Books, Arts & Manners: Bartlett’s Familiar Quotas

Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, edited by Justin Kaplan (Little, Brown, 1,472 pp., $40)

IT IS SAD watching an old friend go senile. For years, one of my closest, most trusted literary companions has been Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. In matters both grave and gay (in the authentic sense of the word), Bartlett’s has been an endless source of serious thought and ready wit, a useful tool when brainstorming, a reliable reference for authenticating, and a pleasant pasture for mental grazing.