Notes on Reaching 70 Not Out – Part 6

Decades of Romance with Dictionaries

by Sachi Sri Kantha, September 17, 2024

Dictionary of Foreign Phrases and Abbreviations – my earliest purchase in 1973

Half a century ago I learned that, vocabulary enhancement is an essential requirement to become a good writer. Towards achieving this goal of being an interesting writer, one needs to be blessed by Muses and also possess amulet(s). My amulet(s) have been dictionaries; over 50 years I began romancing (collecting) dictionaries and encyclopedias. As of now, I have spent a fortune from my meager income, in collecting 115 dictionaries of various categories and 24 encyclopedias of different types. I have no hesitation to mention that majority of the texts of my published research papers (detailed in part 5 of this series) as well as over 350 items included in this website (current version) were enhanced by constant reference to these collected dictionaries and encyclopedias.

My story begins on May 15, 1982, at Urbana, Illinois. A week had passed since my 29^th birthday, and I wished to treat myself. At a second hand bookstore in the university town, I bought a paperback copy of a second hand book – ‘The Wonderful World of Books’ (Mentor books, New York) edited by Alfred Stefferud for 25 cents. This book was published in 1953 (my year of birth) for 35 cents. Within 319 pages, it contained 72 brief chapters authored by many who were affiliated to book-related business. Chapter 38 was titled, ‘Book Collecting’, by John T. Winterich. His profile indicated that he was an ‘editor, book collector, and author’. I was aroused by what he had written in 3 pages. Here were two thoughts of Winterich, which captivated me.

“A book collection is simply a group of books, from two up, that is bound together by a single idea (italics added). If there are two cookbooks in your kitchen, somebody in your house is a book collector.”

“Always remember, though, that there should be a central purpose that runs through your collecting activities (italics added); otherwise, no matter how many books you wind up with, what you will have is not a book collection but a casual hodge-podge of books.”

I had begun my dictionary collection, during my undergraduate days at the University of Colombo, in the first half of 1970s. One regret I had about my father was, though he pushed me to read books of all kinds in Tamil and English, he hardly had a library on his own. Thus, I’ve to start from the beginning without any parental endowment towards my hobby. My dictionary collections had followed all my peregrinations, crossing Pacific Ocean three times in 1986, 1989 and 1991. I still retain three of my Sri Lankan period (pre-1981) dictionaries, which I present in cover photos nearby.

My first purchase was ‘Dictionary of Foreign Phrases and Abbeviations’ (1968) by Kevin Guinagh in 1973. The second one was a Tamil Dictionary of Poets [Pulavar Akarathi, edited by P.V. Gopalan], published in 1957. The third one was ‘Little Pearl English-Tamil Dictionary’ by N. Rajagopal, a miniature (mini)-book of 7cm – 5cm dimensions. By conventional definition, a mini book is one which can be held within one’s palm. I bought this mini-book for 3 Sri Lankan rupees, at the Colombo Municipality Public Library book exhibition on Dec 22, 1980. Sadly quite a few dictionaries which I treasured had got lost after I left the blessed island in 1981.

Though in this century, I was forcefully pushed into the digital world for reasons of professional survival, still I remain as an analogue-addicted guy. Thus, still I’m a member of the Homo analogicus (ca 2003) variety in the Roz Chast’s ‘Evolution of the Species’ cartoon of 2003.

Roz Chast’s 2003 ‘Evolution of the Species’

My dream of ‘becoming a lexicographer of some standing’ originated during my high school days of 1967-69. While in Sri Lanka, during the weekends, I had permission from my parents to visit British Council library, Colombo Municipal Public Library and the United States Information Services (USIS) library. At that time, from these libraries one could borrow only two books at most. I used to keep notebooks, in which I had copied items which attracted my attention for further reading and analysis, from the borrowed library books. These ‘notes’ were the original seeds for my vision of becoming a ‘lexicographer of some standing’.

