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Book review — Dead tree alert
July 6, 2009 · 2 Comments
Michael Andre edited with Erika Rothenberg The Poets’ Encyclopedia so he knows some things about reference books. Here’s his review of the Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists
I congratulate Ann Lee Morgan on this huge book. Of course, Oxford University Press used a computer spell check rather than a proof reader. The resulting typos are tricky because the wrong word appears rather than a mere misspelling. No doubt the contract stipulates Ms Morgan is to blame for such typos.
But more grievously the print is simply too small; and the book is therefore unreadable. My copy spits some more at the printer’s art: the cover has been clipped by the shears of some mighty press. A friend who was for twenty years the managing editor of a mid-sized Manhattan publisher told me she would have been fired if she had accepted a book with the cover so clipped by printers. She didn’t need to open it.
There are, in any case, no illustrations.
Are they thinking of selling the online version? I’m sorry, I prefer books which are books. I can only try to read this book using the magnifying glass which came with the condensed and unreadable Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, another Oxford University Press fiasco. The Brits think they’re so damn clever. What a terrible waste of paper! This is how a people loses its empire.
As the author, I can’t do much about type size or any other production problems. But I can fix typos–and would be most
grateful for a list of those you’ve spotted.
For the record, OUP still employs human eyes for proofreading. And no, my contract doesn’t blame me for anything. I’m glad you
didn’t, either!
–ALM
I was ranting about trends in publishing. When a third friend pickt up the book and said, “I can’t read it, the type’s too small” –I felt I had to say something. But the writing itself is an obvious, great achievement. I just can’t read with a magnifying glass.