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Book Review of Now All We Need Is a Title: Famous Book Titles and How They Got That Way

Now All We Need Is a Title: Famous Book Titles and How They Got That Way
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Unless you're strictly a one-genre reader you'll find numerous interesting stories of book titles you've read in this one. Here are two examples.....

I suspect all of us are familiar with "Mother Goose Rhymes" which was first published in 1719 under the title "Songs for the Nursery or Mother Goose's Melodies for Children." Turns out there was a real Mother Goose who was mother and step-mother to 16 children. She made up rhymes, songs and stories to keep them entertained. And she was the mother-in-law of a eighteenth century Boston printer who collected those in the book under that title.

Elaine Steinbeck was John Steinbeck's widow. While visiting a bookstore in Yokohama, Japan, she asked whether they carried her husband's book "The Grapes of Wrath." This is an interesting example of how titles get re-worked in foreign languages. After checking, the book store clerk told Mrs. Steinbeck they did carry his book "Angry Raisins."