Twitter Experiment: Seneker Book in Bite-sized Chunks

As you may already know, last year I edited and published a book titled Frontier Experience or Epistolary Sesquipedalian Lexiphanicism from the Occident, by J.E.L. Seneker. This book was written in the 19th century, and was previously published in 1906. You can buy the book for just $15.95 at Amazon.com.

This book is very special, a unique piece of work. I've never seen another book like it. The story is pretty basic: letters describing his trip to the frontier west in the 1870s. But the telling is anything but simple. Seneker wrote by purposely using the biggest, most obscure words he could in every sentence of the book. It it really an amazing thing to behold, and a challenge to try to read. Fortunately, he provided a glossary on each facing page, so that you at least have a hope of understanding what he is talking about. I have a personal connection with the book: I'm related to Mr. Seneker, but there is more to the story... detailed in my preface. But I also just find the book hilarious to read, or to try to read I should say!

So here is my experiment with Twitter. I've set up an account on Twitter called Lexiphanicism. My plan is to tweet messages that are quotes from the book. In most cases these will come in batches of two, since many of the sentences in the book are more than 140 characters long (for non-Twitter users, know that 140 is the limit on Twitter messages).

Why am I doing this? Well, its an experiment. I see it as an opportunity to market this book using just about the hottest platform around today. Afterall, I published with Lulu.com, the popular self-publishing platform, so all marketing efforts are up to me!

But the nature of this book makes it difficult to read like a regular book. Many people have said they can only read a page at a time. So, it occurs to me that parsing it out as "Tweets" might be interesting -- if I do a tweet every day, or even every week, some people might enjoy that. So the idea is: if you follow the Lexiphanicism twitter account, you'll get an interesting puzzler to read on a regular basis.

Give it a try... I hope you like it!

Now Available on Amazon!

I realized recently that I never announced here that the book I've published is now available at Amazon.com! I described this book in a posting in September, so please read there for more info about it. I guarantee this book is unlike anything you've ever seen before!

Book Published: Frontier Experience, or Epistolary Sesquipedalian Lexiphanicism from the Occident

As some readers of this blog may know, for the past couple of years I've been working on a book project. I'm pleased to say that the book is now available in paperback from Lulu.com, and will be available from Amazon.com and other locations in the coming weeks!

This book is unlike anything you've ever seen before, so I hope you will read on...

Book Title: "Frontier Experience, or Epistolary Sesquipedalian Lexiphanicism from the Occident"
Author: J.E.L. Seneker
Original Publication Date: 1906
Editor of 2008 Edition: Thomas Stone

Book page at Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/content/3314857
See this webpage for a sampling from the book -- click the forward and back arrows to browse the preview, and click +/- to zoom in and out.

Brief Book Description:
J.E.L. Seneker (1848-1916) had a distinguished career in education in eastern Tennessee. He traveled to the "wild west frontier" of the 1870s, and then described his trips in letters. Here is a brief sampling:

"In former epistolary scribblements, I gave you the concatenation of concomitant circumstances initiatory to my transmigration to this remote section of the occidental portions of our columbian republican coadunation. ... In my brief swevens I endured circumvolation of pigwidgeons, cacodemons, and odible simulachres in my harns. ... I onerated my dorsal part with a portmanteau for the vectitation of my habiliments."

You get the idea: although not a long book, reading it will be a challenge. Every page comes with a handy glossary, which keeps the task from being impossible!

The letters were written in the 1870s, and the book was published in 1906 -- making this the 102nd anniversary edition!

What is my connection with this book and the author?
My grandfather had a copy of this book because we are related to the author, J.E.L Seneker. After some research, I've determined that he's my first cousin, five times removed. The book has great sentimental value to me, and I'm delighted that I can republish it and give it new life. More details are included in my editor's preface.

Who might enjoy this book?
I have no idea really. Perhaps kids preparing for spelling bees or high school students studying for standardized exams. Those interested in Deadwood-era "wild-west frontier" literature might also find it a curiosity. Perhaps linguists, philologists, American historians, or other academics will find it a curious object of study. Any word-hounds and Scrabble-lovers are also prime readers of this book. And lastly, if you are troubled by the devolution of our language through texting and instant messaging, then this book can serve as an antidote for you.

I really have no idea who will read and enjoy this book, but given an easy means to publish it, I wanted to get it out there and see what happens. I think this book is unique: the deliberately obnoxious, sometimes baffling, and completely frustrating choice of words make it so. I find it to be quite humorous to read for that reason, with many passages leaving me in stitches every time I come across them.

If you buy the book, I'll definitely be interested in hearing what you think of it.