[Ads-l] Blurb and blurbing

[Shapiro, Fred]

FWIW, here is a Burgess entry from the forthcoming second edition of the Yale Book of Quotations:


YES, this is a "BLURB" !  All the Other Publishers commit them.  Why Shouldn't We ?

Dust Jacket for _Are You a Bromide ?_ (1907).  Earliest usage of the word _blurb_.  This dust jacket, with a portrait of "Miss Belinda Blurb," was apparently specially added to copies of the 1906 book distributed at the 1907 annual dinner of the American Booksellers' Association.



Fred Shapiro



________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of dave at wilton.net <dave at WILTON.NET>
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2019 7:40 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Blurb and blurbing


The LOC website with the images you originally linked to says the images are of the "jacket" and date to 1940. (This could, of course, be a miscataloguing, but absent other evidence I would assume the LOC has it right.) They are clearly not from the 1906/07 edition of the book because the dates given in the image are later. Having an ad on a book jacket would not be the least unusual.

The Gutenberg site has the text of the book, but not of the paratext (e.g., the jacket).

-----Original Message-----
From: "Andy Bach" <afbach at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2019 10:41am
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Blurb and blurbing



> These images are from a 1940 edition of the book.

I *think* the gift was in 1944 and what images are are not of the book
but the pamphlet that Burgess handed around at the meeting to tout his
book as the other pages are ads for his other books and the Library of
Congress stamp
Gutenberg has the whole book:
https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gutenberg.org%2Febooks%2F10870&data=02%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40yale.edu%7C2ae88e6ea0ff4926f10508d6dabc8511%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C1%7C636936900566000138&sdata=%2FVmh%2FQ1xrhOC5E9ZSQ1nmNQ2ODrhHqteCacnhJFGuhs%3D&reserved=0

I guess it's supposed to be funny.


On Wed, May 15, 2019 at 1:32 PM dave at wilton.net <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
>
> These images are from a 1940 edition of the book.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Andy Bach" <afbach at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2019 2:14pm
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: [ADS-L] Blurb and blurbing
>
>
>
> My Lit Hub Daily newsletter started with:
> TODAY: In 1906, at the 1907 American Booksellers Association banquet,
> Gelett Burgess hands out copies of his new book Are You A Bromide? The
> book jacket features a photo of a woman—Miss Belinda Blurb—and a new
> role: blurbing, thus coining the promotional text on a book-jacket.
>
> I was intrigued by what that book could be about and so:
> https://nam05.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.loc.gov%2Fresource%2Frbpe.24203600%2F%3Fst%3Dgallery&data=02%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40yale.edu%7C2ae88e6ea0ff4926f10508d6dabc8511%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C1%7C636936900566000138&sdata=EJm4tBHursEIiQwRJ%2BrU3oEhRo%2F1%2Bewl7pLbDceb3Uk%3D&reserved=0
>
> But notice that the cover says, surrounding a picture of Miss Blurb,
> hand cupped to her mouth and shouting, "YES, this is a “BLURB”! All
> the Other Publishers commit them. Why Shouldn't We? MISS BELINDA BLURB
> IN THE ACT OF BLURBING ARE YOU A BROMIDE? ... Ask the man at the
> counter what HE thinks of it! HE's seen Janice Meredith faded to a
> mauve magenta. He's seen BLURBS before, and he's dead wise. He'll say:
> This Book is the Proud Purple Penultimate!!"
>
> It would seem that rather than coining the term, he's just being "up
> front" (sorry) about it. But it must've been a thing before, I mean
> the dead wise guy has certainly seen them before. Maybe Janice
> Meredith has too ... or maybe she's an early blurber.
>
> --
>
> a
>
> Andy Bach,
> afbach at gmail.com
> 608 658-1890 cell
> 608 261-5738 wk
>
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--

a

Andy Bach,
afbach at gmail.com
608 658-1890 cell
608 261-5738 wk

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