From: ecl@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (evelyn.c.leeper)
Subject: rec.arts.books Frequently Asked Questions
Expires: Sun, 25 Oct 1992 16:28:37 GMT
Organization: AT&T
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 15:28:36 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.books
Keywords: monthly
Supersedes: <1992Jun25.191831.18551@cbnewsj.cb.att.com>

Archive-name: books/faq

Last change:
Thu Jul 23 09:10:00 EDT 1992

I have added back question #10, since I have gotten lots of requests for it.

Questions include:
    1) Where can I find book X by author Y?
    2) What is BOOKS IN PRINT?
    3) What is the answer to the Lewis Carroll riddle, "Why is a raven like
       a writing desk?"
    4) What Sherlock Holmes novels (stories) are there besides the ones by
       Arthur Conan Doyle?
    5) What is Project Gutenberg?
    6) Who wrote the horror story "The Monkey's Paw"?
    7) Where can I find books on audio tape?
    8) What English-language authors learned English as a second language?
    9) What books or plays have been written about scientists?
   10) Is there really an S. Morgenstern, listed as the author of THE
       PRINCESS BRIDE and THE SILENT GONDOLIERS?  And what is the reunion
       scene?

Dropped question (if you want to answers, send me mail; if enough people
start asking, I'll add them back in) are:

    O3) What is the difference between the male and female editions of
       DICTIONARY OF THE KHAZARS by Milorad Pavic?

[I am also posting lists/descriptions of bookstores in New York and the San
Francisco area in separate postings.  --Evelyn Leeper]

                  Frequently Asked Questions List
               (Quarterly Posting to rec.arts.books)

First of all, a few suggestions: 

SPOILER WARNINGS:  Many people feel that much of the enjoyment of a book
is ruined if they know certain things about it, especially when those
things are surprise endings or mysteries.  On the other hand, they also
want to know whether or not a book is worth reading, or they may be
following a particular thread of conversation where such information may
be revealed.  The solution to this is to put the words SPOILER in your
header, or in the text of your posting.  You can also put a ctl-L
character in the *first* column, though this only works if your readers
are using rn.  Some people think that spoiler warnings are not necessary.
We don't understand why, and do not want to discuss it.  Use your best
judgment.

REVIEWS:  Many people seem to be interested in reading book reviews.
Unfortunately, not nearly as many people are interested in writing them.
If you do review a book, please try to say more than, "THE RETURN OF
AHAB THE SAILOR was a great book!"  Unless you are a well-known
net.personality, this sort of comment tells the reader little about
whether s/he would like the book.  Reviews may also be found in
rec.arts.sf.reviews.  Which brings us to...

SCIENCE FICTION:  Some people think science fiction should be kept in
the sf hierarchy.  Other people think that "books" includes "science
fiction books."  This is one of those issues that will never be
resolved, so arguing about it is a waste of time and bandwidth.
If you object to reading about science fiction in this newsgroup,
put the string "/rec.arts.sf/hj" in your KILL file.


1) Where can I find book X by author Y?

The United States's most complete bookstore is the combination of BOOKS IN
PRINT and the U. S. Post Office.  BIP will tell you the price and the
publisher's address.  Send them a check for the price and they will be happy
to send you the book.  We do it all the time.  Some publishers grudgingly
send a note with the book saying "Next time please include N% for postage
and handling," but that is unusual.  Nobody has ever refused to send the
book and at least once they sent a check with the book because if ordered
direct, they gave a discount.  We rarely order through a bookstore because
it is so much easier to order the book and have it sent to us directly.
(This is probably not true for mass-market paperbacks where the handling
charges would be more than the book!)

If, on the other hand, you just want to borrow it, ask your library
about inter-library loans--chances are good they can find it for you in
a library they have reciprocal agreements with even if they don't have
it themselves.

2) What is BOOKS IN PRINT?

