers' opinions may be swayed in the opposite of their intended direction. I'm okay with that, too.

5) I'm puzzled by the seemingly random choice of song lyrics to include. "Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder? Why?

6) The editors have tried very hard to track down the first person to say each quote, but it ends up seeming a Sisyphean task. Again and again, a statement is discovered to have been used decades before its ostensible debut. It's enough to make one think that the collective unconscious or linguistic convergence are real.… (más)

I first became aware of this project a few years ago, when Fred Shapiro started asking questions about quotations on Stumpers-L (now Project Wombat). When the book finally appeared last year, I was pleased to see that he not only acknowledged the help given the by the list and the individuals who'd provided leads and information, he'd also added many annotations (see the entry for John Sedgwick). In its general form, this is similar to the other canonical books of quotations, but he's added a lot more and included many contemporary references.… (más)