Readers of Irrepressible reformer (American Library Association, 1996), Wayne Wiegand's bio of Melvil Dewey, will know a few things about the noted metric-system enthusiast. He was born on the tenth day of the tenth month (if you start counting from March)! He stole the "u" from "catalogue" to put it in his own name (spelling it "Dui" from 1879 to 1883)! He had a quote dark side unquote! The common view is that earlier biographers felt more comfortable drawing a veil over some of Dewey's less-than-saintly activities. But as it turns out, Fremont Rider had him pegged. I wouldn't know this if I hadn't been half-heartedly skimming the "Books on books" shelves at Bartleby's Books in Georgetown at the weekend, where a pristine copy of Rider's Melvil Dewey (American Library Association, 1944) was waiting. From the preface: "... Dewey was different. In his day he was often called 'a dynamo of energy'; today it would be more apt to liken him to a fifty-ton tank, riding roughshod over all sorts of obstacles toward its chosen objective ..." In case anyone's wondering, the Dewey number for tanks is 358.1883.
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