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I'd like to include the illustrator for the book Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, as Ralph Steadman, a friend of Hunter S. Thompson's, had a very distinct graphic style that had an enormous influence on the book's reception. Is there a way to do this? I'm using biblatex-chicago, which has a lot of extra entry fields, but none of them seem applicable. Is there some field where this is usually snuck in?

Here's the entry as I have it now:

@Book{thompson1972fearandloathing,
  author        = {{H}unter {S}. {T}hompson},
  title         = {{F}ear and {L}oathing in {L}as {V}egas},
  year          = {1972},
  editor        = {{R}alph {S}teadman},
  subtitle      = {{A} {S}avage {J}ourney to the {H}eart of the {A}merican {D}ream},
  publisher     = {{R}andom {H}ouse},
  isbn          = {0-679-78589-2},
  pubstate      = {reprint},
  editortype    = {illustration},
  origdate      = {1971-11-11},
  origpublisher = {{R}olling {S}tone},
}

but this fails, producing the string "cbyillustrationRalph Steadman" instead of some proper formatting for an illustrator.

The Chicago Manual, 17th edition, §14.105 provides some examples for formatting other contributors whose names appear on the title page, but also doesn't name illustrators specifically. But beyond that, I don't see that implemented in biblatex-chicago.

How should I proceed?

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  • 5
    While your question is reasonably clear even without a full code example you can make the lives of those who want to help you much easier if you also provide a small compilable document example to turn your .bib entry into a full MWE/MWEB. A full example helps us to get started more quickly (we don't have to mock up a document you already have) and makes sure that we are all talking about the same things. Often details matter and an MWE makes sure we agree about the details.
    – moewe
    May 20, 2018 at 19:44
  • I am really wondering why an Illustrator would need a workaround like this. Couldn't this be added as a standard category in biblatex? Are there so few people working with illustrated books?
    – Florian
    Feb 28, 2019 at 13:30

2 Answers 2

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editor roles can be defined by defining three bibstrings for standard biblatex (see Create new editorial role "organizer" in biblatex, biblatex: Adding an editor as a series editor, not general editor) and an additional fourth string for biblatex-chicago (see biblatex-chicago: Change translator and editor description in the bibliography, Expand new editor type in biblatex-chicago bibliography).

  1. <role> - role in singular
  2. <role>s - role in plural
  3. by<role> - role expressed for "<role>'d by"
  4. cby<role> (biblatex-chicago only) shortened role for citations

These strings must be made known to biblatex with \NewBibliographyString if they don't exist already. Then their values must be defined. In the preamble of a document this is done with \DefineBibliographyStrings{<language>}, if you are writing an .lbx file you use \DeclareBibliographyStrings. As always \DefineBibliographyStrings{<language>} only accepts one form for the strings whereas \DeclareBibliographyStrings lets you define a short and a long form.

For an illustrator you thus need

\documentclass[british]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{csquotes}

\usepackage[notes, backend=biber]{biblatex-chicago}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@Book{thompson1972fearandloathing,
  author        = {Hunter S. Thompson},
  title         = {Fear and Loathing in {Las} {Vegas}},
  year          = {1972},
  editor        = {Ralph Steadman},
  subtitle      = {A Savage Journey to the Heart of the {American} {Dream}},
  publisher     = {Random House},
  isbn          = {0-679-78589-2},
  pubstate      = {reprint},
  editortype    = {illustrator},
  origdate      = {1971-11-11},
  origpublisher = {Rolling Stone},
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\NewBibliographyString{illustrator}
\NewBibliographyString{illustrators}
\NewBibliographyString{byillustrator}
\NewBibliographyString{cbyillustrator}

\DefineBibliographyStrings{english}{%
  illustrator    = {illustrator},
  illustrators   = {illustrators},
  byillustrator  = {illustrated by},
  cbyillustrator = {illustr\adddot},
}

\begin{document}
\cite{thompson1972fearandloathing}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

enter image description here

Note the difference between citation and bibliography. That behaviour is consistent with other roles.

I am also happy to report that egreg and I came to almost the same result when removing unnecessary braces from your .bib file (I trusted Wikipedia and also protected the "Dream" in "American Dream", but see https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/American%20dream). Braces can destroy the kerning between letter, that means that they should always enclose entire words. Additionally, braces should only be used when necessary, only words that need case protection should be protected (proper names and proper nouns, ...). Finally, you should only use case-protecting braces in title-like fields, all other fields are normally not touched anyway: There is no point in protecting words in the publisher field, the same goes for name fields like author and editor. Unnecessary braces can actually cause harm, especially in name fields (cf. ! Paragraph ended before \name was complete, Italic text in corporate author).

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  • man, thank you for all this (and for explaining case protection). I'll dig into the code you posted and see if I can apply it. (on a side, the author of biblatex-chicago also suggested just putting it in a note field, which is the simpler solution)
    – user242047
    May 21, 2018 at 20:27
  • @user242047 Using the note field is always a possibility, but it basically means giving up instead of trying to find a more appropriate way. I feel that this answer shows a more biblatex-y way of doing things. Re the case protection you may be interested in tex.stackexchange.com/a/140071/35864
    – moewe
    May 22, 2018 at 5:45
  • Can this be extended to the case where you have and an editor and an illustrator for a work?
    – Florian
    Feb 28, 2019 at 13:31
  • 1
    @Florian You could use editor = {Elizabeth Ditor}, for the editor and editora = {Izzy L. L. Ustrator}, editoratype = {illustrator}, for the illustrator.
    – moewe
    Feb 28, 2019 at 13:34
6

Here's what I get from a slightly modified bib entry.

\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.bib}
@Book{thompson1972fearandloathing,
  author        = {Hunter S. Thompson},
  title         = {Fear and Loathing in {Las} {Vegas}},
  year          = {1972},
  editor        = {Ralph Steadman},
  subtitle      = {A Savage Journey to the Heart of the {American} Dream},
  publisher     = {Random House},
  isbn          = {0-679-78589-2},
  pubstate      = {reprint},
  editortype    = {Illustrations by},
  origdate      = {1971-11-11},
  origpublisher = {Rolling Stone},
}
\end{filecontents*}

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{biblatex}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}

\cite{thompson1972fearandloathing}

\printbibliography

\end{document}

enter image description here

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