Dennis Duncan
@djbduncan.bsky.social
Associate Prof @ucl.ac.uk | FRHistS | INDEX, A HISTORY OF THE | NYT, LRB, Guardian, WaPo, TLS | Book history, Oulipo, translation | Rep: Anna Webber/A.M.Heath
November 12, 2025 at 11:21 PM
"That enormous large Serpent, 16 feet long, that was shot in the act of killing a Deer, near LYNN, in Norfolk"! 😬
November 11, 2025 at 12:23 PM
"That enormous large Serpent, 16 feet long, that was shot in the act of killing a Deer, near LYNN, in Norfolk"! 😬
Form declaring America's independence and renouncing allegiance to the King. Includes blank spaces to insert your name [“I ___ do acknowledge”] and job [“the office of ___ which I now hold”]. But what’s the middle blank for? “I do ___ that I will…”. Swear/declare/promise? Why does it need a blank?
November 11, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Form declaring America's independence and renouncing allegiance to the King. Includes blank spaces to insert your name [“I ___ do acknowledge”] and job [“the office of ___ which I now hold”]. But what’s the middle blank for? “I do ___ that I will…”. Swear/declare/promise? Why does it need a blank?
Reposted by Dennis Duncan
Hello everyone! Please help me get this out? Registration is open for the Eliot Summer program at Oxford, 5-13 July 2025. Scholarships and partial week tuition available. See you there? Send your students. Happy to support them!
December 11, 2024 at 6:03 AM
Hello everyone! Please help me get this out? Registration is open for the Eliot Summer program at Oxford, 5-13 July 2025. Scholarships and partial week tuition available. See you there? Send your students. Happy to support them!
Reposted by Dennis Duncan
"A warm, personal paean to Merriam-Webster and its staffers." 🙏 for this thoughtful, positive @washingtonpost.com review of UNABRIDGED by @djbduncan.bsky.social
Review | Can the dictionary stay relevant in the digital age?
In “Unabridged,” Stefan Fatsis explores how words become enshrined in the dictionary and whether the book maker can keep up with the evolution of language.
www.washingtonpost.com
October 16, 2025 at 8:16 PM
"A warm, personal paean to Merriam-Webster and its staffers." 🙏 for this thoughtful, positive @washingtonpost.com review of UNABRIDGED by @djbduncan.bsky.social
Reposted by Dennis Duncan
C17 commonplace book index belonging to Whitelock Bulstrode (MS 3244, container 1.1) @ransomcenter.bsky.social. Can’t help but think immediately of @djbduncan.bsky.social and his splendid work on the history of the book index
October 14, 2025 at 6:45 PM
C17 commonplace book index belonging to Whitelock Bulstrode (MS 3244, container 1.1) @ransomcenter.bsky.social. Can’t help but think immediately of @djbduncan.bsky.social and his splendid work on the history of the book index
Reposted by Dennis Duncan
Gimme a book with an INDEX. 😌
October 14, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Gimme a book with an INDEX. 😌
Reposted by Dennis Duncan
“The line between engagingly informal and distractingly unfiltered is a delicate one…”
An observation for the ages from @djbduncan.bsky.social's sharp review of Stephen Pinker’s new book in the New York Times.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/b...
An observation for the ages from @djbduncan.bsky.social's sharp review of Stephen Pinker’s new book in the New York Times.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/b...
What Fuels Revolution, Social Embarrassment and Public Acclaim? It’s Common Knowledge.
www.nytimes.com
October 3, 2025 at 11:32 AM
“The line between engagingly informal and distractingly unfiltered is a delicate one…”
An observation for the ages from @djbduncan.bsky.social's sharp review of Stephen Pinker’s new book in the New York Times.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/b...
An observation for the ages from @djbduncan.bsky.social's sharp review of Stephen Pinker’s new book in the New York Times.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/b...
I really enjoyed answering @mathewlyons.bsky.social's questions about my favourite books, which brought out patterns I hadn't noticed in the things I like. I'd recommend to anyone having a think about how you'd answer. open.substack.com/pub/mathewly...
The writer's bookshelf: Dennis Duncan
Eight questions about writers, books, and reading…
open.substack.com
September 29, 2025 at 9:00 AM
I really enjoyed answering @mathewlyons.bsky.social's questions about my favourite books, which brought out patterns I hadn't noticed in the things I like. I'd recommend to anyone having a think about how you'd answer. open.substack.com/pub/mathewly...
Reposted by Dennis Duncan
New on the Writer’s Bookshelf: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the brilliant @djbduncan.bsky.social
– featuring Alistair MacLean, Georges Perec, Charlotte Brontë, Iris Murdoch and much more!
(It also includes a surprise appearance from a would-be prime minister.)
– featuring Alistair MacLean, Georges Perec, Charlotte Brontë, Iris Murdoch and much more!
(It also includes a surprise appearance from a would-be prime minister.)
The writer's bookshelf: Dennis Duncan
Eight questions about writers, books, and reading…
open.substack.com
September 29, 2025 at 6:46 AM
New on the Writer’s Bookshelf: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the brilliant @djbduncan.bsky.social
– featuring Alistair MacLean, Georges Perec, Charlotte Brontë, Iris Murdoch and much more!
(It also includes a surprise appearance from a would-be prime minister.)
– featuring Alistair MacLean, Georges Perec, Charlotte Brontë, Iris Murdoch and much more!
(It also includes a surprise appearance from a would-be prime minister.)
