Volume 1, Number 10 · January 9, 1964
Mencken
By W.V. Quine
The American Language
by H.L. Mencken. Abridged Edition, edited by Raven J. McDavid Jr.
Knopf, 777 pp., $12.95
The American Language as I knew it in my callow days was the third edition, 1923, revised and enlarged. It ran to 500 pages, counting pp. i-x. There have since been a fourth edition, further revised and enlarged, and two supplementary volumes and some magazine pieces. What is now before us is an abridgment of all that, and an abridgment not uncalled for. For all its abridgment, the volume exceeds the 1923 enlarged edition by a factor of 2 1/3. (To verify, add xxv and 777 and, all over again, cxxiv in back, and then compare print and format.)
Review, 1944 words
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