Merged Books e-Merge Again

“Machiavelli’s The Little Prince” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s classic children’s tale as presented by Machiavelli. The whimsy of human nature is embodied in many delightful and intriguing characters, all of whom are executed.

Merged Books – two best-selling titles for the price of one.

But who’s got the catalogue?

Found on Miss Cellania‘s Merged Books page (via Neatorama‘s Merged Books). Miss C says thanks to Ken, but where did Ken get them? A challenge for an idle few minutes.

Available from a joke archive dated May 6, 1999 -more than eight years ago! – which says the titles are from a “Washington Post Invitational: Readers were asked to combine the works of two authors and provide a suitable blurb.” The one quoted above was second runner-up. Each title is attributed to its creator. [It’s a very, very long archive page. Search inside it for “prince”.]

There’s also a later, short archive elsewhere, which says they’re from a “Washington Post Literary Contest”, which was linked to – no quotes – in another blog in September 2006. Nearly two years ago. (I couldn’t find anything on the Washington Post‘s site.)

Strangely, the list on Miss C’s has some on it which aren’t on the joke archive, and the latter (or earlier) has some which Miss C’s doesn’t.

So where did Ken get his from?

Apart from finding some of the titles and blurbs funny, this is an(other) example of how information changes or gets lost in transmission, however unintentionally. Would any of the competition contributors care? Should it matter? An exercise for the gentle reader!

Meanwhile, a couple more I liked, from one or other list.

“2001: A Space Iliad” – The Hal 9000 computer wages an insane 10-year war against the Greeks after falling victim to the Y2K bug.

“The Silence of the Hams” – In this endearing update of the Seuss classic, young Sam-I-Am presses unconventional foodstuffs on his friend, Hannibal, who turns the tables.

Machiavelli’s The Little Prince: the merged book cover – my pastiche reinterpretation, 15th July 2008, of the covers of The Prince and The Little Prince, both on Wikipedia, reworked title text in Lucida Handwriting. The Wikipedia pages identify the owners of the original cover art.