This is not the first book on indexes I’ve read! Hazel K. Bell’s “Indexes and Indexers in Fact and Fiction” was a compilation of bits of indexes* and portrayals of indexers that I read back in 2007 (the review is thus one of my short ones). I’ve also read books on the bits and bobs of books, including one called “Invisible Forms” by Kevin Jackson which I can only assume I read around 2002 but mysteriously appears neither in this blog nor my index to my pre-blog journals, which included a section on indexes. But to my knowledge, this is the first book soley on the history of indexes.
Excitingly, I “won” this on NetGalley from one of their emails where the first 100 to click the link are accepted for the book automatically.
*Duncan goes into the matter of the plural and settles on indexes rather than indices.
Dennis Duncan – “Index, a History of the: A Bookish Adventure”
(6 July 2021 – NetGalley)
The professional indexer, learned, vigilant, goes before us, levelling mountains and beating paths so that we, time-poor students at the fingerpost, can arrive swiftly but unruffled at the passage – the quotation, the datum, the knowledge – we need.
This is a very thorough book – not overly academic or obfuscating but just thorough (at 350 pages including I believe (see later) two indexes, it’s not massive), taking us from the very earliest manuscripts up to the indexing of the Internet. As is said in the reviews, it’s affectionate and Duncan is obviously very engaged with his topic.
So we move from the start of indexing, which came with the start of the use of codexes (book-shaped objects) rather than scrolls and then move on to the necessary question of locators, i.e. the points to which an index refers the reader: not always page numbers and certainly not at first, but Bible chapters (then verses; I didn’t know they evolved separately) then page numbers and now locator tags in ebooks and hashtags in social media. Early readers of both manuscript and printed books might have been encouraged to write in their own indexes and indeed page numbers. We get quite a lot on the difference between concordances (lists of the appearances of particular words in a work) and indexes (subject lists), both organised alphabetically (so we get a bit on the alphabet, too; indexes weren’t always organised thus) and the interesting fact that these both appeared at roughly the same time.
One point that comes through almost immediately is the idea of moral panics over the format in which information is presented being nothing new: while people shout now about everyone only looking things up on Wikipedia, as soon as reproducible indexes appeared, there was a lot of talk about people only reading the indexes and not the book properly.
There’s quite a lot in the book about funny bits in indexes, some very funny indeed, and the way they can be used to either propagate beef with another writer or thinker or undermine the actual text. I will say that there was a long and involved chapter here on some 18th century culture wars which I did skim slightly, as I’ve never been a fan of the satirical writers of that era generally, and there is a lot of detail; however, it’s well-researched and well-done and that’s just a personal preference.
The introduction of automation to indexes is fascinating, from machine-readable cards to the first indexing software. Discussions of complete automation comes up against the same thing that discussions of voice-to-text software do – it’s all very well for the basics but you really do need human intervention still (I recently ‘edited’ an AI transcription of a focus group and it took exactly as long as if I’d typed it all out myself), which is good news for the dedicated indexers I know. He finishes the book, after a note of praise to the “invisible readers” mostly women now apparently, who do the indexing, with a pair of indexes, one machine-generated, one human-generated. However, in my advance readers’ copy …
Index
Indexes : necessarily produced late in production cycle, 235; initial absence of, in books where the omission is striking, 199; author humbly seeks early readers’ indulgence for current lack of, 281.
A necessary book, filling a gap admirably; there won’t be a need for another book on this topic for the foreseeable future.
Thank you, Allen Lane, for making this book available on NetGalley in return for an honest review. “Index, a History of the” was published on 2 September.
Laura
Sep 16, 2021 @ 08:27:37
In my first job I had to index other people’s books and a couple years back I had to index my own academic book. I can’t say I enjoyed it at all!
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Liz Dexter
Sep 16, 2021 @ 09:09:36
Oh wow! I’ve always fancied doing it myself, but am a bit put off by the long learning process as that would take time out from my equally enjoyable editing and transcription work! Possibly not a book for you although I think you’d enjoy the historical aspects …
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Laura
Sep 16, 2021 @ 11:39:06
Ha, maybe this would appall actual indexers but I never did any training (obviously with my own book I had a much better sense of which sections dealt with what…)
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Liz Dexter
Sep 16, 2021 @ 11:47:59
Oh goodness! And fair enough with your own book although it’s hard to “see” your own text after a while, which is why we have other people be our editors, isn’t it. That is interesting!
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Tredynas Days
Sep 16, 2021 @ 09:32:39
Good to see mention of that Kevin Jackson book. I mentioned it very briefly in one of my earliest posts, pointing out that his book on the marginalia, indexes, etc., in books was Inspired by Isaac d’Israeli, father of Benjamin, and his Curiosities of Literature, first published in 1791, and reprinted many times subsequently. I seem to recall that some of Barbara Pym’s characters work as indexers, but I might be misremembering – I do that a lot these days.
