Gadsby (novel)
| File:Gadsby.jpg | |
| Author | Ernest Vincent Wright |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel, lipogram omitting the letter e |
| Publisher | Wetzel Publishing Co. |
Publication date | 1939 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 260 pp |
| ISBN | NA Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| OCLC | 57759048 |
Gadsby: A Story of Over 50,000 Words Without Using the Letter "E" is a 1939 novel by Ernest Vincent Wright. The plot revolves around the dying fictional city of Branton Hills, which is revitalized thanks to the efforts of protagonist John Gadsby and a youth group he organizes.
The novel is written as a lipogram and does not include words that contain the letter "e". Though self-published and little-noticed in its time, the book is a favorite of fans of constrained writing and is a sought-after rarity among some book collectors. Later editions of the book have sometimes carried the alternative subtitle: 50,000 Word Novel Without the Letter "E".
Plot and structure
Fifty-year-old John Gadsby is alarmed by the decline of his hometown Branton Hills and rallies the city's young people to form an "Organization of Youth" to build civic spirit and improve living standards. Gadsby and his youthful army, despite some opposition, transform Branton Hills from a stagnant municipality into a bustling, thriving city. Towards the end of the book the members of Gadsby's organization receive diplomas in honor of their work. Gadsby becomes mayor and helps increase Branton Hills's population from 2,000 to 60,000.
The story begins around 1906 and continues through World War I, Prohibition, and President Warren G. Harding's administration. Gadsby is divided into two parts. The first part (about a quarter of the book's total length) is strictly a history of the city of Branton Hills and John Gadsby's place in it. The second part of the book devotes more time to fleshing out the rest of the town's characters.
The novel is written from the point of view of an anonymous narrator, who continually complains about his poor writing skills and frequently uses circumlocution. "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," the narrator says. "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."[1]
Lipogrammatic quality
All 50,110 words in his book omit "e."[2] In Gadsby's introduction Wright says his primary difficulty was avoiding past tense verbs with "-ed" as a suffix. He focused on using verbs without -ed such as constructions with "do" (for instance "did walk" instead of "walked"). Scarcity of word options also drastically limited discussion involving quantity, pronouns, and many common words. Wright could not talk about any quantity falling inside of six to thirty.[3] An article in the linguistic journal Word Ways said that 250 of the 500 most commonly used words in English were still available to Wright despite the omission of words with "e".[4] Wright uses abbreviations on occasion, but only if the full form is similarly lipogrammatic, such as with "Dr.", and "P.S.".
Wright also turns famous sayings into lipogrammatic form. Music can "calm a wild bosom", and Keats' "a thing of beauty is a joy forever" becomes "a charming thing is a joy always."[5]
Publication and composition
Wright appears to have worked on the manuscript for a number of years. Though its official publication date is 1939, references in newspaper humor columns are made to his manuscript of a book without an "e" years earlier. Prior to publication he occasionally referred to his manuscript as Champion of Youth. In October 1930, while Wright was living near Tampa, Florida, he wrote a letter to The Evening Independent newspaper, boasted that he had written a fine lipogrammatic work, and suggested the paper hold a lipogram competition, with $250 for the winner. The paper turned him down.[6]
Wright struggled to find a publisher for the book, and eventually used Wetzel Publishing Co., a vanity press. A 2007 post on the Bookride blog about rare books says a warehouse holding copies of Gadsby burned shortly after the book was printed, destroying "most copies of the ill fated novel." The blog post says the book was never reviewed "and only kept alive by the efforts of a few avant garde French intellos and assorted connoisseurs of the odd, weird and zany." The book's scarcity and oddness has seen original copies priced at $4,000 by book dealers.[7] Wright died that same year.
