Overview

"At last! Godine found a use for the word ""sciolist"" in a subtitle! This is a throwback to Godine's core of erudition on obscure but fascinating subjects. Unique history of lexicographers and the dictionaries they created. Abundantly illustrated. Author, Bryan A. Garner (Garner's Modern English Usage), is a renowned expert on the English language. Primary audience is an intersection of bibliophiles, history buffs, and readers who love words and their meanings. For readers of books such as The Professor and the Madman, this story of dictionaries is enormously entertaining and revealing. Publication will coincide with the opening of an exhibition of the same name at the Grolier Club on May 1, 2024. The exhibition was curated by Bryan A. Garner and Jack Lynch and runs through July 27, 2024."

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9781567928075

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Reviews

“This fascinating history of English language dictionaries shows their evolution from fifteenth-century glossaries of early English through current online dictionaries . . . A delight for lexicographers, etymologists, philologists, and word geeks.” —Booklist “What an achievement for both Bryan A. Garner and Jack Lynch. Hardly Harmless Drudgery serves multiple constituencies, appealing both to the curious lover of books and to the scholar. We are fortunate that through Godine, the authors have made the book commercially accessible to everyone. It’s a rare coffee-table book that marries beautiful photography with first-rate scholarship.” —David E. Vancil, Retired Director, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Indiana State University “Hardly Harmless Drudgery is an exciting and enriching read, an intellectually delectable feast for anyone who loves the beauty of dictionaries and the richness of their cultural content.” —Edward Finegan, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Law, University of Southern California

Author Information

Bryan A. Garner is an author, lawyer, grammarian, and lexicographer. He has written over 25 books, including standard references such as Garner’s Modern English Usage and Legal Writing in Plain English. His friendship with novelist David Foster Wallace resulted in Quack This Way: David Foster Wallace and Bryan A. Garner Talk Language and Writing. He is Distinguished Research Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University. Jack Lynch is an educator and author whose books include The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of “Proper” English, from Shakespeare to South Park and You Could Look It Up: The Reference Shelf from Ancient Babylon to Wikipedia. He is Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University-Newark.

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