I'm a little ahead of schedule, but I didn't want the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James version of the Bible to go unremarked. As a librarian, I'm interested in the Bible because it is one of the most widely read books in the English language. It is also one of the most often translated books, whether into other languages or colloquial English. I started to try counting how many versions we have here, but eventually gave up. We have The Jewish Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Learning Bible, New American Standard Version, Positive Bible, and on and on--to the tune of about 131 items under the title heading Bible. And more if you count DVD and audiobook versions. Granted some are study versions or concordances, but still--that's a lot of Bibles.
I think most people would agree that the King James version has set a high mark for poetic language. Phrases from the Bible find their way into book titles, and these books find their way into our collections. The web site Goodreads has a list of book titles that come from the Bible with over 170 entries. Here are just a few: East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Rembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust, Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter, and Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl.
You don't often think that something put together by a committee, even when assigned the job by a king, will prove to be so enduring. Happy 400th to the King James Version of the Bible.
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