THE DEVIL'S DETAILS; A HISTORY OF FOOTNOTES

Zerby, Chuck

ISBN 10: 0743241754 / ISBN 13: 9780743241755

Published by Simon and Schuster, 2003

About this Item

Simon and Schuster, c2003. first printing. 8vo. Textblock pages lightly tanned from age, else fine unread trade paperback, uncreased spine. Seller Inventory # 110766

Bibliographic Details

Title: THE DEVIL'S DETAILS; A HISTORY OF FOOTNOTES

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Publication Date: 2003

Binding: Trade paperback

Condition: Fine

Edition: First Edition, First Printing.

About this title

Synopsis:

Footnotes have not had it easy. Their dominance of eighteenth- and nineteenth- century literature and scholarship was both hard-won -- following many years of struggle -- and doomed, as it led to belittlement in the twentieth century. In The Devil's Details, Chuck Zerby playfully explores footnotes' long and illustrious history and makes a clarion call to save them from the new world of the Internet and hypertext.
In a story that boasts a marvelous plot and a rogues' gallery of players, Zerby examines traditional footnotes and their less-buttoned-down incarnations, as when used by pornographers. Yes, The Devil's Details is full of surprises: Zerby hunts down the first bona fide fully functioning footnote; unearths a multivolume history of Northumberland County, England, that uses one volume for a single footnote; and uncovers a murder plot. He even explains why footnotes are like blind dates.
Carefully researched and highly opinionated, The Devil's Details affirms that delight in reading can come from unexpected places.

About the Author:

Chuck Zerby developed The Devil's Details from an article he published in The New York Times. A former columnist for the Amherst Record, Zerby lives in Hadley, Massachusetts.