Booktopia has been placed into Voluntary Administration. Orders have been temporarily suspended, whilst the process for the recapitalisation of Booktopia and/or sale of its business is completed, following which services may be re-established. All enquiries from creditors, including customers with outstanding gift cards and orders and placed prior to 3 July 2024, please visit https://www.mcgrathnicol.com/creditors/booktopia-group/
Add free shipping to your order with these great books
The Story of Ain't : America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published - David Skinner

The Story of Ain't

America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published

By: David Skinner

eBook | 15 December 2023

At a Glance

eBook


RRP $13.19

$10.99

17%OFF

Instant Digital Delivery to your Booktopia Reader App

“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.” 

Industry Reviews
"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."
on

More in History of the Americas

Shiloh : The Battle That Changed the Civil War - Larry J. Daniel

eBOOK

God and Ronald Reagan : A Spiritual Life - Paul Kengor

eBOOK

RRP $37.39

$29.99

20%
OFF
God in the White House : A History - Randall Herbert Balmer

eBOOK

RRP $31.89

$25.99

19%
OFF
A Question of Loyalty - Douglas C. Waller

eBOOK

RRP $28.59

$22.99

20%
OFF
Thomas Jefferson : Author of America - Christopher Hitchens

eBOOK

RRP $37.39

$29.99

20%
OFF
Nixon and Kissinger : Partners in Power - Robert Dallek

eBOOK

RRP $31.89

$25.99

19%
OFF
The Road to Woodstock - Michael Lang

eBOOK

RRP $28.59

$22.99

20%
OFF
One Day in History : September 11, 2001 - Rodney P. Carlisle

eBOOK

RRP $18.69

$14.99

20%
OFF