Chuck Zerby (–2003)

This is a charming and extremely witty consideration of what footnotes mean. While Zerby seems to have done little original research (much of his information on footnotes per se comes from one source), he presents the material in such a wry and yet informative manner that one is totally swept up. Surprising digressions spill out from the topic at hand; scholarship is teased; the book publishing business analyzed and chided; and always, footnotes are defended as if the future depended on them. The tone often veers just to the edge of seriousness and then skitters back into facitiousness (there is more than a little of Robert Benchley's sensibility here). All in all, a delightful read.!… (meer)