Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, often simply called Bartlett's, is an American reference work that is the longest-lived and most widely distributed collection of quotations. The book was first issued in 1855 and is currently in its seventeenth edition, published in 2003.

History

John Bartlett, who ran the University Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was frequently asked for information on quotations and he began a commonplace book of them for reference. In 1855, he privately printed his compilation as A Collection of Familiar Quotations. This first edition contained 258 pages of quotations by 169 authors, chiefly the Bible, William Shakespeare, and the great English poets. Bartlett wrote in the fourth edition that "it is not easy to determine in all cases the degree of familiarity that may belong to phrases and sentences which present themselves for admission; for what is familiar to one class of readers may be quite new to another."

Related Topics:
John Bartlett - Cambridge - Massachusetts - Commonplace book - 1855 - Bible - William Shakespeare - English poets

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The book was a great success, and Bartlett issued three more editions before joining the Boston publishing firm of Little, Brown, and Company in 1863. Bartlett rose to be the senior partner of the firm and supervised nine editions of the work before his death in 1905, the work selling over 300,000 copies. The seventh edition had appeared in 1875, the eighth edition in 1882, and the ninth in 1891. The tenth edition, however, would not appear for more than twenty years.

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Boston - Little, Brown, and Company - 1863 - 1905 - 1875 - 1882 - 1891

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Edited by Nathan Haskell Dole, the tenth edition (1914) was much like its predecessors. The book began with quotations originally in English, arranging them chronologically by author (Geoffrey Chaucer was the first entry, Mary Frances Butts the last). These quotes were chiefly from literary sources. A "miscellaneous" section follows of quotations in English from politicians and scientists (such as "fifty-four forty or fight!"). A section of "translations" follows, consisting mainly of lines from the ancient Greeks and Romans. The last section was devoted to the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. Quotations were arranged in a single column.

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Nathan Haskell Dole - 1914 - Geoffrey Chaucer - Mary Frances Butts - Fifty-four forty or fight - Translation - Ancient Greeks - Romans - Book of Common Prayer

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The eleventh edition (1937), edited by Christopher Morley (1890–1957) and Louella D. Everett, expanded the page size and created a two-column format, making it the first edition that is recognizable to users of the modern work. A twelfth edition (1948) was also edited by Morley and Everett.

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1937 - Christopher Morley - 1890 - 1957 - Louella D. Everett - 1948

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The thirteenth edition (1955) was billed by the publisher as the "Centennial Edition." While the work was credited to the editors of Little, Brown, the preface gives special thanks to Morley and Everett as well as Emily Morison Beck (1915–2004). The volume continued to add more recent material, the two youngest authors being cartoonist Bill Mauldin and Queen Elizabeth II. Beck also edited the fourteenth edition (1968) and the fifteenth (1980). Adam Bakshian would say Beck's work on the fifteenth edition was the start of the work's downfall: "Donning the intellectual bell-bottoms and platform shoes of its era, Bartlett's began sprouting third-rate Third World, youth-culture, and feminist quotes," part of "a middle-aged obsession with staying trendy."

Related Topics:
1955 - Emily Morison Beck - 1915 - 2004 - Bill Mauldin - Queen Elizabeth II - 1968 - 1980 - Third World

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Following Beck's retirement, Little, Brown entrusted the editorship to Justin Kaplan, whose life of Mark Twain Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain had won the Pulitzer Prize in 1967. Kaplan brought out the sixteenth edition in 1993 to a firestorm of controversy, thanks to his public comments that "I'm not going to disguise the fact that I despise Ronald Reagan" and had deliberately shortchanged him. Reagan's entry contained only three quotations, all intended to make Mr. Reagan look ridiculous, according to critics.

Related Topics:
Justin Kaplan - Mark Twain - Pulitzer Prize - 1967 - 1993 - Ronald Reagan

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Kaplan also failed to include the most famous Reagan line ("Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"). Democratic presidents fared much better under Kaplan than Republicans, with Franklin D. Roosevelt having 35 entries and John F. Kennedy having 28. Jonathan Siegel, who edited the Macmillian Book of Political Quotations, said Kaplan was "an insult to the memory of John Bartlett and the ideologically inclusive spirit of the first fifteen editions."

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Gorbachev - Wall - Democratic - Republicans - Franklin D. Roosevelt - John F. Kennedy

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Kaplan was also criticized for including material that some considered neither "familiar" nor quotable, including pop culture quotes that some thought were not worthy of inclusion. The same criticisms would be leveled against the seventeenth edition (2003), which included entries for the first time from J.K. Rowling, Jerry Seinfeld, and Larry David. The seventeenth edition did include more Reagan material, and Kaplan told USA Today after its publication "I admit I was carried away by prejudice. Mischievously I did him dirty."

Related Topics:
Pop culture - 2003 - J.K. Rowling - Jerry Seinfeld - Larry David - USA Today

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