Reposted by Dennis Duncan
On S. Pinker's new book, by @djbduncan.bsky.social: "There is a certain charm to the affable, playfully bumptious professor who can’t resist the provocation of scare quotes around the word 'microaggressions'", "A book can be bad without its thesis being untrue." #Booksky #psychology #anthropology
What Fuels Revolution, Social Embarrassment and Public Acclaim? It’s Common Knowledge.
www.nytimes.com
September 22, 2025 at 7:01 PM
On S. Pinker's new book, by @djbduncan.bsky.social: "There is a certain charm to the affable, playfully bumptious professor who can’t resist the provocation of scare quotes around the word 'microaggressions'", "A book can be bad without its thesis being untrue." #Booksky #psychology #anthropology
I reviewed Steven Pinker's new book on common knowledge. Tl;dr: "A book can be bad without its thesis being untrue".
What Fuels Revolution, Social Embarrassment and Public Acclaim? It’s Common Knowledge.
www.nytimes.com
September 22, 2025 at 10:44 AM
I reviewed Steven Pinker's new book on common knowledge. Tl;dr: "A book can be bad without its thesis being untrue".
Did the Middle Ages really happen? Couple of recent reviews of Marcus Glatt's "The Greatest Hoax in History".
September 11, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Did the Middle Ages really happen? Couple of recent reviews of Marcus Glatt's "The Greatest Hoax in History".
A blog about Perec, cafes, and what I did on my birthday
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
The Eternal and the Ephemeral
I seek, at once, both the eternal and the ephemeral. It’s a line from the French writer Georges Perec. Perec, you may remember, is most famous – notorious – for writing La Disparition (or A Void in it...
open.substack.com
August 18, 2025 at 8:02 PM
A blog about Perec, cafes, and what I did on my birthday
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
Much to love in this "Out of the Ordinary" auction catalogue, but the thing that tickled me the most is this advertising poster for lemonade "bottled by pretty girls". The past sure is a foreign country. www.sworder.co.uk/auction/lot/...
August 5, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Much to love in this "Out of the Ordinary" auction catalogue, but the thing that tickled me the most is this advertising poster for lemonade "bottled by pretty girls". The past sure is a foreign country. www.sworder.co.uk/auction/lot/...
A little blog about Posh Spice and What We Talk About When We Talk About Reading
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
In Defence of Posh Spice
Or, What We Talk About When We Talk About Reading
open.substack.com
July 24, 2025 at 11:26 AM
A little blog about Posh Spice and What We Talk About When We Talk About Reading
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
[Lady Bracknell voice]: “A yearwig?!”
July 22, 2025 at 12:55 PM
[Lady Bracknell voice]: “A yearwig?!”
Reposted by Dennis Duncan
Found today pasted into a 1744 Oxford-printed Bible: an unrecorded ephemeral printing of ‘A cure for the bite of a mad dog’, directing us to ‘give three spoonfuls morning & evening; one pint is sufficient for man or beast’. It is ‘never known to fail’. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social 7100.b.73. #ephemera
July 21, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Found today pasted into a 1744 Oxford-printed Bible: an unrecorded ephemeral printing of ‘A cure for the bite of a mad dog’, directing us to ‘give three spoonfuls morning & evening; one pint is sufficient for man or beast’. It is ‘never known to fail’. @theulspeccoll.bsky.social 7100.b.73. #ephemera
Would *you* return a puppy to a Mr D'Wolf? Some thoughts on a two-hundred-year-old lost dog poster.
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
Lost Dog!
Please return to Mr D'Wolf
open.substack.com
July 21, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Would *you* return a puppy to a Mr D'Wolf? Some thoughts on a two-hundred-year-old lost dog poster.
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
Would *you* return a puppy to a Mr D'Wolf? Some thoughts on a two-hundred-year-old lost dog poster.
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
Lost Dog!
Please return to Mr D'Wolf
open.substack.com
July 21, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Would *you* return a puppy to a Mr D'Wolf? Some thoughts on a two-hundred-year-old lost dog poster.
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
Reposted by Dennis Duncan
Scathing personal critisism via an indexn has excellent entertainment value. Courtesy of 'Index, A History of the: A bookish adventure' by @djbduncan.bsky.social
July 19, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Scathing personal critisism via an indexn has excellent entertainment value. Courtesy of 'Index, A History of the: A bookish adventure' by @djbduncan.bsky.social
Still circling around scraps, a blog about Donne, Hamlet, Virginia Woolf and metaphors of people as books. scrapsandorts.substack.com/p/on-reading...
On Reading Other People
In which we come at last to the orts
scrapsandorts.substack.com
July 10, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Still circling around scraps, a blog about Donne, Hamlet, Virginia Woolf and metaphors of people as books. scrapsandorts.substack.com/p/on-reading...
I did a little diary for the @litreview.bsky.social about picking up scraps in the street.
literaryreview.co.uk/sacred-scraps
literaryreview.co.uk/sacred-scraps
Dennis Duncan - Sacred Scraps
Dennis Duncan: Sacred Scraps
literaryreview.co.uk
July 7, 2025 at 7:15 PM
I did a little diary for the @litreview.bsky.social about picking up scraps in the street.
literaryreview.co.uk/sacred-scraps
literaryreview.co.uk/sacred-scraps
In which I blog about How to Do the Uffizi!
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
How to Do the Uffizi
And St Augustine's wastepaper basket
open.substack.com
July 3, 2025 at 1:22 PM
In which I blog about How to Do the Uffizi!
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
A little thing I wrote about Freud, Agatha Christie & Dorothy L. Sayers
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
Don't Eat the Trifle!
The Case of the Mystic Writing Pad
open.substack.com
June 27, 2025 at 2:16 PM
A little thing I wrote about Freud, Agatha Christie & Dorothy L. Sayers
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...
open.substack.com/pub/scrapsan...