Lifelines: A Commonplace Book

A Commonplace Book with quotations/epigrams, etc. related to more than 500 subject categories, it is also a literary autobiography with the author's appraisal more than 1100 books read in his lifetime, along with favorite words/films/museums/sites, and fascinating "curiosities"pertaining to many subjects.

Commonplace Book (also called ZIBALDONE or hodgepodge book) is a collection of favorite sayings or statments of proverbial wisdom. It is a personal collection and varies significantly among individuals. Authors of commonplace books include Seneca the Younger, John Milton, Francis Bacon, Edward Gibbon, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, W. H. Auden, Nicholson Baker. After a lifetime of reading, the author (a college English teacher) has tried to distill that reading by fixing it for himself, giving some permanence and validating the activity that has most consumed his waking hours. Thus LIFELINES is in some sense an autobiography, a way of recapturing moments of learning, reflection, suprise, insight, basic pleasure provided by creative users of our language.

Charlie Cherry is Professor of English at Villanova University and Editor of QUAKER HISTORY at Haverford College.