There were three incentives for me to build my own collection of dictionaries. First was, dictionaries being reference books are held in tight control by the librarians and they couldn’t be borrowed for reading, perusing or skimming; to solve this inconvenience, I preferred to own my collection of dictionaries. Secondly, in 1960s, when I was learning to read American and European news from Sri Lankan newspapers, I found it difficult to distinguish between similar sounding names of movie personalities (Marlon Brando vs Marilyn Monroe, or Ingmar Bergman vs Ingrid Bergman) and I couldn’t verify their identities clearly. I remember that within a year after Marilyn’s death on Aug 4, 1962, I watched Marlon’s movie ‘The Mutiny in the Bounty’ in the Majestic theater in Colombo. I was not even 10 then. For a few days, I was confused: ‘Who died recently? Was it Marilyn or Marlon?’ Thus, easy access to biographical dictionaries in English became a passion for me, to engage in chit chat with my classmates on Hollywood movies. Thirdly, during my innocent school days of 1960s, English words such as empire, eros, gaiety, liberty, majestic and regal got registered first in my young brain, only as the names of Colombo movie theaters. Subsequently, I came to learn what they really meant, from dictionaries I had checked in the libraries I patronized in Colombo.

Three interesting and provocative dictionaries for a student of English linguistics in my collection are, ‘A Dictionary of International Slurs’ by Abraham Roback, first published in 1944, ‘A Dictionary of Euphemisms’ by Judith Neaman and Carole Silver in 1983 and The F-word by Jesse Sheidlower in 1999. The last one was about ONE English word, its complete history and ‘all its robust and various uses’, as the cover blurb states. When I buy or skim a book, usually I take note of the dedication page. Roback’s Dictionary of International Slurs was dedicated to ‘General Charles de Gaulle – the conscience of the Allied Command’. I’m somewhat curious to learn in the future, anything about the international slurs de Gaulle had used for his political enemies in choice French language.

During the 20 years (1990 – 2010) of my peak collection period, I had a passion for dictionaries/encyclopedias of extreme length (with over 1,000 pages) and for those with minimal number of pages. The ultimate ‘door-stopper’ I purchased when I joined the ‘Book of the Month’ club while at Philadelphia was the Oxford English Dictionary – The Compact Edition; Complete text reproduced micrographically. The 2^nd edition released in 1989, with vol. 1 (A-O) and vol. 2 (P-Z) – had a total of 4,116 pages. The second in this category, I refer continuously, is the Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 32^nd ed., Elsevier Saunders, Philadelphia, 2012 (originally published 1900), cumulated to 2,147 pages.

A Dictionary of Tamil Poets, published in 1957 (in Tamil)

On the opposite end of content length, are the ‘niche dictionaries’ I have in my collection, such as movie critic [Roger] Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary, (1994) with only 116 pages. Also of equal interest is David Kemp and Lawrence Levi’s The Film Snob’s Dictionary (2006), with 114 pages. Another unusual niche book Donald Winslow’s Life Writing: A Glossary of terms in biography, autobiography and related terms (1995) was only 76 pages length, but serves as a solid reference source for me.

Two months ago, I set my mind to prepare a catalog of my dictionary/encyclopedia collections, which I never bothered to do until this year. This list, arranged in alphabetical order of the authors, is presented at the end. For inclusion in this list, the word ‘dictionary/encyclopedia’ has to be in the title of the book. However, books with variants of ‘dictionary’ word such as (1) ‘A to Z’, (2) companion, (3) glossary, (4) guide, (5) handbook, (6) thesaurus, are also added, if items are arranged alphabetically. I’ve omitted books that have ‘directory’ in their title, even though if items are arranged alphabetically. Thus, printed telephone directories/university directories providing mainly the postal address and telephone numbers will not be counted.

Among this list of 115 published dictionaries in my collection, one was authored by me. ‘An Einstein Dictionary’ (1996). 28 years have passed since this book (which I consider as my Magnum Opus – i.e., the most important item produced by a writer/artist/composer) was published by the Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut. Currently, this publisher is no longer in business. Ownership of this publisher changed hands and it has been incorporated into Bloomsbury group in UK. Why I came to write this Einstein Dictionary, and its reception by the reviewers and readers will be described in the next part. Not to be omitted is a fact that I received one among the 115 dictionaries in my collection as a farewell gift, when I left Prof. Osamu Hayaishi’s group at the Osaka Bioscience Institute in early 1994. The rest were purchased.

