Recap
You may recall that in Part I of this post, I discussed the rudiments of documenting a journal name change in a library catalog. The purpose of that exercise was to provide background information for the observation which I will now make.
Observation
Did you know that The Atlantic Monthly, that venerable literary and cultural magazine, has officially changed its name no less than five times since its inception in 1857? The ridiculous thing is, the name alternates between only two variations: The Atlantic and The Atlantic Monthly.
To whit:
The Atlantic Monthly 1857-1932
The Atlantic 1932-1971
The Atlantic Monthly 1971-1980
The Atlantic 1981-1993
The Atlantic Monthly 1993-current
Pithy Parting Question
Anyone want to lay bets on when it will change again to The Atlantic?
2 comments:
It's been a bit over a decade, so they're due. I'm putting $.50 on 2/07.
In all honesty, I think the magazine itself is much less concerned about the difference between "The Atlantic" and "The Atlantic Monthly" than are all the librarians and catalogers in the world. Still, when I followed the whole mess through to the end, it really struck me as both interesting and ridiculous. I'm sure we haven't seen the end of the "official" name changes, so you might win that bet!
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