With the advent of the internet and technology, everything changed drastically over the past decade. Physical books were replaced with Kindle, dictionaries were replaced by Google Search and people stopped talking to their neighbors and got busy with strangers from foreign lands on social media sites.
But, back in the day, every high school kid owned one book that was the holy grail of the English language. Whenever in doubt, we would always flip through the ‘High School English Grammar And Composition’ book by Wren & Martin.
This book has been here since time immemorial with only its cover being revamped multiple times. Hence, when someone shared the picture of the vintage edition of Wren & Martin’s Grammar & Composition reference book, people started talking about their times.
Sharing the picture of the book that has been here since 1935, Twitter user Shekar Iyer touched a nostalgic chord in everyone and asked if they still remember the book.
Anyone remember this ? 🙂🙂 pic.twitter.com/krAZXoNG9P
— Shekar Iyer (@SHEKARSUSHEEL) January 5, 2023
How can those who carried this book in their bags don’t remember it? It was also the most dreaded book which gave nightmares to most of us. Hence, people took to the comments section to share their core memories of the book.
How can I forget..! I have such fond memories of going through this book when preparing for exams. Is it still available.?
— Gayatri Mantha (@gaya3mantha) January 5, 2023
A dreadful book. Ghost story was more acceptable
— Prof. Sanjib Goswami 🇮🇳🇦🇺 (@DrSanjibG) January 6, 2023
Mine looked like this. pic.twitter.com/lFcS8lnYxy
— Manimugdha Sharma (@quizzicalguy) January 6, 2023
Servicing the world since 1935…..
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) January 6, 2023
Ofcourse miss it. I went & bought the latest & its so disappointing. Totally changed. Miss my wren & Martin when I fumble for words/ grammar & sentences.
— Ratna Prabha (@Ratnaprabha_IAS) January 6, 2023
Sine qua non of 20th century English education in India! (Also hardback edition of Wren&Martin a nice, fat defensive weapon)
— PKR | প্রশান্ত | پرشانتو (@prasanto) January 7, 2023
I still have with me 😁 pic.twitter.com/2Hr0uxE7OK
— Shivas Kaul (@ShivasKaul) January 6, 2023
Here’s mine, bought for 30Rs from Lucknow in 1991. pic.twitter.com/7PqV9c3k5v
— TheDude! (@ThisAndThatDude) January 6, 2023
Yes but an older one from 1940s pic.twitter.com/Au5UHNi6B7
— RKM1940 (@rkmarkan) January 5, 2023
Yes, still available. My parents owned Hyderabad’s first book shop & we sold it to premier schools in the twin cities for over 50-60 years. Published in India by S. Chand & Co, it used to be available in a hard bound classic edition passed on over generations within each family.
— Caroline D’Mello (@CarolineCeline) January 5, 2023
I had . . Kids also used it which ensured a good command of English language. Now its mobile. & its lingo🥲@wren& martin
— Behroze Telang. (@motherrr) January 6, 2023
On my Dad’s insistence, during summer vacation, just after finishing High School, I studied it in full and then solved all exercises and self-evaluated using the Key to W & M .. and am grateful that he had put me to it and consider that summer as one that was spent well.
— S.E. Prabakar (@Seprabakar) January 6, 2023
I always depend on this book to fall asleep on sleepless nights. Guaranteed, by the time one reaches page 6 😀. Never studies English grammar
— Ananda Gundurao (@Anandagundurao) January 6, 2023
In our time, we started learning English from 6th onwards. However my father taught me Grammer from this book when I was in 5. It wasn’t easy 4 me.
Same to same cover. It was a vintage book.— Sudhakar Chopra (@sudhakarchopra) January 5, 2023
Oh yes, my son in Xth grade has an English exam today.
(I discovered its key in my engineering days ) pic.twitter.com/D7wO6K3CXU— Sunil Choudhary 陈蓝 chénlán (ex Oracle, Capgemini) (@SunilChoudhary) January 7, 2023
Interesting to see how so many people still have their version of the book with them. No matter how advanced technology is, those who love the feeling of holding a book in their hands would swear by this OG book. Do you have a memory associated with it?