The Devil's Details : A History of Footnotes

Zerby, Chuck

ISBN 10: 1931229058 / ISBN 13: 9781931229050

Published by Invisible Cities Press, Montpelier, Vermont, 2002

About this Item

Octavo Size [approx 15.5 x 22.8cm]. Very Good condition in Very Good Dustjacket. DJ protected in our purpose-made clear archival plastic sleeve. A nice copy. Previous owner's details to half-title page [neat label]. 150 pages. The history of the rise and fall in the use of footnotes in scholarship. Robust, professional packaging and tracking provided for all parcels.

Seller Inventory # 320895

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Devil's Details : A History of Footnotes
• Publisher: Invisible Cities Press, Montpelier, Vermont
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1931229058
• ISBN 13: 9781931229050
• Binding: Hardback
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • History-General

About this title

Synopsis

This surprising history of the footnote starts with the assumption that footnotes are not solely the province of academics and bibliophiles. On the contrary, this book argues that footnotes can enchant and inform readers through tributes to people, characters, heroes, and lovers. Scholars have employed them, of course, but so have poets, novelists, memorialists, and pornographers. Written with clarity and erudition, this book presents the history of the first genuine footnote—an annotation in a 17th-century poem by England’s first female poet—and other fascinating footnote tales, such as the discovery of a multivolume book that uses one entire volume for a single footnote and the use of footnotes to footnotes. This history pays tribute to the joy of reading footnotes and makes a compelling case that they are too important, too interesting, and too entertaining to be left to scholars.

About the Author

Chuck Zerby has written for the New York Times, Woman’s Day, the History of Education Quarterly, and the Amherst Record. He lives in Hadley, Massachusetts.