For many years, I have wanted to reread a book that I enjoyed when I
was a young person. I have fairly good sleuthing skills, yet I have
not been able to track this down.

In the late 1950s, my late father owned a book that was a collection
of short, humorous articles from various college newspapers (the Yale
Record, the Harvard Lampoon, etc.) I believe the book was entitled
"College Humor." It could possibly have had a longer title (such as
"An Anthology of College Humor,") but the words "College Humor" were
definitely part of the title. The book was a hardback, and I believe
it was published in the late '40s or early '50s.

The most memorable items in the book were these:

"The Difference Between an Armistice," a surreal piece about a dense
student who turns in a term paper filled with nonsequiturs.

"See the Merino Standing There," a series of cartoons and puns based
upon the sentence "See the merino standing there with his long, shaggy
hair."

Although it would be great to locate a copy that I can purchase, I
would be delighted just to learn the exact name, publisher, and
publication date of this book. Note that I am looking for a specific
collection of college humor which contains the two humorous articles
mentioned above, not for college humor anthologies in general.

If anyone can locate "The Difference Between an Armistice" or "See the
Merino Standing There" on the Web or anywhere else, that would suffice
as an answer, too.

I know this is a long shot, but sometimes that's better than no shot
at all. Thanks in advance to anyone who can aid me in bagging the
elusive item in question.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

---

Clarification of Question by pinkfreud-ga on 07 Oct 2002 19:43 PDT

At the suggestion of two Researcher colleagues, I have placed an order
for "A Treasury of College Humor," edited by Koppe, Irvine, and Burns,
published in 1950. There is no certainty that this is the correct
book, but it sounded amusing, and I have hopes.

Other suggestions are still very welcome, and if anyone can pinpoint
the "Armistice" and "Merino" pieces anywhere, I would be most
grateful.

Thanks!

~pinkfreud

Hello,

I searched the catalog of Harvard's Hollis Library and found the
following book. It came out in the mid-1950s and appears to
match your description. 

Author :  Shulman, Max, 1919- ed.  
Title :  Max Shulman's Guided Tour of Campus Humor; the best stories,
articles, poems, jokes and nonsense from
over sixty-five college humor magazines.  
Published :  Garden City, N.Y., Hanover House. 456 pages. 1955  
 
The complete citatation is at:
http://128.103.60.91/F/7M27YUX2X71XP1HVMTJFLHVTJBBPNF4JQE2HDQIQ8NKURYYGJE-73486?func=full-set-set&set_number=072648&set_entry=000040&format=999

I hope it is the right book and you enjoy reading it again after so
many years.

Best, The Friendly Librarian

---

Request for Answer Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 08 Oct 2002 12:09 PDT

Am I missing something in the citation? I don't see a table of
contents for the Shulman anthology that would indicate that it
contains the two items I described, "The Difference Between an
Armistice" and "See the Merino Standing There."

I truly do not mean to be difficult, but as I noted in my question, I
am not looking for "a" book of college humor, but for "the" book in
which I may find these two humorous articles.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by pinkfreud-ga on 09 Oct 2002 18:55 PDT

Friendly Librarian,

I have learned that the two humorous articles I was seeking are part
of the contents of "A Treasury of College Humor," edited by Koppe,
Irvine, and Burns, which I have purchased from a used book seller.

Before I can rate your answer, I would like some sort of evidence that
the two articles are also published in "Max Shulman's Guided Tour of
Campus Humor," the book which you listed.

These humorous articles, as I have mentioned, are entitled "The
Difference Between an Armistice" and "See the Merino Standing There."
They were my sole reason for wanting to locate the book.

~pinkfreud

The researcher has located a book of college humor, but it is not a
book which contains the two humorous articles which I mentioned in my
question.

In my question I included this statement:

"Note that I am looking for a specific collection of college humor
which contains the two humorous articles mentioned above, not for
college humor anthologies in general."

I appreciate the Researcher's effort, but I wish he/she had sent a
request for clarification to ask whether I would accept a book whose
contents were unknown.

Since the book found by the Researcher does not meet my stated
requirements, I would like to obtain a refund, if possible.

I did a quick search on Bibliofind and found several people selling
the book for reasonable prices. To see the listings, follow the
link below:
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/search-handle-url/ix%3Dfixed-price%26fqp%3Dbrowse%0168293%02title%01max%20shulman%20humor%26nsp%3Dstore%01zshops-rare-books%02referring-site%01bibliofind/104-7690995-4649556

In general, Amazon's Bibliofind is a handy resource for finding used
and rare books at good prices:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/books/misc/bibliofind.html/

I have to apologize. I obviously made a mistake. I was confident the
book I located was the one you wanted since it
so closely matched your description. I did not expect to find a table
of contents to
to verify whether the book contained the two stories you mentioned.
Citations in library databases usually do not contain the table of
contents
contents of books containing scores of short excerpts. Short of
putting my hands on the actual book, all I had to go on
 was the basic citation. I think I made a pretty good estimate but
came up short. I'm glad you did find the book.  I will understand if
 you want to contact Google and request not to pay the research fee.