rbmsthesauri

Genre Terms Review

Page history last edited by ryan.hildebrand@mail.utexas.edu 6 mos ago

NOTE: This is a list of terms requiring work in the Genre Terms scope note project. Changes and comments should be made on the wiki pages for individual terms. These are located in the folder named "Scope note project - GT," which can be found in the navigator box at the right hand of the wiki.

RBMS Thesauri: Term Records for Genre Scope Notes

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Academic catalogs

Hierarchy

Hierarchies:

1. Conditions of publication

Ephemera

Catalogs

Academic catalogs

College catalogs

School catalogs

University catalogs

2. Purpose of Work

Reference works

Academic catalogs

College catalogs

School catalogs

University catalogs

SN Use for print or online documents issued by an educational institution containing systematically-arranged course listings and related matter.

UF Catalogs, Academic [add]

Add:

~~UF Catalogs, College to the term record for College catalogs~~ [added to College catalogs]

~~UF Catalogs, School to the term record for School catalogs~~ [added to School catalogs]

UF Catalogs, University to the term record for University catalogs

BT Question: Academic catalogs has 2 BTs: Catalogs & Reference works. It seems to me that the term Catalogs should also have 2 BTs: Ephemera (its current BT) and Reference works.*

Warrant

Comments Moriarty 20080110

*NMS: Not all catalogs are used for research (sales catalogs, for instance). Adding Reference works as a BT will need futher discussion. [20080528]

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Begging poems

Hierarchy Literary forms / Poems

SN Use for poems in which the poet asks for gifts or money

Warrant

Bloomfield, Morton W. and Charles W. Dunn. The Role of the Poet in Early Societies. Boydell & Brewer, 1992. Page 139:

"The kind of wisdom-poems about wisdom-poets may be found in begging poems in which the poet asks for gifts or money or in complaints about the hazards or miseries of minstrel life as in the Old English poems Deor or the Wanderer … Begging poems are perhaps not so common as might be expected only because a gift from the chief is requisite as …" [no additional information available]

Comments Moriarty 20080528

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Bildungsromane

Hierarchy Literary forms / Novels

SN Use for novels in which the theme is the development of a character from youth to adulthood.

UF Apprenticeship novels

UF Coming-of-age novels

Warrant

GSAFD

Bildungsromans: Use for novels in which the theme is the development of a character from youth to adulthood. An example is Charles Dickens' Great expectations.

UF Apprenticeship novels

UF Bildungsromane

UF Coming of age stories

Comments See Bildungsromans in Changes to Current Terms for discussion on revising the term

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Cartoons

Hierarchy

SN Use for pictorial images that are executed in a broad or abbreviated manner and make fun of society, politics, or manners.

BT Humorous works

Illustrated works

NT Caricatures*

Warrant

Comments Copeland 20080110

*Suggested adding Caricatures as NT

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Censored works

Hierarchy Conditions of publication

SN Use for works that have been prohibited, removed, or restricted by authorities, having been deemed to be unsuitable or dangerous.

UF Censored books

Prohibited books

Prohibited works

NT Banned works

Condemned works

Expurgated editions

Warrant

Comments Copeland 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Century sermons

Hierarchy

SN Use for sermons given to commemorate the turn of a century

BT Occasional sermons

Warrant

Comments Copeland 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term College catalogs

Hierarchy

SN Use for catalogs, issued by a 2 or 4 year college ~~or university,~~ listing course offerings, calendars, and ~~academic~~ programs.

UF Catalogs, College

BT Academic catalogs*

Warrant

Comments Copeland 20080110

*See also: Academic catalogs and School catalogs

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Convicts’ addresses

Hierarchy

SN Use for convict’s speeches, confessions, or addresses, justifying the crimes committed

BT Addresses

NT Gallows speeches

Warrant

Comments Copeland 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Dedication sermons

Hierarchy

SN Use for sermons given upon the opening of a new building (usually a place of worship) or structure.