I also accumulated a collection of 24 Encyclopedias on varied themes. Among the notable authors in this collection are, encyclopedist Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) and advice columnist Ann Landers aka Esther ‘Eppie’ Lederer (1918-2002). Encyclopedias on elite movie stars, Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe were also included in this cherished collections. Based on facts available in their encyclopedias, I was able to publish research papers on these actors in the International Medical Journal.

In 1996, I received commission to contribute short entries on five noteworthy scientists to one of the encyclopedias in my collection: Richard Olson edited 5 volume ‘Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists’. Thus, I contributed briefly on the scientific significance of the studies done by Kenichi Fukui, Shibasaburo Kitasato, Karl Landsteiner, Shinichiro Tomonaga and Hideki Yukawa.

Now, for lack of space in my abode, however enticing the titles or the lexicographer’s standing are, I have put a moratorium on my purchase of dictionaries/encyclopedias. It is not that, my romance with dictionaries had soured after avidly collecting 139 printed books, but (mortal) realities have set in. I need to set priorities, so as not to burden my loved ones with a book load that they are unwilling to bear. So, I’m at a loss about what to do with my dictionary collection of five decades.

My Dictionary Collection                                             

Nicholas Abercrombie, Stephen Hill, Bryan S. Turner – The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology, 3^rd ed., Penguin Books Ltd., London, 1994, 511 pp.

Little Pearl English-Tamil Dictionary (a miniature book)

Paul J. Achtemeier (Ed) – Harper’s Bible Dictionary, Harper & Row Publishers, San Francisco, 1985, 1178 pp.

Ramson F. Adams – Western Words; A Dictionary of the American West, revised and enlarged new edition, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1974, 355 pp.

The American Heritage Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston, 1995, 923 pp.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4^th ed, Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston, 2000, 2074 pp.

D.W.G.Ballentyne, D.R.Lovett – A Dictionary of Named Effects and Laws in Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics, 4^th ed., Chapman and Hall, London, 1984, 346 pp.

Sylvan Barnet, Morton Berman, William Burto – A Dictionary of Literary, Dramatic and Cinematic Terms, 2^nd ed., Little, Brown and Co, Boston, 1971, 124 pp.

Karl Beckson, Arthur Ganz – Literary Terms; A Dictionary, Andre Deutsch Ltd, London, 1990, 308 pp.

Peter Bently – The Dictionary of World Myth, Facts on File, New York, 1995, 240 pp.

Jessica Bendiner, Elmer Bendiner – Biographical Dictionary of Medicine, Facts on File Inc, New York, 1990, 284 pp.

Ronald Bergan, Robyn Karney – Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide, Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, London, 1988, 638 pp.

Bert Blewett – The A-Z of World Boxing, Robson Books, London, 1996, 439 pp.

Ambrose Bierce – The Devil’s Dictionary, (originally published 1911), Dover Publications, Mineola, New York, 2011, 339 pp.

A Dictionary of International Slurs by Abraham Roback, dedicated to Gen Charles de Gaulle

Dorothy Rose Blumberg – Whose What? Aaron’s Beard to Zorn’s Lemma, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1969, 184 pp.

Burrow, M.B. Emeneau – A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1984, 853 pp.

Bob Burton – Top Secret: The Dictionary of Espionage and Intelligence, (originally published 1986), Citadel Press, New York, 2005, 189 pp.

Christopher Clapham – The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics, 2^nd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996, 313 pp.

Dan Cohn-Sherbok – The Blackwell Dictionary of Judaica, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, 1992, 597 pp.

Concise Dictionary of Quotations, Tiger Books International, London, 1993, 447 pp.

Peter Constantine – Japanese Street Slang, Tengu Books, New York 1992, 190 pp.

Michael Covington, Douglas Downing – Dictionary of Computer Terms, 3^rd ed., Barron’s Educational Services Inc. Hauppauge, New York, 1992 (originally published 1986), 364 pp.

William Crooke (ed) – Hobson-Jobson; A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive. 1969 reprint (of 1902 version by Henry Yule and A.C. Burnell; originally published in 1886), Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1021 pp.

Max Cryer – The Godzone Dictionary of Favourite New Zealand Words and Phrases, 2019 ed. (originally published 2006), Exisle Publishing Pty Ltd, New Zealand, 242 pp.