Just about every public library and every bookstore in the country has, for
public use, a multi-volume reference work called "Books in Print."  It is
just about what the title claims it is.  It is a listing by title, by
author, and by subject of every book currently listed by publishers as being
currently in print in the United States.  (There may be editions for other
countries as well.)  It tells you the list price and the publisher.  It also
has a volume of out-of-print books and a separate volume that lists the
mailing addresses of the publishers.  The local B. Dalton keeps it at the
information desk.  Almost bookstore or public library will have a set that
they would be happy to have you look at.

There is a similar reference set called "Paperback Books in Print."  I am
not sure what it would list that would not be listed in its bigger cousin,
but that reference might also be of interest.  In Britain, there is "British
Books in Print."  At this time, there is no public site that provides "Books
in Print" on-line.

(For used books, there is BOOKMAN'S, the used book trade magazine.  Lots
of books are advertised there that haven't been in print for decades.
You may be able to find the annual bound copy of BOOKMAN'S PRICE INDEX
(the used book dealer's pricing bible) in your local library.  There's
no guarantee that the book you want will still be for sale if you go
that way, but it is a good way to plan your budget.)

One way of getting out-of-print titles is to get in touch with
University Microfilms, Inc. (or other such companies).  They'll print a
copy of a book from microfilm, generally within 3 weeks of your order.
They take care of the copyright issues & royalty payments, and you get
the book (although I the printing quality is what you'd expect for a
photoreprint from microfilm).  They're a standard resource for
librarians.  

A 106-page book was recently quoted as US$30.00, with a US$6.00
surcharge for cloth binding.  (The default is paperbound).  And of
course,not all books are available for reprinting--they've obviously
specialized in academic books.

University Microfilms, Inc.
300 North Zeeb Road
Ann Arbor, MI
48106 
313-761-4700
800-521-0600
800-343-5299 (works in Canada)

(Most of this and the preceding entry were contributed by Mark Leeper
(leeper@mtgzy.att.com.  Thanks to Barry Meikle (meikle@r-node.gts.org)
for the UMI info.)

3) What is the answer to the Lewis Carroll riddle, "Why is a raven like a
writing desk?"

According to Martin Gardner, Carroll had no answer in mind which he first
wrote this.  However, Carroll did gave a solution himself, in an 1896
edition of "Alice": "Because it can produce very few notes, tho they are
very flat; and it is nevar [sic] put with the wrong end in front."  Gardner
has recently added another: "Because there is a 'b' in 'both.'"

A better-known answer is that Poe wrote on both.

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes says that both have inky quills.

4) What Sherlock Holmes novels (stories) are there besides the ones by
Arthur Conan Doyle?

See accompanying posting of non-canonical Sherlock Holmes works.  The
list includes all known works using Sherlock Holmes as a character,
though the individual stories by Conan Doyle are not listed, just
the book titles.  It includes hundreds of non-Doyle works (many of
which are out of print).  (This list was compiled by me over a period
of years from suggestions from many people.)

5) What is Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg is planned as a storage- and clearing-house for making
books available very cheaply.  Clearly, this can only be done for books
where the copyrights have expired, so that effectively much of the work
has focused on classic literature.

Current available titles include Lewis Carroll's ALICE IN WONDERLAND and
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, and Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and
John Jay's FEDERALIST PAPERS.  Project Gutenberg is available by
anonymous FTP from mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu in directory /etext, and also
from oes.orst.edu.  (The latter has a larger selection.)

Another similar directory is held at info.umd.edu, in directories under
info/ReadingRoom/Fiction.  Found there are books by 14 authors including
Mark Twain, H. G. Wells, and F. Scott Fitzgerald [not that I found
--ECL].  They also have the Bible, Book of Mormon and Koran in ASCII
format.  Also available from info.umd.edu is a collection of economics
time series data from the Federal government, as well as daily and
long-term weather forecasts.

(I am told info.umd.edu allows you to telnet in and use an intelligent
front end to browse the files on line, and  transfer them back using
ftp, tftp, or kermit?  Simply telnet info.umd.edu, and login as "info",
then follow the instructions on the screen.)

cwdynm.cwru.edu has the Bible, the Book of Mormon (and other Mormon
texts), and the Koran available via anonymous FTP.

