The Story of Ain't: America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published - Softcover

Skinner, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062027492 ISBN 13: 9780062027498

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2013

Synopsis

“It takes true brilliance to lift the arid tellings of lexicographic fussing into the readable realm of the thriller and the bodice-ripper....David Skinner has done precisely this, taking a fine story and honing it to popular perfection.”
—Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman

The Story of Ain’t by David Skinner is the captivating true chronicle of the creation of Merriam Webster’s Third New International Dictionary in 1961, the most controversial dictionary ever published. Skinner’s surprising and engaging, erudite and witty account will enthrall fans of Winchester’s The Professor and the Madman and The Meaning of Everything, and The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs, as it explores a culture in transition and the brilliant, colorful individuals behind it. The Story of Ain’t is a smart, often outrageous, and altogether remarkable tale of how egos, infighting, and controversy shaped one of America’s most authoritative language texts, sparking a furious language debate that the late, great author David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest) once called “the Fort Sumter of the Usage Wars.” 

About this title

Product Description:

Title: Story of Ain't <>Binding: Paperback <>Author: David Skinner <>Publisher: Harper Collins World

Review:

“An immensely entertaining history...Skinner manages to transform this somewhat arcane lexicographical dispute into a real page turner...Skinner ably and amusingly captures the hysterical tone of the bitter public quarrel while suggesting that it foreshadowed many of the arguments over values and standards that we’re still fighting about today.” (Associated Press)

“An engrossing account of the continuing ruckus over Webster’s Third New International Dictionary.” (New York Times Book Review)

“Mr. Skinner does a fine job detailing the controversy that greeted Webster’s Third, but he is even stronger when describing the internal politics at Merriam and the mechanics of revising a dictionary.” (Wall Street Journal)

“...comprehensive and evenhanded, and written in a clear and jaunty style...What in less skilled hands might have been arid and parochial in David Skinner’s becomes a lively account of a subject of interest to anyone concerned about the English language in America.” (Weekly Standard)

“...spry cultural history” (Harper's)

“[Skinner] provides well-argued critiques of the orthodoxies that define language studies” (New York Times)

“A highly entertaining, thoughtful new book.” (Boston Globe)

“Skinner is good on the development of 20th-century linguistics and on the interplay between America’s language and its sense of itself.” (Financial Times)

“Mr. Skinner weaves a true tale fascinating not just to linguists and lexicographers, but to anyone interested in the evolution of our language during a critical period in America’s History.” (New York Journal of Books)

“Skinner has written an entertaining book about a controversy that still lingers and throws light on how emotional our ties to language are....a funny and informative account.” (Columbus Dispatch)

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0062027492
• ISBN 13: 9780062027498
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368