Gleanings from the Harvest-Fields of Literature a Melange of Excerpta, Curious, Humorous, and Instructive

Originally published in 1860, this work was compiled by Dr. Charles Carroll Bombaugh, an American physician and editor with a penchant for linguistic oddities. The volume emerged during the mid-19th century, a period when the burgeoning middle class in America and Britain developed a significant appetite for miscellanies—collections of trivia, anecdotes, and literary curiosities designed for light intellectual entertainment.

Bombaugh curated the content as a 'melange' of excerpts, focusing on wordplay, historical anomalies, and humorous observations that would otherwise be lost in the mass of daily literature. The design was intended to serve as a portable parlor book, providing readers with quick, enlightening snippets. It was well-regarded during its time for its scholarly yet accessible curation, establishing Bombaugh as a prominent collector of literary ephemera and later leading to his more expansive work, Facts and Fancies for the Curious.