Who collected "Benjamin Franklin's 'Drinker's Dictionary'"

[Joel S. Berson]

In January I wrote:
>Paul Dickson still thinks Benjamin Franklin collected the 228 terms
>for intoxication of the Pennsylvania Gazette's 1737 "Drinker's
>Dictionary".  In his 2009 "Drunk: The Definitive Drinker's
>Dictionary", he writes (p. 8), "The first person to ever collect and
>publish a sampling from the cornucopia of English slang for
>drunkenness was Benjamin Franklin, who included 228 terms for
>intoxication in his Drinker's Dictionary in 1737. ... Franklin
>published his list ...".

However, I am gratified to report that the International Journal of
Lexicography does not still so think.  At my request, it has
corrected Antonio Lillo's review of Dickson's "Drunk" to say, about
collections of "drunken terms", "the largest list (237 terms) being
collected by an unidentified Boston writer and republished by no less
a figure than Benjamin Franklin (cf. Berson 2006)."  [Int'l. J. of
Lexicography, Advance Access published Feb. 10, 2010.]

Finally, someone (else) has withdrawn undeserved credit from
Ben!  :-)  But neither Dickson nor Lillo has responded to my email
pointing out their error.

Joel

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