Product Description

Master verbalist Richard Lederer, America's "Wizard of Idiom" (Denver Post), presents a love letter to the most glorious of human achievements...

Welcome to Richard Lederer's beguiling celebration of language -- of our ability to utter, write, and receive words. No purists need stop here. Mr. Lederer is no linguistic sheriff organizing posses to hunt down and string up language offenders. Instead, join him "In Praise of English," and discover why the tongue described in Shakespeare's day as "of small reatch" has become the most widely spoken language in history:

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104087 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this collection of entertaining and enlightening essays, Lederer ( Anguished English ) celebrates language as "incomparably the finest of our achievements" and passes along some eloquent testimony on the emancipating power of language in the lives of Helen Keller, Richard Wright, Malcolm X, Anne Frank. Also appraised are the contributions of other writers who, "sculpting significance from the air, have changed the world by changing the word." The first of these is William Shakespeare, whom Lederer identifies as the most prolific word-maker who ever lived (the Bard, it turns out, invented at least 10% of his vocabulary). Next is Samuel Johnson who, with his breakthrough dictionary, captured the majesty of English and gave it a dignity long overdue. Others include Ambrose Bierce, Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, George Orwell. A delightful and edifying collection. BOMC and QPB alternates.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA--This latest collection by the noted verbalist sparkles like a gem. It is finely polished, well crafted, and certain to de light. Readers are invited to ponder if our mother tongue is indeed prejudiced. The misuse of redundant words and how new words are born are also ex plored. On a deeper level, beyond the wit and bouyancy, Lederer shows that words are not just used to engage but also to instruct. This collection of essays is a treasure and should be cherished by all who open it.
-Mary I. Quinn, Fair fax County Public Library, George Ma son Regional, Annandale, VA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
New England schoolmaster, columnist, and bestselling author Lederer (Crazy English, 1989) offers an enthusiastic new assemblage in tribute to language generally and the English kind in particular. Sounding in turn like D'Israeli the Elder on curiosities of literature, William Targ on bibliomania, H.L. Mencken on words, or William Lutz on doublespeak, Lederer compiles a scrapbook that preaches, naturally, to those who are devoted to the wonder of words aggregated. There are tributes to heroes of our tongue: Shakespeare, Johnson (with incursions by Bierce and other witty lexicographers), Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, and George Orwell. In terms of one syllable, Lederer proves the power of short words. They can, he says, ``make a straight point between two minds,'' which seems a little hard to do, but you get the line. English isn't perfect, however: It's sexist (queens do not rule queendoms), lacks certain utilitarian words (what will we call the decade that will follow the Nineties?), and lends itself to redundant repetition, too, as Lederer cheerfully illustrates and shows. He likes libraries and letter-writing (citing St. Paul as a great correspondent). There's even a lesson in versification and examples of favored writing from his prep- school students. The text concludes with a few hundred pithy comments on words by practitioners from Aristophanes to Wittgenstein. A golly-gee skimming of the manifest wonders of ``the most glorious of all human inventions,'' not deep but easygoing enough to satisfy Lederer's legion of fans. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

This is the author's best book!
And I happen to know this book is the "favorite child" of this much-published author. I read it with just as much, if not more pleasure than Anguished English and Get Thee to a Punnery, some of Richard's more famous works. Don't expect the usual mad romp through the English language; this book is more literary than light literature.

If you want to improve your writing, you will profit by reading the chapter on the beauty of using short words. The examples of student writings that employ only single syllable words are dazzling.

If you teach English, you might enjoy using some of the student writing examples in your classes to inspire your own students. In fact if you are an English teacher or just a lover of the English language, I don't see how you can be without this book. It is a treasure.

Deepen Your Appreciation of English
Although Richard Lederer may be best known for his delightful word play, he is also an eminent authority on English. In _The Miracle of Language_ he writes somewhat more seriously about this language that he loves, inspiring in us a deeper appreciation of our system of communication that we often take for granted.

The chapter titled "In Praise of English" makes us grateful that ours is a language that puts so many words at our disposal -- remarkable for their sheer number as well as for their variety. Because English has so freely adopted words from other languages, we often have many choices about how we will express an idea -- whether we will use short words derived from Anglo-Saxon, for example, or more luxurious words derived from French.

Although Lederer's subject matter is serious, his style never becomes ponderous. His short chapters and lively prose keep the reader engaged. And occasionally he cannot resist playing, as in the chapter titled "The Case for Short Words," where for four paragraphs he restricts himself to one-syllable words.

Of special interest are the chapters about literary giants -- William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, and George Orwell -- and the contributions they have made not only to our literature but also to our language. For example, Shakespeare is credited with the first use of over 1,700 words, nearly eight percent of the different words that he used in his writing. In addition, his plays include many phrases that have become titles of novels and many others that have been repeated so often that they have become clichés.

Lederer also includes many inspiring quotations about English and entries from the ground-breaking dictionaries of Samuel Johnson and Ambrose Bierce. (Can you imagine undertaking the formidable task of writing the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language?)

Lederer champions letter writing, poetry writing, libraries, reading, the effective use of English. Particularly poignant is the example of mistranslation of one word that led to the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Lederer fondly portrays English as a thriving, evolving entity. By instilling appreciation for the legacy we have received, he inspires us to safeguard its future.

Seriocomic author wins again
This serious book about our language,English, the lingua franca of the world, afforded me more laughs than many a so-called comic book. Lederer is truly a master of English, a magister and advocate. I have several other books by him, and have enjoyed each one tremendously. I always have great trouble setting The Miracle of Language down once I open it. I'm always tempted to go through it once more in one sitting. As a writer, editor, and teacher, I refer to it constantly. Now, if only I knew how to get in touch with Lederer ---