The thirty-seventh edition of Hart’s Rules was published in 1967, and reprinted with additions in 1970 and 1974. Completely reset, it was presented in a new format which brought it in line with the format having been adopted by the tenth edition of ODWE in 1956. Like ODWE, too, this edition had a dust jacket (click to see pop-up image, 123k); in this example, note that the old-money price has been clipped off the front flap and replaced with a sticker bearing the new £2.00 decimal price. A preface (see below) precedes a reprint of Hart’s original 1914 preface.

• Front cover (click to see pop-up image, 60k); the silver arms have been replaced by the University shield printed in blind
• Full-title (click to see pop-up image, 34k
• Preface (click to see pop-up image, 54k)

PREFACE TO THE
THIRTY-SEVENTH EDITION

FOR this new edition, reset in a larger format, a complete review and, where necessary, revision of the contents has been made; the arrangement has been clarified, some obsolete materlail removed, new examples and rulings added, and the section on foreign languages enlarged

Although the revision is the work of many hands, particular mention must be made of the asistance given by Mr. R. W. Burchfield, wo gave valuable advice on lexical matters, and by Mr. J. S. G. Simmons, who cintributed the new sectionon the setting of Russian.

V.R.

PREFACE
(1914)

It is quite clearly set out on the title-page in all editions of these Rules and Examples, that they were intended especially for Compositors and Readers at the Clarendon Press. Consequently it seems necessary to explain why an edition or impression is now offered to so much of the General Public as is interested in the technicalities of Typography, or wishes to be guided to a choice amidst alternative spellings.

On the production of the First Edition at the Oxford Press, copies were placed in the hands of all Readers, Compositors, and Compositor-apprentices; and other copies found their way into the hands of Authors and Editors of books then in the printers’ hands. Subsequently, friends of authors, and readers and compositors in other printing offices, began to ask for copies, which were always supplied without charge. By and by applications for copies were received from persons who had no absolute claim to be supplied gratuitously; but as many of such requests came from Officials of King’s Government at Home, in the Colonies, and in India, it was thought advisable, on the whole, to continue the practice of presentation.

Recently, however, it became know that copies of the booklet were on sale in London. A correspondent wrote that he had just bought a copy ‘at the Stores’; and as it seems more than complaisant to provide gratuitously what may afterwards be sold for profit, the writer has no alternative but to publish this little book.

As to the origin and progress of the work, it was begun in 1864, when the compiler was a member of the London Association of Correctors of the Press. With the assistance of a small band of fellow members employed in the same printing-office as himself, a first list of examples was drawn up, to furnish a working basis.

Fate so ordained that, in course of years, the writer became in succession general manager of three London printing-houses. In each of these institutions additions were made to his selected list of words, which, in this way, gradually expanded – embodying what compositors term ‘the Rule of the House.’

In 1883, as Controller of the Oxford Press, the writer began afresh the work of adaptation; but pressure of other duties deferred its completion nearly ten years, for the first edition is dated 1893. Even at that date the book lacked the seal of final approval, being only part of a system of printing-office management.

In due course, Sir J. A. H. Murray and Dr. Henry Bradley, editors of the Oxford Dictionary, were kind enough to revise and approve all the English spellings. Bearing the stamp of their sanction, the booklet has an authority which it could not otherwise have claimed.

To subsequent editions the late Professor Robinson Ellis and Mr H. Stuart Jones contributed two appendixes, containing instructions for the Division of Words in Latin and Greek; and the section on the German Language was revised by Dr. Karl Bruel, reader in Germanic in the University of Cambridge.

Recent issues of this work comprise many additions and some rearrangement. Thecompiler has encouragedthe proof-readers of the University Press from time to time to keep memoranda of troublesome words in frequent—or indeed in occasional—use, nor trcorded in previous issues of the ‘Rules, and to make notes of the mode of printing them which is decided on. As each edition of the book becomes exhausted such words are reconsidered, and in their approved form are incorporated into the pages of the forthcoming edition. The same remark applies to new words which appear unexpectedly, like new planets, and take their place in what Sir James Murray calls the ‘World of Words’. Such instances as airman, airship, sabotage, sea-plane, stepney-wheel, syndication, will occur to every newspaper reader.

Lastly, it ought to be added that in one or two cases, a particular way of spelling a word or punctuating a sentence has been completely changed. This does not often mean than an error has been discovered in the ‘Rules’; but rather that the fashion has altered, and that it is necessary to guide the compositor accordingly.

H.H.

Click on Hart.html to return to the Hart Editions page.
Click on Hart - thirty-sixth edition (1952) to go to the previous edition.
Click on Hart - thirty-eighth edition (1978) to go to the next edition.