for my boyfriend for Christmas.
His uncle had it when he was younger, and he wasn’t allowed to read it. He remembers that it was huge and thick, like a high school literature book, and was organized by year.
Does anyone know the name or publisher of this book?
I don’t think these are organized by year – one is by subject matter, the other alphabetically. But maybe it’ll help
The Limerick by Gershon Legman (author of The Rationale of the Dirty Joke). Meets your description in being incredibly thick, but IIRC it’s organized by subject matter.
The Lure of the Limerick by William S. Baring-Gould. Surprisingly scholarly approach to this subject. Organized alphabetically by initial letter of first important word.
The book I own is The Famous Paris Edition of the Limerick. It contains 1700 limericks (most of them deliciously vulgar). Amazon shows it published by Castle books and indicates it’s out of print, but there are used copies for sale. My 1979 edition is published by Citadel Press, but I bet it’s the same book. Mine is not organized by year, but by subject matter, but it might suffice…
“out of the 1600 collected here, none are otherwise.”
Or words to that effect. Huge limerick book, tan dust jacket. Sequel has a blue dust jacket.
Damned if I remember the author or publisher. They are down the cellar in one of the storage boxes.
Not very helpful, sorry.
I’m pretty sure that’s on Legman’s book, cited above.