Help the OED Find a Lost Book

New submitter imlepid writes "The Oxford English Dictionary is currently undergoing a complete overhaul which includes a reexamination of the 300,000+ entries and citations for those entries. Understandably for a work which is over 150 years old, some of the sources have become hard to find. One such example is a book titled 'Meanderings of Memory' by Nightlark, which is cited 49 times in the OED, including for some rare words. The OED's editorial team has appealed to the public, 'Have you seen a copy of this book?'"

I've met a work witch

[Anonymous Coward]

Their work ethic is wicked.

How silly.

[Aerokii]

When your work witch is over 150 years old, you'll definitely want an overhaul.

Or retirement.

Did they check the filing cabinet?

[Anonymous Coward]

"But Mr Dent, Meanderings of Memory has been available in the local library for the last nine months."

"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see it, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."

"But the book was on display ..."

"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find it."

"That's the display department."

"With a flashlight."

"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."

"So had the stairs."

"But look, you found the book didn't you?"

"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."

Irony?

[ubrgeek]

They can't remember where they left the 'Meanderings of Memory' book?

Does it even really exist?

[JDG1980]

What if "Meanderings of Memory" never existed in the first place, but was made up by sloppy 19th-century OED editors when they couldn't find a real source? It's not as if this practice is unknown...

I'll Check

[HtR]

Let me check. It might be sitting on my desk.

Umm - this might take a couple of hours ...

'Meanderings of Memory' by Nightlark

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

A famous literary hoax, of Borgesian dimensions [wikipedia.org].

One might adduce as much, from the enigmatic title of the purported work, and the pseudonymous attribution of authorship.

In fact, this was the product of several Oxford dons, in the generation before Tolkien - who expanded on the academic chicanery of spurious reference work by creating an entire cosmos, populated with libraries of such.

Now, let us turn to the Voynich manuscript, and the Dictionary of the Khazars...

I'm not bringing it back ...

[PPH]

.... to the library unless someone gives me a break on 150 years of late fees.

Re:Could Be Worse

[dwye]

Countless number of books lost forever when the Library of Alexandria [wikipedia.org] was burnt down.

Which time?