The catalogue copy watered down the book's contents in a misguided attempt to commercialize it.

One rep revealed the secret of his success: he rarely listened to the editors and he rarely read the publisher's catalogue copy.

"Like you," the catalogue copy gingerly begins, "we have long harbored the notion that most annuals are garish enough to cauterize your retina at a glance."

And yesterday, a Nevada judge ruled that a jury could hear arguments about whether the catalogue copy was indeed defamatory.

He is now, as the catalogue copy says, "a grown man, strapping two six-shooters, lording it over a cowboy town in Wyoming in the 1880's."

Mr. Sussman has also written the catalogue copy for numerous exhibitions at the Leiber Museum.

The sound was rich and warm and penetrating, its musical possibilities as impressive as the furniture the catalogue copy focused on.

Speck writes the catalogue copy on a yellow legal pad, lacking only the painter and his works.

Though he is no longer the company's animating presence, there's a distinct personality that survives in the tone of the catalogue copy.

The catalogue copy is likewise strewn with Britishisms: "centre," "jewellery," "colour," "favourite," "splendour."