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Best of an Almanac of Words at Play [Hardcover]

Willard R. Espy (Author)

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Amazon Review

How would you translate "La Belle Dame sans Merci" into French? How did the British come to pronounce Churchtown "chow-zen"? And which words really follow "Alas, poor Yorick"? If your brain cranes for poems created solely from baseball players' nicknames ("Catfish, Mudcat, Ducky, Coot"), 40-letter German curse words, and other linguistic novelties, Willard Espy's Best of an Almanac of Words at Play--culled from Espy's earlier An Almanac of Words at Play and Another Almanac of Words at Play--will distract you from all kinds of less trivial pursuits. Included here are malapropisms courtesy of Shakespeare, a John Updike satire on sports writing, and any number of stinky pinkies, spoonerisms, pangrams, macaronics, clerihews and lipograms. Espy, who died during the fashioning of this volume, insisted that words not be taken too seriously. "Treat words", he said, "the way such wise men as Lewis Carroll, W S Gilbert, Ogden Nash, and Cole Porter treated them: as a gorgeous joke". Even better, he said, housebreak them. "Teach your words to sit, lie, stay, fetch. Reward them for obedience and cleverness...For a few rare people they not only roll over and play dead, but walk on their hind legs." --Jane Steinberg

Synopsis

With 366 days worth of poems, puns and puzzles, including a selection for February 29th 2000, the Best of an Alamanac of Words at Play collects Willard Espy''s best ideas from his two classic almanacs.'

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 4.8 out of 5 stars  5 reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A compilation of the wordmaster's masterpiece! 30 Nov 1999
By . - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I have collected each of Espy's books as they have appeared; they occupy center place on my shelves of language books. The original "Almanac" and "Another Almanac" blew me away when they came out about 20+ years ago. I tried so hard to limit myself to one page a day so they would each last a year - they are almanacs, after all - but failed miserably - I remember sitting in bed with the flu and reading through both books in three days, giggling and chortling and slack-jawed with amazement the whole time.

Willard Espy is a true master - creative, erudite, knowledgeable, and howlingly funny. His Higgledy-Piddledy about Dorothy Thompson is burned into my brain for good. His ability to make the language dance is unequaled by any other writer I have read. Safire, Lederer, and Newman are articulate, yes, but not half as goofily inventive or funny, and they take themselves very much more seriously than Espy does, which is not at all. This man disproves the adage that no one is great all the time - he is.

Having said all that, I must confess that I haven't seen this Compilation - my comments are based on the absolute conviction that any compilation of brilliant material must, of necessity, be equally brilliant. I have spent the past 20 years lending out my copies of the two originals from which this volume is drawn, listening to people giggle over the cubicle walls, and plotting diabolical conseqences when they weren't returned. They are both ragged and bulging with yellow stickies - my own quick-reference system - so I can easily find and re-delight in my favorites when I need an Espyfix.

The man is gone from our midst now, so there will be no more crazy pleasure from him, and his original books are long out of print. So buy this one, I say, and prepare to laugh and be awed all at once by this explosion of sheer linquistic virtuosity.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Making Word Work into Word Play 11 Feb 2002
By Amy Rummel - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Often learning literary terms and how to use them can be a challenge. This book makes learning the terms both amusing and enjoyable. With a small selection to read each day of the year this book allows for easy learning everyday of the year. Espy's creative set up of the book covers everything from Acronyms to Univocalic writing. Each day with a differently constructed style and purpose this book is excellent for most age levels and can be read at any pace though it is meant to last an entire year.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Easy-to-Enjoy Format for Word Fun 14 May 2010
By K. T. Young - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Have fun with words day by day--or pick it up on any day. This book offers intriguing puzzles for every day of the year in an essay-like format. If you enjoy words and the unexplainable inticacies of the English Language, this playful tome is for you!
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