Book of the Day: Marianne Moore, Muhammad Ali, the Mongoose Civique, and an Encyclopedia of Cars

NBC News is reporting that Detroit is considering reviving other, past vehicle brands, after the successful rebirth of the Chevy Camaro. Drawing on past goodwill, it's a strategy that significantly reduces the average $100 million cost of launching a new brand.

The report also notes that "it is becoming increasingly difficult to come up with good names that aren't already in use or at least registered by a competitor. That's one reason many makers have gone the alphanumeric route. But they also know that it's hard to get worked up about something called an ABC123.”

For Ford Motors, at least, a solution to the naming problem lies in the company’s archives. In 1955,  a Ford vice president wrote Marianne Moore, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (1887-1972), asking if she’d come up with some inventive names for a new car the company was developing.

We should like this name to be more than a label. Specifically, we should like it to have a compelling quality in itself and by itself. To convey, through association or other conjuration, some visceral feeling of elegance, fleetness, advanced features and design. A name, in short, that flashes a dramatically desirable picture in people's minds.

The project seemed to appeal to Miss Moore’s sense of adventure and whimsy- she was fond of capes, tricorn hats and the Brooklyn Dodgers, and wrote the liner notes for Muhammad Ali’s spoken world LP, I Am The Greatest! She posted a series of ideas to Ford, now collected by Lists of Note:

The Ford Silver Sword

Hirundo

Aerundo

Hurricane Hirundo (swallow)

Hurricane Aquila (eagle)

Hurricane Accipter (hawk)

The Impeccable

Symmechromatic

Thunderblender

The Resilient Bullet

Intelligent Bullet

Bullet Cloisoné

Bullet Lavolta

The Intelligent Whale

The Ford Fabergé (That there is also a perfume Fabergé seems to me to do no harm, for here allusion is to the original silversmith)

The Arc-en-Ciel (the rainbow)

Arcenciel

Mongoose Civique

Anticipator

Regna Racer (couronne a couronne) sovereign to sovereign

Aeroterre

Fée Rapide (Aerofee, Aero Faire, Fee Aiglette, Magi-faire) Comme Il Faire

Tonnere Alifère (winged thunder)

Aliforme Alifère (wing-slender a-wing)

Turbotorc (used as an adjective by Plymouth)

Thunderbird Allié (Cousin Thunderbird)

Thunder Crester

Dearborn Diamanté

Magigravure

Pastelogram

Regina-Rex

Taper Racer

Varsity Stroke

Angelastro

Astranaut

Chaparral

Tir á l'arc (bull's eye)

Cresta Lark

Triskelion (three legs running)

Pluma Piluma (hairfine, feather-foot)

Adante con Moto (description of a good motor?)

Turcotinga (turqoise cotinga—the cotinga being a South-American finch or sparrow) solid indigo.

Utopian Turtletop

Ford filed the list away in the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Miss Moore switched her allegiance to the Yankees after the Dodgers left town, and threw out the first ball of the season in 1968. Ford named their company-saving car after the founder’s son, and of the Edsel, well, the rest is a punchline.

Henry Bemis has another solution, and we’re willing to sell it to the highest bidder. Or, to anyone who wants it- make us an offer:

Georgano, G.N., Encyclopedia of American Automobiles (E.P. Dutton & Co., 1979; revised edition from The Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, published by Dutton in 1968). ISBN 0-525-097929. Profiles of over 1640 brands of automobiles manufactured in the US and Canada, from Abbott (1909-18) to Zip (1913-14). Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, very good condition. HBB price: $30.

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Henry Bemis Books is one man’s attempt to bring more diversity and quality to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg market of devoted readers starved for choices. Our website is at www.henrybemisbookseller.blogspot.com. For more information about any listed book, or more photos, please contact Lindsay at henrybemisbookseller@gmail.com. Henry Bemis Books is also happy to entertain reasonable offers on items in inventory. Shipping is always free; local buyers are welcome to drop by and pick up their purchases at our location off Peachtree Road in Northwest Charlotte if they like. #RareBooks #HenryBemisBooks #EncyclopediaofAmericanAutomobiles #MarianneMoore #MuhammedAli