Gadsby (novel)

Gadsby: Champion of Youth

Author	Ernest Vincent Wright
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	Wetzel Publishing Co., Inc.
Publication date	1939
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	260 pp
ISBN	NA
OCLC	57759048

Gadsby: Champion of Youth is a 1939 fictional novel written by Ernest Vincent Wright. It puts forth an account of goings on in a fictitious city, "Branton Hills." Its topic is how youth's vigor can transform an urban community that is stuck in moribund sloth. Protagonist Gadsby, a man of fifty or so, calls to his town's girls and boys to aid him in his plan to bring activity and vitality back to that vicinity.

This story of about 50,000 words is most famous as a notably ambitious lipogram, in that it painstakingly omits a most common glyph from all of its paragraphs. It is an inspiration to similar vanguard authors; books such as A Void follow in its tracks.

Plot summary

Gadsby's protagonist, fiftyish John Gadsby, hands civic administration of his town to a local youth organization, and in so doing transforms Branton Hills from a stagnant municipality into a bustling, up-and-coming city. Thrust onward by youthful vigor, this organization campaigns for original civic construction, such as a city park, a public library, and a zoo, and Gadsby soon gains a post as mayor. To solicit donations for such public works, his organization must "work its linguistic ability and captivating tricks full blast".

If youth, throughout all history, had a champion to stand up for it; to show a doubting world that a child can think; and, possibly, do it practically; you wouldn't constantly run across folks today who claim that "a child don't know anything." A child's brain starts functioning at birth; and has, amongst its many infant convolutions, thousands of dormant atoms, into which God has put a mystic possibility for noticing an adult's act, and figuring out its purport.

— Gadsby, first paragraph

An anonymous narrator, who continuously complains about his own poor writing and circumlocution, is actually Wright, a Californian from Boston. This is shown with his allusion to Wright's own nonlipogrammatic introduction:

(Now, naturally, in writing such a story as this, with its conditions as laid down in its Introduction, it is not surprising that an occasional "rough spot" in composition is found. So I trust that a critical public will hold constantly in mind that I am voluntarily avoiding words containing that symbol which is, by far, of most common inclusion in writing our Anglo-Saxon as it is, today. Many of our most common words cannot show; so I must adopt synonyms; and so twist a thought around as to say what I wish with as much clarity as I can.) So, now to go on with this odd contraption ....

— Gadsby, part 2

Wright calls his book a rollicking story of courtship and patriotism, a stand against liquor, and a portrayal of amusing political aspirations in a small growing town (Gadsby, introduction). Its chronology starts around 1906, passing through First World War days and continuing up into Prohibition and Harding's administration.

Individuals

Gadsby portrays Branton Hills' many inhabitants. This fictional city has a population that grows to about sixty thousand. Many individuals in this story marry during its narration—and usually quickly, "thanks to rascally 'Dan Cupid'".

• Narrator (city historian)
• John "Johnny" and Lady Gadsby (mayor and first lady)
  • Julius (natural historian) and Mary Antor Gadsby (Salvation Army girl)
  • William "Bill" (tailor) and Lucy Donaldson Gadsby (trio vocalist)
    • Addison Gadsby (baby)
  • Frank and Nancy Gadsby Morgan (radio station staff)
    • Lillian Morgan (child)
  • John "Johnny" (organist) and Kathlyn "Kathy" Gadsby Smith (biologist)
• Councilman and Madam Antor (drunkards)
  • Norman Antor (youth coach)
• Tom Donaldson (patrolman)
• Tom Young (councilman)
  • Paul (odd jobs man) and Sarah Young Johnson (night school solicitor)
• Bill (grouchy councilman) and Nina Adams Simpkins (widow of Irving Adams)
  • Harold (aviator) and Virginia Adams Thompson (trio vocalist)
    • Patricia Thompson (baby)
• Lady Sally Standish (rich animal rights activist)
  • Arthur "Art" (soapbox orator) and Priscilla Standish Rankin (night school solicitor)
    • Anna (Arthur's aunt) and four orphan Rankins (Arthur's siblings)
• Parson Brown (pastor)
• Tom Wilkins (doctor)
• Clancy and Dowd (night patrol)
• Old Man Flanagan and Old Lady Flanagan (Irish townsfolk)
• Marian Hopkins (funds solicitor)
• Pat Ryan (railwayman)
• Councilman Banks (councilman)
  • Allan Banks (funds solicitor)
• Tony Bandamita (Italian councilman)
• Doris Johnson (trio vocalist)
• Mayor Brown (prior mayor)
• Miss Chapman (cook)
• Mary (girl with puppy)
• Harry Grant (highway patrolman)
• John Allison, Dorothy Fitts, Cora Grant, John Hamilton, Oscar Knott, William Snow, Abigail Worthington (additional youths)

