In Moby-Dick, nautical terms are pivotal, while Flowers for Algernon hinges on psychological jargon. An Illustrated Dictionary of Little-Known Words from Literary Classics is a compendium of these terms and others encountered in Western classics as well as multi-cultural literature and other works outside the traditional canon.

School curricula and reading lists from the American Library Association and the National Council of Teachers of English were used to help choose the works covered, a selection that includes the books likely to be leisure or required reading for today's students.

Words such as carcinoma, cenotaph, Grumman, Molotov flower basket, strafe, and tomographic scan - all found and perhaps stumbled over in John Hersey's Hiroshima - are defined and their historical background or derivation given.

Entries include architecture: apse, campanile, grotto, peristyle, plinth; dance: czardas, gavotte, juba, moochie, taxi tips; insults: dandy, momzer, ofay, peckerwood, tosspot; supernatural: arch-fiend, cabbala, fakir, gematriya, geomancer; and weights and measures: dram, fee sheet, intercalary month, stone, verst.

Entries are alphabetized and cross-referenced to allow the reader to return quickly to the classic at hand, although some of the eyecatching and befuddling words may inspire browsing. This profusely illustrated dictionary will enhance the literary adventures of teachers, students, writers, literati, and literary neophytes alike.