WHAT IS A PROOF?

A proof, in the parlance of printer or publisher, is an impression of type which shows how the matter will look when printed. A proof is made, or pulled, so that it can be read for errors, omissions, or faults of typography or style. It is the work of the proofreader to give the proof careful reading, marking all errors or alterations clearly so that the printer can follow them quickly and correctly. Proofreading is one job which must be done well, and which permits no excuses—that is, if a proofreader does not correct an error, he can offer no excuse: he overlooked it, that’s all!

Proofreading is of two kinds. The publisher’s or printer’s proofreader reads proof as a steady occupation. All matter set in type, whether for newspapers, magazines, or books, or simply job work, must be read by someone to see that it is O. K. The professional proofreader is specially trained for his work. He catches errors that the average reader would probably overlook in the casual reading that is only for pastime.

After the professional proofreader has read the proof, and given it his O. K., if the matter is for a book, or, sometimes, if it is for a magazine, the proof is sent to the author. Authors are not always as expert at proofreading as they should be, but they can usually catch some things which ought to be changed. Sometimes the proofreader has marked queries for the author’s attention, queries about matters on which the proofreader has no data or which seemed to him strange or possibly incorrect. The author must note and answer all proofreader’s queries.

Proof may be read several times, depending on the degree of accuracy desired. Newspaper proofs are often read only once, because of the speed with which the newspaper must be produced. Authors of newspaper material seldom have a chance to read the proof. Proof of magazine material is usually read at least twice; for some magazines, which are especially careful, the proof is read more than twice, always by different readers. Sometimes the editor, or one of his assistants, gives the magazine proofs a final reading, after the proofreaders have given them an O. K. Proofs of books are read several times: first, by the printer’s proofreader, who eliminates most of the glaring errors; second, by one or more of the publisher’s proofreaders, whose duty it is to see that the type is made as correct in every way as it is possible to make it; third, by the author, who must answer any proofreader’s queries, and make any corrections which have been overlooked; fourth, by various authorities or friends of the author, particularly if the book is technical or mathematical—sometimes this reading is gratuitous, though occasionally it may be paid for; fifth, if the highest possible accuracy is desired, and the probable profits on the book justify this additional expense, by an editorial proofreader on the publisher’s staff.

Even after all these readings, the final published work may contain a few errors. To err is very human, and errors are extremely difficult to eliminate. It is hardly possible to publish a work of any length that is absolutely free from errors of any kind. If you look sharp, you will probably find a few typographical errors in this Little Blue Book, though it has been read carefully at least four times, by different readers.

Errors that have persisted until the work is published have often been ludicrous. Some errors of this kind are famous. Golden Book, a magazine, has conducted for some years a department called “Why Editors Leave Home,” in which are collected each month actual errors that have appeared in newspapers or magazines, in spite of the proofreaders.

Proofreaders have not existed as such from the time printing was first invented. Scholars constantly wish they had! It was computed by Sir Theodore Martin that the typographical errors in the First Folio edition of Shakespeare total nearly 20,000—a number which is two and a quarter percent of all the words in the book. Many of these errors have caused scholarly controversies without end.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, indeed, authors were prone to shirk the arduous duties of proofreading. When their publishers submitted proof sheets of their work, they passed them around among their friends and acquaintances, quite blithely accepting the O. K. of these casual and more than often careless readers! Indeed, this custom was outdone in indifference by the universities and colleges, where accuracy would seem to have been at a premium. University material was corrected by the public at large! The proof sheets were posted on bulletin boards, and anyone passing by could inspect them. If errors were noted, the passer-by was supposed to inform the authorities.

But as printing grew into “the art preservative of all arts,” it became more necessary to eliminate errors. Proofreading became a definite occupation. Scholars and men of letters were sometimes paid to read proofs. One famous proofreader was Alexander Cruden (1701-1770), famous for his Concordance to the English Bible; he was for some years “corrector of the press” in Wild Court; in 1729 he was a reader for the 10th Earl of Derby; after 1740 he was definitely a proofreader, enhancing the accuracy of several editions of Greek and Latin classics. Indeed, Cruden became known as “Alexander the Corrector,” but he interpreted this title to include also correction of morals, and played the part of an intermittent reformer.

Another famous proofreader was William Julius Mickle (1735-1788), a Scottish poet. He started out as a brewer, but his interest in literature caused him to neglect his business, and he became bankrupt. He was appointed proofreader for the Clarendon Press, one of the most famous of English printshops. Mickle is remembered chiefly for his translation of the Portuguese Lusiad of Camoëns; it earned him a public and royal reception when he visited Portugal in 1779. Sir Walter Scott is reputed to have founded the plot of his novel Kenilworth on a ballad by Mickle entitled Cumnor Hall.

Oliver Goldsmith, author of She Stoops to Conquer and A Deserted Village, was another famous writer who saw service as a proofreader. So did Dr. Samuel Johnson, of the first English Dictionary, perpetually remembered in Boswell’s fascinating biography.

“Times, however, have changed,” says the Encyclopaedia Britannica, since, “as the elder D’Israeli wrote, ‘it became the glory of the learned to be correctors of the press to eminent printers,’ and today in every printing office the proofreader is found—an unobtrusive functionary, known to publishers, authors, editors, and journalists, but for the most part unknown to the general reading public; a functionary who does useful, often valuable, and always indispensable work. The influence of good proofreading upon the character of book, newspaper and general printing is too often underrated. The celebrated old printing offices and the foremost of the modern ones owe their reputation for good workmanship largely to the excellence and thoroughness of the work done in their reading-rooms, for no perfection of paper, ink, machining or binding can atone for bad or slipshod typography.”

Charles Dickens wrote a tribute to the proofreader, as follows:

I know from some slight practical experience what the duties of correctors of the press are, and how these duties are usually discharged. And I can testify here, that they are not mechanical—that they are not mere matters of manipulation and routine; but that they require from those who perform them much natural intelligence, much superadded cultivation, considerable readiness of reference, quickness of resource, an excellent memory and a clear understanding. And I must gratefully acknowledge that I have never gone through the sheets of any book I have written without having had presented to me by the corrector of the press something I had overlooked—some slight inconsistency into which I had fallen—some little lapse I had made—in short, without having set down in black and white some unquestionable indication that I had been closely followed in my work by a patient and trained mind, and not merely by a skilful eye. In this declaration I have not the slightest doubt that the great body of my brother and sister writers would, as a plain act of justice, heartily concur.

Indeed, Dickens had no less a corroborator than Robert Browning, who wrote:

I have had every opportunity of becoming acquainted with, and gratefully acknowledging, the extreme service rendered to me; and, if mine be no exceptional case, the qualifications of readers and correctors are important indeed.

In England there is a trade union of proofreaders. In the United States proofreaders, when responsible to the printers, are members of the Typographical Union. If editorial proofreaders, they need not necessarily be members of any union. The British Association of Correctors of the Press was founded in 1854 and is still in existence. Some American cities have proofreaders’ societies. American proofreaders as a class, it should be pointed out, are largely women.