In A Note on Anderson's Use of the Bible, Sean M. Brooks referred to the epigraph of After Doomsday, Chapter One: Ecclesiastes, ix, 12. Sean could also have mentioned that the epigraph of Chapter Six is Isaiah, xiv, 9.
In Quotations, I mentioned that all but one of the chapters in After Doomsday begin with a quotation. They are:
Chapter One, as above;
Two, Whitehead;
Three, Sanders;
Four, Anon.;
Five, Longfellow;
Six, as above;
Seven, Virgil;
Eight, Leland;
Nine, Jacobsen;
Ten, Napoleon;
Eleven, Elder Edda;
Twelve, The Book of Common Prayer;
Fourteen, Bunyan;
Fifteen, Chesterton.
Observations
My next task is to track down more information about some of these quotations.
That well known poet, Anon., sure gets around.
The Elder Edda, the Book of Common Prayer and Bunyan join the Bible as (different kinds of) religious texts.
We quoted Chesterton in The Nine Worthies, "Before The Gods That Made The Gods" and "Anomalous Variations In Reality" III.
3 comments:
Paul, one thing you've got to watch out for about Anon. is that many scholars believe several of his most famous lines were actually written or spoken by someone else of the same name.
David,
That explains a lot.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Dang! I somehow missed how Anderson quoted from the Book of Isaiah for the epigraph he chose for Chapter Six of AFTER DOOMSDAY. My article "A Note on Anderson's Use of the Bible" is one of my more unsatisfactory essays because of how I know it is seriously incomplete. That was why I called it merely a "Note."
Mention of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer reminded me of how Anderson told me, somewhat to my surprise, that whatever religious upbringing he had was Episcopalian. I was surprised because of thinking that had been Lutheran.
Anderson may have called himself agnostic for most of his life, but he was never hostile to honest believers in God. And presented most Christian and Jewish characters in his works sympathetically. He seems to have had the most respect, as an institution, for the Catholic Church.
Sean
Sean
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