On the "Pandect of C.L.D."
A pandect is "a complete or comprehensive digest" (Webster's New World Dictionary). The pocket-sized hardcover "Pandect of C.L.D." is more interesting for its concept than for its actual content: it was a hoax. American Morris L. Ernst entertained himself by fabricating a text he attributed to Charles L. Dodgson, the creator of the bravura "Alice in Wonderland" (written under the pen name of Lewis Carroll).
Morris-slash-Carroll wrote: "I became the matrix of the sport of finding out what hidden deep meanings underlay the Alice adventure." In a postscript, Ernst recounts that his holiday entertainment was taken to heart by at least two important editors: "I confess it was an attempt to get back at the expert nit pickers who have used our Alice as an outlet for super-sophisticated research.... I know we must hire myopic specialists even though they are less than rounded folk and even though specialists retard progress in many professions." A funny idea, though I confess I soon began skimming over whole sections.
The joke was later privately published in this book form in 1965 by a charmed friend.