An Exaltation of Larks or, The Venereal Game, by James Lipton (TPB, 1984, $2) SOLD
At age 18 James Lipton was a published poet. He then changed to acting, and the writing of Broadway musicals and TV dramas. He even won an Emmy. Of this book, he says,"it began as a kind of hobby that grew into a passion and finally a book." And what a strange hobby it was...
How could a "venereal game" be a hobby? The word venereal, and its root "ven" originally meant "to desire (and therefore) to pursue", which led to its being used in relationship to hunting. The Book of Saint Albans (1486) included lists of hunting phrases. Amazingly, these phrases were word puns people had made up Even more strangely, these puns began to be used commonly. A few of them we still use today- a school of fish, a pride of lions, a host of angels. Most seem strange to us- a crash of rhinoceroses, a bale of turtles, a parliament of owls. Later on people started creating puns describing people's occupations and things they did- a drift of fishermen, a pontificality of prelates, a goring of butchers.
Lipton swears all these phrases are "authentic and authoritative". Wow!
At the end of his earlier edition of this book, Lipton invited his readers to make up their own puns, the best of which he includes in this edition. Look for this book on the new non-fiction table, avail. 3/23. (L-ref.)