Boye Lafaye He De Mente – NTC’s Dictionary of Japan’s Cultural Code Words, National Textbook Co, Lincolnwood, Illinois, 1994, 394 pp.

Dizionario Italiano-Inglese, Inglese-Italiano, (originally published 1995),

Antonio Vallardi Editore, Milano, 2004, 606 pp.

A Dictionary of Euphemisms by Judith Neaman and Carole Silver

Yadolah Dodge (ed) – The Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003, 498 pp.

Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 32^nd ed., Elsevier Saunders, Philadelphia, 2012 (originally published 1900), 2,147 pp

Roger Ebert – Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary, Andrews and McMeel, Kansas City, Missouri, 1994, 116 pp.

Ivan H. Evans – Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Centenary edition, revised, Harper & Row, New York, 1970 (E.C. Brewer, originally published 1870), 1175 pp.

Karen C. Fox, Aries Keck – Einstein A to Z, John Wiley & Sons Inc, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2004, 310 pp.

Robert T. Francoeur, Timothy Perper, Norman A Scherzer – A Descriptive Dictionary and Atlas of Sexology, Greenwood Press, Westport, Co, 1991, 768 pp.

Donald Fraser – Dictionary of Quotations, new abridged edition (originally published 1983) Collins, London, 1985, 507 pp.

Eizo Fujikake – Toei’s English-Japanese, Japanese-English Dictionary, Toei Shuppan, Tokyo, 1984, 616 pp.

Tamotsu Fijinaga – Shinri Gaku Jiten [Psychology Thesaurus] in Japanese, Heibonsha, Tokyo 2013, 870 pp.

Carl C. Gaither, Alma E Cavazos-Gaither – Physically Speaking – A Dictionary of Quotations on Physics and Astronomy, Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol, 1997, 492 pp.

Gakken – A Naming Dictionary [3,500 keywords in Japanese translated into 8 languages – English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek and Russian], Gakken Kenkyusha, Tokyo, 1991, 630 pp.

Bryan A Garner (Ed in Chief) – Black’s Law Dictionary, 9^th ed. (Originally published in 1891, authored by Henry Campbell Black), Thomson Reuters, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2009, 1,920 pp.

Paul J Gillette – The Complete Sex Dictionary, Award Books, New York, 1969, 314 pp.

Robert Goldenson, Kenneth Anderson – The Wordsworth Dictionary of Sex, (first published as Sex A-Z, by Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd. in 1987) Wordsworth Editions Ltd., Hertfordshire, UK, 1994, 290 pp.

P.V.Gopalan (Ed) – Pulavar Akarathi [Dictionary of Tamil Poets], M. Duraisamy Mudaliar & Co, Chennai, 1957, 214 pp.

An Unsual dictionary for a Four-letter Word (1999)

Jonathan Green – Tuttle Dictionary of New Words since 1960, Charles E. Tuttle Co, Boston, (first published as Neologisms, Bloomsbury, London, 1991) 1992, 339 pp.

Kevin Guinagh – Dictionary of Foreign Phrases and Abbreviations, Pocket Books, New York, 1968 (originally published 1965), 320 pp.

James D Hart – The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature, Oxford University Press, New York, 1986, 497 pp.

Marc Haeffner – The Dictionary of Alchemy, Aquarian Press (Harper Collins imprint), London, 1991, 272 pp.

Robert Hendrickson – The Dictionary of Eponyms- Names that became Words, (originally published as Human Words in 1972), Dorset Press, New York, 1988, 342 pp.

Armin Heymer –Ethologisches Worterbuch/ Ethological Dictionary/ Vocabulaire Ethologique, Verlag Paul Parey, Berlin, 1977, 238 pp.

Ted Honderich (Ed) – The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995, 1009 pp.

Jeanne Hopkins – Glossary of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2^nd ed. (first published in 1976) University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1977, 169 pp.

Janet Hunter – Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History, Kodansha International Ltd., Tokyo, 1984, 347 pp.

Hyojun Romaji Kai – All Romanized English-Japanese Dictionary, 15^th printing, Charles E Tuttle Co. Rutland, Vermont, (1^st ed. 1961) 1983, 732 pp.

Richard Iannelli – The Devil’s New Dictionary, Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ, 1983, 324 pp.

Jukichi Inoue – Inoue’s Smaller Japanese-English Dictionary, Charles E Tuttle Co, Rutland, Vermont, 1983, 926 pp.

Nakao Ishida – An English-Japanese Dictionary of Medical Science, Kenkyusha, Tokyo, 1999, 1,781 pp.

Alexander Jacoby – A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors – from the Silent Era to the Present Day, Stonebridge Press, Berkeley, California, 2008, 398 pp.

Colin Jarman – The Guinness Dictionary of Sports Quotations, Guinness Publishing Ltd, Enfield, Middlesex, 1990, 298 pp.

Elizabeth J Jewell, Frank Abate – The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, New York, 2001, 2023 pp.

Justin Kaplan (Gen Ed) – Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 16^th ed. (first published by John Bartlett, 1855), Little, Brown and Co, Boston, 1,405 pp.

David Kemp, Lawrence Levi – The Film Snob’s Dictionary, Broadway Books, New York, 2006, 114 pp.

Richard Kenin, Justin Wintle (Ed) – The Dictionary of Biographical Quotation of British and American Subjects, Dorset Press, New York, 1973, 860 pp.

Elizabeth Knowles (Ed) – The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying and Quotation, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997, 694 pp.

Euge E Landy – The Underground Dictionary, Simon and Shuster, New York, 1971, 206 pp.

Michael Legat – The Illustrated Dictionary of Western Literature, Continuum, New York, 1987, 352 pp.

Leonard Louis Levinson – The Left Handed Dictionary, Collier Books, New York, 1963, 255 pp.

The Little LIFCO Dictionary (English-English-Tamil), 15^th ed. (first published in 1950), The Little Flower Co, Madras, 1985 imprint, 444+ pp.

Alan Lindsay MacKay – A Dictionary of Scientific Quotations, Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol, 2^nd expanded ed. (first published in 1977), 1992 reprint, 297 pp.]

Tokuichiro Matsuda (Ed) – Kenkyusha’s English-Japanese Dictionary for the General Reader, Kenkyusha, Tokyo, 1984, 2,570 pp.

Peter B. Medawar, Jean S Medawar – Aristotle to Zoos: A Philosophical Dictionary of Biology, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1983, 305 pp.

Microsoft Encarta Dictionary (A Bloomsbury Reference book), St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2004, 1,014 pp.

David Millar, Ian Millar, John Millar, Margaret Millar – Chambers Concise Dictionary of Scientists, W & R Chambers, Cambridge, 1989, 461 pp.

William and Mary Morris – Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1977, 654 pp.

Muthukrishnan – English-English-Tamil Mini Dictionary, Ilakkumi Pathippakam, Chennai, 3^rd ed. (first published 2001), 2003, 523 pp.

Seigo Nakao – Random House Japanese-English, English-Japanese Dictionary, Ballantine Books, New York, 1995, 666 pp.

Judith S Neaman, Carole G Silver – A Dictionary of Euphemisms, Unwin Paperbacks, London, 1983, 320 pp.

Andrew Nathaniel Nelson – The Modern Reader’s Japanese-English Character Dictionary, 2^nd rev. ed. 17^th printing (first published 1962), 1984, 1,109 pp.

Obunsha’s Essential Japanese-English Dictionary, Obunsha, Tokyo, 1963, 1,438 pp.

Oxford English Dictionary – The Compact Edition; Complete text reproduced micrographically, 2^nd ed., 1989, 28^th printing, (first published 1971), vol. 1 (A-O) 2,048 pp, vol. 2 (P-Z) 4,116 pp.

Alan Palmer – Who’s Who in Modern History 1860-1980 – A Biographical Dictionary, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1980, 332 pp.

Sybil P. Parker (Ed in Chief) – McGraw Hill Dictionary of Mathematics, McGraw Hill, New York, 1997, 306 pp.

Frank S. Pepper – Contemporary Biographical Quotations, Sphere Books Ltd., London, 1986, 306 pp.

Rev Peter Percival – Tamil Proverbs with Their English Translation, containing upwards of six thousand proverbs, 2^nd ed. (Originally published in Madras in 1874), Asian Educational Services, New Delhi, 3^rd reprint, 2002, 573 pp.