6) Who wrote the horror story "The Monkey's Paw"?

William Wymark Jacobs (1863-1943), an English writer of sketches of
seafaring and rural life, mostly comic.  He wrote a few other horror
stories, notably "The Toll-House."  For more information see E. F.
Bleiler's THE GUIDE TO SUPERNATURAL FICTION, Kent State Univ., 1983.

7) Where can I find books on audio tape?

Duane Morse (duane@anasaz) suggests several sources:

Books on Tape
P.O. Box 7900
Newport Beach, CA 92658
To order: 1-800-626-3333
Comment: very large selection of unabridged books on tape.  Rentals
available for just about everything in the catalog.  Good readers.

Recorded Books
270 Skipjack Rd.
Prince Frederick, MD 20678
1-800-638-1304
FAX: 1-301-535-5499
Comment: unabridged books on tape.  Rentals available for just about
everything in the catalog.  Not nearly as large a selection as Books on
Tape, but rentals are cheaper.  Generally outstanding readers.

Audio Editions
P.O. Box 6930
Auburn, CA 95604
To order: 1-800-231-4261
Comment: primarily abridged books on tape, but some poetry and plays;
readers usually professional actors or acting companies.

The Olivia and Hill Press
905 Olivia Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
To order: 1-313-663-0235
Foreign language tapes, primarily French, German, and Spanish, but some
Russian, including stuff for kids.

Reddings Audiobook Superstores
2302 N. Scottsdale Road
Scottsdale, Arizona 85257
To order: 1-800-REDDING
Comment: Produces nothing of its own, but rents and sells what they have
purchased from Recorded Books, Books on Tape, and others.

Dercum Press
P. O. Box 1425
West Chester, PA 19380
Comment: Has some unabridged short stories on cassette under the label
"Active Books," notably some SF collections.  Readers are average.

Blackstone Audio Books
P.O. Box 969
Ashland, Oregon 97520
1-800-729-2665
Comment: lots of unabridged classics on tape.  Often faulty cassettes --
very low audibility or one side with no audio at all.  Readers not as
good as other companies.

8) What English-language authors learned English as a second language?
	AUTHOR				FIRST LANGUAGE
	Asimov, Isaac			Yiddish*
	Bellow, Saul			Yiddish, French?
	Brodsky, Joseph			Russian
	Bronowski, Jacob		Polish
	Broumas, Olga			Greek
	Codrescu, Andrei		Romanian
	Conrad, Joseph			Polish
	Dinesen, Isak (Karen Blixen)	Danish
	Heym, Stefan (Helmut Flieg)	German
	Ishiguro, Kazuo			Japanese*
	Kakuzo, Okakura			Japanese
	Kerouac, Jack			French
	Kingston, Maxine Hong		Cantonese
	Koestler, Arthur		Hungarian
	Kosinski, Jerzy			Polish
	Limonov, Eddie			Russian
	Lin Yu-tang			Chinese (Mandarin?)
	Lowe, Adolph			German
	Malinowski, Bronislaw		Polish
	Milosz, Czeslaw			Polish
	Nabokov, Vladimir		Russian*
	Nin, Anais			French
	Rand, Ayn			Russian
	Sabatini, Rafael		Italian
	Smirnov, Yakov			Russian
	Stoppard, Tom			Czech*
	Traven, B.			German?
	Tutuola, Amos			Hausa? (from Nigeria)
	van Gulik, Robert		Dutch
	Wertenbaker, Timberlake		French
	Wongar, Banumbir		Arnhem Land aboriginal language
	Zukofsky, Louis			Yiddish

*Learned English as a child.

B. Traven is believed to be the pseudonym of a (German? Austrian? 
Czekoslovakian?) Ret Marut, who emigrated after a failed revolution in 
Bavaria rather hastily to Mexico about 1919.

