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Q&A What is the "acid test" for a nonfiction anthology?

The core concept of an anthology is a "collection," of things that would otherwise be separate --things that have their own separate identity and coherence. What is anthologized might be different...

posted 6y ago by Chris Sunami‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:11:55Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/32779
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Chris Sunami‭ · 2019-12-08T05:11:55Z (over 4 years ago)
The core concept of an _anthology_ is a "collection," of things that would otherwise be separate --things that have their own separate identity and coherence.

What is anthologized might be different authors, previously published works by a single author, different types or genres of work, and so forth. In television, an "anthology series" like the _Twilight Zone_ presents individual stories without continuity between them, generally with different casts. Traditionally this was done by episode, newer series like _American Horror Story_ do it by season.

A collection of new work by a single author is not an anthology, because the constituent work didn't ever have its own separate identity. The cookbook, and Kawasaki's book fall under the same reasoning. Most magazines also don't count --_Reader's Digest_ being a notable exception, as a serialized anthology of magazine articles. Similarly, a book of quotations is not typically thought of as an anthology, because the collected pieces that compose it are fragments, not complete works.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-01-24T19:32:51Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 2