The Book of Lists refers to any one of a series of books compiled by David Wallechinsky, his father Irving Wallace and sister Amy Wallace. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Each book contains hundreds of lists (many accompanied by textual explanations) on unusual or obscure topics, for example:
The first Book of Lists was published in 1977, a second volume came out in 1980 and the third appeared in 1983. Book of Lists for the 1990s was published in 1993; yet another volume, The New Book of Lists, was published in 2005. The first volume was initially controversial and banned in some libraries and parts of the United States when it was published due to, among other things, a chapter that graphically described popular sexual positions and their pros and cons. [12] The 2005 volume was essentially "new" in name only; it was made up primarily of reprinted and updated lists selected from the first three volumes, which have gone out of print. [13]
Wallechinsky and Wallace were also responsible for editing The People's Almanac , which covered similar ground, as well as The Book of Predictions . They also contributed a weekly column in Parade magazine.
Other authors who have followed this basic format include Russ Kick, author of The Disinformation Book of Lists, Louis Rukeyser, author of Louis Rukeyser's Book of Lists, and Bernard Schwartz with A Book of Legal Lists.
In 2005, a Canadian edition of The Book of Lists was published and credited to David Wallechinsky, Amy Wallace, Ira Basen and Jane Farrow. The book contained a mixture of content from the original three volumes, mixed in with updated material, and material with a specifically Canadian focus.
Wallace's story "The Abyssinian electric chair" (p. 463) was examined by historian Mike Dash in a Cliopatria award winning [14] 2010 blog post [15] which traces the story back to its probable source and concludes that Wallace's story is unlikely to be accurate.
John Winslow Irving is an American-Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter.
David Foster Wallace was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace's 1996 novel Infinite Jest was cited by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, The Pale King (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The Los Angeles Times's David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years".
Y Kant Tori Read was an American synth-pop band fronted by singer-songwriter Tori Amos and active between 1984 and 1989. The band originally consisted of vocalist and keyboardist Amos, guitarist Steve Caton, drummer Matt Sorum, and bassist Brad Cobb. The band's name comes from an incident in Amos's childhood where she was asked to leave the Peabody Conservatory because she refused to read sheet music.
Elva Ruby Miller, who recorded under the name Mrs. Miller, was an American singer who gained some fame in the 1960s for her series of shrill and off-tempo renditions of popular songs such as "Moon River", "Monday, Monday", "A Lover's Concerto" and "Downtown". An untrained mezzo-soprano, she sang in a heavy, vibrato-laden style; according to Irving Wallace, David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace in The Book of Lists 2, Miller's voice was compared to the sound of "roaches scurrying across a trash can lid."
Phillip Terry was an American actor.
Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet, essayist, biographer, novelist, screenwriter and political activist. She wrote across genres and forms, addressing issues related to racial, gender and class justice, war and war crimes, Jewish culture and diaspora, American history, politics, and culture. Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her "exact generation," Anne Sexton famously described her as "mother of us all", while Adrienne Rich wrote that she was “our twentieth-century Coleridge; our Neruda."
Irving Wallace was an American best-selling author and screenwriter. He was known for his heavily researched novels, many with a sexual theme.
The People's Almanac is a series of three books compiled in 1975, 1978 and 1981 by David Wallechinsky and his father Irving Wallace.
David Wallechinsky is an American popular historian and television commentator, the president of the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH) and the founder and editor-in-chief of AllGov.com and worldfilmreviews.us.
The Book of Predictions was a book published in 1981 and written by David Wallechinsky, Amy Wallace, and Irving Wallace, the authors of The Book of Lists. Written in the same type of style, it includes lists of predictions by scientists, science fiction authors, politicians, and others. Other contents include:
Mike Dash is a Welsh writer, historian, and researcher. He has written books and articles about dramatic episodes in history.
The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published more than 300 volumes by authors ranging from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Saul Bellow, Frederick Douglass to Ursula K. Le Guin, including selected writing of several U.S. presidents. Anthologies and works containing historical documents, criticism, and journalism are also published. Library of America volumes seek to print authoritative versions of works; include extensive notes, chronologies, and other back matter; and are known for their distinctive physical appearance and characteristics.
Diana Lucile Paxson is an American author, primarily in the fields of paganism and heathenism. Her published works include fantasy and historical fiction novels, as well as numerous short stories. More recently she has also published books about pagan and heathen religions and practices. She is a founder of the Society for Creative Anachronism, where she is known as Countess Diana Listmaker.
Philipp Andreas Oldenburger was a renowned 17th century lawyer and political historian from Germany.
Jolan Chang was a Canadian sexologist and Taoist philosopher who wrote the luminary classics on Eastern Sexuality The Tao of Love and Sex and The Tao of the Loving Couple. He was born in Hangzhou as the son of an army general. After the revolution he lived for a number of years in Canada, but later he moved to Sweden. He died in Stockholm.
The 20th Academy Awards were held on March 20, 1948, to honor the films of 1947. It is notable for being the last Oscars until 2005 in which no film won more than three awards.
James Meek is a British novelist and journalist, author of The People's Act of Love. He was born in London, England, and grew up in Dundee, Scotland.
The Moni are an indigenous people in the Indonesian Paniai regency (kabupaten) of Central Papua in Western New Guinea. They speak the Moni language.
Amy Wallace was an American writer. She was the daughter of writers Irving Wallace and Sylvia Wallace and the sister of writer and populist historian David Wallechinsky. She was co-author of the bestselling book The Book of Lists (1977).
Deborah Marie “Debby” Hartin was an American lecturer and activist. Her 1970 divorce following a gender transition made national headlines, and she went on to appear on numerous talk shows. Hartin was selected by The Book of Lists as one of ten renowned trans women, and she was featured in the 1978 documentary Let Me Die a Woman.