Keynote
The whole of The Catcher in the Rye is in the Oxford English Dictionary, waiting to be unscrambled, and so are all the novels of our past, present, and immediate future
Book Title
Dictionary Days
Cover Image
- “Many-splendored pleasures to be found in this fascinating collection of essays.”—Los Angeles Times
Body
en·thu·si·ast
Pronunciation: -"ast, -&st
Function: noun
:a person filled with enthusiasm : as a:one who is ardently attached to a cause, object, or pursuit b:one who tends to become ardently absorbed in an interest
A dictionary, despite its heroic effort to pin down language, is destined for failure the moment a single word is printed; for language, with its eternal mutations, is forever uncontainable. In Dictionary Days, award-winning essayist Ilan Stavans explores our very human need to "seize upon the meaning of a word." Owner of hundreds of dictionaries, he follows a fascinating, zigzagging history of lexicography across many languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and Cyrillic. Throughout his journey, Stavans spots strange meaning inconsistencies, uncovers unusual origins, and shares extraordinary and often hilarious anecdotes.
With a dazzling knowledge of dictionaries through the ages, matched with a lively wit, Stavans reaches far beyond the margin of the page and pays a worthy tribute to a discipline that is at once inspiring and maddening. "For dictionaries are oracles: nothing is outside them-except the impossible."
Pronunciation: -"ast, -&st
Function: noun
:a person filled with enthusiasm : as a:one who is ardently attached to a cause, object, or pursuit b:one who tends to become ardently absorbed in an interest
A dictionary, despite its heroic effort to pin down language, is destined for failure the moment a single word is printed; for language, with its eternal mutations, is forever uncontainable. In Dictionary Days, award-winning essayist Ilan Stavans explores our very human need to "seize upon the meaning of a word." Owner of hundreds of dictionaries, he follows a fascinating, zigzagging history of lexicography across many languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and Cyrillic. Throughout his journey, Stavans spots strange meaning inconsistencies, uncovers unusual origins, and shares extraordinary and often hilarious anecdotes.
With a dazzling knowledge of dictionaries through the ages, matched with a lively wit, Stavans reaches far beyond the margin of the page and pays a worthy tribute to a discipline that is at once inspiring and maddening. "For dictionaries are oracles: nothing is outside them-except the impossible."
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About the Author
Credit: Frank Ward
Praise
- “Throughout, Stavans’s writing displays the charming verbal eccentricities of a man who has been adopted by a language rather than born into it. Stavans’s perceptions, too, are idiosyncratic, whether on language, literature, or something smaller and closer to home.”—The Boston Globe
- “Stavans is treasured as a border crosser in every sense, a suitable intellectual for the global society and a steady innovator…we are whisked upon a magical mystery tour of sorts…[Stavans] is ‘noodling,’ in the old jazz phrase, shifting ground, and the joy is not in the finding but in the looking…And that makes Dictionary Days worth reading.”—San Francisco Chronicle
- “The book is a brave feat not only because it shows he’s got academic boxing gloves on, but also for the intimate vantage point it affords readers…Stavans takes [us] to another level by reading dictionaries as if they were blogs.”—The Village Voice
- “Crammed with fascinating information about language and reference books, especially dictionaries."—Ron Smith, The Georgia Review