Branton Hills's radio station is KBH, from trans-Mississippi radio call sign "K", plus "Branton Hills". Broadway, a main highway, is in its financial district.

Lipogrammatic quality

Gadsby is famous (if not notorious) for being a lipogram. The letter E is not used throughout the entire novel. A lipogram is a form of artistic constraint that arbitrarily limits an author's vocabulary. A typical short lipogram is Carroll Bombaugh's "Bold Ostrogoths, of ghosts no horror show. On London shop-fronts no hop-blossoms grow", which contains only typographic consonants and "o"'s. Gadsby, by contrast, skips from "d" to "f" in its subvocabulary of around 4,000 valid words, thus omitting a symbol ubiquitous to Anglic-family idioms.

Notwithstanding this artistic constraint, Wright's narration is fully grammatical and lucid, though still conforming to orthographic norms. His introduction holds that his primary difficulty was avoiding typical suffixation for past actions; ablauts, modal auxiliary forms, and a short list of participials accomplish that function in Gadsby. Scarcity of vocabulary also drastically limits discussion of quantity, and availability of pronouns and many common words; Wright dryly broods about his inability to count from six to thirty (Gadsby, introduction). Word Ways, a linguistics journal, says that Wright's vocabulary could contain fully half of W. Francis's Brown Corpus, a computational analysis that lists common words; a lipogram with tight constraints, by comparison, would allow only a sixth of such a list.

At upwards of fifty thousand words, Wright's book allows short forms on occasion, but, as its introduction points out, only if a full form is similarly lipogrammatic, as with "Dr.", "P.S.", and "T.N.T." (trinitrotoluol). This standard holds for common contractions, including "ain't" (is not), "atta" (that a), and "dunno" (do not know); and for non-standard forms by an Irishwoman ("shmokin'" for "smoking"), an Italian ("buncha" for "bunch of"), and a young vagrant ("brung" for "brought"). Wright's subvocabulary also contains such long words as "dissatisfaction", "hospitalization", or "philosophically". Wright turns famous sayings into lipogrammatic form, such as "Music truly hath charms to calm a wild bosom", and "A charming thing is a joy always".

Composition and publication

"Author Wright is a kindly, vivacious chap in Company D at National Military Barracks .... A World war musician, Wright's hobby always was to do unusual things. Alumnus of a famous Boston campus class ... Wright's classical foundation is thorough" (Walt Burton). Wright said his motivation for writing Gadsby was his noticing a four-stanza lipogram in print that had won significant acclamation (author now unknown), and his chafing balkily at claims that such a composition could not flow smoothly in styling and grammar. In initial drafts, Frank Morgan was originally cast as "Bob": "First 'Bob' was Wright's romantic swain, but a kibitzing companion said Bob was short for a word containing a taboo symbol, so it is 'Frank' now, not Bob". Wright found it "particularly annoying" that "almost through a long paragraph you can find no words ... and must go way back and start" from scratch, as if "stuck" in a hand of cards. Starting his manuscript in longhand, Wright brought it to fruition through manual typing—but "blacking" (Indy), or tying down, a solitary typing bar with string, so as to forbid nonlipogrammatic words that "might slip in ... and many did try to do so" (Gadsby, introduction).

