Re: em win books cd 20 feb 06

My best shots...

1.. Had to read the works of Dickens aloud.
2.. Julia
3.. Oedipus the King by Sophocles
4.. A. Wine Dealer. B. ? C. Barrister
5.. A. Aragorn? B. Offred? C. Prisoner of Zenda?
Any confirmation or filling in of blank would be good.

Dave


"paul" <paulandxiaSUSHI@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:dt8f21$cjd$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-2021982,00.html


ON FEBRUARY 15 THE Everyman Library celebrates a triumphant centenary. All
browsers of second-hand bookshops know the original workmanlike bindings.
Modest as oysters, they were full of pearls. Swirling arabesques on their
endpapers presented their mission statement: "Everyman, I will go with
thee, & be thy guide, in thy most need to go by thy side."
Quotes on title pages announced categories. The children's titles ("This
is fairy gold, boy, and will prove so") first led me to trust to Everymen.
I was enticed into fiction ("A tale which holdeth children from play and
old men from the chimney corner"), history ("Consider history with the
beginnings of it stretching dimply into remote time . . ."), oratory ("His
words fell like the winter snows") and science ("This alone I know that
nothing I know"). I got more obsessed than most by the value they offered
for money: today our spare bedroom is snugly insulated with 800 or more
titles. Darwin, Hakluyt, Ibsen, Bacon, Trollope: a mine of literature that
I have quarried for 40 years.


Vision inspired the foundation of the series in 1906. Joseph Dent, the
tenth child of a house-painter in Darlington, left school at 13. By 1904
he was a successful publisher in London when Ernest Rhys sent him a list
of great authors and suggested he become "the Napoleon of publishers" by
printing them in a uniform edition. Dent was already planning such a
series and made Rhys its general editor. But he was more interested in
philanthropy than being Napoleon. He wanted "a democratic library at the
democratic price of one shilling", in a pocket format that was tough,
cheerful and good to handle.
The series was a runaway success. Edmund Gosse wrote admiringly that: "A
cosmic convulsion might utterly destroy all the other printed books in the
world, and still, if a complete set of Everyman's Library floated upon the
waste, enough would be preserved to carry on the unbroken tradition of
literature."
The format of the series wavered after the war, and the standards of
typography, paper and bindings all plummeted.
But in 1991 a new champion arose in David Campbell, whose French
publishing experience and love of fine private press books led him to swim
vigorously against the tide of paperback classics. He envisaged a
renaissance of the Everyman series that would rival Gallimard editions in
quality but beat them hollow on price. They would be hardback books on
acid-free paper, designed imaginatively and elegantly bound.
"Paperbacks are lovely objects when you first buy them, but they don't age
well," Campbell said. "Their paper goes brown and pages fall out. I felt
that, if there wasn't a huge price differential, people would prefer to
collect decent editions with scholarly introductions matched to the books.
We're a richer society than we've ever been. There's no reason why our
books shouldn't be better made and more beautiful than they ever have
been."
Time has proved him right. Campbell has moved from his little office above
a Soho sex-shop to elegant premises in Farringdon. Sales are soaring, and
he has launched new enterprises: pocket poets, travel guides, children's
illustrated classics, and what will be the first complete uniform edition
of P. G. Wodehouse, in irresistibly witty dust-jackets. Eminent authors
rave about his achievements. "Tough as well as beautiful . . . a form of
civilisation," A. S. Byatt says. "One of the most persuasive excuses for
the existence of our species," Martin Amis says. "Everything a reader
could wish for. Everyone should have every book and read one every day,"
Salman Rushdie says.
Campbell has emulated Joseph Dent's philanthropy. He raised funding for an
Everyman millennial project that would celebrate literature: to give the
entire 300 volumes of the main series, produced at cost, into the library
of each of Britain's 4,300 state secondary schools. That is more than
1,715,000 books with a bookshop value of more than £19 million.
A fat file of thank-you letters testify to the project's success. "A
tussle nearly broke out over Hard Times". "I was awed to see an
11-year-old deep in Crime and Punishment." The last ten titles will be
sent out during this centennial year: they include Casanova and Umberto
Eco, Audubon and Evelyn, Margaret Atwood and Roald Dahl. Nothing could
better encourage new generations to build up their own mines of great
literature. Joseph Dent would be delighted.

--
To enter, send your answers to these questions, set by our literary
quizmaster, Philip Howard - clearly numbered and with your name, address
and daytime telephone number - to Everyman's Library competition, Books,
The Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TT or

e-mail them to

bookscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.
1 Dust. What is Tony Last's dusty last task?

2 Woosterland. Complete this column of Aunts: Agatha, Dahlia . . .

3 Tragic. This is the last line of which tragedy? "Nobody can be called
happy until the day when he carries his happiness down to the grave in
peace."

4 Occupation, occupation, occupation. Name the professions of:

a. Edward Murdstone
b. The Dowager Lady Snuphanuph
c. Sydney Carton

5 U(dys)topias. Who lives in
a. The Kingdom of Gondor?
b. The Republic of Gilead?
c. The Kingdom of Ruritania?

Entries must be received by midnight on Monday, February 20. One entry per
person. The winner and runners-up will be the first three correct entries
chosen at random. Winners will be notified by Friday, February 24. Prizes
will be sent by courier no later than March 20.






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