Warrant

Comments Hildebrand 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Eclogues

Hierarchy

SN Use for short poems on rural or pastoral themes.

Warrant

Comments Hildebrand 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Ephemera

Hierarchy

BT Prospectuses [?]

Warrant

Comments Delete NT Advertisements. changes comments: It seems that not all advertisements are ephemera. Some advertisements are integral parts of books. (viz. the scope note of "Book prospectuses"). Ephemera doesn't generally seem to refer to parts of non-ephemeral things such as advertisements bound with a book.

changes sources: A bibliographical companion / by Roy Stokes. -- Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1989. Discusses in book versus outside of book advertisements.

Proposed change, Ascher 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Epics

Hierarchy

SN Use for long narrative poems on the adventures and deeds of one or more heroic figures.

Warrant

Comments Hildebrand 20080110

Note: AAT definition: "Long narrative poems celebrating on a grand scale the adventures and deeds of one or more heroic figures, often involving the saving or founding of a nation."

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Erotica

Hierarchy

SN Use for works of literary merit that deal substantively with sexual love.

Alt: Use for works that deal substantively with sexual love, but retain literary merit.

Warrant

Comments Hildebrand 20080110

Note: AAT definition: "Depiction or description of sexual love. For depiction or description of sexual activity in an exploitative, abusive, or violent context, use 'pornography.'"

Pornography is not in rbgenr

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Etiquette books

Hierarchy

SN Use for didactic works on the behavior, propriety, decorum, and manners particular to a specific social class or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life.

Warrant

Comments Hildebrand 20080110

Note: borrows from AAT's definition of etiquette: "The forms required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life."

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Fabliaux

Hierarchy

SN Use for bawdily humorous metrical tales of a type found chiefly in 12th and 13th century French poetry, typically featuring stock characters involved in sexual intrigue or obscene pranks, or satire against the clergy

BT Poems

Warrant

Comments Megowan 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Fantasy literature

Hierarchy

SN Use for highly imaginative fiction in which the action occurs in an unreal and nonexistent time and/or place, or is not constrained by the limitations of conventional reality.

BT Fiction

NT Imaginary conversations

Imaginary voyages

Science fiction

Utopian literature

Warrant

Comments Megowan 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Farces

Hierarchy

SN Use for light, boisterous comic plays, usually short and characterized by contrived and highly improbable situations, exaggerated stereotypes, and an emphasis on physical humor.

BT Comedies

Warrant

Comments Megowan 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Folk plays

Hierarchy

SN Use for plays traditionally performed seasonally in rural communities by amateur actors, often focusing on a central theme of a symbolic death and resurrection or on the Seven Champions of Christendom.

BT Folklore

Plays

Warrant

Comments Megowan 20080110

Add RT: Morality plays?

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Formularies

Hierarchy

SN Use for documents detailing the set form or forms according to which something is to be done.

BT Reference works

NT Legal formularies

Medical formularies

Technical formularies

Warrant

Comments Megowan 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Gesta

Hierarchy

SN Use for metrical romances or tales involving warfare and adventure.

UF Gestes*

Gests*

BT Romances

NT Chanson de geste*

Warrant Sources: OED; Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of literary terms (1972); Beckson & Ganz. Literary terms: a dictionary (1989)

Comments Piasecki 20080110

Comments: OED lists “gests” as plural; others list alternate form “geste”

*Term/form does not exist in rbgenr

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Harlequinades (Plays)

Hierarchy

SN Use for farces or pantomimes in which a harlequin or clown plays the principal role.

BT Comedies

Warrant Sources: OED: Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of literary terms (1972)

Comments Piasecki 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Heroic drama

Hierarchy

SN Use for the form of tragedy or tragicomedy developed in England during the Restoration, typically characterized by epic personages, bombastic dialogue, excessive spectacle, violent conflicts, themes of love and honor, and exotic settings. Often written in heroic couplets.

