And So to Bed: The Index to the Diary of Samuel Pepys

© 2010 by ContextualAnalysis

Presented by Fred Leise

American Society for IndexingNational Conference

May 14, 2010

And So to Bed: The Index to The Diary of Samuel

Pepys


About Fred

User Experience Manager-Taxonomy, Sears Holdings Management Corp.

(Sears.com, Kmart.com, LandsEnd.com)

Back-of-book indexer since 1995

Bio available at: www.contextualanalysis.com

@ChicagoIndexer


Latham & Matthews Edition

Published from 1970 to 1983

First complete and unexpurgated

9 volumes of diary transcription

1 companion volume (people, historical events)

1 index volume


Who Was Samuel Pepys?

Born 1633, died 1703

A Londoner

A clerk in the Exchequer

Later secretary to the Admiral in the Navy Office

Fellow of the Royal Society


The Diary

Period covered: 1 Jan 1660 to 31 May 1669

1,250,000 words; 3,100 pages; 6 volumes

Written in shorthand


Great Events of the Time

Restoration of the Monarchy (1660, after Cromwell)

Second Dutch War (1664–1667)

The Plague (1665)

Great Fire of London (1666)


Index to the Diary

317 pages long

Headnote: 4 pages long

Compiled over the period 1950 to 1982 by Robert and Linnet Latham

Every text reference was validated in the typescript by hand.


1

1. “P” used throughout the index to indicate Samuel Pepys

EP for his wife Elizabeth


Index Construction and Techniques


1 2

3 4

5

1. Main heading format

2. Cross-reference placement

3. Subheading format

4. Sub-subheading format

5. Locator format


Index Levels1

2

3

4 5


Annotations


Headings for Cross-Refs


Exhaustivity

4 ½ pages of entries…


Treatment of Names

12 3

1. Name in brackets not mentioned directly in text

2. No first name identified

3. Father not mentioned in the text


Treatment of Names

Minor character not otherwise indexed


Self-Reference


Note also string of undifferentiated locators


Series of undifferentiated locators


Main Heading Groupings


Interesting Entries


Plus 4 ½ more pages of similar entries


Contact Information

Fred Leise

www.contextualanalysis.com

[email protected]

@ChicagoIndexer

And So to Bed: The Index to the Diary of Samuel Pepys

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