novel

[Jonathan Lighter]

It may be a stretch, but here is a 1965 use of "novel" which
functionally, if perhaps inadvertently, includes a collection of short
stories and nonfiction works as well. The first four titles are
fiction. The rest aren't. There is no transition between categories:

1965 _L.A. Times_ (Oct. 24) B30 [ProQuest]: [Headline] Bombarded With
War Novels. ...If you enjoy novels about the war, there are a number
of new titles available: THE TRAITOR by William L. Shirer...THE BIG
WAR by Anton Myrer...UP FROM THE BEACH by George Barr...HELLBENT FOR
GLORY by William Chamberlain...Combat stories of World War II and
Korea...THE FRIENDLY DEAD by T. Grady Gallant...An excellent account
of the Marines at Iwo Jima...THE TIRPITZ AND THE BATTLE FOR THE NORTH
ATLANTIC by David Woodward...PACEM IN TERRIS... [by] Pope John XXIII.

The headline writer might easily have written "book" over "novel" and
even saved a space in doing so.

This is the sort of case that might easily be dismissed as some sort
of careless error, and perhaps that's all that it is, but on such
errors semantic change often depends.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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