Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Author:Harper & Brothers Publishers None. — From Amazon.com — The first edition of this dictionary was published in 1870; the 15th in 1995. (I'm guessing this was printed in the 50s or 60s.) As the foreword points out, "to be considered obscure by a Brewer's editor is a real badge of obscurity," and the dictionary is, indeed, astonishing in its coverage. It is not, of course, perfec... more »t. The arrangement is strictly alphabetical, and, though See and See also references are given, intuitive searching may be difficult. For example, the phrase "to climb on the bandwagon" is under "climb" rather than "bandwagon." In addition, the book continues to be Anglocentric, though the editors appear to be making an effort to include other cultures. Nevertheless, there is no other reference quite like Brewer's; if you need to know what "hendiadys" means or figure out which hawk to buy for a prince, you'll find it here and probably nowhere else. Libraries that do not own a copy of an earlier edition should certainly consider acquiring this reference.