The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-21
FASHIONING BOOK-TIVLES
BRETITY THE AIM IN LATTER
 DAYS.

"Eothen" and "Lnvengro" as Mastor-
 Duties and InsuHerabIe Verbosity O
 the Front Page of Half-a-Century
 Ago-Pubiishers' Relations to some
 Classic Designations-some Amusing
 Misconceptions.
 In the choice of booktitle at the present moment, brevty is the first consideration. Publishers object to long names, booksellers dislike them, and the general public cuts or mu- tilates them A title must be short, distinct, and easily remembered. Ev- cry word beyond the three or four that are absolutely necessary is word too many. It is better for title to explain little or nothing, than for it to eXplaln too much. When Kinglake christened fascinating book of travels "Eothen' readers could draw no possible foretaste of it's contents from that mystic East ern word yet the title was a good one. Only those few who understood Romany could judge what to expect from Barrow's Lavengro, yet that also is masterpiece of titles At one time Borrow had contemplated the far less satisfactory title of Life: Drama which would have been both X vague and misleading. The choice of little is, indeed, one of an authors most difficult and, often, worrying tasks.
 The old fashioned titled erred in try ing to combine the duties of preface and contents-list with its own natural office. It would take far too much space to quote many such titles; put as a moderate example, we may notice the title of a popular work published { by William Hone in the year 1SS2' This title runs as follows: The Year-B or Daily Recreation and Information Concerning Remarkable Men and Man ners. Times and Seasons, Soemnities -and Merrymakings, Antiquities and Noyelties on the Plan of the Every s bay Book and Table Book; or Ever lasting calendar of Popular Amuse- rnents, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies { Customs, and Events Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-11ve Days in the Past and Present Time; Forming Complete History of the Year. and a Perpetual Key to the AL manac.' Of course, this title admits or ready condensation, and the book IS now always simply referred to as the Year Book but it is fair sample ot our forefathers' love of multiplying words. We may take it for granted that at no time would bookseller have entered the full name in his bills
 One more lengthy title will be quite enough for quotation; this is the title nrehxed to book in it's second edition, nubljshed by Bohn in 1S42. Encyclo- media of Literary and Typographical Anecdote. Being a digest of the most interesting facts illustrate of the His tory and Literature and Printing from the earliest period to the present tlme' Interspersed with biographical sketches Af eminent booksellers printers, type .--r44fSsers, engravers, bookbinders, ana papermakers of all ages and countries, but especially Great Britain; with bibliographical and descriptive ac- counts of their principal productions and occasional extracts from them h. cluding particulars of the first intro duction of printing into various coun- tries. and of the books there printed, mo- tices of early Bibles and Liturgies of all countries, especially books printed in England or in English; a history or all the newspapers, periodicals and almanacs published in this country; ' and an account of ink and paper, writ ing, and printing materials, the 1nven- tion of paper and paper machines, com ~~piled and condensed from Nichol's Lit erary Anecdotes, and numerous other authorities, by c. H. Timersley; Sec and Edition; to which is added con- tinuation to the present time, comprls- ing recent biographies chiefly of book sellers and practical manual of print ing. London
 Readers of the present day, whose readtng is often almost confined to skinrming the headlines of a newspa- 5 per. would never wade through such title as this. It must be understood that neither of these is an extreme specimen of what the old fashioned tl- tle-maker could do. Even that delight f,1l work which we now briefly describe as sRoswells Johnson has somewhat formidable front page. The Life or Samuel Johnson, LLD.. comprising Series of his epistolary Correspondence ond Conversations with man Eminent Persons: and various original Pieces or X his composition: with Chronological Account of his Studies and Numerous Works, the whole exhibiting view of Literature and Literary Men in Great Britain for nearly half Century, As opposed to this, Dockhart gave us sim plv The Life of Sir Walter Scott
 In the case of a work of history or biography, the choice of title Is usuallv easy and obvious: often there gre no alternatives to choose from. with fiction it is difficult. Dickens con- sidered twenty one different names be- fore he selected The Tale of Two Git ies.' He always liked to have his title chosen before he seriously began to write at tale He said once, II shall never be able to do anything for the work until it has fixed name.' In general the best name for novel is the name of its hero or heroine. Dickens generally acted on this principle him. self and his departures from it, as in Our Mutual Friend and Great Ex- nectations,' are not exactly happy. Scott did the same for the most part; hut he sometimes bickered with Con- stable about his titles. It was Consta- ble who prevailed on Scott to use the name of fKenilworth,' instead of call ing that romance 'Cumnor HalF; and