question about book anatomy

Transentient17 Nov 2007, 14:04as archived

With Pirate Freedom, Wolfe has again placed a favorite quote of his right at the beginning. After the acknowledgements, before the page with the title on it. Can anybody tell me what this component of a book is called? Its not a preface, its not a forward...is it an epigram? It's "a quote at the beginning of a book..." and I know there is a more specific definition.

Gwern Branwen17 Nov 2007, 16:23as archived

↳ in reply to Transentient

On 2007.11.17 09:04:50 -0500, Transentient <transentient at gmail.com> scribbled 0 lines:

3 quoted lines

With Pirate Freedom, Wolfe has again placed a favorite quote of his right at the beginning. After the acknowledgements, before the page with the title on it. Can anybody tell me what this component of a book is called? Its not a preface, its not a forward...is it an epigram? It's "a quote at the beginning of a book..." and I know there is a more specific definition.

How about "epigraph"? <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Epigraph_%28literature%29>

gwern Walther NRO DUVDEVAN South MD4 Koancho Doom RX- E. Compsec

Transentient17 Nov 2007, 18:29as archived

↳ in reply to Gwern Branwen

6 quoted lines · 1–2 deep

On Nov 17, 2007, at 11:23 AM, Gwern Branwen wrote: On 2007.11.17 09:04:50 -0500, Transentient <transentient at gmail.com> scribbled 0 lines:

With Pirate Freedom, Wolfe has again placed a favorite quote of his right at the beginning. After the acknowledgements, before the page with the title on it. Can anybody tell me what this component of a book is called? Its not a preface, its not a forward...is it an epigram? It's "a quote at the beginning of a book..." and I know there is a more specific definition.

How about "epigraph"? <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Epigraph_%28literature%29

Sounds like it! That's funny, I thought this at first, but my brain scrambled the word to "epigram" which is not the same thing, so I looked that up and was like, darn, must be something different. Anyway - very cute epigraph in Pirate Freedom.