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The 17th edition of BARTLETT'S FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS finally drags the familiar work into the 21st century. Many of the puzzling Latin and Greek epigrams have been eliminated, and some of the more modern authors, politicians, and celebrities are given space. There are 863 pages of quotations. The rest of the book is mostly index and alphabetical list of authors (which is necessary since the quotations are arranged chronologically, by birthdate of the author), from Ancient Egypt through The Doors, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and Sesame Street. The first edition was published by Boston bookseller, John Bartlett in 1855, with mostly biblical and classical quotations. This, the 17th edition, expands on the 1992 edition's addition of more modern citations, quotations that would be as familiar to us as those biblical quotations were to the 19th century Bostonian. And some of the citations are more meaningful to us today than they might have been in an earlier decade. Ayn Rand: Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy.... p 771 Edward R. Murrow: We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty p 779 Joe Louis: He can run but he can't hide p 793 Mordecai Richler: I'm world-famous," Dr. Parks said, "all over Canada." p 826 Ann Richards: Poor George, he can't help it‹he was born with a silver foot in his mouth. p. 828 Woody Allen: Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends. p 831 Eldridge Cleaver: You're either part of the solution or part of the problem p 831 H. Rap Brown: Violence is as American a cherry pie p 837 Oliver Stone: Greed is good! Greed works! Greed will save the USA. p 840 Hermann Goering: Shoot first and inquire afterwards, and if you make mistakes, I will protect you p. 737 One of the criticisms that have been leveled at this edition is that it short-changes the classics in favor of pop culture. Yes, we have quotations from Alfred Hitchcock, Eric Ambler, Maya Angelou, Kingsley Amis, Satchel Paige, Casablanca, Woody Guthrie, Tip O'Neill, Norman Panama and Melvin Frank (The pellet with the poison...), Pete Seeger, Mel Brooks, Margaret Thatcher, Allen Ginsberg, Fidel Castro, Hair, Grace Slick, Lennon and McCartney, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Jesse Jackson, Helen Reddy, Muhammad Ali, Mick Jagger, Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Bill Griffith, James Carville, Alice Walker, Rudolph Giuliani (after the cowardly attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001), George Lucas, Bob Marley, Pete Townshend, Bill Clinton, Arlo Guthrie, Bruce Springstein, Melissa Mathison, but we also have pages from the Bible, Shakespeare, Cicero, Virgil, the Koran, Chaucer, Cervantes, Milton, Burns, Poe, and all those other dead white men that the earlier editions of this work were obsessed with. If you are looking for an epigram for a chapter heading, a new sig line for your email, or just feel like browsing, this is a wonderful volume to do it in. I opened it at midnight last night; an hour later I was still immersed in it. The only reason I closed it was because I could no longer see. $50.00 seems like a great deal to spend on a book, but new editions come out only every 10 years, so that's only $5.00 a year.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, January 2003
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