Hardly harmless drudgery A 500-year pictorial history of the lexicographic geniuses, sciolists, plagiarists & obsessives who defined the English language

Review by Booklist Review

This fascinating history of English language dictionaries shows their evolution from fifteenth-century glossaries of early English through current online dictionaries and works in progress. Garner and Lynch highlight dictionary innovations like adding etymologies, finding the ideal definition length (longer than synonyms, shorter than encyclopedia articles), using hanging indents, including quotations to illustrate use, and adding thumb cuts. Along with major dictionary writers and compilers like Samuel Johnson, James Murray, and Noah Webster, the authors introduce many less well-known authors, like Ann Fisher (1719--78), the first female English lexicographer, a mother of nine and co-publisher of an English newspaper, whose An Accurate New Spelling Dictionary was published in 1773. Entries are both expected (OED, Webster's Third) and surprising, like Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary, a small pamphlet given away as a marketing technique. Each of the 138 entries has incisive and entertaining descriptions. Noah Webster, for example, was "a born controversialist with an ever-quarrelsome spirit." Illustrations include postcards, letters, and other ephemera, along with many full-color photographs. A delight for lexicographers, etymologists, philologists, and word geeks.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

---

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Garner (Garner's Modern English Usage), a law professor at Southern Methodist University, teams up with Lynch (The Lexicographer's Dilemma), an English professor at Rutgers University, Newark, to present an animated history of English-language dictionaries. The authors explain that the reference works evolved out of seventh-century Latin to Old English dictionaries and that schoolteacher Robert Cawdrey delivered the first English-only dictionary in 1604, which was aimed at edifying "unskillfull persons" and contained only 2,500 words. Highlighting unruly experiments in the dictionary format, Garner and Lynch note that some early 18th-century volumes were encyclopedia hybrids featuring long essays, while others tinkered with order (philologist John Walker's dictionary was organized alphabetically by the last letter of each word). Garner and Lynch also offer background on the dictionaries' authors, describing how Samuel Johnson compiled his 1755 tome while grieving the death of his wife and how Noah Webster decided to compose his first dictionary, published in 1806, after failing as a lawyer and journalist. Bountiful photos show the exteriors and interiors of the volumes discussed, and the authors' decision to highlight less obvious lexicographic volumes--such as poet Clarence Major's 1970 compilation of African American slang, a 1972 rundown of "LGBTQ lingo," and the online Urban Dictionary--ensure the proceedings don't get stodgy. Bibliophiles will swoon for this sweeping survey. Photos. (Apr.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

---

Review by Library Journal Review

Lawyer/grammarian/lexicographer Garner (law, Southern Methodist Univ.; Legal Writing in Plain English, Third Edition) and Lynch (English, Rutgers Univ.-Newark; You Could Look It Up) deliver an utterly delightful history of lexicography. Their reference book originated as a companion catalogue to an exhibition showcasing the Garner Collection, the largest privately owned collection of English dictionaries. It fully stands on its own, however, as a charming romp through the history of English-language dictionary-making. Consisting of brief biographical sketches of lexicographers, it is filled with fabulous images and descriptions of their work. Arranged chronologically in short historical vignettes, the book gives readers much to ponder and be amused by. Readers will learn of British, American, Old English, Middle English, law, medical, slang, and digital dictionaries, among many others. Far from being "harmless drudges" as the famous 18th-century lexicographer Samuel Johnson called his colleagues, they are revealed to be quite an eclectic group of people who included extroverts, introverts, plagiarists, scholars, amateurs, curmudgeons, and scoundrels, many of whom apparently died penniless. VERDICT Highly recommended for all word lovers curious about the people who codified English vocabulary throughout time.--Karen Bordonaro

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

---