The first edition, of six by 2014, of the dictionary. 'Cinema' rather than the later 'Film' in the title and the staking out of positions - Geraldine Chaplin greater than her father, all of Howard Hawks' off to the desert island instead of ... and anglo centric. And,
'Yes, that might be more hotly contested than the claim that Roger is the greatest player in the history of tennis, but it is less contentious than the one I’d make on [David] Thomson’s behalf: that his Dictionary is the great literary achievement of our time. From the start it was a highly eccentric reference book. "Over the years, the making of the book has brought me so much pleasure," he writes. "In attempting to see shape in the history of motion pictures there is a steady battle between scholarship and partiality, enough to suggest that learning is often more warped than it realizes while daft enthusiasms do lead to quantities of obscure knowledge." That’s from the entry on Shirley MacLaine in the first edition.' Geoff Dyer
