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WHAT A WORD by A. P. Herbert Kirkus Star

WHAT A WORD

By

Pub Date: April 3rd, 1936
ISBN: 1842326260
Publisher: Doubleday, Doran

Since reading this book, I have watched my own speech with an ear to the ground to catch all offending prepositions, prefixes, tautological faults, redundancy, and, first and last, lack of simplicity. It's a great game, if you don't cheat. And it is a game no one of us can afford to ignore. Slipshod English, colloquialisms, faults of ignorance and carelessness alike all come in for a gentle spoofing on the part of Mr. Herbert. Mispronunciations and misuse of words in common parlance are brought together in so entertaining a fashion that no feelings are hurt. Here's a book to own. A book to recommend. A book to discuss. Words fascinate almost everyone. Here are suggestions of ways in which we can actually make a game of improving our English. Try to take the lead in making this book a ""fad"" -- it might well become one. Have you ever kept a record of customers interested in dictionaries of various kinds, in studies of language, and so on? This is a book for them. A book for school and college libraries. A book for public libraries. And a book for private libraries. It is unescapably English -- but so is Fowler, and who can ignore Fowler?