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That indeed is a very short Preface as prefaces go. Leighton is neither the author of Feynman's Joking Book, nor an outsider. So he must have wondered, were he a pedant, whether to call it a Preface or Foreword or Introduction. Indeed there is an Introduction following Leighton, and it is not by Feynman but by his student, Hibbs. And Feynman's own brief account of himself follows, labelled 'Vitals' (like Curriculum Vitae).
The longest Prefaces are no doubt by Bernard Shaw to his own plays (wiki):
I had read Shaw's long Preface to his play, Back to Methuselah, but not the play itself. On the other hand I read a few of his plays but not their Prefaces. And also his Addendum to his polemical play, Man and Superman, titled 'The Revolutionist's Handbook'.
I now see that there is an entire book titled: 'Prefaces by Bernard Shaw', all of 812 pages, Library Binding, 4.3333... 'stars'...want to buy?
My son's senior, a gentle Bengali Bhadralok, gifted me a gorgeous book recently. The 'gift' was not given to my son to be passed on to me, since it was to be a surprise. It was given to a colleague of my son, living in our gated township, with instructions that it be handed over to me personally at my apartment. And this nice gent happened to meet me at our medical shop, and told me about it, and that he was going out of Hyderabad for a few months, and would bring the secret gift book to my home after his return.
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Preface
The stories in this book were collected intermittently and informally during seven years of very enjoyable drumming with Richard Feynman. I have found each story by itself very amusing, and the collection taken together to be amazing: That one person could have so many wonderfully crazy things happen to him in one life is sometimes hard to believe. That one person could invent so much innocent mischief in one life is surely an inspiration!
RALPH LEIGHTON
The longest Prefaces are no doubt by Bernard Shaw to his own plays (wiki):
Shaw's published plays come with lengthy prefaces. These tend to be more
about Shaw's opinions on the issues addressed by the plays than about
the plays themselves. Often his prefaces are longer than the plays they
introduce. For example, the Penguin Books edition of his one-act The Shewing-up Of Blanco Posnet (1909) has a 67-page preface for the 29-page playscript.
I now see that there is an entire book titled: 'Prefaces by Bernard Shaw', all of 812 pages, Library Binding, 4.3333... 'stars'...want to buy?
There are two favorite books of mine that I frequently consult, and find terribly exasperating.
One is RKN's 'Next Sunday'.
I bought an Orient Paperback of the 160 page book at Vizagh in the 1960s. And read it many times. It has no Preface, Foreword, or Introduction. Fine. It has no Table of Contents either! Its pieces are not even numbered so I had no idea how many of his 'personal essays' it had. So, whenever I recall a para of his that I want to quote in my blog, I had to flip through the entire book, spending all of ten minutes hunting it. And was too lazy to do anything about it, till one angry day recently, I sat down and made up its Table of Contents myself...there was no space for it and so I had to use its inside front and back covers. OK...it has 55 essays if you care to know...all of them eminently quotable. Once I copied his entire piece, "What is Choss?", in long hand, and sent it to my pen-friend, Edwin Taylor, by snail mail...'choss' has an angry red line below it in my Blogger's Dictionary Help, so don't look for it in Webster's.
The other book is 'Jungle Lore' by Jim Corbett...a Jaico paperback of the 1960s vintage again. Cheap edition...so cheap that it cost just Rs 3! It too has no Preface or Foreword or Introduction. It does have a Table of Contents that is of absolutely no help. RKN's 'Next Sunday' at least has the essay titles. Jim's Table of Contents reads:
Chapter 1...Page 1
Chapter 2...Page 8
....
Chapter 12...Page 154
...much like my voluminous Ph D thesis! It has Page Numbers alright ;)...160 golden pages again...
My son's senior, a gentle Bengali Bhadralok, gifted me a gorgeous book recently. The 'gift' was not given to my son to be passed on to me, since it was to be a surprise. It was given to a colleague of my son, living in our gated township, with instructions that it be handed over to me personally at my apartment. And this nice gent happened to meet me at our medical shop, and told me about it, and that he was going out of Hyderabad for a few months, and would bring the secret gift book to my home after his return.
That aroused my curiosity, guessing what that book could be that a Probashi Bengali gentleman wanted to gift an old Telugu man like me. And since it was supposed to be a secret, my son couldn't do anything about it. And I got scared that his senior would feel bad that I had not even acknowledged his gift...and would get angry...
After 2 suspenseful months, and a reminder, I did get the gift book at my home...the missing gent had returned to Hyderabad. And I promptly sent a return gift through my son, to be personally handed over at his office...one of my Ishani booklets. Apparently it so pleased his senior that he talked to my son for half an hour over the common coffee counter in public...asking how his crazy dad spends his ample leisure.
The gift book turned out to be a 120 page glossy thing titled:
SHARAD SHAMBHAAR 2013
of the local 'Bangali Association', of which he happens to be the Magazine Editor. And the said Association's Durga Puja won the Best Durga Puja Award (Recent Entrant). Very well-deserved...we were all there and enjoyed our nostalgic Ghughini and Loochis.
Of its 120 pages, only 20 pages have original reading material, like a story, a few poems and stuff, in English, Hindi and Bengali.
It starts with MESSAGEs from the President of India (Pranob-da) in English and Bengali, with his thumbnail. Followed by a strictly Bengali 'Sharad Shubhechcha' from Didi, with her smiling thumbnail...she had a lot to smile about till last Puja. And then the EDITOR'S PAGE with his thumbnail...thumbnails look indispensable. Then a whole Page titled: FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT (of the Association, with his thumbnail)...somehow this 'from the desk' reminded me of mails I used to get from Nigeria. Then there is GENERAL SECRETARY'S MESSAGE, with his thumbnail. Then the TREASURER'S REPORT, with his thumbnail. Then the CULTURAL SECRETARY'S NOTE, with his thumbnail...that is all...from the thumbnails.
Rest are gorgeous ads in color and B&W by builders, hoteliers, and sponsors of various Bhogs and Sandhi Pujas.
There are a few lovely sketches by local artists and lots and lots of color photos of the Puja events and beautiful pics of the goddess Durga Mai.
On the glossy front cover is a sketch in color (modern art) whose import wasn't too clear to an ancient like me.
And across it is the message: Not For Sale
Obviously not...the Association must have earned huge profits from the ads filling all of 80 pages and more...
All in all, a fantastic production in A-4...thanks to the Editor who remembered me to gift a lovely copy.
Ishani is simply in love with it.
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