In fall of 1930, Wright was living in vicinity of Tampa, Florida, and told a local columnist about his work so far in producing an initial lipogrammatic draft story. By his own account, Wright had in hand at that point a long, grammatical, flowing story, without any abnormally short phrasing or implicit missing idioms; Wright did not wish to show his manuscript around, but had told his story to a handful of fans, for whom it was without rival in its bulk and in its clarity of lipogrammatic composition. Wright thought that his local daily might want to sponsor a lipogram showdown by proposing a 250-dollar award ("if you think you can outdo ... a man of 60"), thus jump-starting lipogrammatic construction and possibly inspiring thousands to try such a writing constraint. (In fact, only at that dollar amount was Wright willing to risk his own story, worrying vocally about "[losing] all control of it and it is worth fully that.") But Indy staff said "that it was hardly worth" fronting a high capital award for such a poor opportunity, and did not follow through on his proposal, anticipating a scarcity of rival contributions.

From starting his final draft of Gadsby: Champion of Youth in 1936 during almost six months at a California military nursing facility (Walt Burton), Wright took thirty months locating a publishing firm. Finally choosing vanity publication, Wright saw his manuscript into its first run of author drafts. Rumors of his dying within hours of his book's publication lack much support, as a print copy is known with an August inscription, two months prior to Wright's passing away.

Gadsby was Wright's fourth and final book. Tragically, most by far of its printing run was lost in a printing-plant conflagration; a public library microform's proof copy informs most printings today (Amazon.com softback). Accordingly, an original hardback is today worth up to four thousand dollars.

Criticism and acclaim

Upon this book's publication, critics said, "It is amazingly smooth. No halting parts. A continuity of plot and almost classic clarity obtains",, and, "On and on it flows. No shortcuts of words on phrasing is found, which in full would contain taboo symbols". But commonly, its plot was found "languorous" and its quality both "lofty ('It is an odd kink of humanity which cannot find any valuation in spots of natural glory') and rambunctious ('Books!! Pooh! Maps! BAH!!')".

With authors awarding Jay Gatsby honors as most famous fictional individual (Book 2002, in Park 2002), journalists jokingly brought up Wright's circumlocutory stylings. "Lipogram aficionados—folks who lash words and (alas!) brains so as to omit particular symbols—did in fact gasp, saying, 'Hold that ringing communication tool for a bit! What about J. Gadsby?'" said a typical column.

David Crystal, host of a BBC Radio 4 linguistics program, finds Gadsby comparing favorably to "Cat in a Hat" and calls it a "most ambitious work", painting a social portrait contrasting starkly with that of its famous inspiration, Gatsby.

La Disparition (in translation, A Void) is a similarly lipogrammatic book, arguably taking inspiration from Gadsby. "Possibly in honour of Gadsby it was also 50,000 words". Its author was drawn to Wright's book via a pal of his in Oulipo, a multinational wordplay organization. Still, Wright was also a warning for his Gallic imitator: publication of such a work "was taking a risk" of finishing up "with nothing [but] a Gadsby", that is, a book of no fascination to critics. As a nod to Wright, La Disparation contains an Oxford don and Auctor Honoris Causa known as "Lord Gadsby V. Wright", a "grand anglais savant" and tutor to protagonist Anton Voyl, or Vowl; a composition of Voyl's is actually a quotation from Gadsby.

In addition to La Disparition, aspiring lipogrammatists still point to Gadsby as an inspiration today. A thick work about Marot and linguistic music, contains significant parts of Gadsby, for illustration; its author, writing "occasionally lipogrammatically", also now has a thousand-word "autolipography", or lipogrammatic autobiography, put into publication by Stanford.