BT Plays

Warrant Sources: LC SAR; Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of literary terms (1972); Beckson & Ganz. Literary terms: a dictionary (1989); Abrams, M.H. A glossary of literary terms (2005)

Comments Piasecki 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Hornbooks

Hierarchy

SN Use for children’s primers typically consisting of a sheet of parchment or layer of paper mounted on a thin wooden board and protected by a sheet of transparent horn, and having on it the alphabet and other rudiments such as the digits and often the Lord’s Prayer. Although some authorities attempt to distinguish “hornbooks” and “battledores” by type of material used or by date produced, no consistent distinction in usage has been documented. Hornbooks were widely used in England and America from the 16th to the early 18th centuries. Early examples use wainscot (thin panels of oak); in later examples the back of the panel was covered with morocco or roan stamped with an ornamental device. Rare examples were made entirely of cow-hide with a window cut in the upper portion.

UF Battledores

BT Primers (Instructional books)*

Readers*

Textbooks

Warrant Getty AAT; LC SAR; Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of literary terms (1972); Carter, John. ABC for book collectors (1995); Beckson & Ganz, Literary terms: a dictionary (1989); Glaister, Encyclopedia of the book (1996)

Comments Piasecki 20080110

*Terms not present as BT in rbgenr

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Indulgences

Hierarchy

SN Use for documents certifying the official remission by the Church of the temporal punishment due for sins that have been forgiven; outlawed in 1567.

UF Jubilee indulgences*

BT Religious works

Warrant Sources: Getty AAT; LC SAR

Comments Piasecki 20080110

*Term not present as UF in rbgenr

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Jestbooks

Hierarchy

SN Use for collections of short humorous anecdotes or prose tales, often cheaply printed and on topics such as cuckolded husbands, erring priests, or historical events

UF Jokebooks

BT Humorous works

RT Chapbooks

Warrant Glaister, G.A. “Jestbooks.” Glossary of the Book. 2d ed. 1979.

LC Subject authority record 02939090

Comments Thurman 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Legal formularies

Hierarchy

SN Use for collections of medieval models for public or private legal documents, in which spaces are left for the insertion of names, dates and circumstances peculiar to each case

BT Formularies

Legal works

Warrant Sources: Catholic Encyclopedia. 1913. (via Wikipedia)

“Formulary.” Black’s Law Dictionary. 8th ed. 2004.

Comments Thurman 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Legal instruments

Hierarchy

SN Use for documents expressing legal acts or agreements, or defining rights, obligations, entitlements, or liabilities, such as contracts, wills, deeds, mortgages, share certificates, etc. May be subdivided by type of instrument, using the standard terms of the jurisdiction involved.)

BT Legal works

NT Affidavits

Charters

Contracts

Deeds

Warrant Sources: “Instruments.” Black’s Law Dictionary. 8th ed. 2004.

LC Subject authority record 02043477

Comments Thurman 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Libretti

Hierarchy

SN Use for the texts of operas, oratorios, or other extended vocal compositions, as distinct from the music scores

BT Musical works

Warrant Sources: “Libretto.” New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles. 3rd ed. 1993.

“Libretto.” Grove Music Online.

Comments Thurman 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Libri amicorum

Hierarchy

SN Use for albums consisting of autographs, quotations, drawings, and other inscriptions contributed by fellow students or scholars met during the owner’s studies and travels, widespread in Germany and the Low Countries from the 16th through the 19th centuries

UF Album amicorum*

Autograph albums

BT Albums

Warrant Sources: “Album Amicorum.” The Electronic Labyrinth. http://elab.eserver.org/elab.html

Harris, Jason. “The Practice of Commuity: Humanist Friendship During the Dutch Revolt.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 47.4 (2005) 299-325.

“Album amicorum/ Stammbuch/ Memory book or friendship book.” Ketterer Kunst [auction house] Dictionary.

http://www.kettererkunst.com/dict/dictionary-a.shtml

Comments Thurman 20080110

*Change to plural Alba amicorum

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Literary hoaxes

Hierarchy

SN Use for fabricated, forged or counterfeit works, where the author may claim to be a known writer for a new or newly discovered work or an ordinary person with an extraordinary tale to tell.

