“THIS IS AN UNCORRECTED PROOF. It should not be quoted without comparison to the finished book.”

These two sentences may be in very small type, but they are prominent on the front cover of the book sent to me: The Complete Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II, as edited by Amy Asch. Granted, the tome won’t be officially published until Dec. 1, but it’s so good that I want you to know about it before you buy any other holiday presents for your friends, relatives, or yourself. This is the gift that they — and you — will want.

Granted, it cost $65, which may be a little more than you’d care to spend on others — or yourself. To put it another way, you probably could have bought an orchestra seat to each of the original nine Broadway productions that Hammerstein wrote with Rodgers, a ticket to the first-run ticket to the movie they did together, and pay the electricity expended on their made-for-TV musical and still have not spent $65. But, my, this book is something wonderful.

But how can I at this point in time tell its wonders when I’m commanded not to quote? I’ll do the best I can to work around that constraint. Should I start at the very beginning, which, as we all know, is a very good place to start? Well, yes, just long enough to tell you that Hammerstein’s first-ever lyric, written in 1916 for a Columbia varsity show, shows a good deal of dexterity and wit. Hammerstein is often accused of being the least funny of the major lyricists, with precious few belly laughs in his work. There are some in this song, though.

However, we may be better off starting on page 279 (of the book’s 448 pages). That’s where the lyrics he wrote with Richard Rodgers begin. For better or worse, they’re the ones most readers know far more than the ones he did with his other collaborators — who included no less than (in alphabetical order) George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Sigmund Romberg, Arthur Schwartz, Herbert Stothart, Richard Whiting, and Vincent Youmans. Oh, there was Georges Bizet, too, with whom Hammerstein “collaborated” when writing new lyrics to his Carmen music to result in Carmen Jones. Given that here are almost TWO DOZEN unused lyrics from that show, those familiar with the original opera will have fun guessing which of Bizet’s melodies Hammerstein set to these lyrics. Then they can sing along.

So let’s concentrate on those 11 projects by H&R. (Yes, H&R. When talking about this book, H should, for a change, get first billing over R.):

Oklahoma! — From the first H&R blockbuster, you’ll discover the original plan for the song that became “It’s a Scandal! It’s a Outrage!” In addition to two cut songs you’ve probably heard — “Boys and Girls Like You and Me” and “When Ah Go Out Walkin’ with Mah Baby”— there are four more discards with which you probably aren’t familiar. One was replaced by “People Will Say We’re in Love,” another by “All ‘Er Nothin’,” and a third by “Out of My Dreams.”

Carousel — Four lines of The Bench Scene that didn’t make the vocal score are here. “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over” includes the sanitized lines written for the movie. Asch’s introduction to “You’ll Never Walk Alone” informs that a professional soccer club in England uses it as its anthem. Ted Chapin, the president of H&R, also points out a discrepancy involving an article — “a” vs. “the” — in one lyric. Most delightful, though, is Asch’s thinking to include the six lines that Carrie Pipperidge Snow sings a capella when she’s telling Julie about the show that she and Enoch saw on their trip to New York. (Well, it IS a Hammerstein lyric.) However, the one big surprise in this section is that there are no cut-out songs. Apparently, H&R knew what they needed from the outset.

State Fair — One dropped song is here, though no one knows which character was supposed to sing it. From the title, though — which involves a character’s belief that a kiss does not mean any type of commitment— I’ll bet it was for Margie Frake.

Allegro — Many of us only know this show from the very truncated 1947 cast album, so here are the lyrics at least of the 10 songs that didn’t make the disc. (They’ll have to suffice until the upcoming studio cast album comes out with R’s melodies attached.) Five songs that genuinely didn’t make the cut are there, too — as well as a delicious parody that H wrote about one of the show’s producers. Finally, there’s the info that “So Far” was originally written for a movie that didn’t get made.

South Pacific — We know “Loneliness of Evening” and “My Girl Back Home,” but there are seven less familiar cut-outs. Most are for Cable — including two intriguing ones lyrics that morphed into “Getting to Know You” for the next H&R show. Read them, and hum along to the melody you know and (probably) love. And that next H&R show, was, of course:

The King and I — Five cut songs, one for the Kralahome, one for Anna and the Kralahome, one for Anna and the King, and two for Son Klin. Who, you ask? That was the early name for Lady Thiang. Also included is a written complaint that Hammerstein had with Constance Carpenter’s rendition of “Hello, Young Lovers.” But here’s a good place to tell you that before each show, Asch includes a list of all the awards it received, so here you read about The King and I’s Tony-winning original production, the Oscars that the film snagged, followed by a sentence about the 1999 animated film. A blank space instead of a list of awards finishes THAT paragraph.

Me and Juliet — After a theatergoer wrote H to point out a flaw in logic in “Intermission Talk,” H wrote him back and admitted he was right — and that response is reproduced here. There’s also a dropped verse from the opening number, as well as a verse H wrote after the musical opened to lukewarm reviews, in hopes of strengthening the start of the show. Of the five dropped songs, two are quite elaborate numbers from the show-within-a-show.

Pipe Dream — The closest song that this show had to a hit was “All at Once You Love Her.” Would the song have been more successful had it used any of the three lyrics that H discarded? Read ‘em and judge. There’s also one song that didn’t make the cast album that uses a euphemism for “bitch,” which once again suggests that Billy Rose was right when he said that the prim and proper H wasn’t the right writer for a show mostly set in a whorehouse. There are five cut lyrics, including “Cannery Row,” which just as easily could have been the show’s title song.

Cinderella — “In My Own Little Corner” offers an unused ending. Otherwise, there are only two cut songs here, both involving the King. But, after all, this show wasn’t as lengthy as a stage musical, so we can’t expect as much extraneous material.

Flower Drum Song — Find out why H had to make a change in the show’s very first lyric. And just as the Carousel section includes Carrie’s singing a pop song she heard, so does this section include the six-line “rock ‘n’ roll” lyric that younger brother Wang San sang to Linda Low at the graduation party. (Once again: It IS a Hammerstein lyric.) “My Best Love,” which showed up in the 2002 revisal, is here, along with a song about unrequited love that was to be sung by Helen Chao.

The Sound of Music — We learn that H used up 45 pages of notes, ideas, and potential rhymes before getting “Maria” in finished-product condition. There’s a fascinating if clunky excised section of “How Can Love Survive?” as well as a cut song that Maria was going to sing as the nuns dressed her for her wedding. The one other cut song isn’t assigned to a character, but given its thrust, it seems to be for the Captain who is determined not to fall in love on the rebound.

None of what I’ve written, of course, conveys the wonder and the poetry of H’s achievements. And, of course, before we get to H&R, there’s H and everyone else in 278 pages of pithy, fascinating, intelligent — and perfectly rhymed — lyrics.

You might infer that The Complete Lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II would end with “Edelweiss,” the last song he wrote. No -- 15 other lyrics end the book; they’re songs that couldn’t be identified or attached to any one project. That’s fine, but I would have somehow preferred the book to conclude with “Bless my homeland forever,” for I like to think of it as H’s parting wish for his own homeland of Broadway. How much or little Broadway has been blessed since Hammerstein left us is, of course, debatable, but we do have this blessing to have and to hold from Dec. 1 forth.