American Institute of Accountants: Library Catalog by American Institute of AccountantsReview by: Harvey S. HendricksonThe Accounting Review, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jan., 1985), p. 157Published by: American Accounting AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/246983 .

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CAPSULE COMMENTARIES

Harvey S. Hendrickson, Editor

The Commentaries in this issue are by the person indicated.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ACCOUNTANTS

American Institute of Accountants: Li- brary Catalog, January 1919 (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1982, pp. vi, 237, $25.00).

This reprint lists in 226 pages all of the "books, pamphlets and periodicals, both donated and pur- chased" (p. 5) that had been collected to January 1919 by what is now The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. A measure of the astronomical growth in the accounting literature is that this volume is dwarfed by a current quarterly supplement of the Accountants' Index. An interesting note is that one of the authors with two entries is William Andrew Paton (coauthor with R. A. Stevenson).

HARVEY S. HENDRICKSON

CLAIRE B. AREVALO, Effective Writing: A Handbook for Accountants (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984, pp. vi, 154, $13.95).

This book is written by a consultant in written communications and is directed to "the writing problems most frequently encountered by ac- counting students and practitioners" (p. vi). The presentation is concise, with many illustrations and lists of rules and guidelines. Some 56 of the 154 pages are devoted to questions and exercises with answers given for most of those in the first six chapters. All of the questions in the last five chapters are of the essay/discussion variety with no answers, and most are from CPA examina- tions, accounting textbooks, or unpublished writing assignments of several accounting profes- sors.

A major disappointment is the continued use of the archaic, inefficient footnote style of reference citations rather than an abbreviated within-the- text style such as that used in the REVIEW.

While not impressive in page size, number of

pages, or type size, this book would be very useful as a supplementary text or reference for writing assignments in regular accounting classes, as a self-study writing manual or reference for students and practitioners, and as a quick reference for accounting authors and reviewers.

HARVEY S. HENDRICKSON

F. SEWELL BRAY, Four Essays in Accounting Theory and Some Accounting Terms and Concepts: A Report of a Joint Explora- tory Committee of the Institute of Char- tered Accountants in England and Wales and the National Institute of Economics and Social Research (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1982, pp. xxviii, 132, $20.00).

This reprint includes Bray's Four Essays in Ac- counting Theory, 1953 (reviewed April 1954, pp. 339-341) and the 1951 report of a joint committee that was established to study accounting concepts and principles from the perspective of both ac- countants and economists. Members of the com- mittee included accountants-Bray, Harry Norris, and L. W. Robson, and economists J. R. Hicks, J. E. Meade, and R. Stone.

HARVEY S. HENDRICKSON

RICHARD P. BRIEF, Editor, Four Classics on the Theory of Double-Entry Bookkeeping (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1982, pp. xii, 62, $20.00).

This anthology reprints four 19th-century clas- sics on the theory of double-entry bookkeeping that have not been available in most libraries. The authors are Cronhelm, whose piece on the princi- ple of equilibrium is a chapter from his book in double-entry; de Morgan, a mathematician who personified the accounts using what now would be called a matrix approach; Sprague, a well-known

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