ANONYMOUS
There is the formal anonymity of a book whose author, though his name is not on it, is known (e.g. Gulliver’s Travels, The Vicar of Wakefield or Sense and Sensibility). For the cataloguing of these and similar pseudonymous books (e.g. Alice in Wonderland or Jane Eyre), some booksellers use, and others dispense with, the conventional square (or equally common round) brackets.
There is also, however, the real anonymity of ‘authorship unknown’. And once in a while the cataloguer has to admit defeat. Since a book by an unidentified author is harder to sell (other things being equal) than one of known paternity, it may reasonably be assumed that he has consulted halkett and laing and the other obvious reference books. Yet Anon. is an infrequent entry-heading in catalogues, less because there are not in fact many books whose authorship is unknown, than because anonymous titles are usually (and sensibly) listed under subject or category. There is generally a fair sprinkling among ‘Old Novels’, and more amongst ‘Economics’ or ‘Civil War Tracts’.
Previous ABC’s of Book Collecting posts
Carter, John & Nicolas Barker
ABC’s of Book Collecting. 8th Edition
New Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press, 2004