A.D. Peterkin – The Bald-headed Hermit & The Artichoke – An Erotic Thesaurus, Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver, 1999, 154 pp.

Jaroslav Prusek (Ed) – Dictionary of Oriental Literature – East Asia, vol. 1, Charles E. Tuttle Co, Tokyo, 1974, 226 pp.

Edwin Radford (edited and revised by Alan Smith) – To Coin a Phrase: A Dictionary of Origins, (originally published as ‘Encyclopedia of Phrases and Origins’, 1945), Arrow Books Ltd, London, 1974, 286 pp.

Rajagopal – Little Pearl English-Tamil Dictionary, Pearl Publishing House, New Delhi, not dated, 672 pp.

James Randi – The Supernatural A-Z; The Truth and the Lies, Brockhampton Press, London, 1997, 363 pp.

William L Reese – Dictionary of Philosophy and Religion – Eastern and Western Thought, Humanities Press Inc. Atlantic Highlands, NJ, 1980, 644 pp.

Alan Richter – Sexual Slang – A Compendium of Offbeat Words and Colorful Phrases from Shakespeare to Today, Harper Collins, New York, 1995, 250 pp.

Ronald Ridout, Clifford Witting – English Proverbs Explained, Pan Books, London, 1967, 223 pp. [800 proverbs and their explanations in alphabetical listing]

Riese, N. Hitchens – The Unabridged Marilyn: the Life from A to Z, Corgi Books (Transworld Publishers Ltd., London), 1988, 578 pp.

Abraham Aaron Roback – A Dictionary of International Slurs (Ethnophaulisms), [originally published by Sci-Art Publishers, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1944], Maledicta Press, Waukesha, Wisconsin, 1979, 394 pp.

Adrian Room – Bloomsbury Dictionary of Dedications, Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd, London 1990, 354 pp.

Leo Rosten – The Joys of Yiddish, McGraw Hill, New York, 1968, 534 pp.

Hugh Rowson – If It ain’t broke…The Unwritten Laws of Life, Crown Publishers Inc, New York, 1997, 290 pp.

Norah Rudin – Dictionary of Modern Biology, Barron’s Educational Series, Hauppauge, New York, 1997, 504 pp.

Georges Sadoul – Dictionary of Film Makers (Originally published as Dictionnaire des Cineastes, in French, 1965), University of California Press, Berkeley, 1972, 288 pp.

Saito’s Japanese-English Dictionary, Meicho-Fukyukai, Tokyo, 1927, 1,160 pp.

S.W.R.de A. Samarasingha, Vidyamali Samarasinghe – Historical Dictionary of Sri Lanka, Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, 1998, 214 pp.

Georges Seldes – The Great Quotations, 7^th printing, (first published in 1960, by Lyle Stuart), Pocket Books, New York, 1972, 1,086 pp.

Harry Shaw – Dictionary of Problem Words and Expressions, McGraw Hill Inc, New York, 1975, 262 pp.

Jesse Sheidlower (Ed) – The F Word, 2^nd ed. (originally published 1995), Faber and Faber Ltd., London, 1999, 228 pp.

Elsdon C. Smith – New Dictionary of American Family Names (originally published in 1956 by Harper & Row, New York), Gramercy Publishing Co, New York, 1988, 570 pp.

Richard A Spears – Slang and Euphemism: A Dictionary of oaths, curses, insults, sexual slang and metaphor, racial slurs, drug talk, homosexual lingo and related matters, Jonathan David publishers, New York, 1982, 462 pp.

Sachi Sri Kantha – An Einstein Dictionary, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, 1996, 298 pp.

George R Stewart – American Given Names, Oxford University Press, New York, 1979, 264 pp. [The dictionary section begins from p. 43]

J.B. Sykes (Ed) – The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 7^th ed. (originally published in 1911), Clarendon press, Oxford, 1983, 1,258 pp.

John Russell Taylor – The Penguin Dictionary of the Theatre, Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1966, 295 pp.

J.O. Thorne, T.C. Collocott – Chambers Biographical Dictionary, revised ed., (originally published in 1961) W & R Chambers Ltd, Edinburgh, 1988, 1,493 pp.

Jack Tresidder – Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to traditional images, icons and emblems), Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1998, 240 pp.

