Eric Partridge, word lover and dictionary master.

The West Australian-15 July 1936 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article40733834

My current favourite book is the gigantic (1400 page) dictionary of slang written by Eric Partridge (1894-1979).

Without the help of Mr Partridge I wouldn’t have been able to understand many of the obscure words used in the old articles I love. I realized the other day that there was no reason he wouldn’t be referred to somewhere in these newspaper articles so I looked him up. Lo and behold, there is an article about him being awarded a fellowship to begin writing what will end up being ‘The Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang’, yet another book on my wish list.

Eric Partridge was a very interesting man and achieved a lot in one life. He was born in New Zealand and came to Australia in his teens. He served at Gallipoli and was wounded in France. Later, he took up a travelling scholarship at Oxford, lectured at universities in Manchester and London and started a publishing house before writing a variety of dictionaries and books about language. (See http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110155b.htm for a summary of his biography)

Morning Bulletin 6 Mar 1929 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article54645539

In my readings about him I found his name mentioned regarding a scandalous book called ‘The Sleeveless Errand’ written by Norah James. The book was declared to be obscene and all copies ordered to be destroyed. Mr Partridge owned the publisher of this book, Scholartis. He read the book and had suggested that, although horrible, the language mirrored real life in certain parts of the community.

I doubt those people making the decision in court in 1929 were people in the part of society her book used for reference. Banning the ‘degrading muck’ in this book would hardly make the lower classes change their ways would it? I wonder if the  language in the book would have been seen differently if it was written by a man.

Obviously the ordered destruction was not as effective as the magistrate would have hoped. I notice that copies of it can be bought on the interweb. Who would have thought of that outcome back in 1929?

If anyone out there has read ‘The Sleeveless Errand’ I would be very interested to know what you thought of it.