: Re: What is the "acid test" for a nonfiction anthology? I'm asking this on Writing.SE because I'm doing a short presentation on "What is an anthology," and I'm not sure how to answer the question

@Moriarity138

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The core concept of an anthology is a "collection," of things that would otherwise be separate --things that have their own separate identity and coherence.

What is anthologized might be different authors, previously published works by a single author, different types or genres of work, and so forth. In television, an "anthology series" like the Twilight Zone presents individual stories without continuity between them, generally with different casts. Traditionally this was done by episode, newer series like American Horror Story do it by season.

A collection of new work by a single author is not an anthology, because the constituent work didn't ever have its own separate identity. The cookbook, and Kawasaki's book fall under the same reasoning. Most magazines also don't count --Reader's Digest being a notable exception, as a serialized anthology of magazine articles. Similarly, a book of quotations is not typically thought of as an anthology, because the collected pieces that compose it are fragments, not complete works.

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