Jennifer Uglow (Ed) – The Macmillan Dictionary of Women’s Biography, (1^st published in 1982), Macmillan Press, London, 1982, 621 pp.

Vincent – English-French, French-English Dictionary, Pyramid Books, New York, 1967, 383 pp.

Visvanatha Pillai – A Dictionary Tamil and English, revised and enlarged, Madras School Book and Literature Society, Madras, 1951, 706 pp.

John Walton, Jeremiah A. Barondess, Stephen Lock – The Oxford Medical Companion, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994, 1,038 pp.

David Wells – The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers, (1^st published in 1986), revised ed., Penguin Books Ltd, London, 1997, 231 pp.

Donald J Winslow – Life Writing: A Glossary of terms in biography, autobiography and related terms, 2^nd ed., University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1995, 76 pp.

Benjamin B Wolman (Ed) – Dictionary of Behavioral Science, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co, New York, 1973, 478 pp.

*****

My Encyclopedia Collection

Isaac Asimov – Asimov’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 2^nd revised ed., (first published in 1964), Doubleday & Co, New York, 1982, 941 pp.

Maurice Burton, Robert Burton – Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom,(first published 1976 by Macdonald & Co, London), Crescent Books, New York, 1988, 476 pp.

Gorton Carruth – The Encyclopedia of American Facts & Dates, 8^th ed., (first published 1932), Harper & Row, New York, 1987, 1,006 pp.

Carol Cohen (Ed) – Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, 3^rd ed. (first published 1948, by William Rose Benet), Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1,091 pp.

David Crystal – The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, (first published 1987), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991, 472 pp.

Jane Elliott, Colin King – The Usborne Children’s Encyclopedia, Usborne Publishing Ltd., London, 2001, 135 pp.

Patrick W. Galbraith – The Otaku Encyclopedia, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 2009, 241 pp.

Charles A. Gunawardena – Encyclopedia of Sri Lanka, 2^nd revised ed. (first published in 2003), New Dawn Press Inc., Elgin, Illinois, 2005, 399 pp.

Robert Hendrickson – The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 3^rd ed., Checkmark Books, New York, 2004, 822 pp.

Maurice Horn (Ed) – 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, Gramercy Books, Avenel, New Jersey, 1996, 413 pp.

Kodansha Bilingual Encyclopedia of Japan, Kodansha International Ltd, Tokyo, 1998, 942 pp.

Ann Landers – The Ann Landers Encyclopedia A to Z: Improve Your Life Emotionally, Medically, Sexually, Socially, Spiritually, Doubleday & Co, New York, 1978, 1,212 pp.

Brian Lane – The Encyclopedia of Forensic Science, Headline Book Publishing, London, 1992, 415 pp.

George L Maddox (Ed) – The Encyclopedia of Aging, Springer Publishing Co, New York, 1987, 890 pp.

Wolfgang Mieder – The Prentice-Hall Encyclopedia of World Proverbs, MJF Books, New York, 1986, 582 pp.

Glenn Mitchell – The Chaplin Encyclopedia, B.T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1997, 288 pp.

Richard Olson (Ed) – Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists – 5 volumes, Marshall Cavendish, Tarry town, New York, 1998, 1,460 pp.

Alex Preminger, T.V.F. Brogan (Ed) – The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, MJF Books, New York, 1993, 1,383 pp.

Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Paul Willemen – Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, new revised ed. (first published 1994), Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1999, 658 pp.

Peter Reeves (Ed) – The Encyclopedia of the Sri Lankan Diaspora, Edition Didier Millet, Singapore, 2013, 200 pp.

Robert Reisner, Lorraine Wechsler – Encyclopedia of Graffiti, Macmillan Publishing Co, New York, 1974, 401 pp.

Mark Schilling – The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture, Weatherhill Inc, New York, 1997, 343 pp.

P.M. Mathew Vellore – Paaliyal Kalaikkalanciyam [Encyclopedia of Sex – in Tamil], translated by T. Manikandan, revised edition (first published 2006),Kalachuvadu Publications Pvt Ltd, Nagercoil, India, 2011, 504 pp.

Adam Victor – The Marilyn Encyclopedia, The Overlook Press, Woodstock, New York, 1999, 341 pp.

*****