Other possible candidates include Timothy Mo, who grew up in Hong Kong
and was later educated in England.  There are numerous Indian and
Anglo-Indian writers, like (Vikram) Seth, Narayan (Tamil), Markandaya,
Tagore (Bengali), and Rushdie (Gujrati), for whom English may very well
be their second language.  Some of the modern Soviet expatriates write
in English now (see Smirnov, above).  Also Guneli Gun (Turkish), Wole
Soyinka, Ayi Kwei Armah (Yoruba?), Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Kikuyu), Dambudzo
Marechera (Ndebele?), many other African writers, Waguih Ghali (Arabic),
Walter Abish (German), Apirana Taylor (Maaori), Albert Wendt (Samoan).
Other possibilities include a number of Chinese and East Asian authors.
Also possibly Mavis Gallant, who spoke French as a child in Montreal.
Jan Williem Van der Wetering wrote in Dutch and then translated his
books into English.

How about switches to other languages?  French has Samuel Beckett
(English), Camara Laye (Dahomey), (possibly) Julien Green (English), and
Leon Troyat (Lev Tarassov, a.k.a. Lev Tarossian) (Russian? Armenian?).
Russian has Fazil Iskander (Abkhaz) and Chingiz Aitmatov (a Central
Asian Turkish dialect).  Was Paul Celan's first language was Hungarian?

9) What books or plays have been written about scientists?

(Given that science fiction would expand this list beyond the disk limits
of most systems, this question is restricted to non-SF only.)

Plays or theatrical performances:
Albee, Edward: WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF (biologist)
Bentley, Eric: THE RECANTATION OF GALILEI GALILEO--SCENES TAKEN FROM
	HISTORY PERHAPS
Brecht, Bertolt: GALILEO
Bronowski, Jacob: THE FACE OF VIOLENCE
Darion, Joe and Ezra Laderman: THE TRIALS OF GALILEO (opera)
Duerenmatt,Friedrich: THE PHYSICISTS (physicists in an insane asylum)
Eisenberg, Mike: HACKERS (computer scientists)
Emanuel, Gabriel: EINSTEIN: A PLAY IN TWO ACTS
Esst, Garrison: UNCERTAINITY (Einstein and Heisenberg)
Heimel, Cynthia: A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO CHAOS
Ibsen, Henrik: AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (although main character is a doctor)
Johnson, Terry: INSIGNIFICANCE (Einstein and Marilyn Monroe)
Kaiser, Georg, THE GAS TRILOGY
Kipphardt, Heinar: IN THE MATTER OF J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER
Leonard, Jim: GRAY'S ANATOMY (about a MD who has to deal with contaminated
	water that kills off a town)
MacLeish, Archibald: HERAKLES (a play in verse about the power of
	scientists--that of a god--and the meagerness of their imagination)
Mighton, John: SCIENTIFIC AMERICANS (physicist and computer scientist)
Rice, Elmer: THE ADDING MACHINE
Schenkar, Joan: FULFILLING KOCH'S POSTULATES (microbiology)
Shadwell, Thomas: THE VIRTUOSO (late 1600s parody of the Royal Society)
Socolow, Elizabeth: LAUGHING AT GRAVITY: CONVERSATIONS WITH ISAAC NEWTON
	(poetry)
Stavis, Barrie: LAMP AT MIDNIGHT (1940s, about Galileo) 
Stoppard, Tom: HAPGOOD (physicist)
Stoppard, Tom: ? (about Stephen Hawking)
Whitemore, Hugh: BREAKING THE CODE (about Alan Turing)
Wilson, Robert: EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH
Wilson, Robert: THE LIFE OF SIGMUND FREUD (?)
?: MEN IN WHITE (1930s Pulitzer-prize winning play about a young/old doctor)
?: PARTICULAR MEN (about J. Robert Oppenheimer)
?, PICK UP AX (engineers and engineering managers)