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Liz Dexter
Sep 16, 2021 @ 09:37:02
Yes, they do – they and she are mentioned in the Hazel K. Bell book! So you did remember correctly. And lovely that someone else knows that book, weird I never reviewed it. As for this one, I think you might enjoy it!
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Grab the Lapels
Sep 16, 2021 @ 12:28:02
This book sounds like a heaping pile of nerdy goodness. A certain type of person will get their hands on Duncan’s book and be delighted. I will say I’m more interested in the part about ways we index online, such as hashtags. Is it possible that we’re almost natural indexers?
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Liz Dexter
Sep 16, 2021 @ 13:41:06
Yes, it’s great, and people sound very enthusiastic about it though I seem to be the first reviewer on NetGalley so far. You know, I don’t think people ARE natural indexers – the variety of hashtags that spring up for the same event of idea shows people don’t seek clarity and consensus, but they do like to jump between examples of the same things so hashtags are of course very useful. Having said that, as you know, I’m a cataloguer at heart, so I’m probably That Sort Of Person!
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kaggsysbookishramblings
Sep 16, 2021 @ 18:23:29
Sounds fascinating – the job of the indexer is not an easy one, and always appreciated by me. On a slight tangent, have you ever read this J.G. Ballard short story??? https://metaphorbymetaphor.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/ewriting_ballard_index.pdf
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Liz Dexter
Sep 16, 2021 @ 18:28:28
Not a tangent at all as he goes into the story in the book! I think it’s one for you – sorry I read it on ebook so can’t pass it to you!
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kaggsysbookishramblings
Sep 16, 2021 @ 19:00:05
No worries! Will keep my eye out…
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mallikabooks15
Sep 17, 2021 @ 10:10:20
I was looking forward to your review of this; I’ve done copyediting and proofreading myself but never indexing; but I’d still want to read it
“One point that comes through almost immediately is the idea of moral panics over the format in which information is presented being nothing new”
That’s so true–each time something ‘easier’ is created, we do see the same objections.
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Liz Dexter
Sep 17, 2021 @ 12:00:11
I’ve often wanted to add indexing to my editing, proofreading and transcription work but the training takes a while and the work is done in big slabs of time so I’d probably lose some of my flexibility. I think this book is more for the reader who encounters indexes, anyway, and a good all-round read.
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mallikabooks15
Sep 17, 2021 @ 12:03:51
Oh yes, it does take some work to get into it; I haven’t considered it yet though I have been taking up freelance copyediting. Perhaps some day.
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wadholloway
Sep 17, 2021 @ 12:23:02
It would never occur to me to that there would even be a book about indexing and yet it sounds really interesting. Years ago I was chasing repeat sales for one of my computer programmes. I of course wrote a manual, using my favourite ever word processing software, Wordstar. When I was done I pressed a button and was presented with a list of every single word with page no.s. Deleting all the the’s and and’s took a while but the result was brilliant. I suppose MS Word would do the same, but I’ve never since had the need.
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Liz Dexter
Sep 17, 2021 @ 12:33:08
Ahh, you’ve made me nostalgic for WordPerfect now!! Yes, Word will do an automatic index but it’s very clunky – and I think from memory you have to highlight all the words you want to index, too. Plus it won’t put concepts into groups, add explanations, etc.
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heavenali
Sep 17, 2021 @ 17:08:56
I can see this was a perfect book for you. Pretty sure I will never read a book on indexing but it does sound very thorough and well done. As you say, another such volume will probably never be necessary .
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Liz Dexter
Sep 17, 2021 @ 17:15:48
Ha – handy to know it exists in case anyone should ask, though, right?!
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Ruth
Sep 18, 2021 @ 07:40:49
Interesting! I rarely write essays or assignments anymore which is when I would mostly use indexes. I have recently bought an historical biography ‘Jane Austen at home’ and noticed a comprehensive index system at the back and it occurred to me that I could use the index to find the bits I’m most interested in. I won’t do that because the book seems quite accessible, but useful to have that option!
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Liz Dexter
Sep 18, 2021 @ 11:07:49
That’s what they feared people would do – but it doesn’t actually matter, does it!
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buriedinprint
Sep 28, 2021 @ 15:49:32
This reminds me of a Barbara Pym novel, for the work one of the women does. Maybe The Sweet Dove Died? I’ve always fancied it too…the orderliness of it.
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Liz Dexter
Sep 28, 2021 @ 20:20:39
Yes, there’s definitely indexing in at least one BP but I can’t remember which one. It does take ages, that’s my only problem with it, and a while to train up, too.
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