Have you seen this book? An O.E.D. mystery

[snopes]

The Oxford English Dictionary’s Web site has appealed to the public for help in identifying a mysterious book, “Meanderings of Memory.” The book is cited as an early source for words like “chapelled” (“adj. placed or stationed in a chapel”), “revirginize” (“trans. to render virginal again”) and forty-seven others. “We have been unable to trace this title in library catalogues or text databases,” they announced,

All these quotations have a date of 1852, and some cite the author as ‘Nightlark’.

The only evidence for this book’s existence that we have yet been able to find is a single entry in a bookseller’s catalogue.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blog...of-memory.html

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

So, apparently, if it's a hoax, it's an old one.

Seaboe

[nonnieyrissa]

Pull listing, in case it helps. I assume it was an erotica or pornographic vanity novel, so looking for suck books published under the pseudonym Nightlark around that time might be a good start...

[Steve]

Originally Posted by nonnieyrissa

Pull listing, in case it helps. I assume it was an erotica or pornographic vanity novel, so looking for suck books published under the pseudonym Nightlark around that time might be a good start...

I don't mean to pick on a typo, nonnieyrissa, and I've made more than my fair share. But assuming you meant "such books", this is priceless way to describe erotica .

[nonnieyrissa]

Wow. That's great. Thanks Steve!

[musicgeek]

That it was a typo hadn't even occurred to me. I was thinking, "There's a specific name for that literary subgenre? I learned something today!"