Which sentence is correct AND WHY.

Question

I'm interested in the comma placement...

1) Late one night I took down not only a translation of the Bible, but also a much older volume and an an envelope of yellowing papers.

2) Late one night I took down not only a translation of the Bible but also a much older volume and an envelope of yellowing papers.

Please only respond if you either a) know for SURE the answer, b) have a PHD in something, c) reeeallllly know the answer

Answer 1

I'm a former English teacher and a grammar n**i--on request only.

2) is correct. Regardless of the length of the items, unless there are phrases which must be set off with commas included in their description, you don't separate not-only-but-also listed items with a comma unless the number of items on either side is three or more.

"I took down not only a blue book but also a red book and some paper." Same structure, but shorter--I bet you'd be less inclined to put in the comma.

"I took down not only a blue book, a ruler, and some glue but also a red book, a protractor, and some paper" would be correct, because there is a series of three element in each part of the not-only-but-also.

Answer 2

2 is correct because number 1 has two ansright after another. i don't know if the explanation is right