On Tue, 29 Apr 1997 11:17:45 -0400, John W. Burgeson wrote:
SJ>These days titles are chosen by the publisher, not the author.
>Johnson may have chosen the title "Darwin on Trial", but then again
>he may not. Johnson makes the point somewhere that even the title
>of his second book "Reason in the Balance", was not his original
>choice - - he wanted to call it "The Beginning of Reason".
JB>Phil told me once that his choice for the title of DARWIN ON
>TRIAL was "DARWINISM DECONSTRUCTED." The publisher opted for DOT
>as being better for marketing purposes. The publisher followed
>Gold's rule. (Those that have the gold, rule).
Thanks for this. Writers may be good at writing books but not
necessarily at chosing titles for their books! It disposes of those
rather feeble arguments advanced by Gould and others that Johnson
was copying Macbeth's "Darwin Retried". BTW it also disposes of the
equally feeble argument that the book is not about Darwin.
God bless.
Steve
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