Weekly Writers: The Main Types Of Front Matter (Part 3)

Epigraphs and Half Titles

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I discussed front matter and back matter recently. Open a book and see which of these it contains.

Epigraph from an early version of Turner

Epigraph

A standalone Epigraph is a kind of thematic quotation from a real or fictional source, and is intended to set the mood.

The source usually appears on the next line after the quote, introduced by an en-dash or em-dash. Or the source could just be right-aligned or centred. It may be in capitals or small caps.

Beware of using song lyrics without permission: big music companies can be litigious.

If the book has a single Epigraph then it can go after the TOC (if there is one), on the right-hand side, so that it acts as the start of the book. Or it can go somewhere before that. It’s just a stylistic choice. However, if every chapter is preceded by an Epigraph then the first one would definitely have to appear after the TOC.

In terms of formatting, see my post on Dedications.

A half title

Half Title

Half Titles contain just the title of the book, nothing else (no author, no publisher) – so, kind of like half a Title Page. As with a Title Page, the title type may match the cover fonts.

Half Titles were often placed before the proper Title Page (in which case they are sometimes referred to as a “bastard title”), but since they have no information that the title page doesn’t have they are a bit redundant nowadays, and their use is fading out. One exception is when they go before the Title Page and have a list of “other titles by the author” on the back.

Occasionally, where books have very extensive front matter, a Half Title could signify the end of the front matter and the beginning of the first chapter or section.

There is another situation where they can be very useful, though, and it relates to this question: what follows the copyright page? Pick up some books from your shelves and check.

You may find that the paper facing the Copyright Page has a Dedication. Or it may have an Epigraph. If the book is divided into parts, then there may be the name of part one there, a major subdivision of the book. If the book is non-fiction, or a short story or poetry collection, then there may be a Table Of Contents facing the Copyright Page.

But what if none of those are appropriate?