Warrant

Comments Lange 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Literary quarrels

Hierarchy

SN Use for works revealing feuds or arguments between writers, or writers and critics, that often become extensive and personal.

Warrant

Comments Lange 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Lyric poems

Hierarchy

SN Use for poetry often intended to be sung or that has the quality of a song, emphasizing emotions or feelings. Popular forms include the 14-line sonnet, elegies, odes, ballades or villanelles.

Warrant

Comments Lange 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Masques

Hierarchy

SN Use for dramatic festivals or entertainment popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, generally staged by masked performers that included music, dance, singing and acting and often created for the royal court for ceremonial occasions.

Warrant

Comments Lange 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Mathematical recreations

Hierarchy : Purpose of work (Gathering term)

SN Use for works that contain mathematical puzzles, mathematical games, or other mathematical entertainment. These mathematical problems do not necessarily require knowledge of advanced mathematics

UF Recreational mathematics

BT Puzzles

Warrant LCSH Mathematical recreations

Comments Lange 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Term

Term Memorials (Commemorative)

Hierarchy Purpose of work

Commemorative works

Memorials (Commemorative)

SN Use for works designed to preserve the memory of a person or event.

RT Obituaries

HN In the 1983 edition of this thesaurus, this term was authorized without a parenthetical qualifier, thus items may have been indexed under "Memorials"

Warrant

Webster's 3rd International Dictionary

Memorial: something designed to commemorate or preserve the memory of a person or event.

Commemorate: 1. to call to remembrance (as by speech, writing, or ceremony): make mention of - now chiefly in ecclesiastical use. 3. to be a memorial of: preserve the remembrance of <a tablet commemorates his patriotic activities> syn see KEEP

TGM II:

uses Memorial works for death memorials

Comments Moriarty 20080529

Thesaurus Genre Term

Term Minstrel songs

Hierarchy

SN Use for songs performed by medieval professional musical entertainers, or by blackface entertainers of the 19th- and early 20th-century United States

BT Songs

RT [Add?: Minstrel jokes]

Warrant

Comments DeZelar-Tiedman 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Term

Term Novellas

Hierarchy

SN Use for a fictional prose narrative ranging from fifty to one hundred pages.

Warrant

Comments DeZelar-Tiedman 20080110

See comments in Workform for medieval poetry and prose usage

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Novenas

Hierarchy

SN Use for collections of prayers and/or devotions to be employed during a novena.

Use for collections of prayers and/or devotions to be employed during a nine-day period of prayer meant to obtain special graces or favors.

Warrant

Comments DeZelar-Tiedman 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Oriental tales

Hierarchy Literary forms (Gathering term; do not assign)

SN Use for adventure stories, often employing magical or supernatural elements, by Western writers set in Asia or the Middle East.

UF Tales, Oriental

BT Fiction

Warrant Norton Anthology of English Literature, Norton topics online:

"The popularity of The Arabian Nights inspired writers to develop a new genre, the Oriental tale... Like Gothic novels and plays, Oriental tales feature exotic settings, supernatural happenings, and deliberate extravagance of event, character, behavior, emotion, and speech — an extravagance sometimes countered by wry humor even to the point of buffoonery. It is as though the "otherness" of Oriental settings and characters gives the staid British temperament a holiday. Gothicism and Orientalism do the work of fiction more generally — providing imaginary characters, situations, and stories as alternative to, even as escape from, the reader's everyday reality. But they operate more sensationally than other types of fiction. Pleasurable terror and pleasurable exoticism are kindred experiences, with unreality and strangeness at the root of both."