Novels:
Asimov, Isaac: A WHIFF OF DEATH
Banville, John: DOCTOR COPERNICUS
Baring, Maurice: CAT'S CRADLE
Borges, Jorge Luis: short story in LABYRINTHS about Averroes
Boyd, William: BRAZZAVILLE BEACH (mathematician and social biologists)
Brod, Max: THE REDEMPTION OF TYCHO BRAHE (astronomers Brahe and Kepler)
Chekhov, Anton: (many stories with doctors)
DeLillo, Don: RATNER'S STAR
Djerrasi, Carl: CANTOR'S DILEMMA
Levi, Primo: (several semi-autobiographical books)
Lewis, Sinclair: ARROWSMITH
McCormmach, Russel: NIGHT THOUGHTS OF A CLASSICAL PHYSICIST
	(professor of physics)
Powers, Richard: THE GOLD BUG VARIATIONS
Pynchon, Thomas: GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
Pynchon, Thomas: V
Rand, Ayn: ATLAS SHRUGGED (physicists)
Shute, Nevil: NO HIGHWAY (structural engineering)
Smith, Kaye Nolte: MINDSPELL (genetic engineering)
Snow, C. P.: THE NEW MEN (building the British atom bomb)
Snow, C. P.: THE SEARCH
Stone, Irving: THE ORIGIN (a biographical novel of Charles Darwin)
Trollope, Anthony: THE CLAVERINGS (engineers)
?: CALCULUS OF MURDER
Thomas, Walter Keith and Warren U. Ober: A MIND FOR EVER VOYAGING:
	WORDSWORTH AT WORK PORTRAYING NEWTON AND SCIENCE

10) Is there really an S. Morgenstern, listed as the author of THE PRINCESS
BRIDE and THE SILENT GONDOLIERS?  And what is the reunion scene?

No, it's really William Goldman.  When you write for the reunion scene, this
is what you get (or what Mary Margaret Schuck, schuck@ben.dciem.dnd.ca,
got anyway):

=======
Dear Reader,

Thank you for sending in, and no, this is not the reunion scene, because of
a certain roadblock named Kermit Shog.

As soon as bound books were ready, I got a call from my lawyer, Charley --
(you may not remember, but Charley's the one I called from California to go
down in the blizzard and buy _The Princess Bride_ from the used-book
dealer).  Anyway, he usually begins with Talmudic humor, wisdom jokes, only
this time he just says, "Bill, I think you better get down here," and before
I'm even allowed a 'why?' he adds, "Right away if you can."

Panicked, I zoom down, wondering who could have died, did I flunk my tax
audit, what?  His secretary lets me into his office, and Charley says, "This
is Mr. Shog, Bill."

And there he is, sitting in the corner, hands on his briefcase, looking
exactly like an oily version of Peter Lorre.  I really expected him to say,
"Give me the Falcon, you must, or I'll be forced to keeeeel you."

"Mr. Shog is a lawyer," Charley goes on.  And this next was said
underlined: "_He_ _represents_ _the_ _Morgenstern_ _estate_."

Who knew?  Who could have dreamed such a thing existed, an estate of a man
at least a million years dead that no one ever heard of over here anyway?
"Perhaps you will give me the Falcon now,"  Mr. Shog said.  That's not
true.  What he said was, "Perhaps you will like a few words with your client
alone now," and Charley nodded and out he went, and once he was gone I said,
"Charley, my God, I never figured --" and he said, "Did Harcourt?"* and I
said, "Not that they ever mentioned" and he said, "Ooch," the grunting sound
lawyers make when they know they've backed a loser.  "What does he want?"  I
said.  "A meeting with Mr. Jovanovich," Charley answered.

*_The Princess Bride_ was first published in hardcover in 1973 by Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich.

Now, William Jovanovich is a pretty busy fella, but it's amazing when you're
confronted with a potential multibillion-dollar lawsuit how fast you can
wedge in a meeting.  We trooped over.

All the Harcourt Brass was there, I'm there, Charley; Mr. Shog, who would
sweat in an igloo he's so swarthy, is streaming.  Harcourt's lawyer started
things: "We're terribly terribly sorry, Mr. Shog.  It's an unforgivable
oversight, and please accept our sincerest apologies."  Mr. Shog said,
"That's a beginning, since all you did was defame and ridicule the greatest
modern master of Florinese prose who also happened to be for many years a
friend of my family."  Then the business head of Harcourt said, "All right,
how much do you want?"

