Description
Product Description
This Word-Book is presumably the only work of Jonathan Swift’s not in print, until now. Since the 1690s, Swift had been formulating a list of words and definitions for his protégé Esther Johnson, beginning with terms from the Book of Common Prayer. His was apparently an on-going list, kept rather haphazardly, with open spaces for adding new words. About 1710, when Swift was in London, Johnson, in Dublin, set out to formalize the dictionary, copying out Swift’s words and definitions to make an orderly and careful book with no blank spaces. Probably in 1713, when Swift returned to Ireland, Johnson presented her Word-Book to him, but his school-masterly corrections of her work may have offended her. After Johnson’s death in 1728, Swift gave the Word-Book to their mutual friend, Elizabeth Sican. It was passed down over generations, until in 1976, the young American Swiftian A. C. Elias, Jr., bought it, intending to edit it in his old age. Before his early death of lung cancer in 2008, Elias asked John Fischer to assume the challenge of bringing the book into print. Fischer took on the task until 2015, when he too died of a lung disease. His wife Panthea Reid completed the task for her husband. This volume includes illustrations from the original book, a transcript of it with schematic indications of Swift’s corrections, essays and appendices by Fischer and Elias, tracing provenance, exploring the social and psychological milieu in which the book was written, and tracking Swift’s work as a lexicographer. This appearance of Swift’s last book to be printed is a publishing event.
Review
In about 1710 Jonathan Swift prepared a list of some 2,000 “hard words” with definitions for his friend Esther Johnson (“Stella”). The original has vanished, but Johnson’s transcription with Swift’s corrections survives. The manuscript was bought in 1976 by A. C. Elias, who made a good start on a scholarly edition. Recognizing he would die before completing the work, Elias passed it on to John Irwin Fischer in the hope that he would finish it. But Fischer too died without completing the edition, and it fell to Fischer’s wife, Panthea Reid, to bring it across the finish line. The volume reveals these eccentric origins: the 70-page glossary is surrounded by a variety of introductory essays and six appendixes—all by four scholars, Elias, Fischer, Reid, and Ann Cline Kelly, who do not always see eye to eye…. [T]he dictionary deserves attention as the only significant work by Swift previously in print. It is valuable, too, for the insight it gives into Swift’s writings of that period, especially A Tale of a Tub, and for the great volume of commentary on Johnson. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. (
CHOICE)
About the Author
The late A.C. Elias Jr. was an independent scholar based in Philadelphia.The late John Irwin Fischer taught at Louisiana State University Baton-Rouge. Panthea Reid is professor of English emerita at Louisiana State University.
This Word-Book is presumably the only work of Jonathan Swift’s not in print, until now. Since the 1690s, Swift had been formulating a list of words and definitions for his protégé Esther Johnson, beginning with terms from the Book of Common Prayer. His was apparently an on-going list, kept rather haphazardly, with open spaces for adding new words. About 1710, when Swift was in London, Johnson, in Dublin, set out to formalize the dictionary, copying out Swift’s words and definitions to make an orderly and careful book with no blank spaces. Probably in 1713, when Swift returned to Ireland, Johnson presented her Word-Book to him, but his school-masterly corrections of her work may have offended her. After Johnson’s death in 1728, Swift gave the Word-Book to their mutual friend, Elizabeth Sican. It was passed down over generations, until in 1976, the young American Swiftian A. C. Elias, Jr., bought it, intending to edit it in his old age. Before his early death of lung cancer in 2008, Elias asked John Fischer to assume the challenge of bringing the book into print. Fischer took on the task until 2015, when he too died of a lung disease. His wife Panthea Reid completed the task for her husband. This volume includes illustrations from the original book, a transcript of it with schematic indications of Swift’s corrections, essays and appendices by Fischer and Elias, tracing provenance, exploring the social and psychological milieu in which the book was written, and tracking Swift’s work as a lexicographer. This appearance of Swift’s last book to be printed is a publishing event.
Review
In about 1710 Jonathan Swift prepared a list of some 2,000 “hard words” with definitions for his friend Esther Johnson (“Stella”). The original has vanished, but Johnson’s transcription with Swift’s corrections survives. The manuscript was bought in 1976 by A. C. Elias, who made a good start on a scholarly edition. Recognizing he would die before completing the work, Elias passed it on to John Irwin Fischer in the hope that he would finish it. But Fischer too died without completing the edition, and it fell to Fischer’s wife, Panthea Reid, to bring it across the finish line. The volume reveals these eccentric origins: the 70-page glossary is surrounded by a variety of introductory essays and six appendixes—all by four scholars, Elias, Fischer, Reid, and Ann Cline Kelly, who do not always see eye to eye…. [T]he dictionary deserves attention as the only significant work by Swift previously in print. It is valuable, too, for the insight it gives into Swift’s writings of that period, especially A Tale of a Tub, and for the great volume of commentary on Johnson. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. (
CHOICE)
About the Author
The late A.C. Elias Jr. was an independent scholar based in Philadelphia.The late John Irwin Fischer taught at Louisiana State University Baton-Rouge. Panthea Reid is professor of English emerita at Louisiana State University.
