Mark Twain quaintly writes (London, Feb. 6th) of the Edition for 1900:
"In my experience I have found that one can do without principles, but
not without the Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary."
- advertisement in New York Sun, April 14, 1900, p. 7.
We sailed for America, and there made certain preparations...Two
members of my family elected to go with me. Also a carbuncle. The dictionary
says a carbuncle is a kind of jewel. Humor is out of place in a dictionary.
- Following the Equator
Oh, that worthless, worthless book, that timid book, that shifty
book, that uncertain book, that time-serving book, that exasperating book, that
unspeakable book, the Unlimited Dictionary! that book with but one object in
life: to get in more and shadings of the words than its competitors. With the
result that nearly every time it gets done shading a good old useful word it
means everything general and nothing in particular.
- "Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes"
I have studied it often, but I never could discover the plot.
- quoted in Mark Twain Anecdotes, Cyril Clemens
1920 Funk
and Wagnalls Dictionary
entry
From the Dave Thomson collection
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