Dumb question time...

[cajunmama]

Pardon me if I sound stupid, but...what is a "chapbook"?

Follow this link to Stephen King's page at Fantastic Fiction and scroll down a bit. Can anyone tell me?

 

[mehastings]

Merriam-Webster says:
Main Entry: chapbook
Pronunciation: 'chap-"buk
Function: noun
Etymology: chapman + book
: a small book containing ballads, poems, tales, or tracts

 

[Chixulub]

Merriam-Webster says:
Main Entry: chapbook
Pronunciation: 'chap-"buk
Function: noun
Etymology: chapman + book
: a small book containing ballads, poems, tales, or tracts

Never thought to look it up, I assumed it was a contraction of 'chapter' and 'book.'

 

[cajunmama]

Thanks guys.


I think I wanted to ask, what's the difference between the novels and the chapbooks? And now I see. The chapbooks are individual novellas, from his collections sold as novels (Four Past Midnight, Different Seasons, Skeleton Crew, etc.)

 

[Kookamoor]

That wasn't a dumb question at all - I've never even heard of the word!!

 

[mehastings]

That wasn't a dumb question at all - I've never even heard of the word!!

Me neither. That's why I looked it up. I had no clue and I thought it was an interesting question. I always think of the dictionary first because I use it a half dozen times a day (really bad speller).

 

[funes]

If it helps, chapbooks, at least in my mind, are also usually "paperback" and bound by being stitched down through the gutter and out through the spine. During the Victorian era here in the States outfits like the American Tract Society produced them in prodigious numbers. They are also usually quite small (2" x 3" or 3" x 4") and slim.