Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Wood's, Woods, and the new weekly journal of defiance

In the second volume of the Library of America publication of selected short stories by Edith Wharton, being read courtesy of the library, is mentioned the imaginary Zig-zag, touting itself as "The Weekly Journal of Defiance" (Writing a War Story). It must be that in the past, using libraries with real collections, I had read all these stories, because not one seems to be new, and the collection omits a remembered favorite or two. I liked the imaginary town of Onondaigua and some of the titles of imaginary novels, poems, and volumes of poetry mentioned in these stories. A couple of errata have been noted. An oddity that is not an erratum is mention of the biological laboratory at "Wood's Holl." This must be what's now called Woods Hole. The first word is different because of modern government policies concerning possessives in place names, but I don't know what accounts for the old usage of "Holl," found in so many 19-century sources. One theory contends that it's Norse for "hill." This is a brief history.

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