Palindromes and Anagrams

by Howard W. Bergerson

Fascinating word-lover's treasury brings together over 1,100 different anagrams and nearly as many palindromes, plus a host of related phenomena — charades, circular reversals, vocabulary called poetry, etc., plus much high-level commentary and observation.

Genres: Nonfiction, Poetry, Language

130 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1973

Reviews

[Djll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Indispensable for word geeks. As a palindromist I go back to it for inspiration. And sometimes find myself in awe of the abilities of the masters.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is for logophiles, puzzle makers, poets, alchemists, mystics and lovers of oddities. That’s because palindromes and anagrams are more about spelling than meaning or grammar. And as most people learning English will tell you, English has a cryptic, chaotic system of spelling. (See the spelling of “Fish” as “Ghoti” here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti.)

That said, palindrome and anagram writers achieve some surprising and humorous effects …

Anagrams:

- Desperation: A rope ends it.
- Is pity love?: Positively!
- Action: A tonic
- The answer: Wasn’t here
- Blandishment: Blinds the man
- The ears: Hearest
- Detour: Routed
- Disconsolate: Is not solaced
- Dormitory: Dirty room
- Marriage: A grim era
- Ten Commandments: Can’t mend most men
- This ear: It hears

Palindromes:
- A man, a plan, a canal – Panama.
- Able was I ere I saw Elba.
- Red rum, sir, is murder.
- Ah, Satan sees Natasha.
- Madam I’m Adam.
- Rats live on no evil star.
- Step on no pets.
- Was it a rat I saw?

And there are word-unit palindromes:

- King, are you glad you are king?
- Girls, with boys passing, meet passing boys with girls.

There are also Palindromic poems (also call satodic verse) and even plays. They are not quite so interesting so I won't be including any examples.

Bergerson presents some other interesting forms:
- Charades – An item which finds new words without reordering the letters. For example: “amiable together” becomes “am I able to get her”
- Lipogram – Compositions which exclude by fiat some letters
- Pangrams – Short compositions (poems, sentences, that use every letter of the alphabet

Overall Bergerson presents anagrams and palindromes in a humorous (and, I believe, leg pulling) manner. These kinds of things are certainly hard to take too seriously. But fun is fun.

[Clackamas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.

It was interesting just because I wasn't aware of how many different ways there were to create a palindrome. I liked the part that talked about palindrome poetry, where the poem reads the same by line backwards as it does from the front. Also I liked the peoptry that contains a palindrome in each line.

I'm not sorry I read it, but I'm only giving it two stars because I read one that was much worse last night.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not an anagram lover. There's a lot of that here. Not surprisingly, mind you, but it did nothing for me. The palindromes were better. I just didn't care for the layout this book presented the information. I found this to be more serious than other books on the subject. I like language to be playful, this was far more like a textbook for my tastes.

[Stuart · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not easy reading. A curiosity really.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun book with 100's of examples of all the different types of wordplay and their very long history in our language. What am amazing
display of ingenuity is contained in these pages!