THE TEXT/TECH PAPERS

Cheney, William M. — Pamphlet on the Four Basic Dialects of Pig Latin

November 28, 1907–July 1, 2002

William Murray Cheney called himself a “typesticker,” but the name barely contains him. He was a Los Angeles printer, miniature-book maker, amateur linguist, satirist, and tireless inventor of playful identities. In 1950 he turned Pig Latin into an elaborate mock-scholarly pamphlet, complete with competing dialects, rules, examples, type ornaments, and a Brigadier Cyclops Stonebone persona. The joke depends on the printed object—its narrow page, tiny type, solemn headings, and typographic timing—so this edition keeps the complete original book as a facsimile instead of resetting it. A Green-series introduction and biography precede the scan; the pamphlet itself is reproduced page for page.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Bibliography

Cheney, William Murray. A Voyage to Trolland. 1933.

———. Pamphlet on the Four Basic Dialects of Pig Latin. 1950.

———. Types in the Cases of William M. Cheney. Dawson’s Book Shop, 1961.

———. Autobiography of W. M. C. Dawson’s Book Shop, 1983.

Works About the Author

Cheney, William Murray. The Natural History of a Los Angeles Typesetter. UCLA Oral History Program.

Hildebrand, Ryan. “Will Cheney, Typesticker, 1907–2002.” The Center & Clark Newsletter, fall 2002.

“William M. Cheney Papers.” William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA.