Onward, Forward

CEL (CopyEditor's List) has a thread today concerning the misspelling of 'forward' when used to mean that section of a book that comes at the front and provides background or other elucidation to the book itself. I was reading along and guffawing at the thought of all those authors out there who self-publish their memoires or histories of their communities and churches and then misspell Foreword. Teehee.

I sobered up when I realized I didn't know whether the book I'd self-published (a biography of my first husband) contained a Foreword. I rushed to get the box that contains the remaining few copies and, with a good healthy fear of what I might find, begin to leaf through the first few pages.

There's a dedication page ("To Marcus") followed by a Preface. And Glory be, there's no foreword. What a relief. I know the difference between 'forward' and 'foreword' but my fingers don't always obey the inclination of the brain and since the mistake would survive a spell-check, I've been unpleasantly surprised before by errors that creep through to the final draft.

I would have caught it in the final copyedit/proofread. But of course I would. Mon dieu, oui! Don't be absurd.