The Best of An Almanac of Words at Play [Hardcover]

Willard R. Espy (Author), John M. Morse (Preface), Paul Dickson (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Lighter Side of Language | Publication Date: September 1999

Get a daily dose of wordplay all year: 366 days worth of poems, puns, and puzzles (includes February 29 for leap years). You will enjoy anagrams, acrostics, palindromes, and pangrams. This is the best of Espy's two classic almanacs.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Willard R. Espy was one of the most successful word-players and punsters of our time. After careers in reporting, promotions, and public relations, Espy finally committed to his word obsession in the late '60s, with a column in the British humor magazine Punch. The Game of Words was the first of more than a dozen delightful books on words, including the bestselling An Almanac of Words at Play. In 1999, at the time of his death at 88, the New York Times remembered him as, "An inveterate punster who collected clerihews, dabbled in double dactyls, limned lipograms, mixed macaronics and exulted in anagrams, homonyms, oxymorons, palindromes and spoonerisms... It wasn't so much that he has a way with words as that words had their way with him, or as he once put it, 'Words choose their lovers arbitrarily.'"

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Merriam-Webster; 1st edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877791457
• ISBN-13: 978-0877791454
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #941,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compilation of the wordmaster's masterpiece!, November 30, 1999

By 

. "Adelie" (Grass Valley, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of An Almanac of Words at Play (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, February 10, 2002

By 

Amy Rummel (PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of An Almanac of Words at Play (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:

5.0 out of 5 stars Know anyone who enjoys the Times crossword?, May 1, 2007

By 

Bart King (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best of An Almanac of Words at Play (Hardcover)

If so, you've found the perfect gift. By chance, I read WORDS AT PLAY right after having seen the crossword puzzle documentary Wordplay. For anyone who enjoys the process of shifting, goofing, and jumbling with words, only to appreciate them again in a new light, this is a terrific volume by Oysterville native Willard Espy. (You know where Oysterville is, right?)