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Article: Anthologies
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- December 4, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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TIME WAS when the compilers of anthologies were generalists.
They based their selections on quality (The World's One Thousand Best
Poems) or personal taste (Reading I've Liked), popularity (A Treasury
of the Familiar) or preciousness (Pebbled Brooks and Crystal Drops).
If they specialized they did so along sentimental or chauvinistic
lines: 20 Great Dog Stories, In Praise of Oxford, Poems of the Great
War.
Times have changed. The themes of some recent anthologies
include seduction, dreams, deafness and, most unnerving, death.
Specialization run amok?
Though it's difficult to imagine for whom they have been
compiled, some of these oddball anthologies have considerable
interest and charm. ...