Comments DeZelar-Tiedman 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Passion plays

Hierarchy

SN Use for plays representing the Passion of Jesus Christ. [existing sn]

BT Religious plays*

RT Mystery plays*

Warrant "The evolution of the Passion Play was about the same as that of the Easter Play. It originated in the ritual of the Church, which prescribes, among other things, that the Gospel on Good Friday should be sung in parts divided among various persons. Later on, Passion Plays, properly so called, made their appearance, first in Latin, then in German; contents and form were adapted more and more to popular ideas until, in the fifteenth century, the popular religious plays had developed." Catholic encyclopedia (online)

Comments DeZelar-Tiedman 20080110

* DeZelar-Tiedman: I think that the current BT, Mystery plays, should be an RT, and Religious plays should be the BT.

Rationale: Mystery plays are a medieval form of drama, and while some mystery plays are passion plays, passion plays continued to evolve over centuries and are still extant today. See, for example, the articles on Mystery Play and Passion Play in the Catholic Encyclopedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/index.html.

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Playbills

Hierarchy

SN Use for single-sheet items advertising plays or theatrical entertainments, usually announcing the cast.

BT Broadsides

RT Cast lists

Plays

Theater programs

Warrant

Comments Myers 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Publishers’ advertisements

Hierarchy

SN Use for advertisements of materials available from a publisher. Use "Booksellers' advertisements" rather than this term for examples appearing before the roles of bookseller and publisher were clearly differentiated during the early 19th century.

Warrant >> need different warrant

Comments Ascher 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Publishers’ catalogs

Hierarchy

SN Use for catalogs advertising materials for sale by a particular publisher. Use "Booksellers' catalogs" rather than this term for examples appearing before the roles of bookseller and publisher were clearly differentiated during the early 19th century.

Warrant changes sources: Harrod's Librarians' glossary : 9,000 terms used in information management, library science, publishing, the book trades, and archive management / compiled by Ray Prytherch. -- 8th ed. -- Brookfield, Vt., USA : Ashgate Pub. Co., c1995.

"Publisher's catalog. A list of books issued for sale by a publisher."

ALSO

A bibliographical companion / by Roy Stokes. -- Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1989.

"PUBLISHER ... The publisher's role has emerged gradually over the history of the book. In the early days of printing it was the printer who printed the book, frequently bound it and sold it. Later, the book-seller emerged as the one who bore the financial risk, with the printer sinking into a subordinate position. During the nineteenth century and throughout the present century it has been the publisher who has been the pivotal core around which the book trade has revolved. "--P. 231.

Comments Ascher 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Readers

Hierarchy

SN Use for characteristically American textbooks for children, first appearing in the 1830s, consisting of practice reading material generally chosen for moral, literary, or patriotic value.

Warrant changes sources: Benét's reader's encyclopedia of American literature / edited by George Perkins, Barbara Perkins, and Phillip Leininger. -- 1st ed. -- New York, NY : HarperCollinsPublishers, c1991.

"readers. Children once had no special provision made for their reading, but during the Victorian era more and more books were written especially for children and carefully prepared readers--collections of material chosen for moral, literary, or patriotic value--were published. Such books seem to have been a characteristically American product, with W.H. McGuffey's Eclectic Readers the pioneer and most widely know example. ..."

ALSO

A handbook to literature / William Harmon. -- 10th ed. -- Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Pearson/Prentice Hall, c2006.

"... (3) An instruction book with passages for reading such as Henry Sweet's An Anglo-Saxon Reader : In Prose and Verse (1876)"

Comments Ascher 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Recreations

Hierarchy

SN Use for works intended to amuse, divert, or to make time pass pleasantly

Warrant changes sources: Merridiam-Webster online (www.m-w.com, accessed December 2, 2007)

recreation:

"refreshment of strength and spirits after work; also : a means of refreshment or diversion : hobby"

diversion:

"2: something that diverts or amuses : pastime"

pastime:

"something that amuses and serves to make time pass agreeably : diversion"

diverts: to

"2: to give pleasure to especially by distracting the attention from what burdens or distresses"

Comments Ascher 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Romans à clef

Hierarchy Use for novels that disguise actual people, places, or events in the cloak of fiction.

