The Chicago Manual of Style, the copy editor’s Bible — wait, that should be “bible” because it’s being used metaphorically and not referring to the actual Bible — is going online. A New York Times article reports that a searchable online version goes up on Friday. “The price for the online manual will be $25 for individuals for the first year, $30 thereafter, and more for institutions, depending on their size. The list price of the hardcover print version is $55.” (All prices are $US.)

As Times writer Dinitia Smith notes in the second paragraph, “those who need to know, pronto, whether it is ever all right to capitalize the first letters of e. e. cummings’s name will no longer have to search through the more than 956-page volume to find the answer.” And if you read that and think that Smith is setting up her conclusion, you’d be right. At the close of the article, she writes, “As to that Cummings question, according to paragraph 8.6 of the manual, it is fine to capitalize his name, in part because ‘one of his publishers, not he himself, lowercased his name.'”

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Click here for the New York Times article