ZERBY, Chuck 1935(?)-2003

PERSONAL: Born c. 1935; died of colon cancer March 18, 2003, in Hadley, MA; married Jane Mascolo; children: Karen, Christopher.

CAREER: Writer, poet, and journalist. Goddard College, Plainfield, VT, dean of campus, c. 1960s; Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, switchboard operator, 1980-96.

WRITINGS:

The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes, Invisible Cities Press (Montpelier, VT), 2001.

Also author of poetry volumes Opening Arguments, and Sam Hose's Knuckles: Lynching Poems. Contributor to periodicals, including New York Times, Women's Day, and History of Education Quarterly. Amherst Record columnist, c. 1980s.

SIDELIGHTS: Writer and former college administrator Chuck Zerby was a journalist for many years, and his first book, The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes, grew out of an article on the topic that he wrote for the New York Times. In the book Zerby presents a spirited defense of this often-maligned editorial tool, which has been used not only in scholarly works but also in novels and even in poetry. As Zerby sees it, the role of the footnote is to interrupt, to give the reader a chance to take a break from concentrating on a serious text to consider something else for a time. "Indefagitably—and effortlessly—charming," Zerby "dazzl[es] us with observations, anecdotes, and charms" in his quest to prove the footnote indispensable and delightful, wrote a critic in Kirkus Reviews. Although much of The Devil's Details is taken up with these humorous asides, the book does provide a history of the footnote, starting with its inventor, sixteenth-century Englishman Richard Jugge, and discussing such famous annotaters as Edward Gibbon, whose Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was one-quarter footnotes. Perhaps fittingly, Zerby's "hilarious, illuminating, opinionated and wide-ranging" footnotes are "the best part of the book," as a BookPage Review contributor noted.

Zerby died of colon cancer in 2003.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, November 15, 2001, Philip Herbst, review of The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes, p. 547.

Boston Herald, January 13, 2002, Rosemary Herbert, review of The Devil's Details.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2001, review of The Devil's Details, p. 1412.

Los Angeles Times, January 20, 2002, William H. McNeill, review of The Devil's Details, p. R4.

Publishers Weekly, November 26, 2001, review of The Devil's Details, p. 53.

Seattle Times, February 25, 2002, Michael Pakenham, review of The Devil's Details.

online

BookPage,http://www.bookpage.com/ (April 26, 2002), review of The Devil's Details.

Chuck Zerby Home Page,http://www.geocities.com/chuckzerby (December 2, 2002).

Invisible Cities Press,http://www.invisiblecitiespress.com/ (April 26, 2002).

OBITUARIES:

online

Daily Hampshire Gazette,http://www.gazettenet.com/ (June 1, 2003), "Charles 'Chuck' Zerby, Poet, Author of Footnote History."*