BT Novels

Warrant

Comments Blake 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Royal petitions

Hierarchy Use for written requests submitted to a sovereign for the redress of grievances or granting of favor.

BT Petitions [Petitions lacks SN, Blake suggests: Use for written requests submitted to an authority for the redress of grievances or granting of favor]

Warrant

Comments Blake 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Samizdat

Hierarchy

SN Use for works copied and distributed clandestinely in the Soviet Bloc.

BT Underground publications [Underground publications lacks SN, Blake suggests: Use for works outside the social or political mainstream created in multiples]

Warrant

Comments Blake 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term School catalogs

Hierarchy

SN Use for catalogs issued by primary and secondary educational institutions that list course offerings, calendars, academic programs, etc.

UF Academy catalogs

Catalogs, School

BT Academic catalogs*

Warrant

Comments Blake 20080110

*See also Academic catalogs and College catalogs SN

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Song sheets

Hierarchy

SN Use for pre-published manuscript sheets of music. *

BT Songs

Warrant

Comments Myers 20080110

*Always pre-published or just unpublished?

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Songs

Hierarchy

SN Use for musical compositions for voice, especially short and secular. Not used for large vocal forms, such as opera or oratorio, or for sacred music.

BT Musical works

NT Ballads

Hymns

Minstrel songs

National songs

Song sheets

Warrant

Comments Myers 20080110

AAT: songs (<document genres for music>, <document genres for oral or performed works>, ... Visual and Verbal Communication)

Note: Musical compositions, generally short, containing words.

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Songsters

Hierarchy

SN Use for songbooks, especially of secular, popular, traditional or topical song lyrics, designed to fit in the pocket.*

BT Musical works

Warrant

Comments Myers 20080110

*Add BT Songbooks? [Songbooks does not currently exist in rbgenr. Myers has proposed SN: Use for books containing brief, mainly secular musical compositions written or adapted for singing.

BT:Musical works

NT: Songsters]

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Stations of the cross

Hierarchy

SN Use for the series of Christian devotions or devotional images, usually 14, commemorating the suffering and death of Jesus.

UF Way of the cross

BT Devotional literature [Devotional literature lacks SN]

Illustrated works [lacks SN]

Warrant

Comments Blake 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Theater programs

Hierarchy

SN Use for multi-page printed or written lists of acts, scenes, selections, characters, performers, or other features of a theater performance.

BT Programs

RT Playbills

Plays

Warrant

Comments Myers 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Three deckers

Hierarchy

SN Use for three volume novels published in England during the second half of the 19th century, that were particularly popular for use in circulating libraries.

UF Triple deckers

BT [Conditions of publication]

Warrant

Comments Ascher 20080110

Thesaurus Genre Terms

Term Yellowbacks

Hierarchy 1. Literary forms / Fiction / Novels / Yellowbacks

2. Conditions of publication / Yellowbacks

SN Use for novels published in boards covered with glazed yellow paper and having a woodcut printed in three colors on teh front, usually dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries

UF Railway novels

BT Novels

Warrant

LCSH: "Yellowback books"

SN: n/a

UF: Dime novels, English

Webster's 3rd International: "Yellowback"

2. a cheap and usually sensational novel; esp.: one sold in yellow board or paper covers in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Glaister's Encyclopedia of the Book: "Yellow backs"

Books published in boards covered with glazed yellow paper and having a woodcut printed in three colours on the front. The style was originated by the London engraver and colour printer Edmund Evans in 1853

with an edition of Henry Mayhew’s ‘Letters left at the pastry-cooks’. Yellow backs were popular for cheap reprints until the turn of the century.

Comments Ascher 20080110

Comments (3)

NMS: The Comments line gives the last name of the volunteer who worked on the SN. The rest should be self-explanatory. We're concentrating on the SN, since the term has already been approved. Exceptions are noted.