"Dow's Dictionary of Railway Quotations" by A Dow
Posted: 12 Oct 2009, 08:06
This is a splendid book that should be on every railway lover’s bookshelf - in my opinion anyway!
Beefy, it is 384 pages, and is published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
Entries are very wide ranging and are around 3.700 +/-, covering railways from 1608 to the present day.
Over 1,300 writers and speakers and diverse subjects are represented from British and American sources.
The book is organized alphabetically, and includes a number of Appendices, including 2 useful indexes - one by Writers and Speakers and the other by Subject and Keywords.
To give you an idea of the variety, the material itself is taken from Acts of Parliament, poetry, songs, journals, obituaries, private conversations, novels, histories, plays, films, radio broadcasts etc!
Topics include history, economics, transportation, politics, culture, romance..........
I cannot recommend this enough (Tom M??) … entertaining to dip into and useful as a reference and bedside read! Some examples…
“Absence – I took a trip on a train, And thought about you….â€
“Accidents – Experience has shown that to bring about any considerable reform, rail\road disaster, has as it were, to be emphasized by loss of life….†CF Adams 1879.
“Trips - My heart is warm with friends I make, And better friends I'll not be knowing, Yet there isn't a train that I wouldn't take, No matter where it's going†E St Vincent Millay, 1921.
Beefy, it is 384 pages, and is published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
Entries are very wide ranging and are around 3.700 +/-, covering railways from 1608 to the present day.
Over 1,300 writers and speakers and diverse subjects are represented from British and American sources.
The book is organized alphabetically, and includes a number of Appendices, including 2 useful indexes - one by Writers and Speakers and the other by Subject and Keywords.
To give you an idea of the variety, the material itself is taken from Acts of Parliament, poetry, songs, journals, obituaries, private conversations, novels, histories, plays, films, radio broadcasts etc!
Topics include history, economics, transportation, politics, culture, romance..........
I cannot recommend this enough (Tom M??) … entertaining to dip into and useful as a reference and bedside read! Some examples…
“Absence – I took a trip on a train, And thought about you….â€
“Accidents – Experience has shown that to bring about any considerable reform, rail\road disaster, has as it were, to be emphasized by loss of life….†CF Adams 1879.
“Trips - My heart is warm with friends I make, And better friends I'll not be knowing, Yet there isn't a train that I wouldn't take, No matter where it's going†E St Vincent Millay, 1921.