[Rarebooks] FS: Scarce Advance Copy of Robert Merton's ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS, price greatly reduced

[Charles Agvent]

MERTON, Robert K. ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS: A SHANDEAN POSTSCRIPT 
(Typed Manuscript). n.p., 1959. First Edition. An 8-1/2" x 11" 
photocopied typed manuscript bound in plain blue wraps with a 
handwritten label pasted to the front cover stating the author, title, 
and the 1959 date; [1], iii, [1], 252 pages. Printed at the bottom right 
corner of the title page is the statement: "Obviously not to be quoted, 
abstracted or reproduced, in part or whole, without explicit permission 
of the author." This appears to be one of a very small number of copies, 
if not unique, made of Merton's famous book on the origins of the 
aphorism commonly ascribed to Newton: "If I have seen farther, it is by 
standing on the shoulder of giants." The book was not published until 
1965, and a cursory glance of the first few pages shows some changes 
from the published version. Spine torn with old tape repairs; all pages 
tightly bound and clean. Very Good and quite scarce.

Robert K. Merton (1910 - 2003) was a sociologist, educator, and 
internationally regarded academic statesman for sociology in 
contemporary research and social policy. By the time he was 40, Merton 
was one of America's most influential social scientists. He was a member 
of the National Academy of Sciences and honored in a host of other ways. 
Since he had chosen sociology, he could not win a Nobel prize, but his 
son did. This book, a scholarly detective story in the form of an 
epistolary novel, is a serious inquiry into the phenomena of scholarly 
reference and citation, the development of reputations, and the place of 
science amid humane knowledge. (#015265)        $150.00

http://www.charlesagvent.com/shop/agvent/015265.html?id=yNnRMPFL

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