A colleague who is shortly retiring has for a long time compiled a list of books whose authors match the titles. Unlike these (including Hole in the mattress by Mr Completely and the more archaic Lilburn Stript and Whipt by Colonel Birch), the ones my colleague has collected are real and can be confirmed by visiting the catalogue she was working on when she spotted most of them.
- Bijker, Wieber E.
Of bicycles, bakalites, and bulbs - Black, Uyless D.
Mobile and wireless networks - Blitz, Jack.
Electrical and magnetic methods of non-destructive testing - Caesar, Ann (ed.)
The conquest of Rome - Fox, Michael W.
Behaviour of wolves, dogs and related canids - Light, Wendy.
Availability of sunshine - Herring, Peter J. (ed.)
Light and life in the sea - Long, Andrew F.
Measuring outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis - Mudrack, K.
Biology of sewage treatment and water pollution control - Read, Richard
The essence of communication theory - Speaks, Charles E.
Introduction to sound - Townroe, Bernard Stephen.
The slum problem - Vice, Sue (ed.)
Beyond the pleasure dome - Walker, Eric.
ABC of healthy travel
I have obviously simplified the citation. The author in some cases is one of several and, if the second or third, wouldn’t normally be cited as the main author; in one case the name given is an editor of an authored work and I haven’t mentioned the main author; &c. I don’t think this matters.
I am interested in trying to maintain this list and add to it. This is a hard topic to Google, although I did find a post about Author-title puns by Michael Hendry which had the following:
I used to think that Origen, On First Principles was the best-ever match of author to title, but have just run across the gloomy Sonnets de la Mort by the French Baroque poet Jean de Sponde.
Do suggest more if you know them. Please give evidence if you can: e.g. found on a particular catalogue, on Amazon, a bibliography (preferably on the web), etc. Do leave a comment (I don’t get many) or email me.