7/7/2023 0 Comments Chris wedge rectorBut she, too, was not satisfied with merely one line. Benét’s book the Cottonism: “Tell your tale before midnight it is later than you think,” she believed she had at last found the origin of the famous sundial motto which has long eluded librarians. Frederick King of the New York Society Library had also encountered Cotton and had pursued him for another reason. Perhaps, eventually, it will be discovered that he wrote my books - I fear, a fitting revenge.” But I seem to have started something - and I have a horrid fear that he will next appear in Bartlett. Cotton was not created to annoy and disturb hard-working librarians - it was just for my own amusement. I do assure you, in all humility, that Mr. Cotton was to assume the proportions in my life that he has, I certainly would have had the sketch mimeographed for distribution. It was quite a nice sketch, if I do say so myself, and contained a poetical extract. I did not, unfortunately, keep a carbon copy - I now wish to goodness I had. “You will find a quotation from Cotton at the head of a story of mine called ‘The Curfew Tolls’ in a volume called ‘Thirteen O’Clock.’ At one time, upon request, I wrote a short biographical sketch of Cotton which I sent to some librarian at the New York Society Library - not the New York Public Library. Another petition brought more enlightenment:. Cotton was a line of prose or poetry (it could have been either) and two formidable titles of imaginary books creat ed solely for the convenience of Mr. It was impossible to believe that all there was to Mr. This is her first appearance in the Atlantic.īut by this time the leader of such a chase had taken on definite characteristics in the mind of the chaser. WEDGE is a librarian in the Literature Department of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore. Cotton is also the author of ‘Diversions of Historical Thought.’ Apologetically, STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT.”ĮMILY V. I regret to say that I am the only author of John Cleveland Cotton and that neither he nor his works exist outside my pages. Cotton.Īt last, as a desperate measure, I called Mr. Benét alluding to a volume entitled Diversions of Historical Thought, which proved to be as much a will-o’-the-wisp as Mr. I searched every imaginable bibliography, literary history, and book of quotations from cover to cover. John Cleveland Cotton - patiently, at first, then anxiously, then with that unique combination of intense fervor and skepticism which comes over librarians loath to meet their Waterloo. I therefore began a search for the works of Mr. “Tell your tale before midnight it is later than you think.” The Noctivigations of John Cleveland Cotton (Plummert’s edition)įortunately for the revelation of what later turned out to be an almost perfect piece of dissembling, the above quotation was not sufficient to meet the minimum requirements of the book. Benét’s Tales Before Midnight.On one of the preliminary pages of the book appears the source line for the title, generously given by the author:. In the course of culling titles for my collection, I came upon Mr. Benét’s artifice merits detailed description. Some of them, such as the late Stephen Vincent Benét, have gone so far as to invent authors with five-foot bookshelves just for the purpose of pillaging their pages for titles. People are notoriously choosy when they are getting something for nothing, and authors in the act of title-lifting are doubly so. Upon it may rest the fame and fortune of a writer, the enlightenment of a reader, the bread and butter of a bookseller, the lift, in the life of a librarian.īeginning with the intention of making life easier for my fellow librarians and continuing with the zest of the amateur detective, I have collected almost two thousand titles of books which were drawn from literary sources.
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