unearths some literary gems.
Highlights from Vanity Fair, December 1916:
Harry Grant Dart (who it seems was better known as a cartoonist) has a humor piece about being a perpetual "extra man" for formal dinners. Two snippets attached, and here's a bonus: "Mrs. Effington-Smith" (which I'd call an effing good made-up name).
Then Wodehouse (if my guess is correct as to who the pseudonymous author really is) does the math on reading from left to right. (Cf. moments in the PGW canon such as, "Reading from left to right, the contents of the bed consisted of Pauline Stoker in my heliotrope pyjamas with the old gold stripe.") Three additional snippets come from PGW's theater pieces.
The snippet about literalness was the highlight, imho, of a full piece in defense of literal-minded people; but if you want to view that in its entirety, it's here:
https://archive.org/details/sim_vanity-fair_1916-12_7_4/page/160/mode/2up?view=theater
I thought you might enjoy seeing a bit about books arranged by spine color in the 1916 wild; finally, my own math tallies three Franks in Colby's headline: his name, his confessions, and (via the historical Franks) the French.
