College and Research Libraries


span of Russian history.-]ames Cobb 
Mills, Jr., Utica CoUege of Syracuse Univer-
sity. 

Nicknames and Sobr·iquets of U.S. Cities 
and States. 2d ed. By Joseph Nathan 
Kane and Gerald L. Alexander. Metuch-
en, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, 1970. 
456p. $10.00. 

What's in a name? Would a rose by any 
nickname really smell as sweet? Apparently 
Americans think so because you name it 
and we have a nickname for it. If there is 
a city without a nickname, the public re-
lations agent will quickly devise one for it. 

When Joseph Nathan Kane in 1938 pub-
lished the first edition of his now famous 
fact book, he included in it a few nick-· 
names of cities. In 1951 the Special Li-
braries Association published Nicknames of 
American Cities, Towns, and Villages (Past 
and Present), compiled by Gerald L. Alex-
ander. The friendship of these two men re-
sulted in a joint effort published in 1965. 
Five years of additional research has pro-
duced an expanded second edition includ-
ing many additions and corrections. 

The book is arranged alphabetically by 
states and subdivided by cities; under the 
name of each city are listed all known nick-
names, sobriquets, and even publicity slo-
gans which have been applied to that city. 
Following this is an alphabetical nickname 
index. There is a similar arrangement for 
the fifty states. Separating the city and state 
listings and given in alphabetical sequence 
are the All-American Cities so designated 
since 1949 by the National Municipal 
League and Look magazine. It is explained 
that the use of this sobriquet is authorized 
only for use one year following the presen-
tation of the award. 

The compilation should prove useful as 
a ready reference tool. Unfortunately, it is 
not a scholarly work such as Shankle's 
American Nicknames (H. W. Wilson, 
1955). No som·ces are given. It would be 
interesting to learn the source of •'The 
Friendly City" and "The City of Friendly 
People" as sobriquets for New York. Occa-
sional parenthetical explanations of the 
nicknames are included, such as "Elkhart 
(Ind. ) The Band City (produces over 60 

Recent Publications I 55 

percent of band instruments)." Others are 
too brief to be meaningful as "Pullman 
(Ill.) The City of Brick (part of Chicago ) ." 
On the other hand about five times as many 
cities are included as in Shankle, and many 
more nicknames are given for most cities 
and states. However, many of the nick-
names included seem more like contrived 
publicity slogans than familiar epithets nat-
urally ascribed. 

The book is printed by offset press in a 
clear, legible, although unattractive, type. 
A few typographical errors and omissions 
escaped the proofreaders, but in general, 
editing seems to have been carefully done. 

It is to be hoped that the authors have 
preserved their sources and their notes on 
the origins and the use of the nicknames in-
cluded so that a futur e edition can be a full , 
scholarly contribution to work on American 
names.-Paul H. Spence, College of Gen-
eral Studies Library, University of Ala-
bama, Birmingham. 

rndex to American Little Magazines 1920-
1939. Stephen H. Goode, comp. Troy, 
N.Y.: \Vhitston Publishing Co., 1969. 
346p. $12.50. 

If we accept the maxim that half a loaf 
is better than none, it follows, perhaps, that 
a partial index such as Stephen Goode's In-
dex to American Little Magazines 1920-
1939 is better than no index at all. This is, 
as Mr. Goode indicates, an index of a "se-
lected list" of thirty-three little magazines. 
What Mr. Goode fail s to indicate, and it is 
a significant failing, is the basis for his se-
lection. One is always grateful for an index 
to any previously unindexed material how-
ever meager it may b e; yet that gratitud e 
cannot help but be tempered by a disap-
pointment that a less arbitrary selection of 
magazines to be indexed would have been 
enormously more interesting and valuable. 

The period 1920-1939 was unquestion-
ably, in Mr. Goode's words, part of "the 
golden age of little magazines." It is the age 
of The Little Revie w at its height, This 
Quarter, Laughing Horse, Dynamo, Th e 
Measure, Chicago Literary Times, The 
Transatlantic Review, American Spectator, 
Direction, The Booster, S 4 N, the b egin-
ning of Furioso, and many more. Yet of