How Many Men Have Become Books?

On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 04:39:27 GMT, Iam There4
wrote:

"William M. Klimon" wrote:

Or, more specifically, how many authors have become eponyms for their
books--or perhaps a genre of books?

These come immediately to my mind:

Bartlett's (Quotations)
Webster's (Dictionary)
Fowler's (Modern English Usage)
Gray's (Anatomy)
Black's (Law Dictionary)
Roget's (Thesaurus)
Strunk & White (Elements of Style)

Those are familiar examples. In the law, there are many, many treatises
that have taken on their author's names (even when, as above, the authors
are long dead):

Prosser (on Torts)
Williston (on Contracts)
Corbin (on Contracts)
Nimmer (on Copyright)
etc.

I guess for book collectors and bibliographers, we're used to referring to
important reference works by the author's name, as well:

Wing (Short Title Catalog)
Parsons (Early Catholic Americana)
etc.

Any other examples?

William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com

Forgive me if this was already mentioned later in the thread...

BRADSTREET ( the name of the author of a commonly available and useful
street guide to Victorian London ), using this guide became known as
'consulting a Bradstreet'.


To add another one:
Historical weaponry: Stone's

And travel guide books has three:
Fodor's
Frommers'
and the third--the old one that is referenced in lots of English
mysteries, from the same era as Bradstreet (but I'm completely
blanking on the name--gah.)

Butler's (Lives of the Saints)

One of my all-time favorite reference works
I have a four volume leather bound set

In article ,
Jon Meyers wrote:
Ted Eisenstein wrote:
Let's not forget the women:

Emily Post (on etiquette)
Mrs. Beeton (19th century cookery and household management)

Fanny Farmer (Cookbook)

--Jon Meyers


How about one who is widely referred to simply by her first name?
Julia (Child, cookbook).

Matthew Hill

"Barbara Kaufman" wrote in message
...

Butler's (Lives of the Saints)

One of my all-time favorite reference works
I have a four volume leather bound set


Great one, Jon.

Yes, and it proves the point that in this case "Butler's" has become a brand
name because there is a recent 12-volume revised edition by Liturgical Press
that has very little to do with Alban Butler. (Although I guess some said
the same about the Thurston-At****er edition that preceded the Liturgical
Press edition--likely the edition you have.)


William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com

"William M. Klimon" wrote:

Or, more specifically, how many authors have become eponyms for their
books--or perhaps a genre of books?

Grimm's fairy tales

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William M. Klimon wrote:

it proves the point that in this case "Butler's" has become a brand
name because there is a recent 12-volume revised edition by Liturgical Press
that has very little to do with Alban Butler.

Someone mentioned Jane's Fighting Ships, which is still named after its
first editor (the current editor being Raymond VB Blackman). Roget's
Thesaurus examplifies something of the same process; Peter Mark Roget's
son took the project over from his father (after his decease,
dissolution, demise, departure, expiration, termination, etc), but for
the last 25 years or so the British edition has been updated
considerably by other editors, and in America Roget's name has
apparently been used as a kind of generic name since Mawson's edition
of 1911
(http://www.trivia-library.com/b/hist...rus-part-2.htm).

I think the real test, though, will be when the name ceases to be
capitalised, like "hoover" for vacuum cleaner.

John
http://rarebooksinjapan.com

"John R. Yamamoto-Wilson" wrote in message
ups.com...

Roget's
Thesaurus examplifies something of the same process; Peter Mark Roget's
son took the project over from his father (after his decease,
dissolution, demise, departure, expiration, termination, etc), but for
the last 25 years or so the British edition has been updated
considerably by other editors, and in America Roget's name has
apparently been used as a kind of generic name since Mawson's edition
of 1911


Yes, exactly; though it was "Bartlett's" that started me off on the whole
thing.



I think the real test, though, will be when the name ceases to be
capitalised, like "hoover" for vacuum cleaner.



Though, we are talking about "titles" of books, so they'll never be fully
generisized (i.e., referred to in all lower case).


William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com

Matthew Hill wrote:

In article ,
Jon Meyers wrote:
Ted Eisenstein wrote:
Let's not forget the women:

Emily Post (on etiquette)
Mrs. Beeton (19th century cookery and household management)

Fanny Farmer (Cookbook)

--Jon Meyers

How about one who is widely referred to simply by her first name?
Julia (Child, cookbook).

Matthew Hill

Please forgive me for sliding straight into peripatetic pedant mode, but
I don't think this one applies. I just can't imagine anyone ever saying:
'Oh no! I've forgotten the recipe for squirrel-balls flambe', quick
darling...get me my Julia from the cupboard!'.

--

Swimming in the rivers of light.

In article ,
Iam There4 wrote:
Matthew Hill wrote:

In article ,
Jon Meyers wrote:
Ted Eisenstein wrote:
Let's not forget the women:

Emily Post (on etiquette)
Mrs. Beeton (19th century cookery and household management)

Fanny Farmer (Cookbook)

--Jon Meyers

How about one who is widely referred to simply by her first name?
Julia (Child, cookbook).

Matthew Hill

Please forgive me for sliding straight into peripatetic pedant mode, but
I don't think this one applies. I just can't imagine anyone ever saying:
'Oh no! I've forgotten the recipe for squirrel-balls flambe', quick
darling...get me my Julia from the cupboard!'.

--

Swimming in the rivers of light.

Perhaps not, since one would have to specify which of her many works was
wanted.
Matthew Hill

In the realm of Nancy Drew book collecting the name Farah stands out as
the standard reference.
To a lesser degree in Hardy Boy collecting the name Carpentieri.