Biiig mistake.  "_Money_?"  Mr. Shog cried.  "You think this is petty
blackmail that brings us together?  _Resurrection_ is the issue, sir.
Morgenstern must be undefiled.  You will publish the original version."  And
now a look at me.  "In the _unabridged_ form."

I said, "I'm done with it, I swear.  True, there's just the reunion scene
business we printed up, but there's not liable to be a rush on that, so it's
all past as far as I'm concerned."  But Mr. Shog wasn't done with me:
"_You_, who _dared_ to _defame_ a _master's_ characters are now going to put
_your_ words in their mouths?  Nossir.  No, I say."  "It's just a little
thing," I tried; "a couple pages only."

Then Mr. Jovanovich started talking softly.  "Bill, I think we might skip
sending out the reunion scene just now, don't you think?"  I made a nod.
Then he turned to Mr. Shog.  "We'll print the unabridged.  You're a man
who's interested in immortality for his client, and there aren't as many of
you around in publishing as there used to be.  You're a gentleman, sir."
"Thank you," from Mr. Shog; "I like to think I am, at least on occasion."
For the first time, he smiled.  We all smiled.  Very buddy-buddy now.  Then,
an addendum from Mr. Shog: "Oh.  Yes.  Your first printing of the
unabridged will be 100,000 copies."

			****

So far, there are thirteen lawsuits, only eleven involving me directly.
Charley promises nothing will come to court and that eventually Harcourt
will publish the unabridged.  But legal maneuvering takes time.  The 
copyright on Morgenstern runs out in early '78, and all of you who wrote in 
are having your names put alphabetically on computer, so whichever happens
first, the settlement or the year, you'll get your copy.

The last I was told, Kermit Shog was willing to come down on his first
printing provided Harcourt agreed to publish the sequel to _The Princess
Bride_, which hasn't been translated into English yet, much less published
here.  The title of the sequel is: _Buttercup's Baby: S. Morgenstern's
Glorious Examination of Courage Matched Against the Death of the Heart_.

I'd never heard of it, naturally, but there's a Ph.D. candidate in Florinese
Lit up at Columbia who's going through it now.  I'm kind of interested in
what he has to say.

(signed) William Goldman

P.S.

I'm really sorry about this, but you know the story that ends, "disregard
previous wire, letter follows?"  Well, you've got to disregard the business
about the Morgenstern copyright running out in '78.  That was a definite
boo-boo but Mr. Shog, being Florinese, has trouble, naturally, with our
numbering system.  The copyright runs out in _'87_, not '78.

Worse, he died.  Mr. Shog I mean.  (Don't ask how could you tell.  It was
easy.  One morning he just stopped sweating, so there it was.)  What makes
it worse is that the whole affair is now in the hands of his kid, named --
wait for it -- Mandrake Shog.  Mandrake moves with all the verve and speed
of a lizard flaked out on a river bank.

The only good thing that's happened in this whole mess is I finally got a
shot at reading _Buttercup's Baby_.  Up at Columbia they feel it's
definitely superior to _The Princess Bride_ in satirical content.
Personally, I don't have the emotional attachment to it, but it's a helluva
story, no question.

Give it a look-see when you have the chance.
						-- August, 1978

P.P.S.

This is getting humiliating.  Have you been reading in the papers about the
trade problems America is having with Japan?  Wll, maddening as this may
be, since it reflects on the reunion scene, we're also having problems with
Florin which, it turns out, is our leading supplier of Cadminium which,
it also turns out, NASA is panting for.

So all Florinese-American litigation, which includes the thirteen lawsuits,
has been officially put on hold.

What this means is that the reunion scene, for now, is caught between our
need for Cadminium and diplomatic relations between the two countries.

But at least the movie got made.  Mandrake Shog was shown it, and
word reached me he even smiled once or twice.  Hope springs eternal.

						-- May, 1987

=======

====================================================================

(Contributions for addition to this FAQL gratefully appreciated.
Suggestions for things *I* should write to add to this FAQL are not so
gratefully appreciated.)

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 908 957 2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books