References

• Abish, Walter (March 12, 1995), "Vanishing Act. Review of A Void", The Washington Post, p. X11, The history of the lipogram dates back to the ancient Greeks. Its many more recent practitioners include Mallarme, Rimbaud, Thomas Hood and an American, Ernest Vincent Wright, who omitted the letter "e" from his novel Gadsby, published in 1939. Indeed, Wright may have served as a model for Perec, for he is referred to a number of times in A Void as "The Boss" to highlight his significance.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link).
• Baldick, Chris (2004), "Lipogram", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (2nd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0198608837.
• Bellamy, Francis Rufus (March 1936), "Glancing Through", Fiction Parade and Golden Book Magazine, 2 (5): 62{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link).
• Bellos, David (1993), Georges Perec: A Life in Words in Words: A Biography, ISBN 978-0879239800.
• Bookride (2007), "Gadsby. A Story of Over 50.000 Words Without Using the Letter E. 1939", Bookride, retrieved 2008-11-04.
• Burton, Walt (March 25, 1937), "Fifty Thousand Words Minus", Oshkosh Daily, Publication of a composition without a common fifth symbol and acclaim of it as most odd got him to thinking. And so Wright got to it writing .... It was difficult at first. Most nouns would not do. 'Just try it,' Wright said, grinning and pulling at gray hairs of his trim, triangular growth on his chin. Four months and 30 days it took to do it all .... Writing this way is a good thing for an insomnia victim to try.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link).
• Colman, Andrew M. (2001), "Lipogram", A Dictionary of Psychology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0192800237.
• Crystal, David (1988), The English Language, London: Penguin, ISBN 978-0140227307.
• Crystal, David (2001), Language Play, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0226122052.
• Eckler, Albert Ross, ed. (1986), Names and Games: Onomastics and Recreational Linguistics: An Anthology of 99 Articles Published in Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics from February 1968 to August 1985, Lanham, MD: University Press of America, ISBN 978-0819153500.
• Grambs, David (1985), Literary Companion Dictionary: Words about Words, Routledge, ISBN 978-0710200525.
• Gross, Ronald; Murphy, Judith (1964), The Revolution in the Schools, Harcourt, Brace & World, OCLC 177549.
• Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1998), Le Ton Beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language, Perseus Books Group, ISBN 9780465086450.
• Hofstadter, Douglas R. (2006), Lipogrammatic Autobiography ... or ... Autobiographical Lipogram, Stanford, retrieved 2008-11-04.
• Kitson, Trevor (May 24, 2006), "It Isn't Easy", Manawatu Standard, A piece of writing such as this is known as a lipogram (from the Greek for "missing a letter"). I was prompted to try it by seeing the book of over 50,000 E-less words called Gadsby written by Ernest Vincent Wright in 1939 (strange he didn't change his name to something without "E"). I found it hard enough doing the 220 words above, so Gadsby is certainly a monumental achievement. However, I must say that the book leaves me in a state of non-grippedness (to quote Dave Lister from Red Dwarf). It seems extraordinarily twee (not that it uses that word, of course) and mostly about all-American kids going to church and getting married.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link).
• Park, Ed (August 6, 2002), "Egadsby! Ernest Vincent Wright's Machine Dreams", The Village Voice{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link).
• Salomon, David (2004), Data Compression: The Complete Reference (3rd ed.), Springer, ISBN 978-0387406978.
• Staff (April 3, 1937), "The Rambler", The Evening Independent, vol. 30, no. 130, St Petersburg, FL, p. 11, retrieved 2008-11-04{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link).
• Sturrock, John (1999), The Word from Paris: Essays on Modern French Thinkers and Writers, Verso, ISBN 978-1859841631.

Links

• Wright, Ernest, Gadsby: Champion of Youth, Wikisource. Public-domain copy.
• Wright, Ernest, Gadsby: A Story of 50,000 Words, Spinless Books. Additional link to full book.
• "Miscellany", Tim, April 5, 1937{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link). Notification of Wright finishing Gadsby at 66.