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Article: Messing about in dictionaries.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Quadrant
- Article date:
- June 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Quadrant Magazine Company, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Samuel Johnson's Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work that Defined the English Language, edited by Jack Lynch; Atlantic Books, 2004, $49.95.
"BELIEVE ME, my young friend, there is nothing--absolutely nothing--half as much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." To many of us, Ratty's advice to Mole could equally apply to dictionaries.
In an age of postmodernist, politically correct obsessives, Professor Jack Lynch's book Samuel Johnson's Dictionary is a welcome relief and comfort to the word-whipped. And Lynch's introduction is a beautifully written account of Doctor Johnson's nine-year commitment to create the first "standard" English ...