PALINDROMES
DBurke J
read by Richard Lederer, of a palindrome composed twenty years ago or more
which consisted of over 10,000 WORDS! I believe it was also cited in one
of the People's Almanacs, and maybe even the Guiness' Book of World
Records as the Longest palindrome ever constructed (try there first). I'm
unable to verify the sources, as I'm away from my library. But it should
be easy to track down.
Dianna Johnston
Doug Adams
The longest known palindromic word is saippuakivikauppias (19
letters), which is Finnish for a dealer in lye (i.e., caustic soda).
The longest in English is tattarrattat with 12 letters, appearing in the
Oxford, Great Britain English Dictionary.
The nine-letter word Malayalam is a proper noun given to the
language of the Malayali people in Kerala, southern India, while
Kanakanak near Dillingham in Alaska is a nine-lettered palindromic
place-name.
The contrived chemical term detartrated has 11 letters.
Some baptismal fonts in Greece and Turkey bear the circular 25
letter inscription NI(psi)ON ANOMHMATA MH.M.ONAN O(psi)IN,
meaning 'wash (my) sins not only (my) face.' This appears at St
Mary's Church, Nottingham, Great Britain, St Paul's, Woldingham,
Surrey, Great Britain and other churches.
The longest palindromic composition devised is one of 100,000
words by Edward Benbow of Bewdley, Hereford & Worcester,
Great Britain, United Kingdom. It begins 'Al, sign it, ''Lover''!. . .'
and hence predictably ends '.. . revolting, Isla.'
The longest palindromic novel, Dr Awkward and Olson in Oslo
contains 31,594 words and was written by Lawrence Levine of
New York in 1986
Doug
Dan Hoey
> dbu...@aol.com (Dianna Johnston) says...
> >I've seen the citation a number of times, but most recently in a
> >book I read by Richard Lederer, of a palindrome composed twenty
> >years ago or more which consisted of over 10,000 WORDS! I believe
> >it was also cited in one of the People's Almanacs, and maybe even
> >the Guiness' Book of World Records as the Longest palindrome ever
> >constructed....
> The longest known palindromic word is saippuakivikauppias (19
> letters), which is Finnish for a dealer in lye (i.e., caustic soda).
...
> The longest palindromic composition devised is one of 100,000
> words by Edward Benbow of Bewdley, Hereford & Worcester,
> Great Britain, United Kingdom. It begins 'Al, sign it, ''Lover''!. . .'
> and hence predictably ends '.. . revolting, Isla.'
> The longest palindromic novel, Dr Awkward and Olson in Oslo
> contains 31,594 words and was written by Lawrence Levine of
> New York in 1986
Dianna and Doug's mention of these palindromes is intriguing, but
lacks the solid citations necessary to clear up the question. Since
much of Doug's statement (which he did not attribute) appears in
current versions of Guinness, I suppose he's using an older edition.
Dianna mentions Lederer and the People's Almanac, who may have got
their information from Guinness as well. (If anyone can produce
actual citations for these mentions it would help.)
I concentrate on the possible connection with Guiness here because it
is a widely available and commonly used source that is apparently not
reliable on this subject, at least in older editions.
ie...@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Robert Alcock) tried to chase down some
mentions of palindromic novels in 1994. He was unable to find any
bibliographic information for a rumored work entitled _Satire,
Veritas_, and wrote:
: Interestingly, this is not the first time I've encountered a very
: elusive palindromic novel. I remember reading about it in no less an
: authority than the Guinness Book of Records, though the entry has
: since been removed. Someone told me that the title of the book
: listed in the GBoR was 'Dr Awkward and Olson in Oslo'. However,
: extensive searches in the Cambridge University Library have failed
: to uncover the book or any indication that it exists.
: I'm starting to feel like Oedipa Maas. Was there ever indeed a
: palindromic novel, or is it all merely folklore? Has anyone else got
: any information to share on the topic?
Rob eventually concluded that the works were hoaxes. It seems perhaps
Georges Perec's palindrome (about 1400 words, in French) holds the
record. It would be amazing to me if my 543-word nonsense palindrome
holds the English-language record, but it's the longest one I know of.
(It's in the rec.puzzles archive, in case you want to see it. Try
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/puzzles/faq to find
information on examining the archive.)
Since follow-up articles will probably concentrate on the degree to
which the various sources can be believed, I've directed them to
alt.folklore.urban. Remember: if you know something about this, be
sure to tell us not only what you know but where you learned it from.
If anyone has actually _seen_ a palindromic novel, I'll be most
happily surprised.
Dan Hoey
Ho...@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil
Dan Hoey
[ alt.folklore.urban. I'm passing it along to alt.quotations, ]
[ alt.anagrams, alt.tla and the previous writers in the thread, ]
[ so that my skepticism does not go unchallenged, and in hopes ]
[ that someone will be able to go and verify the work. ]
[ Thanks, Mark! ]
> Rob eventually concluded that the works [named earlier in the thread]
> were hoaxes.
Well, at least one of them exists. According to their library computer
(telnet melvyl.ucop.edu), UCLA has a copy of it. Perhaps some reader
closer to there than me would like to verify the point. No ISBN or
publisher is given, and the catalog entry says "photocopy", which
suggests that Levine had to publish it himself and accordingly it
won't be widely available.
# CAT-> find title dr.awkward
#
# Your title search is being interpreted as the title word search:
# FIND title words DR.AWKWARD
#
# Search request: FIND title words DR.AWKWARD
# Search result: 1 record at all libraries
#
# Type HELP for other display options.
#
# 1. Levine, Lawrence.
# Dr.Awkward & Olson in Oslo : a palindromic novel / by Lawrence Levine. St.
# Augustine, Florida : Lawrence Levine, 1980.
# UCLA Clark GV 1493 L66 f
#
#
# CAT-> d long
# Search request: FIND title words DR.AWKWARD
# Search result: 1 record at all libraries
#
# Type HELP for other display options.
#
# 1.
# Author: Levine, Lawrence.
# Title: Dr.Awkward & Olson in Oslo : a palindromic novel / by Lawrence
# Levine. St. Augustine, Florida : Lawrence Levine, 1980.
# Description: 167, [2] leaves ; 29 cm.
#
# Notes: Photocopy.
#
# Subjects: Palindromes.
# Literary recreations.
#
# Call numbers: UCLA Clark GV 1493 L66 f
> Since follow-up articles will probably concentrate on the degree to
> which the various sources can be believed, I've directed them to
> alt.folklore.urban. Remember: if you know something about this, be
> sure to tell us not only what you know but where you learned it from.
> If anyone has actually _seen_ a palindromic novel, I'll be most
> happily surprised.
I've put rec.puzzles back in, since the book is apparently genuine.
--
Mark Brader, m...@sq.com "Men! Give them enough rope and they'll dig
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto their own grave." -- EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY
My text in this article is in the public domain.
