True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color--from Azure to Zinc Pink - Couverture rigide

Stamper, Kory

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1524733032 ISBN 13 : 9781524733032

Editeur : Alfred A. Knopf, 2026

Synopsis

A kaleidoscopic journey through the secret history of hues—and the story of the obsessive genius behind the definitions of colors we use today, from the beloved author of Word by Word

begonia (n.): 3 -s :  a deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral (see coral 3b), bluer than fiesta, and bluer and stronger than sweet william — called also gaiety

    What could “bluer than fiesta” possibly mean? While editing dictionaries for Merriam-Webster, Kory Stamper found herself drawn again and again to the whimsical color definitions in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary—especially when compared to the dry and impersonal entries that filled the rest of the dictionary. Stamper couldn’t help but wonder: Who was the voice behind these peculiar definitions?
            Meet I. H. Godlove, an erratic but brilliant up-and-coming scientist who was one of the experts Merriam-Webster hired in 1930 to help revise the dictionary to reflect a rapidly modernizing world. His fascinating life mirrors the wild and winding journey that color science, color psychology, and color production took through the twentieth century. Stamper tracks these industries as they move into the atomic age and intertwine in strange and surprising ways, spanning two world wars and involving chemical explosions, an unexpected suicide, dramatic office politics, and an extraordinary love story.
            Filled with captivating facts about color words and colors themselves—did you know that the word “puke” used to be a highly fashionable color before it was associated with vomit?—and fueled by Stamper’s inexhaustible curiosity, True Color will transform the way you see the world, from black-and-white to Technicolor.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

KORY STAMPER is a lexicographer who has written dictionaries for nearly thirty years at Merriam-Webster, Cambridge Dictionaries, and Dictionary.com. She is the author of Word by Word. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, New York magazine, and The Washington Post, and she blogs regularly on language and lexicography at www.korystamper.com.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Alfred A. Knopf
• Date d'édition: 2026
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1524733032
• ISBN 13: 9781524733032
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 320
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Knopf; https://knopfdoubleday.com; ; 3 Queen Caroline Street Hammersmith; London; W6 9PE; Royaume-Uni
• Personne responsable: Authorised Representative Service; ar.info@doceupoint.com; ; 77 Camden Street Lower; Dublin; Dublin; D02 XE80; Irlande