In 1937 Wright said writing the book was a challenge and the author of an article on his efforts in The Oshkosh Daily wryly recommended composing lipograms for insomnia sufferers.[8] Wright said in his introduction to Gadsby that "this story was written, not through any attempt to attain literary merit, but due to a somewhat balky nature, caused by hearing it so constantly claimed that 'it can’t be done.'" He said he tied down the "e" key on his typewriter while completing the final manuscript. "This was done so that none of that vowel might slip in, accidentally; and many did try to do so!"[9]
Reception and influence
An article in the Oshkosh Daily in 1937 wrote (lipogrammatically) that the manuscript was "amazingly smooth. No halting parts. A continuity of plot and almost classic clarity obtains."[8] After Book magazine named Jay Gatsby the greatest fictional character of the 20th century in 2002, the Village Voice wrote a humor column about Gadsby. Author Ed Park jokingly aped Wright's style ("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?'").[5] David Crystal, host of BBC Radio 4's linguistics program English Now, called it "probably the most ambitious work ever attempted in this genre."[10]
La Disparition (A Void) is a lipogrammatic book inspired by Gadsby.[11] The French novel not only omits the letter "e" in its entirety, but is also 50,000 words long.[7] Its author, Georges Perec, was introduced to Wright's book by a friend of his in Oulipo, a multinational constrained writing group.[12] Wright's lack of success with Gadsby made Perec aware that publication of such a work "was taking a risk" of finishing up "with nothing [but] a Gadsby."[13] As a nod to Wright, La Disparition contains a character named "Lord Gadsby V. Wright",[14] a tutor to protagonist Anton Voyl; in addition, a composition attributed to Voyl in La Disparition is actually a quotation from Gadsby.[5] Trevor Kitson, writing in New Zealand's Manawatu Standard in 2006, said he was prompted to write a short lipogram after seeing Wright's book. The exercise gave him an appreciation for how difficult Wright's task was, but he was less impressed with the end result. "I must say that the book leaves me in a state of non-grippedness (to quote Dave Lister from Red Dwarf)," Kitson wrote. "It seems extraordinarily twee (not that it uses that word, of course) and mostly about all-American kids going to church and getting married."[15] Douglas Hofstadter's book Le Ton beau de Marot quotes parts of Gadsby for illustration.[16]
Footnotes
- ^ Gadsby: A Story of 50,000 Words Online copy hosted at Spineless Books [page needed]
- ^ Lederer, Richard (1998), The Word Circus: a Letter-Perfect Book, Springfield: Merriam-Webster, ISBN 978-0877793540 [page needed]
- ^ Gadsby: A Story of 50,000 Words Introduction, online copy hosted at Spineless Books
- ^ 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 Eckler, Albert Ross, ed. (1986), University Press of America, ISBN 978-0819153500
- ^ a b c Egadsby! Ernest Vincent Wright's Machine Dreams, Ed Park, The Village Voice, Aug. 6 2002
- ^ The Evening Independent, April 3, 1937, The Rambler humor column.
- ^ a b Bookride blog February 24, 2007.
- ^ a b Fifty Thousand Words Minus, The Oskhosh Daily, Walt Burton, March 25, 1937 (March 25, 1937)
- ^ Gadsby: A Story of 50,000 Words Online copy hosted at Spineless Books, Introduction
- ^ Crystal 2001, p. 63
- ^ Abish 1995, p. X11
- ^ Bellos 1993, p. 395
- ^ Bellos 1993, p. 399
- ^ Sturrock 1999
- ^ It Isn't Easy, Manawatu Stadard, Trevor Kitson,May 24, 2006
- ^ Le Ton beu de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language, Douglas Hofstadter, 1998, Perseus Books Group, ISBN 9780465086450
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.
. - Bellamy, Francis Rufus (March 1936), "Glancing Through", Fiction Parade and Golden Book Magazine, 2 (5): 62.
- 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.
- 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.
- Hofstadter, Douglas R. (2006), Lipogrammatic Autobiography ... or ... Autobiographical Lipogram, Stanford, retrieved 2008-11-04.
- Lederer, Richard (1998), The Word Circus: a Letter-Perfect Book, Springfield: Merriam-Webster, ISBN 978-0877793540
- Salomon, David (2004), Data Compression: The Complete Reference (3rd ed.), Springer, ISBN 978-0387406978.
- Sturrock, John (1999), The Word from Paris: Essays on Modern French Thinkers and Writers, Verso, ISBN 978-1859841631.
External links
- "Miscellany", Time, April 5, 1937. Notification of Wright's finishing Gadsby at age 66.