Bartlett's Familiar Quotations facts for kids
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| Author | John Bartlett |
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| Country | United States |
| Publisher | Little, Brown and Company |
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Publication date
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1855 |
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (often called just Bartlett's) is a famous American book. It is a huge collection of well-known quotations. The very first book was printed in 1855. The newest, eighteenth edition came out in 2012.
What makes this book special is how the quotes are organized. They are listed under the name of the person who said them. This is different from other quote books that list by topic. The authors are put in order by when they were born, not by ABCs. For each author, their quotes are listed by date. The book also has an index. This helps you find quotes by looking up keywords. It also tells you where each quote came from.
Contents
The Story of Bartlett's Quotations
How It All Began
John Bartlett owned a book store in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Many people would ask him about famous quotes. So, he decided to create a book of them. In 1855, he printed his own book called A Collection of Familiar Quotations. This first book had 258 pages. It included quotes from 169 different authors. Many quotes came from the Bible, William Shakespeare, and great English poets.
The book was a big hit! Bartlett published three more versions. Later, he joined a publishing company in Boston called Little, Brown, and Company. Bartlett oversaw nine editions of his book before he passed away in 1905.
Changes Over Time
The tenth edition came out in 1914. It was edited by Nathan Haskell Dole. This version started with quotes originally in English. Most of these were from famous writers. After that, there was a section of quotes from politicians and scientists. An example is "fifty-four forty or fight!" Next, there was a section of translated quotes. These were mostly from the ancient Greeks and Romans. The last part had quotes from the Bible. In this edition, quotes were arranged in a single column.
The eleventh edition (1937) was edited by Christopher Morley and Louella D. Everett. This book had bigger pages. It also used a two-column format. This is more like how the book looks today. A twelfth edition (1948) was also edited by Morley and Everett.
The Centennial Edition
The thirteenth edition (1955) was called the "Centennial Edition." This means it celebrated 100 years of the book. The editors at Little, Brown were given credit. But the book thanked Morley, Everett, and Emily Morison Beck. This edition added more recent quotes. The two youngest people quoted were cartoonist Bill Mauldin and Queen Elizabeth II. Beck also edited the fourteenth edition (1968) and the fifteenth (1980).
New Editors and New Quotes
After Beck retired, Little, Brown, and Company chose Justin Kaplan to edit the sixteenth edition (1993). Kaplan had won a Pulitzer Prize for his book about Mark Twain. Some people criticized Kaplan for including only a few quotes from Ronald Reagan. They also didn't like that he included pop culture material. For example, Franklin D. Roosevelt had 35 quotes, and John F. Kennedy had 28.
The seventeenth edition (2003) also faced similar comments. It included quotes for the first time from J.K. Rowling, Jerry Seinfeld, and Larry David. Some classic quotes were removed. For example, eleven quotes by Alexander Pope were cut. Kaplan did include six Reagan quotes in this edition. He told USA Today that he had been "carried away by prejudice."
The eighteenth edition (2012) was edited by Geoffrey O'Brien. He is a poet, critic, and editor. O'Brien is also the editor-in-chief of the Library of America.
