Frederick Howard Collins (1857-1910) was a British indexer and writer. Best known for his ''Authors' and printers' dictionary'' (1905), Collins also wrote on the philosophy of

Herbert Spencer Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English polymath active as a philosopher, psychologist, biologist, sociologist, and anthropologist. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in '' ...

and on

subject indexing Subject indexing is the act of describing or classifying a document A document is a writing, written, drawing, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of nonfiction, non-fictional, as well as ...

. Collins' dictionary is one of the earliest known sources that recommend using a

serial comma The serial comma (also referred to as the series comma, Oxford comma, or Harvard comma) is a comma placed after the second-to-last term in a list (just before the conjunction) when writing out three or more terms. For example, a list of three c ...

or "Oxford comma", citing a written recommendation by Herbert Spencer.

Works

* ''An epitome of the Synthetic philosophy'', London: Williams and Norgate, 1889. With a preface by Herbert Spencer. * ''The diminution of the jaw in the civilized races: an effect of disease'', London and Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate, 1891 * ''Twelve charts of the tidal streams on the west coast of Scotland'', London: J.D. Potter, 1894 * 'Subject indexes: some principles which underlie them', London: Chiswick Press, 1896.Reprinted with an introduction by Michael Robertson in ''The Indexer'', Vol. 18, No. 4 (October 1993), pp.237-43
Online version
Accessed 27 January 2013. * 'Herbert Spencer', in ''Philosophers and scientists'', New York: Doubleday & McClure Co., 1899 * 'The index', in Charles T. Jacobi, ''Some notes on books and printing : a guide for authors, publishers, & others'', London: C. Whittingham & Co., 1902. * ''Author & printer: A guide for authors, editors, printers, correctors of the press, compositors and typists. With full list of abbreviations. An attempt to codify the best typographical practices of the present day'', London: Frowde, 1905. Reprinted (1909) as ''Authors' and printers' dictionary''.

References

1857 births 1910 deaths British non-fiction writers Index (publishing) British philosophy writers British male writers British male non-fiction writers Indexers {{UK-nonfiction-writer-stub